2nd Sunday after Pentecost 6/26/11 Romans 7:1-12
2nd Sunday after Pentecost (be sure and go over candles and prayer.)
Date: 6/29/11
Text: Romans 7:1-13
Title: Thank God Almighty We Are Free at Last!
On this Sunday the Sunday before July the fourth weekend, that day in when the people of this land declared themselves free from the rule of England I have titled my sermon, “Thank God Almighty We Are Free at Last.” While those words could have well been shouted out on that day, it was Martin Luther King Jr. who made them made them famous in his “I have a dream” speech on August 23, 1963 at our nation’s capitol.
“Thank God almighty we are free at last” has become a rallying cry for oppressed people not just in the United States, but all over the world who have achieved some measure of freedom, Christians, of all races, who truly believe and trust in Jesus and his saving work, can confidently proclaim “Thank God Almighty we are free at last!”
I say that because in the dying act of Jesus on that bloody cross so long ago, when he cried out, “It is finished” we received our freedom from the eternal condemnation of the Law of God. The lesson for this morning from Romans 7:1-12 declares that for us. It could well be titled, “Thank God Almighty we are free at last.”
Please turn to Romans 7:1-12 in your service folder, so that God can speak to you through Paul’s words, as he was inspired to write them down. This text, as are many of Paul’s texts is complicated. Complicated unless you understand the context in which it is written and then break down the text into smaller more understandable sections. I hope that, in the time that I have this morning, to present God’s words to you in such a way that you can clearly understand what God wants you to know about him and his will for you, for all of us.
Paul is writing to the Christians in Rome, many of which are Jews, but others have come from Pagan religions. What they all share is that they will not let go of the Ten Commandments as something they have to do to gain righteousness before God. Paul knows how dangerous that is to the Gospel message that a person is only made right before God by the grace of God, as shown in Jesus and his birth, life, death, and resurrection. The Gospel message of salvation has to stand on its own. Any addition to it, as pertains to our adding something to the work of Christ kills the salvation it brings to people.
Paul starts off with a straightforward example. He uses the example of a married woman. The Roman law stated that a woman could only remarry if her husband died. The law states that she becomes an adulteress if she remarries while her husband is alive. On the other hand if her husband dies the woman is free to marry again. Paul is not trying to teach a moral point here. He is using an example that even we today can easily grasp. Laws that are contracts and marriage laws are contracts between people are permanently broken at the death of one of the people. In this case the husband. Husband dies the law dies with the husband. So, we can all agree that the law, especially the marriage law only applies to the woman, as long as they are both alive. The husband dies he law is not in effect.
Now to understand what he has saying you have to mentally shift gears from physical laws to spiritual laws, for he next tells us that just like the marriage law does not apply to the woman anymore because her husband died the laws of God do not apply to the believer anymore, for someone has died. He is not saying that the people he is talking to have literally died, for they are reading his letter to them, or at least listening to it being read, but that Christ has died and the contract of the law that they and us are under before becoming Christians has no more power over them or us anymore.
You are no longer a slave to sin and Satan, but to God that you might do what God wants you to do; live your life under his leadership. Christ’s death has released you from the law. Notice that the law is not capitalized, for Paul is speaking of all law, both natural law and God’s law.
Then in the last half of verse six he references the written law which is the Ten Commandments. We who belong to Christ no longer have to do as the law commands, for we are free of its slavery. We, because of the grace of God now willingly, at least as much as we can in our sinful bodies, want to follow the law, for the law; the Torah in Hebrew means “instructions for living.” I might add that it means the good instructions for living.
Paul continues in verse seven as he asks the question, “Is the law sin?” or you could translate it, “Is the law something that need to be gotten rid of?” He answers his own question, “By no means!” Of course you don’t want to get rid of it, for the law is the only thing, as he writes later on that shows that a person is sinning, that is not living as God demands in his commandments.
He continues to show what he means by using an example of how the law has worked in him showing himself to be a sinner. He quotes what we would call the 9 and 10 commandments, “You shall not covet.” Coveting means to want something or someone that is not yours. It shows that a person is dissatisfied with what God has given them.
