The text for our meditation on God’s Holy Word is the epistle lesson appointed for the day. I bring you grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Just imagine if you attended a church where you were taught that your relationship with God and your eternal salvation depended not only upon faith in Jesus Christ—but also upon you: upon some decision that you had made—upon some feeling that you were supposed to have—upon doing enough in your life to please God.
And hearing this Sunday after Sunday, what if you looked back and realized that the decision you had made to follow Christ was made for all the wrong reasons—to please your parents or because everyone else your age was making the same decision. What if the feeling that was so compelling—so real—that you based your life with God upon—left you? What if you were never really sure just how much you had to do as far as religious deeds to be saved?
You would never really know whether you were forgiven or not. You could never really be confident that throughout your life you really were God’s child. You would never really know for sure what would happen to you when you died.
This is what happens when our faith is placed on anything—anything—other than the person and work of Jesus Christ. To move from that rock-solid foundation of Jesus’ blood and righteousness and place even a bit of our life with God on something else—whether it is a decision we make or an emotion we have or some work we do—is to lose the Gospel itself: the incredible, comforting, life-changing good news that we are saved by God’s grace alone-faith alone-in Christ alone.
This is what was going on in the Christian congregations in Galatia—people were being taught that faith in Jesus was not completely sufficient for their salvation—in this case they were taught that believers in Jesus also had to keep all the Jewish laws. And so Paul wrote this letter to attack this false teaching in the strongest terms.
He said that there could be no compromise between salvation by faith and salvation by works. He said that this teaching of “faith plus something else” was no Gospel at all. He said that those who taught this way should suffer the fires of hell.
In this controversy, forgiveness and salvation and life with God and eternity itself was at stake-- and to return to the idea that salvation depends upon human beings—was a return to slavery. Instead, the Bible says that it is:
For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery…For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
God has not created us and redeemed us by Jesus and sanctified us by the Holy Spirit to be slaves. The relationship he wants from us is that of a Father to his sons and daughters. God wants you to be his child. And anything- and any teaching- and any person- that would take away that glorious freedom that is ours as God’s children—must be resisted.
But we also have to understand that those things and people and teachings that would imprison us once again—that would take away our status as the free children of God—are not just outside of us—but are also within us. Let me explain.
Who we are as new people—reborn by the Good News that Christ has set us free from sin and death—this new person in us delights to do God’s will and desires to do nothing other than that which will bring glory to our heavenly Father. But this new person that we are through faith in Jesus still has to contend with our old sinful flesh. Paul knew this about himself—and it is true of us too.
And there is always the temptation within us to use our glorious freedom as the children of God as a license to do whatever we want: the idea that since Christ has done it all, I can live however I please. But this is not Christian freedom! It is a return to slavery—not to slavery under the law—but slavery to our own sinful flesh-- which is much, much worse!
Instead, the Bible says that genuine Christian freedom means freedom to serve one another in love—freedom to live as God’s sons and daughters remade in the image of Jesus who lovingly served us by laying down his life for us on the cross.
We have been set free from the curse and condemnation of the law- and we have been set free from the tyranny of our own flesh-- so that we can serve God and others in love. This is what we have been saved FOR.
This then is the measure of true Christian freedom: freedom to be like Christ—glorifying our heavenly Father through loving service to those around us. The Bible says that:
The whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.
The believer who has been set free from sin and death by Jesus—the child of God who has been born again by the power of the Holy Spirit—wants to know how they can please the One who saved them—they want to know how they can bring glory to their heavenly Father for all that he has done for them.
And so God does not leave us to our own devices in this—he does not leave us without guidance on what truly pleases him—our heavenly Father has a will for his children and that is found in the law.
But isn’t the law the very thing that Paul says we have been set free from? Well, yes, if we are using it to try to earn our salvation. If we are trying to earn our way to God by keeping the law it will always be a curse and condemnation for we can never meet God’s perfect standard that is revealed there.
But for the child of God who knows that his salvation has been won by Jesus who truly and perfectly loved his neighbor as himself, the law is the Father’s answer to his children when they ask: How then should I live? What pleases you? How can I thank you for all that you have freely given to me in Jesus?
