Sermon Text: Romans 8:1-4 #823 – Third Sunday in Lent
March 4, 2018
Now This is The Life! Have you ever found yourself thinking to yourself, “now this is the life!”? Perhaps you were on vacation, the weather was perfect, you’re sitting back and relaxing, cold drink in your hand, toes in the sand, everything in your world seemed right at the time. Or maybe you had one of those days where everything just seemed to go right for you, everything came together . . . it was a good hair day, you received a raise and some praise at work, your kids or spouse came home with good news, and to top the day off you had your favorite meal for dinner. Or perhaps it was at a family gathering – Thanksgiving or Christmas – especially, now, I’m talking about those with grandkids and maybe even great-grandkids. The whole family was together. You’d spent the whole day together; the food; the conversation; the games. At some point as everyone’s enjoying each other’s company, you look around the room and think to yourself, “God’s been good to me. This is the life!” I’m here to assure you this morning that while those type of days may be rare, that your entire existence – your whole life - can be viewed and characterized in those terms. Because we live in Christ Jesus through faith in him, we are living the good life each and every day. We live every day under the law or the principle of Spirit-given life . . . and this life is good, very good! These four short verses from Romans chapter 8 are powerful, powerful words. And I pray that they have or come to mean as much to you as they do to me. This life that we enjoy through our relationship with Jesus Christ by faith is truly the life . . . the good life! There are two basic facts about this life that we have which the apostle Paul spells out in our lesson that can be summarized with the famous axiom: To err is human; but to forgive is Divine. Everyone knows that to err is human. We’ve all been human long enough ourselves and dealt with enough other humans to know this all too well. A common excuse for the sins we commit and the mistakes we make is: “Come on! What do you expect? I’m only human.” What’s that supposed to mean? Why’s that an excuse? Well, it’s not an excuse! But it is an explanation. Why do we sin? Because we are sinful human beings. We are all born into this world with a sinful nature. And that sinful nature, Paul was inspired to write just a few verses after our lesson, “is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so” (vs. 7). That not only explains why we sin; it also explains why we all naturally are and eternally deserve to live out our existence under what our lesson calls “the law of sin and death.” Here the word law does not refer to God’s commands. Here the word law refers to a principle or a rule that is always in effect. Like a law of science, for example. The law of gravity always applies to us as long as we are here in the sphere of earth’s atmosphere. You won’t start floating or flying off anytime. The law of gravity always applies to you and to everyone here on planet Earth. So also does the law of sin and death. It applies to every human being from the moment they’re conceived and born into this world. As human beings we by nature are controlled by our sinful nature. And Paul goes on to say, “Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God” (vs.8). Sin isn’t just what we do; it’s what we are by nature. To err is human. That’s a law, a fact you can count on. Your children will sin against you; count on it. Your spouse will sin against you; count on it. Your friends will sin against you; and you will sin against each and all of them. And each of those sins is an offense to God. An offense that deserves God’s wrath and punishment. An offense that deserves death and hell.
