GETTING INTO THE WILL OF GOD (Rom 8: 26-39) 7/31/11

      We continue a series of lessons on the book of Romans. We have talked about Salvation, Justification and Sanctification. The Holy Spirit guides us and the sacrifice of Jesus builds a bridge of grace to God. Our sins are forgiven as Jesus pays the price we cannot pay. Living in Christ is living a servant life; a life of love in action. That love is cultivated and nourished through prayer and obedience. It is doing God’s will.

Paul tells us that if we are led by the Spirit, we are sons of God. We are God’s children. We talked about entry into God’s family. We were slaves to sin. Now we are sons of God! We were cursed to death. Now we will inherit as co-heirs with Christ Himself! What does it mean to be in God’s family?  Paul says that all creation groans as in childbirth as it waits for the coming of Christ in glory.

When Jesus returns, we believers as the firstfruits of salvation will be redeemed in body to re-unite with our souls. This is God moving across the pages of history, writing His name upon its depth and breadth in holy sovereignty and knowledge.

Ever start praying to God and realize after a minute or so that you don’t really know what to pray for, or that all you are praying for is stuff that you need or want? It is typically sort of a special needs prayer or a prayer that wanders off into the unknown so often that you end up apologizing to God for not staying on task. Don’t beat yourself up. Paul opens today’s Scripture by saying that we don’t know what to pray for. We get so bad that the Holy Spirit intercedes for us with groans that words can’t express or, maybe we’re not so bad, but the Holy Spirit just really gets so sincere in intervention that words aren’t enough. William Barclay, the great Scottish theologian, calls verses 26 and 27 two of the most important passages on prayer in the whole New Testament. We don’t know what to pray for. The Holy Spirit intercedes for us. What is our real need? The Holy Spirit knows it and the Holy Spirit prays for it. And God hears and answers that prayer. Think of it like this: God is God. We are not. We cannot grasp God’s plan for us because we are finite and He is infinite. But the Spirit…the goodness of God Himself that lives in us… it gets it. So the Spirit translates for us to God. Paul sees prayer like everything else. It too is of God. 

What’s a good prayer? Well, we have the Lord’s Prayer, but bear in mind that it would be more accurate to call it the Disciples’ Prayer, for Jesus used it as a model to teach his disciples to pray. Can we pray for guidance and wisdom and enough money to pay the bills? Can we pray for rain or good health for ourselves or others? Can we pray for our children? Of course we can. I do every day. But we do need to qualify those prayers. They should be conditional, because we cannot see the future and we cannot know what God has in store for us. So it would seem appropriate to condition our requests. Barclay says that in the last analysis, we can look to Jesus and pray as He prayed. Two petitions come to mind: “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit," and "Not my will, but Thine be done.” These are the conditions which the Holy Spirit continually sends in our behalf.

So having learned that we can’t even pray correctly without the help and intercession of the Holy Spirit, we are ready for Paul’s next lesson, and it is a bombshell. It is surely one of the most quoted verses in all of the Bible.  “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (v.28). To help us unpack this mutlti-layered statement, let’s look first at what it does not say. It doesn’t say that God works good in all things. It doesn’t say that God works for the good of all people. It doesn’t say that God works good for those not called, for those not within His divine purpose. It says to be under this umbrella, you have to love God and be called, and that calling must be according to His purpose. Do you see a lot of room for self in there? I don’t.

What we have just described is the Providence of God. God makes it all work out for those who love Him and do His will.  Paul goes on in the next couple verses to use the term predestination, which has been a distinguishing mark of the Presbyterian Church since its beginnings with Calvin and Knox in the sixteenth century. It is not the subject of today’s message, at least not in the way it has been discussed and over-discussed for many years. It is, rather, important in the sense that predestination is part of the discussion of God’s Providence. Providence stands next to Grace. Providence is the delivery on the promise of grace. How do you know you are “called according to his purpose?” Martin Luther had this to say of predestination: “Do you doubt if you are chosen? Then say your prayers and you may conclude that you are.” The Scots Confession, which forms part of our confessional liturgy, says about election, or predestination, that God gives power to be sons of God to as many as who believe in Him. If you believe in Christ, you are part of that providential wave that will sweep you into God’s kingdom. It is one of the most reassuring verses in the Bible.