Without the commandment “You shall not covet” Paul says he would not have known that coveting was a sin. The law against coveting opened up his mind to know all kinds of coveting that he had not known before. He, because of the law actually thought of new things to covet.
That doesn’t seem to make sense that the law would do that does it? But that is how the law, particularly the Law of God works in our lives. Let me give you an example of how the law works in our lives. Let’s say you love chocolate. It is one of your favorite things in the whole world.
Then let’s say that there was a law stating that during Lent you cannot eat or even possess chocolate for six weeks. And if you follow the law you will be rewarded with weekend on the coast in a luxury condo. What takes place? I would wager that you would develop a hunger for chocolate that would be hard to stop. You would start noticing chocolate where you never noticed it before. You would smell chocolate where you never smelled it before. You would start counting off the days until you could eat and posses chocolate. You might even decide that the weekend at the condo was not even worth doing without chocolate. At the very least because of the law “Do not eat or possess chocolate” chocolate more than likely be constantly on your mind.
That my dear brothers and sisters is what Paul is talking about. The law, “Do not do (fill in the blank) and you will be rewarded” automatically focuses our mind on what we are not to do. Our sin then becomes alive and well, but as Paul points out when that happens we die in our relationship with God.
Is the law the problem? No Paul tells us the law because it comes from God is holy. Thus the commandment that Paul uses as an example, one of which we are all guilty, “You shall not covet” because it too comes from God is holy righteous and good.
You see the law and the commandment are given to us, so that we can know our sin. And in knowing our sin we can either turn our backs on God becoming hard-hearted, we can become so down on our sins that we take our own lives, or we can turn to Christ crying out him for mercy, as we do every Sunday morning in our worship service. Have mercy on me God, for I am indeed a poor miserable sinner who is still deserving of your wrath and condemnation. Have mercy Lord.
And God answers us with comforting and life giving words “Your sins are forgiven in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy spirit. Leave God’s holy house today knowing that you are his. Amen.
Date: 6/29/11
Text: Romans 7:1-13
Title: Thank God Almighty We Are Free at Last!
On this Sunday the Sunday before July the fourth weekend, that day in when the people of this land declared themselves free from the rule of England I have titled my sermon, “Thank God Almighty We Are Free at Last.” While those words could have well been shouted out on that day, it was Martin Luther King Jr. who made them made them famous in his “I have a dream” speech on August 23, 1963 at our nation’s capitol.
“Thank God almighty we are free at last” has become a rallying cry for oppressed people not just in the United States, but all over the world who have achieved some measure of freedom, Christians, of all races, who truly believe and trust in Jesus and his saving work, can confidently proclaim “Thank God Almighty we are free at last!”
I say that because in the dying act of Jesus on that bloody cross so long ago, when he cried out, “It is finished” we received our freedom from the eternal condemnation of the Law of God. The lesson for this morning from Romans 7:1-12 declares that for us. It could well be titled, “Thank God Almighty we are free at last.”
Please turn to Romans 7:1-12 in your service folder, so that God can speak to you through Paul’s words, as he was inspired to write them down. This text, as are many of Paul’s texts is complicated. Complicated unless you understand the context in which it is written and then break down the text into smaller more understandable sections. I hope that, in the time that I have this morning, to present God’s words to you in such a way that you can clearly understand what God wants you to know about him and his will for you, for all of us.
Paul is writing to the Christians in Rome, many of which are Jews, but others have come from Pagan religions. What they all share is that they will not let go of the Ten Commandments as something they have to do to gain righteousness before God. Paul knows how dangerous that is to the Gospel message that a person is only made right before God by the grace of God, as shown in Jesus and his birth, life, death, and resurrection. The Gospel message of salvation has to stand on its own. Any addition to it, as pertains to our adding something to the work of Christ kills the salvation it brings to people.
