Fifth Sunday in Lent, 2011, Immanuel Chapel, Romans 8:1-11
Rom. 8:1 & 11, “There is, therefore; now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he…will also give life to your mortal bodies through the Spirit who dwells in you.”
Pastor Eldore Messerschmidt, with whom I served for a couple of years at Immanuel, in Marshfield, Wisconsin, had a license plate which read, Rev. EFM. Someone said, it may have been his wife Lucille, those initials stood for “reverend every few minutes.” Whether he was reverend every few minutes or reverend all the time did not determine his salvation. Eldore Messerschmidt, like you and me had been buried in baptism into Christ’s death so that as Christ was raised so we might live a new life in expectation that we too shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
It’s not that those who are in Christ don’t do things worthy of condemnation. Last Sunday we prayed in the Collect,”Your mercies are new every morning…though we deserve only punishment.” As I read that prayer I asked myself, “Do we really believe that ‘we deserve only punishment’?” Not when one considers how much time we spend rationalizing our actions and blaming others, even when we know we are in the wrong, do we believe it. St. Paul writes in the previous chapter that there is a war going on between our mind in Christ and our members who are captive to the power of sin. We have the desires to live according to God’s law but we have not the ability. The good I want to do I find myself not doing and the evil I don’t want to do find myself doing. So how do we get out of this wretched body of death that keeps betraying us every day? Then he suddenly exclaims “Eureka”, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Which Paul to declare, “There is, therefore; now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
In an age in which seemingly the only absolute truth is that one opinion is as good as another someone one may say, “Well, that’s just your opinion.” In Christ that is not what we believe. Therefore, after the confession of our sins early on in the service the pastor says words to the effect, “I forgive all your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” The appropriate response to that declaration is not, “Well, that’s just your opinion.” To which the proclaimer of forgiveness could respond, “No, we’re not dealing with human opinion here, this is the Word of God. The pastor might continue, “If I were to give my opinion concerning you it would likely be something other than the forgiveness of all your sins.” The only proper response to hearing that our sins are forgiven is “I believe” or “I don’t believe.”
Though we do things worthy of condemnation, in Christ, God never pronounces the verdict, “Guilty.” In a court room drama the intense and tense moment is when the jury returns with their verdict. In some dramas each member of the jury is polled and the answer comes one after another, “guilty, guilty, guilty.” In Christ, there is no, will I be pronounced guilty or not guilty? If the three persons of the Godhead were polled, the Father would say, “not guilty,” the Son would say, “not guilty” and the Holy Spirit would pronounce us, “not guilty.” For all who are in Christ, not one is condemned. For all others, its complete condemnation for all of their life. Even the good they would do is not credited to them, because they cannot balance out what sin power has done in their lives. And if the three fold Godhead of the Trinity were polled, the Father would say, “guilty,” the Son would say, “guilty” and the Holy Spirit would say, “Guilty.”
Why, this difference? Christ Jesus wipes out sins committed by those who are justified and regenerated through his life, death and resurrection. Daily and richly he remits all their sins, now. The connection is faith in Jesus Christ. Through faith in Jesus Christ we are under a different operating system. The Spirit of life has set us free in Christ Jesus from the operating system of sin and death.
The operating system of the law demands obedience. But it has been weakened by the sin power in our flesh. So it cannot accomplish what it demands of us. Yesterday morning I was taking Boomer, our Newfoundland for a walk. A Sunset Hills police officer was setting up one of those portable electronic traffic signs that show you your speed. We chatted a while he pettted Boomer. I said, “I wish you had been out a couple of days ago when two kids were racing down the street.” The officer said, “I’m not sure how much good these signs do. Some people use them to see how fast they can go before they pass the sign.” Yes, I responded, “We always use the law for our own benefit.” Our conversation identified what Paul is talking about here. We use sin power to break the law, which is lawlessness. We use God’s law not to be saved, which it can’t do, but to condemn others and pile guilt on others and to get our own way, at great cost to everyone else and ourselves.
So God had to find a different operating system, a different law, if you will. He did this by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh. That is, Jesus came in the likeness of sinful flesh, but his flesh was not sinful like our flesh. However, God condemned sin in the flesh. He did this by condemning his own Son for our sin, though he had no sin of his own. In that way we who follow the Spirit of the life of Christ, are not condemned as guilty, but declared innocent and having done what the law of God requires. Only Christ did it for us in our stead. It’s the only way we can please God. So we prayed today in the collect that “Almighty God would look upon your people that we may be governed and preserved evermore in body and soul through Jesus Christ.”
It is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the Life in Christ that now operates in us. Even if our body is dead due to sin power, the Holy Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in us and will also give life to our mortal bodies.
Thus though sin power had led to Lazarus death, as we read in the gospel lesson, Jesus, who is the life and the resurrection, overcame death through a three word sentence., “Lazarus come out.” There he emerged from the tomb, with the burial linens still wrapped around his face, hands and feet. Jesus commanded, “Unbind him and let him go.” Lazarus was a preview of Jesus death and resurrection. More than that, in Christ, the unbinding the freeing of Lazarus is a preview of our resurrection as well.
Because of that, the words of Paul are my favorite bible passage, “There is therefore, now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Thanks be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
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