That, by the way, is the law of sin and death. Simply put that law goes like this: you sin, you die. “The wages of sin is death,” the Bible declares. “The soul who sins is the one who will die,” it adds. And apart from God’s grace in Jesus, that’s the cycle that would have repeated itself endlessly over and over and over again – generation after generation. A person is born into sin; you sin countless times over the course of a lifetime; and you die – forever separated from God in hell. But here’s the beauty of the gospel, the whole point of the Bible: we have new life in Christ! Why? How? Listen to how our lesson explains this life we have in Christ! In the chapter immediately prior to our lesson, the apostle Paul spoke very openly and honestly about the struggle he had, and we all have, with our sinful natures. How it makes it difficult, impossible really, to do the good things we want to do. And the bad things we want to stay away from, we find far too often we keep doing. “What a wretched man I am!” Paul confessed. “Who will rescue me from this body of death?!” But then his next words are: “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our God!” Why? Because, as Paul is inspired to write now in our lesson: “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death” (vss.1-2). Because the Holy Spirit has called us to saving faith in Jesus (which we’ve heard so beautifully explained the last couple Sundays) we live every moment of every day of our lives since “in Christ Jesus.” That little prepositional phrase “in” means to be in the sphere of something. Inside a room or a bubble, so to speak. An invisible bubble that envelops you and goes with you wherever you go. Through faith in Jesus, we are always “in Christ Jesus.” And here “in Christ Jesus” “there is now no condemnation” for us. Even though we are sinners, who unfortunately will continue to sin far too many times each and every day we live here on earth, at the same time here in Christ Jesus we are immune to the condemnation we deserve because of these sins. We live under a new law, a new principle . . . the law or the principle of the Holy Spirit who has given us life instead of death; the Holy Spirit who through faith has set us free from the law of sin and death. How can this be? First, our lesson explains, it’s not because of what we have done or ever can do. It’s not because of what God’s law, his commands, and our obedience of them can ever do. Paul writes that “the law was powerless to do [this] because it was weakened by the flesh,” weakened by our sinful natures. You see, God’s law, in theory, could get us to heaven. Referring to the law of God, Jesus himself even once said, “Do this and you will live.” In theory, if we could keep God’s law perfectly and be holy like God we could have a relationship with God and one day be invited to live with him in heaven. The problem is not with the law of God. God’s law is good; it’s perfect. The problem is that we are not. And since getting to heaven and having life with God depends on us keeping God’s law, “the law was powerless to do [this] because it was weakened by the flesh,” our sinful flesh. God’s law says, “Do these things. Do them perfectly. And continue to do them perfectly.” But because to err is human, we can’t and we don’t. But God in his grace sent Jesus to be our Savior. “For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering” (vs.3). Because we couldn’t do it, no matter how many times God issued and reissued and reissued his law, God decided in his amazing love for us to do it for us. He did this by sending Jesus into the world as a human being himself . . . “in the likeness of
sinful flesh.” That does not mean that Jesus was a sinner like us, but that (as the book of Hebrews says) “he was like us in every way, except that he was without sin.” Jesus offered up his perfect, holy self on the cross as, what our lesson refers to as, “a sin offering.” Sin needed to be punished. The punishment was death, separation from God. Jesus suffered that for us in our place. Justice needed to be done; the law required that sin be condemned. “And so,” our lesson says, by means of Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross as our Savior, God “condemned sin in the flesh [in the flesh of Jesus], in order that the righteous requirement of the law be fully met in us.” In other words, through the perfect life and the substitutionary death of Jesus, the requirement of the law – that we be righteous and holy – has been completely accomplished for us – by Jesus as our substitute. Simply put, to forgive is Divine. God forgives us our sins for Jesus’ sake. He does not hold them against us. As the psalmist says, he does not treat us as our sins deserve. This is the sphere we live in every moment of every day of our lives as Christians. This is the life we enjoy, the life principle we live under. Every day we are considered holy by God; loved by God; cared for by God; listened to by God; provided for by God; having all things worked out for us for our good by God. Now this is the life! There is a specially designed plan NASA uses to train astronauts which flies within the earth’s atmosphere, but which for a few moments as it freefalls toward earth allows the astronauts to experience weightlessness. For a few minutes within the shell or sphere of that plane it’s as if those men and women are free of the law of gravity. You and I live our lives everyday in the sphere of Christ. And here, although we are still sinful human beings living in a sinful world, constantly surrounded by the law of sin and death, we ourselves are free from the law of sin and death. We live under the law of life – Spirit-given life . . . eternal life with God through Jesus Christ. Practically speaking, what does all of this mean? It means that you probably spend more time feeling guilty for your sins than you need to. It means that you spend more time doubting God’s love than you need to. It means that you worry and stress and fear far more too many things in your life than you need to. That’s the way those who live under the principle of sin and death live. And to the degree that we forget God’s gracious saving plan, to the degree that our faith doesn’t fully grasp this new life that is ours in Jesus, we too have our worries, our fears, our doubts, our guilt. But I’m here this morning to assure you that you don’t need to live this way. Yes, to err is human . . . and we’re all too familiar with that. And when we’re reminded of this again by our sin, we need to confess that sin to God. But remember: to forgive is Divine . . . to forgive is what our God does . . . all the time for us who are in Christ Jesus. By his Holy Spirit, he’s set us free from the law of sin and death and placed us under the influence of a new law, a new principle . . . the law of life. Life with God! Eternal life! Now this is the life! Amen.