Paul starts off with a straightforward example. He uses the example of a married woman. The Roman law stated that a woman could only remarry if her husband died. The law states that she becomes an adulteress if she remarries while her husband is alive. On the other hand if her husband dies the woman is free to marry again. Paul is not trying to teach a moral point here. He is using an example that even we today can easily grasp. Laws that are contracts and marriage laws are contracts between people are permanently broken at the death of one of the people. In this case the husband. Husband dies the law dies with the husband. So, we can all agree that the law, especially the marriage law only applies to the woman, as long as they are both alive. The husband dies he law is not in effect.
Now to understand what he has saying you have to mentally shift gears from physical laws to spiritual laws, for he next tells us that just like the marriage law does not apply to the woman anymore because her husband died the laws of God do not apply to the believer anymore, for someone has died. He is not saying that the people he is talking to have literally died, for they are reading his letter to them, or at least listening to it being read, but that Christ has died and the contract of the law that they and us are under before becoming Christians has no more power over them or us anymore.
You are no longer a slave to sin and Satan, but to God that you might do what God wants you to do; live your life under his leadership. Christ’s death has released you from the law. Notice that the law is not capitalized, for Paul is speaking of all law, both natural law and God’s law.
Then in the last half of verse six he references the written law which is the Ten Commandments. We who belong to Christ no longer have to do as the law commands, for we are free of its slavery. We, because of the grace of God now willingly, at least as much as we can in our sinful bodies, want to follow the law, for the law; the Torah in Hebrew means “instructions for living.” I might add that it means the good instructions for living.
Paul continues in verse seven as he asks the question, “Is the law sin?” or you could translate it, “Is the law something that need to be gotten rid of?” He answers his own question, “By no means!” Of course you don’t want to get rid of it, for the law is the only thing, as he writes later on that shows that a person is sinning, that is not living as God demands in his commandments.
He continues to show what he means by using an example of how the law has worked in him showing himself to be a sinner. He quotes what we would call the 9 and 10 commandments, “You shall not covet.” Coveting means to want something or someone that is not yours. It shows that a person is dissatisfied with what God has given them.
Without the commandment “You shall not covet” Paul says he would not have known that coveting was a sin. The law against coveting opened up his mind to know all kinds of coveting that he had not known before. He, because of the law actually thought of new things to covet.
That doesn’t seem to make sense that the law would do that does it? But that is how the law, particularly the Law of God works in our lives. Let me give you an example of how the law works in our lives. Let’s say you love chocolate. It is one of your favorite things in the whole world.
Then let’s say that there was a law stating that during Lent you cannot eat or even possess chocolate for six weeks. And if you follow the law you will be rewarded with weekend on the coast in a luxury condo. What takes place? I would wager that you would develop a hunger for chocolate that would be hard to stop. You would start noticing chocolate where you never noticed it before. You would smell chocolate where you never smelled it before. You would start counting off the days until you could eat and posses chocolate. You might even decide that the weekend at the condo was not even worth doing without chocolate. At the very least because of the law “Do not eat or possess chocolate” chocolate more than likely be constantly on your mind.
That my dear brothers and sisters is what Paul is talking about. The law, “Do not do (fill in the blank) and you will be rewarded” automatically focuses our mind on what we are not to do. Our sin then becomes alive and well, but as Paul points out when that happens we die in our relationship with God.
Is the law the problem? No Paul tells us the law because it comes from God is holy. Thus the commandment that Paul uses as an example, one of which we are all guilty, “You shall not covet” because it too comes from God is holy righteous and good.
You see the law and the commandment are given to us, so that we can know our sin. And in knowing our sin we can either turn our backs on God becoming hard-hearted, we can become so down on our sins that we take our own lives, or we can turn to Christ crying out him for mercy, as we do every Sunday morning in our worship service. Have mercy on me God, for I am indeed a poor miserable sinner who is still deserving of your wrath and condemnation. Have mercy Lord.
And God answers us with comforting and life giving words “Your sins are forgiven in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy spirit. Leave God’s holy house today knowing that you are his. Amen.
posted by Pastor Rhoads | 3:26 PM
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