8th Sunday after Trinity + Romans 8:12-17 + July 22, 2018
In
the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
In
today’s Epistle lesson St. Paul summarizes the new life we have by faith in
Christ. Through faith our sins are forgiven. God declares us righteous through
faith apart from the works of the Law. Through faith in the promise of the
Gospel God adopts us into His holy family, making us heirs of all His heavenly
blessings. Because we are sons of God by adoption, we are brothers of Christ
Jesus. Being brothers of Christ and co-heirs with Christ, we suffer in this
life as He suffered in this life, knowing that if we suffer with Him, we will
be glorified with Him at the consummation of all things. This new life of faith
in Christ is beset by many challenges, one of which Christ warns us against in
today’s Gospel lesson. There will be false prophets, preachers and interpreters
of His Word, who intentionally, and most unintentionally, try to draw us away
from the new life of faith.
Paul
begins by reminding us that we are not debtors to the flesh, to live according
to the flesh. The Law convicts us of our sins and shows us the wages our sins
earn for us: death. “For if you live
according to the flesh you will die.” The Gospel proclaims that Christ has
died as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, so that all who
believe in Him and look to His sacrifice in faith are forgiven of all their
sins. Since Christ absolves us of all our sins when we repent of them and flee
to Him for mercy, Paul says we are not to go back to them. The sinful flesh tempts
us to return to our sins. The world tantalizes us by telling us our sins aren’t
really sins. The devil, at the opportune moment, holds our sins before us and
offers us their pleasures free of charge. This is why God has graciously given
us His Holy Spirit. “If by the Spirit
you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” The Holy Spirit
works in us through God’s Word to put to death our sinful deeds. The Christian,
who is absolved by faith in Christ will, by the Holy Spirit’s aid, work to
suppress the old man, the sinful nature, so that it doesn’t accomplish what it
desires.
But
in come the false prophets, wolves in sheep’s clothing. They preach a beautiful
gospel of the forgiveness of sins and the free grace of God. But then they tell
their hearers that they are free to remain in their sins if they like. They
tempt souls into spiritual complacency by teaching that once a man is saved by
the grace of God, that man can never abandon God’s grace through willful
sinning. They encourage men to continue in their sins and rely on the grace of
God. They imagine one can trust Christ for the forgiveness of sins and yet live
his life as a debtor and slave to sin’s passions. The desire to continue to sin
cannot coexist in the heart with faith though. Even St. Paul had to fight His
sinful nature and put to death the deeds of his body. He told the Corinthians, “I discipline my
body and bring it into
subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become
disqualified” (1 Corinthians 9:27). If the Apostle could be
disqualified from the prize of eternal salvation then anyone can. So we fight
sin in our mortal bodies. We strive to put do death our sinful deeds and words.
We try, with the help of the Holy Ghost, to douse the fires of sinful desire in
our hearts by remembering that we are baptized, therefore we are children of
God and co-heirs with Christ. It is as Paul says in Romans 6:1-2, “Shall we continue in sin that grace may
abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?”
Paul
then tells us what kind of Spirit it is that God has given to us. It is not a
spirit of bondage to fear. Through faith in Christ all our sins are daily
forgiven. Since God does not count our sins against us then God has no wrath or
condemnation against any who believe the Gospel. Paul writes in Romans 8:1, “There
is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.”
If wrath and the threat of condemnation is absent, there can be no terror of
God in the heart. The fear St. Paul speaks of is fear of God’s judgment that
terrorizes the conscience of those who know their sins and sharply feel them.
The terrors of conscience come upon everyone, some more than others. This is
normal because Satan still accuses the faithful of their sins with the hope
that Christians will dwell upon the magnitude of their sins rather than the infinite
grace of God shown in Christ Jesus. God gives us His Holy Spirit so that we do
not give way to this fear, but receive strength in this temptation to trust that
Christ’s merits are not only for some men but all men.
But
again the false prophets, teachers, and interpreters of Scripture arise, who
say, “Lord, Lord,” yet teach far differently from the Lord upon whom they call.
They teach that we are to doubt God’s grace, as if Christ’s sacrifice and
merits weren’t enough for our sins. To fill up what they imagine is lacking in
Christ’s atonement they manufacture different works to bring peace to the
troubled conscience. Some are works taught by Moses. Others by their specific
church. They teach sinners to doubt their salvation until they feel they have
done enough to make amends for their sins. In the first century it was
circumcision and dietary laws of Moses. In Medieval times it was rosaries and
fasts and fish on Fridays. Today it is works of volunteerism, special mission
trips, or social activism, meant to still the tumultuous heart. But no work,
Mosaic or man-made, can calm the conscience troubled by its sins. Faith in
Christ alone brings peace and comfort to fearful hearts.
Finally,
Paul concludes that if we are sons of God, with the Spirit of God, and
joint-heirs with Christ, we must suffer as our brother Christ suffered in the
flesh. We do not suffer for our sins. Christ has endured the full wrath of God
for each of our sins. But we must suffer temptation from our sinful flesh. We
must suffer the mocking, scorn, and ridicule of the unbelieving world and false
church. We must suffer the accusations of the Devil, which, although true, have
no weight before God since it is God who justifies the one who has faith in
Christ Jesus.
But
again, we must be on guard against false prophets, teachers, and interpreters
of Christ’s Word, who prophesy in Christ’s name and even do miracles and
wonders in His name, yet do not know Christ and are not known by Christ. There
are many who deny Paul’s, and Christ’s words that suffering is inevitable for
those who are connected to Christ by faith. Instead they teach that faith makes
the world a bed of roses or a victorious triumph each day. This teaching will
only lead to eventual despair. For if Christians don’t suffer, and you suffer,
then that means you’re not truly a Christian, or don’t have enough faith. But
the Scriptures teach instead that when you suffer God is laying a cross on you
out of love. He sends crosses to discipline our sinful flesh and to teach us to
trust in Him above our feelings and thoughts and all things. We have the
promise, “If indeed we suffer with Him,
that we may also be glorified together.” This promise enables us to bear
our crosses in faith, knowing that they are God’s will, so that we even come to
believe that crosses and suffering are signs of God’s gracious favor to us.
Only the Holy Spirit, who dwells in our hearts by faith, can teach us to view our
hardships and crosses as signs of God’s goodness.
You
are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Put to death the deeds of
the body by daily repentance. Believe the Gospel each day for the forgiveness
of your sins. Suffer patiently, trusting that you Christ’s brother, so that as
He is glorified, so you shall be glorified together with Him.
In
the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.