But…there are conditions. You have to love God and you have to be called according to His purpose. How do you love God? You yield to His purpose. You do love. Love is not a state of being. It is a way of life. How much do you have to love Him? We are back to the Great Commandment. Jesus tells us to love God with all our hearts and all our souls and all our minds and all our strength. If you are starting to lose yourself in this concept so that you are not sure where you stop and God starts, then you are beginning to get it.   A. B Simpson says that people who love God are those who have yielded themselves to God’s purpose and are allowing Him to conform them to the image of His Son; that is, to make them like Jesus Christ—to sanctify them, separate them, and bring them into their Master’s will and their Master’s likeness.

Do you want God’s Providence on your side? Then get on God’s side. Abraham Lincoln was once drawn into a discussion about the importance of prayer in getting God on our side, to which he responded: “It seems to me much more important we should be on God’s side, and then we shall have no trouble of having God on our side.” Do you want God’s Providence on your side? Get into the will of God.

Have you ever done a thousand piece puzzle?   Done a counted cross-stitch with several dozen colors? Getting started isn’t easy. Even when it begins to take shape, it is still impossible to fathom what it is or will become without benefit of a picture showing the finished product. Life with God is like a complicated puzzle or cross-stitch. You can’t see the end. You have neither the vision nor wisdom nor persistence to finish the puzzle that is your life without help. Life is tough and complicated and twisted. The best and strongest of us will fall, become bruised and confused many times along the way.  But God is so much more than the picture of the end product. He is the pattern. He is the needle and the thread. He is the fabric of life itself. Life with Providence is life filled with God’s grace, and that becomes a tapestry which anyone would be proud to claim as a finished product.

The bookend to verse 28 is verses 38 and 39: Nothing can separate us from God’s love, not death nor life, not angels nor demons, not the present nor the future, not powers of any kind; nothing! God’s love transcends all problems and all perils.

In Prince Caspian, part of The Chronicles of Narnia books where C. S. Lewis parallels the life of Christ with that of the great lion Aslan in a fallen world called Narnia, Lucy finds Aslan’s [God’s] will in the strength of his spirit. Lucy says:

“Please, Aslan! Am I not to know?”

   “To know what would have happened, child?

said Aslan. “No, nobody is ever told that.”

   “Oh dear,” said Lucy.

   “But anyone can find out what will happen,”

said Aslan. “If you go back to the others now,

and wake them up; and tell them you have seen

me again; and that you must all get up at once

and follow me—what will happen? There is only

one way of finding out….”

   But they won’t believe me!” said Lucy.

   It doesn’t matter,” said Aslan.

   “Oh dear, oh dear,” said Lucy. “And I was so

pleased at finding you again. And I thought you’d

let me stay. And I thought you’d come roaring in

and frighten all the enemies away—like last time.

And now everything is going to be horrid.”…

   Lucy buried her head in his mane to hide from

his face. But there must have been magic in his

mane. She could feel lion-strength going into her.

Quite suddenly she sat up.

   “I’m sorry, Aslan,” she said, “I’m ready now.”

  Are you lonely? Do you have fear of the unknown, the unseen? Is there something of which you‘re afraid? You don’t need to be. Lean in to the lion-strength of your heavenly Father. He will get you ready now too. Get into the will of God. Do love.  Lose yourself and you will find yourself. Let yourself be led by the Holy Spirit. Claim God’s Providence for yourself and your life. Then  all things will work for good…because you are

called…according to His purpose.  And nothing…nothing… will be able to separate you from God’s unsurpassing love.                                               

ENTRY INTO THE FAMILY OF GOD (Romans 8:12-25, Psalm 139: 1-12) 6/17/11

We continue a series of lessons on the book of Romans. We have talked about Salvation, Justification and Sanctification. Paul teaches that when we call for help from God, we can begin to look to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Paul reminds us that the believer is liberated, set free from the slavery of sin and death through Christ Jesus. 

The Holy Spirit dwells within us and enables us to push sin aside. But it is not enough. We cannot shed our sinful nature.  Jesus fills in the blanks. The Holy Spirit guides us and the sacrifice of Jesus builds a bridge of grace to God. Our sins are forgiven as Jesus pays the price we cannot pay.  

Living in Christ is living a servant life; a life of love in action. The road to righteousness can be found in the Great Commandments: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. That love is cultivated and nourished through prayer and obedience. It is doing His will. Such is life in Christ.