And this life of love—love for God and love for one another that is the fulfillment of the law and God’s will for our lives—stands in stark contrast to our old way of life that tries to lift up ourselves and tries to tear down others. The Bible says that we are to:
Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
I’m not sure that new Christians always realize it-- and I’m not sure that more mature Christians always remember it—but from the moment we came to faith in Jesus Christ and his Spirit took up residence in our lives, a battle has raged within us—and we ought not be surprised by it.
Paul deals with this inner, spiritual battle within the Christian in vivid terms in Romans chapter 7 where he talks about the conflict between the good he wants to do and the evil he often times finds himself doing instead. This was Paul’s battle and it is every Christian’s battle-- for who we are as new people re-created in the image of God-- and what our flesh is, turned in upon itself—these two spiritual realities within us are diametrically opposed to one another and at war with one another.
When Paul finishes describing this battle within the believer’s heart between the spirit and the flesh he cries out: Who will deliver me from this body of death?—and then gives the answer: Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord—there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus for we have been set free from the law of sin and death.
Those who have been called by the Father and forgiven by Jesus and filled with the Holy Spirit no longer have to fear the condemnation of the law-- for that has fallen upon Jesus—and no longer do we have to fear the outcome of the battle within us because we have been filled with the Spirit of God himself as a guarantee of all that he has promised—including our final perseverance in the faith.
This saving work of the Holy Trinity who has elected us in eternity and redeemed us in Jesus and filled us with the Holy Spirit makes all the difference in how we actually live our lives—for the spirit takes the lead rather than the flesh—and the difference between who we are now and our old way of life is obvious. The Bible says that:
The works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
It is so very easy and so very tempting to selectively read this list of sins and check off the ones we are not doing: sorcery-nope—orgies—nope—sexual immorality—nope. But what about envy—desiring the success of a fellow student or co-worker? What about strife in our marriage or family? What about divisions—taking sides in someone else’s strife? What about fits of anger when the folks in line in front of you aren’t moving fast enough or you get caught behind the train? What about idolatry when we worry rather than trust and when we find confidence in the bank rather than God’s provision? Anger. Strife. Divisions. Envy. Jealousy.
Now the list hits a little bit closer to home-- and the warning of Paul—that those who do these things will not inherit the kingdom of God—finds its proper object—which is not the sins of others-- but my own sins.
It’s important to note what Paul is—and is not-- talking about. He is not talking about our former way of life before we became Christians—for if some sins were excluded from Christ’s cleansing blood then none of us could be saved. And he is not talking about the Christian’s occasional fall into these sins so long as we repent of them.
What he is talking about is those who continue in these sins. We should be very, very clear: Those who continue in unrepentant sin WILL NOT inherit the kingdom of God. This is what the Bible teaches-- and the old Adam in each of us needs to hear this warning for the sake of our eternal souls.
To live in continuous, unrepentant sin—whether it is strife within our families or some sexual sin or substance abuse or anger and bitterness in our heart—is to forfeit eternal life because it is: a denial of the Father’s holy will for our lives—a denial of the Savior’s redeeming work—and a denial of the Spirit’s presence within us.
The only solution for the sin in our lives is to immediately repent of it, ask for Jesus’ blood-bought forgiveness for it, and by the power of the Holy Spirit show forth the fruits of faith in a new and different kind of life that is led by the Spirit. The Bible describes that life this way:
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.
Fruit is seen—you see apples on apple trees and peaches on peach trees—when you see it there is no doubt what kind of tree you are looking at. So it is to be with the Christian’s daily life.
That the Spirit of Christ dwells in us is self-evident in how we live our lives and how we act towards others. The Fruits of the Spirit that Paul lists- and the life they reveal- could not be more different than the works of the flesh- because one of them shows the absence of Christ and the other the presence of Christ.
The connection to Christ that was begun in us in Holy Baptism is to be continued throughout our life as we repent of our sins and hear God’s Word and receive his sacraments to strengthen our faith in Jesus. This is how our flesh is crucified and our life with Jesus is renewed in us again and again.
His life is to be evident in our lives. Paul says it this way: If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. In other words, if we claim to be Christian—if it is or confession that Jesus Christ has set us free from sin and death—if he lives in us-- then let us show that in how we live our lives. This is what we have been set free FOR. Amen.
And now may the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment