Romans 7,14-25a. The 22. Sunday after Trinity

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

Romans 7,14-25a   5512

22. Sonntag nach Trinitatis. 067 

Vitalis and Agricola, Martyrs at Bologna, Italy 304 

Robert Preus, Pastor, Theologian, and Seminary President. † 1995

4. November 2012

1. O God the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, renew and sanctify our hearts, enlighten the darkness of our minds and beget in us the saving faith. Lead us into all truth, govern and sanctify us by Your Word and keep us in the same unto the end, so that we may not be overcome by any evil or temptation (Löhe 148).  Amen. 

2. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! 

3. As the Apostle Paul concludes the 7. chapter of his Epistle to the Romans, he describes the inner conflict waged within the Christian. Paul’s argument is a bit wordy, so let me break it down in a more digestible thesis. There are two laws working in a Christian: 1. a law of the spirit that tells us what is good, right and holy, and 2. a law of sin that rebels against the law of the spirit. Our Christian mind loves the law of the spirit and desires to do what is good and right, however, our flesh is sinful and does what is evil and wrong. So when we sin, it is not our Christian mind that is sinning but it is our sinful flesh that is disobeying our will and acting on its own to do what it pleases, that is, our flesh does what is evil and wrong. Our mind and flesh are locked in a daily struggle as to which one will win out. 

4. Paul then laments that the flesh and its law of sin constantly win out in this struggle. We know what is right, and we desire to do what is right, but we cannot do what is right. Our sinful flesh does not go down easily; even when we do something good and right, our flesh kicks and screams all the while, making such a fuss, like a little child throwing a temper tantrum, so that even when we do what is right, such good deeds are tarnished by our sinful nature. Evil always lies close at hand; our flesh seeks to snatch victory from our Christian grasp. Thus, the Christian life is a life of conflict: the old sinful flesh and the new righteous mind wrestle to determine whose will shall be done. 

5. Martin Luther explained it this way: „Thus it comes about that you fight against yourself and are opposed to yourself. One is willing, and the other is unwilling. And this is the glory of the grace of God; it makes us enemies of ourselves. For this is how it overcomes sin, ... namely, with a most glorious triumph, so that the enemies slaughtered themselves (Judges 7,22). ... So it is with grace; and, as was said above: »the leaven is hidden in three measures until the whole is leavened« (Matthew 13,33)“ (Luther 26, 364). 

6. Our Lectionary, however, leaves Paul’s answer in suspense. The holy apostle proclaims: Jesus Christ our Lord delivers us from our body of death. This is pure gospel and marvelous grace which leavens our body unto righteousness. Paul furthermore proclaims: »There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death« (Romans 8,1-2). Paul declares it as a certainty that Christ is our principal, complete and perfect righteousness [1] (Luther 71). 

7. So, the Apostle Paul says Christians »have the law of the spirit and the law of the sin fighting against each other within our being.« Luther described our situation this way: A Christian is saint and sinner at the same time [2]. On November 1. The Western Church remembered the saints on All Saints’ Day. All Christians struggle against the sinful flesh. The saints from ages past also struggled against their flesh just as we do. They have entered the blissful rest in Paradise with Jesus. Their earthly lives serve as examples for us as we live our lives. 

8. The law, in its primary function, condemns sinners. The law does this by first revealing sin to us, then threatening the condemnation of unrepentant sinners and finally curbing the rebellious law of our flesh into submission to the commandments of God. The gospel then comes to us in Christ, who did not merely forgive and forget our sin, but He freed us from our sin and our slavery to sin and the condemnation of the law. The law of God threatens us with condemnation, but the gospel of God promises us with justification. This justification is God renewing us in His very image and likeness. God is holy, and He renews us in holiness. God is loving, and He renews us in Godly love. God is merciful, and He renews us in mercy. The gospel brings our Savior’s righteousness to robe our lives in royal dress; from all our failings it brings release and give the shackled conscience peace (Loy 580,3). 

9. „A Christian’s sin is the same sin and sin as great as that of the unbeliever. To the Christian, however, it is forgiven and not imputed, while to the unbeliever the sin is retained and imputed.... This is not because of a difference between the sins, as though the Christian’s sin were smaller and the unbeliever’s larger, but because of a difference between the persons. For the Christian knows that his sin is forgiven him on account of Christ, who has expiated it by His death. Even though he has sin and commits sin, he remains godly. On the other hand, when the unbeliever commits sin, he remains ungodly. This is the wisdom and the comfort of those who are truly godly, that even if they have sins and commit sins, they know that because of their faith in Christ these sins are not imputed to them“ (Luther 27,76). 

10. Christ Jesus has justified us by His death and resurrection. He has made us righteous and holy. Holy is the root word for saint, thus Jesus saints us. He does so by imputing His holiness upon us. We receive this imputation by faith, and so we believe what Jesus says: We are justified. We are not under God’s wrath and condemnation, for Jesus has has shown us the friendly heart of His Father, a heart overflowing with love and grace. 

11. We are the bearers of the Father’s friendly heart to our world. People often ask: „Why did God allow a destructive hurricane to devastate numerous boroughs in New Jersey and up and down the East Coast?“ or „Where is God in all this suffering?“ Jesus answered this question 2000 years ago: »Now on the same occasion there were some present who reported to Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. And Jesus said to them, Do you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered this fate? I tell you, no« (Luke 13,1-3). You see, God is not angry at us, for His anger upon sin was poured out in full upon Christ at Calvary. Natural disasters are the suffering lot we endure as sinners living on a cursed earth. God, however, is not distant or unresponsive. He is in the midst of devastation and destruction. Each time you give an encouraging word to your neighbors, bring them a cup of coffee, offer them some respite from the sufferings of the hurricane’s aftermath, the hands and words of Jesus are working and speaking through you. These are Divine words of love and support. God has given us an opportunity to do acts of charity and mercy for our neighbors, and for each other in the household of God. 

12. „The dominion of the Spirit is so powerful that the law cannot accuse that which is truly sin. For Christ, our Righteousness, whom we grasp by faith, is beyond reproach; therefore He cannot be accused by the law. As long as we cling to Him, we are led by the Spirit and are free from the law.... The remnants of sin cling to our flesh, which, as long as it lives, does not stop having desires against the Spirit. Yet this does not endanger us at all; for we are free of the law, provided that we walk by the Spirit“ (Luther 27,78). 

13. The end result, you see, is the mind’s victory over the flesh. Christ is concerned about the end result and the last day. When He returns, Jesus will remove all sin and corruption that clings to our mind, body and spirit. Now we struggle with sin, but on the last day all struggling will stop. The gospel will reign supreme, and the Holy Spirit daily works in our lives unto that last day arrives.  Amen. 

14. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus Christ, You heal the brokenhearted and bind up their wounds, keep us steadfastly in the faith, trusting in You for the forgiveness of our sin, so that we may live each day confident in the truth of our salvation, which will be manifest in full on the last day and the resurrection of our flesh unto life everlasting.  Amen. 

To God alone be the Glory 

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All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4th Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27th Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart. 

ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. 

Löhe, Wilhelm. Liturgy for Christian Congregations of the Lutheran Faith. Copyright © 1902 Frank Carroll Longaker.

Loy, Matthias. „The Gospel Shows the Father’s Grace“. Lutheran Service Book. Copyright © 2006 Concordia Publishing House. 

Luther, Martin. Luther’s Works, Vol. 26:  Lectures on Galatians. Jaroslav Pelikan, Ed. Copyright © 1964 Concordia Publishing House. 

Luther, Martin. Luther’s Works, Vol. 27:  Lectures on Galatians. Jaroslav Pelikan, Ed. Copyright © 1964 Concordia Publishing House. 

1 capitalis, rotundus et perfectus

2 simul iustus et peccator. AE 26,232.