Today, the message of Paul to the Romans reaches a more upbeat tone. Having learned that we are not capable of coming to God under our own steam, having accepted that we must call out to Him and be nourished not only by the help and comfort of the Holy Spirit, but also the grace that comes from God through the sacrifice of his own Son; having sought these relationships through prayer, obedience and servanthood, now we can take a look at what it’s like to be in the family of God.

I know about family. I just went to a family reunion a couple weeks ago in Society Hill. It had Griggs and O’Neals and sometimes there is even a Farrar or two there. They like it when I show up. I’m Farrar O’Neal Griggs. Everybody claims me. I don’t know the family tree very well, but I know that Griggs have been around Society Hill for a couple hundred years.

I know about family. I come from a long line, deep and wide, of military service. This is another form of family. Me, my dad, his dad, his dad, my siblings (both sexes), my cousins, my children, my wife’s dad, my inlaws. Everyone wore a uniform for a time; several made it a career. Everything but the Coast Guard, and I have a daughter interning at a Coast Guard base this summer, so who knows.

I know about family. I have three daughters and a son. I have a son in law and a grandson just two years old. I have sweated tears of love for thirty years to help them onto tricycles and bicycles and cars and boats and airplanes…and even helicoptors. I see now through my grandson that my job as a family member will never end; it just changes duties from time to time.  

But reading about Jesus, which is also the story of God’s love for us, I realize I don’t know so much about family after all. God knows about family. The Psalmist tells us that God our Father knows all our ways, that He knows our every word before it is on our tongues, that we can’t hide, outrun or surprise God, that His Spirit surrounds us. Paul tells us that if we are led by the Spirit, we are sons of God. We say Abba, or Daddy, to the creator of all creation. We are God’s children. Talk about a family tree! Living in Christ is being blessed with a genealogy that traces to Adam himself, and more importantly…to Jesus Himself.

Well, I do know something about inheritance law. I have practiced it for most of my law career. I know that you can disinherit a child. I know that children is an inclusive term. It’s not just blood. It can be adoption too. If you want to talk blood, you use the word issue. If you want something to pass completely without a string or condition, you leave it to so-and-so and her heirs. That is vesting language that cures the defects and clears the doubts and it’s practically universal in American and English law. So when Paul says that we are children, he’s letting the adopted ones in, and when he says heirs and co-heirs with Christ, that’s pretty much the jackpot. Those are the magic words that make the Will work, get it into probate and stand up to scrutiny from those who would object to the result.

I know something about adoption too. I really do. My oldest child is adopted. She is not blood. In the eyes of the law, she is not “issue,” but “children.” For a short time, I thought she would be the only child I ever had. Like Timothy was for Paul, she was the alternative to being childless. I prayed and prayed and prayed for that child. And one day, there she was. I know about adoption, because I know first hand that love does not come from a strand of DNA. It flies straight from the heart like an arrow shot from a longbow and it comes in the time it might take to form the name of that child on one’s lips. For me, that name was Rebekah. Is such a love stronger or weaker than the love one feels for a child born of the union of genetics or subsequent marriage?  Of course not. It is the same.  Ask God. Paul says that “creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.” Ask God. It was for you and me that God came to earth and lived as a man. It was for you and me that he suffered temptation. It was for you and me that he endured the most barbaric form of execution in the known world and bore all the sin of all time into that sinless, selfless heart. My adopted daughter is precious to me, but never have I had to sacrifice for her or any of my children the way my Savior sacrificed for me.  

How far have we come? We were slaves to sin. Now we are sons and daughters of God! We were cursed to death. Now we will inherit as co-heirs with Christ Himself! How breathtaking and life-changing is life in Christ! Through the overpowering and gracious love of God, we call him Daddy, claiming a status equal to a natural birthright. Led by the Holy Spirit, we must share in Christ’s sufferings, says Paul. Grace is free, but not cheap. If you come into the family, you give back to it with love, and as Jesus has taught us, the Christian life comes with burdens. But sharing in those burdens means we also share in Christ’s glory! Paul says compared to the glory that is to be revealed, the present suffering barely gets on the scale. 

What does it mean to be in God’s family? I think about it this way. I watch my grandson when my wife comes through the door. He stops everything and runs to her screaming “my MiMi.” It’s even more pronounced when his mother gets home from work. He runs to her and wraps his little arms around her leg. He calls her name: “Mama.” You can see it in his eyes and you can hear it in his voice. He feels perfectly safe. He is happy. He is home. He is part of a family.  This is God’s grand design. It gives us a glimpse of how we will feel in glory. It even gives us a glimpse of how we can feel right now in these pews or at home reading Scripture, or in prayer. We cry Abba…Daddy. We are His children, adopted into the family of God himself.

How big is this? Paul says that all creation groans as in childbirth as it waits for the coming of Christ in glory. We are reminded by Paul that Adam’s sin left not only mankind, but indeed the whole creation, cursed into decay. This is not the way it could have been. This is not the way it will be. The whole creation: you, me, birds, beasts, rocks, trees, plants, the sun and the stars, looks forward to that final resurrection when all is restored and harmony exists in every way. Paul reminds us that it is what we hope for. And that hope is a vibrant, expectant, believing hope, a way of living and doing life.

This passage is so rich that it’s hard to catch all the nuggets Paul gives to us. But don’t miss this one. There is also teaching here on the end times, or eschatology. Genesis 1:1 begins with “In the beginning, God…”  The Gospel of John reminds us that in that beginning was the Word, and that Word was Jesus. In Romans, Paul opens our eyes toward the end times, saying that we groan inwardly and await eagerly for that time when Jesus returns, for that time when we believers as firstfruits will be redeemed in body to re-unite with our souls. This is God moving across the pages of history, writing His holy name upon its depth and breadth until, as Omar Khayyam puts it, “the last syllable of recorded time.”  

 We are already in God’s family. We can feel that right here with our church family. We can feel it at home and in the marketplace with our neighbor sharing the Word, sharing our lives and experiences. Even better, the stage is set for the future. We know we can count on it. We hope for that which we know is there, even though we cannot see it. But then, we can, can’t we? We just need to know where to look for His kingdom. It’s in the Sacraments that we remember and celebrate together as God’s people. It’s in the eyes of puppy dogs and kittens and toddlers who call for “Daddy”. It’s in the song of an elderly church member still faithful after fifty years of worship services. It’s in the hands of kitchen helpers cutting up finger foods for Vacation Bible School.

“For inasmuch as you did it unto the least of these, my brethren, you did it unto me.”     

PRACTICAL RIGHTEOUSNESS (Romans 8:1-11, Psalm 118:105-112) (6/10/11)

 We have begun looking at part of the book of Romans and today’s lesson comes from Chapter 8. Remember that it’s part of a longer lesson from Paul in Chapters 6-8, in which Paul articulates the doctrine of Sanctification. Remember that the first five chapters of Romans talk about salvation, where it comes from, how we get it, what Justification is. Last week, we talked about what we do now that we are saved. What about sin? How do we deal with it? Paul recognized that he could not follow the law in spite of himself. On his own strength and will, he couldn’t do it. We are, like Paul, slaves to sin.

But it’s OK, because as Paul says: “Thanks be to God__through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Paul called for help. He couldn’t do it. We can’t do it. We are trapped in a state of selfishness. As long as man tries to save himself, he is doomed to failure, enslaved to a sinful nature. But when he calls for help from God, he can begin to look to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Chapter 7 ends with Paul reiterating “I, myself…” It is a call to futility and failure. Today, we will see that the “I, myself” is replaced with “In Christ.” Let’s look at what that means to us.

“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Just one verse before, Paul characterized himself as a double slave: to both God’s law and to sin. We have all heard it said that a man cannot serve two masters. So what is the answer to Paul’s dilemma? As we said last week, the answer is in Sanctification. But remember: Sanctification is a journey. It takes a lifetime to become sanctified. It is not only the road less traveled; it is also the road impossible to travel alone. Now, Paul reminds us that the believer is liberated, set free from the slavery of sin and death through Christ Jesus. 

The Holy Spirit, drawing us to God, a gift from God to every man but a gift not claimed by every man, dwells within us and enables us to push sin aside. But it is not enough, for no matter how much of the Holy Spirit we are allowed to call upon, no matter how deep our faith resonates, we cannot rid ourselves of our sinful nature.  Not to worry. Jesus fills in the blanks. In verse 3, Paul reminds us that our shortcomings are overcome by Jesus, who as God’s own and only Son, has donned the likeness of sinful man, lived the life of man  himself, endured the temptations of the sinful nature as a man and, having done so without a blemish, without a sin, becomes the sin offering for mankind. Jesus the man lives a life without sin and becomes the model for mankind. Jesus in his divine nature goes to the cross not just for one man, but for all mankind.  In this way, God’s perfect justice is preserved while his divine mercy is made available to each of us. So, according to verse 4, if we try to live in line with God’s will, if we seek to live by the Holy Sprit who dwells within us, then the “righteous requirement of the law is fully met in us.” The Holy Spirit guides us and the sacrifice of Jesus builds a bridge of grace to God. This is practical righteousness. He’s got us covered if we will but only try…and believe in Him and His power. Our sin is condemned as it should be, and Jesus pays the price we cannot pay.  

What does it mean to live in Christ, to live in the Spirit? It means to get out of the way. It means to live a servant life. It means to give your life away, so that you can get it back. I have an old friend who had a pretty rough go of life as a young adult. Despite her best intentions, her marriage to her high school sweetheart didn’t work out. She was unable to raise her children and had to rely on her ex-husband. It was hard on this kind but unlucky young woman. Some years went by before she found out she wasn’t so unlucky after all. You see, this friend of mine had a twin, who found out in her early 30’s that she too had been dealt a tough hand. Her kidneys were failing. My friend stepped up immediately. She may have had some problems with handling stress, but nothing was wrong with her kidneys, or her heart. She donated a kidney to her twin. Thirty years later, these sisters are both doing just fine with one kidney each. This is practical righteousness. It’s not a sacrifice to serve your family. Servanthood is an investment in God’s kingdom.

It’s the love of God we’re talking about here. We read about how much He loved us. John says we love Him because He first loved us. That means, among other things, that He loved us before we loved Him, before we did one single thing to earn His love, to merit His favor. Even when it comes to loving Him, we have to count on the Holy Spirit to draw us to Him. So are there any methods by which we can seek this practical righteousness?

Let me suggest to you that the road to righteousness is paved with

prayer and obedience, and littered with thousands of kindnesses to our neighbor along the way. And friends, let’s understand once and for all who our neighbor is. If he or she is breathing and human, that qualifies as our neighbor. God made them in His likeness just like you and me.

Prayer is not a monologue. It is a conversation with God. We

speak to God with our words, our thoughts, our desires, our unspoken but heartfelt emotions. He answers sometimes in a rainbow or a mountaintop experience, but more often in the Holy Spirit guiding us through a constant and intimate contact with Scripture and the prayerful meditation of its reading.

          The second ingredient to righteousness is obedience. “Not my will, but thy will, be done”, says Jesus in the garden just hours before His arrest. Do you want to love God? Do His will. Klaus Bockmuehl, the noted religious author, calls this the “most comprehensive revolution of human lifestyle we can think of. Our nature is to always seek our own interests, our own pleasures. But Jesus shows us that to love God is to do his will.”  You know, if you really take a good look at the “saints” in the New Testament, they are a pretty undistinguished lot. But there is one thing that they all had in common. When God called, they answered the bell. They were ready to surrender their personal plans and agendas for God’s sake. It’s not that you have no aim in your life. In fact, it’s just the opposite. Your focus is to live out life in obedient discovery and discernment of God’s will for you.

          Paul tells us in verse 11 that when the Holy Spirit dwells within us, when we evidence the influence of that Spirit by acting in servanthood, that we can rest assured that not only our human spirits but also our mortal bodies will be given eternal life__that our resurrection is just as certain as that of Jesus Himself. How glorious a promise is that! We have only to claim it, but our claim rests on our love in action. I’m reminded of a house I once bought. In practicing real estate law for so many years, I would occasionally buy a fixer upper.  A few years ago, I bought a house that was shameful. I liked the neighborhood and the house had good bones, but it was rough as a cob. I tried to show my wife and oldest daughter its potential. The odor was so bad that they couldn’t make it through the house. We had to open the windows for a week before we could even get a painter or a carpenter to come in to start work. Well, the bones held up. It took a lot of time and effort, but now that house is home to the daughter of one of our best friends. The house needed some loving and a whole lot of attention to be a home again.

     Our earthly beings are much the same. Think about your own home. If you own it, chances are that you have many hours invested in repairs and maintenance, from windows to roofs to insulation to flowers and plantings. A.B. Simpson says that if the Holy Spirit is only allowed to visit you at times, “He will not undertake to alter the dwelling, but if you give Him the keys and make it His home, He will make it a home worthy of Himself and of you. He will make it a blessed home…a little picture of heaven.”

          One last point. Paul talks about the sinful nature throughout this passage and the book of Romans. He hammers home that mankind suffers from the sin of Adam and that his nature is sinful. Mankind needs the intervention of the Holy Spirit and the atonement of Jesus to achieve righteousness. This is certainly true. But do not mistake sinful nature for human nature. Sinful nature is our own disobedience. It is our inheritance from Adam. Human nature is that nature given us humans by God. It is our nature before the fall. In the very first chapter of God’s Word, God makes mankind in his own image, after His own likeness. God knows our every move, our every sin. The Psalmist tells us that He knit us together in our mother’s womb [Ps. 139]. Such is the omniscience and sovereignty of our Creator. But…God also sees us as He created us. Each of us is created in His image.  That is the essence of human nature---created in the image of God.  

So pray without ceasing and be obedient to His call. And let your earthly home be the house that God built. Be human!  Live not in yourself, but in Christ.   

YOU CAN'T DO IT! (Romans 7: 14-25) 6/3/2011

Anyone here remember the movie called The Waterboy? It starred Adam Sandler. There was a character in the movie who spoke with a thick Creole accent and kept saying “You can do eet!  Not so in today’s lesson. The apostle Paul wrote as many as thirteen books of the New Testament. Only Luke has written more words. And yet, the great theologian comes to the seventh chapter of Romans and says: “I do not understand what I do.”… “I do not understand what I do.” Then he says: “I am a prisoner of the law of sin.” I don’t know about you, but that’s not what I needed to hear from Paul. 

Now, we’re going to talk about those remarks some this morning, but we won’t get all the answers today. We are embarking on a small study of part of the book of Romans. In accordance with the Lectionary, today’s lesson comes from Chapter 7. It’s part of a longer lesson from Paul that began in Chapter 6 and goes through Chapter 8. In those chapters, Paul discusses the doctrine of Sanctification. To give you just a little background, the first five chapters of Romans have talked about salvation, where it comes from, how we get it, what Justification is. Now, Paul turns to the what else; what now. What do we do now that we are saved? What about sin? How do we deal with it? Paul says that we become sanctified. But how do we do that?  Part of the answer is today’s lesson, and it will continue next week.

“For what I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate to do.” Depending on which scholar you read, Paul is talking philosophically or he is actually talking about himself. He might have been talking to the unsaved. There is certainly a lesson here for that group.  But for today, I’d like to focus on these words as though Paul was talking about himself, much in the same way that you and I can look at ourselves.  It’s more likely to me that he was talking to the Christians in the audience. In other words,  he was talking to you and me. He was telling us what we already know from experience: that being saved, and acting like it, are not at all the same thing! It gives me some small degree of comfort that Paul himself was no stranger to this feeling.

“God said it, I believe it. That does it.” Ever heard those words? It’s not Presbyterian or Reformed. It’s certainly the last thing Paul would say in today’s lesson. It’s more like: “God said it.  I’m trying to get my arms around it. How in the world do I live it out from day to day?” It’s the age old tension between spirit and flesh. The ancient philosophers toyed with it. Their answer was to divorce the body from the spirit. The body is bad; the spirit is good. This was known as Gnosticism. Paul had to deal with it in his ministry to the Greeks and to Greek influenced peoples all over Asia Minor. As Christians, we don’t believe that today. We believe in the resurrection of the body. If the body is to be resurrected, then is cannot be bad or evil. It is part and parcel of that which Jesus will resurrect. Both body and spirit belong to God. Flesh, the way Paul used the term, is a much bigger concept than the physical body. It is the concept of our sinful nature, of selfishness, of disobedience, even of self-reliance.

In verse 14, Paul calls himself “unspiritual.” He says that the law is spiritual, but through his own sinful nature, he has been sold as a slave to sin. He has sold himself out. He understands the law as a method to identify sin, not as a vehicle to deliver him from it.  The law is not enough. It is only a mirror through which our blemishes are more clearly identified. Paul also recognizes that he cannot follow the law in spite of himself, He can’t do it on his own. Since he cannot he is not spiritual, in the sense that he does not follow the right way but rather yields to the fleshly, selfish way. The word “unspiritual,”   as used here, is pretty much synonymous with “fleshly.”  Worse, he says he is enslaved to sin. He cannot leave it behind of his own strength or will.

Heard anything good yet? If you have, tell me because I missed it. This is basic Pauline and Calvinistic reformed theology. We all sin. As of yet there is no good news. And it gets worse. The Expositor’s Bible Commentary says that Romans 7 calls into question a number of popular notions, none of which have any biblical foundation: “that the soul’s struggle is essentially against specific sins or habits [wrong]; that human nature is essentially good [wrong]; that sanctification is by means of the law [wrong]; that if one will only determine to do the right, he or she will be able to do it [wrong, wrong, wrong].” These are misconceptions for Christians that must be removed. Knowing what to do, even trying to do it day in and day out by yourself, is not the way to Christ.

A young mother in my home church who is also a newly ordained elder commented recently: “You want your child to do right. You know he knows how to do right. Why doesn’t’ he do right!  You can’t do it!  We are, like Paul, slaves to sin. Paul refers to himself as a “body of death” and screams out “WHO WILL RESCUE ME!”    

“What a wretched man I am!” says Paul in verse 24.  Compare this to the words of the great prophet Isaiah: “Woe is me...I am ruined.

For I am a man of unclean lips…”[Isaiah 6:5]. If these biblical giants are ruined, then where are we?

It’s OK. We’re OK. Paul and Isaiah are OK. Because we have verse 25. “Thanks be to God__through Jesus Christ our Lord!” What did Paul do? He called for help. Paul couldn’t do it. We can’t do it. We are trapped in a state of selfishness, playing God as we try to make and will ourselves better, and if we succeed for a moment or an hour, it is but a fleeting and pyrrhic victory which will leave us failed, tired and just as enslaved as before. You can’t do it, but God can!

The seventh chapter of Romans is all about struggle; struggle between the old ways and the new, between the sinful nature of man and the new Christian nature he tries to wear. As long as man tries to save himself, earn his place, he is doomed to failure, enslaved to a sinful nature. But when he calls for help from God, he can begin to look to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Chapter 7 ends with Paul reiterating “I, myself…” It is a call to futility. Later, we will see that the “I, myself” is replaced with “In Christ,” but today it is important to see that we can’t do it alone.

Do you want to live in Christ?  Living in Christ is like living in an upside down, inside out world.  Society tells us to obey the law. Jesus tells us to fulfill it. Society tells us to develop self-reliance. Jesus tells us to love one another. Society tells us to stay away from strangers. Jesus tells us to cross the street, get in the ditch and spend our hard earned money on strangers in need.  Society tells us to beware of vagrants and street people, Jesus tells us to invite them into our homes. We have to live in the world for a time, but we cannot be of it if we are to live in Christ. This is the work of Sanctification. The battle is God’s, not ours. We have only to ask for help. We can’t do it, but God can.

Sanctification is a road. It starts at baptism or conversion or justification or re-generation. Pick the term you like the best. It ends at death. Death of the earthly body, that is, for passage from this earth is but a change of address.  At that point, we are sanctified. The road is traveled and, if we did it with God, we probably did a lot of looking at life upside down. Barbara Brown Taylor says that “the world looks funny upside down, but maybe that is just how it looks when you have got your feet planted in heaven…So blessed are those who stand on their heads, for they shall see the world as God sees it.”  

Upside down, you see that thirst and hunger are more about a spiritual void than a physical need, that the people you help are helping you right back. Maybe that’s why your Session felt compelled to call me to this place, to this church. Maybe I need to see ministry through the lens of Jefferson, South Carolina for awhile. When I was being examined by the presbytery in Florence the other week, Scott Kirkley spoke up and said maybe I needed this church about as much as it needed me. I suspect he may prove to be a prophet. I’m here to help. And I know you’ll help me right back.  

Are you unspiritual? Do you find yourself doing not what you want to do, but what you hate to do? Who will rescue you? Jesus Christ our Lord, says Paul. Stay tuned for next time. 

Sermons from the Creek

Hello all! This is my first venture into the blogging world. It is my hope that the sermons and messages published here might do some good to those who chance by and stop to read. The messages are written versions of those given at Rocky Creek Presbyterian Church in Jefferson, South Carolina, a little slice of heaven carved out of a pastoral setting in Chesterfield County. God and that congregation have called me to proclaim the Good News there for a season. Enjoy these messages. Feel free to leave your comments and questions. I would love to hear from every one who stops by. And join us down at Rocky Creek too!