Wretched man that I am! Who will save me from this body of death?
Father, what we know not, teach us; and what we have not, give us; and what we are not make us. For the sake of your Son, Jesus in whose Name we pray. Amen.
A very devout woman who posted comedic skits on FB to
convey a clear Bible doctrine, would in a sobering post declare that she was a
saved and born again Christian, and since her baptism, she was no longer a
sinner. Friends, she is not the only one who has been taught this untruth.
Jesus’ blood cleanses us of our sin guilt – all of the sins we have
committed - so we’re no longer guilty
before Holy God. At the very nanosecond following our cleansing, God’s Holy
Spirit comes into us giving us new life in Christ; He regenerates us so that we
are no longer spiritually dead before God, but rather raised to new life in
Christ. *So we have all of this going for us, right? You got the blood that
cleanses us. We have had our sin guilt removed. And the Holy Spirit God comes
to live in us to begin the work of sanctification, which is a big word
that means being transformed into the image of Christ, and the Father puts
Christ’s righteousness into us so when He looks on us He sees Christ. So we got
all this going for us. Why do we still sin? Why do we still mess up? Before we
answer that question, let's identify God's definition of sin – anybody knows
that? It's a very simple answer. God's definition of sin is breaking the law: it's as simple as that.
Let’s look to the Bible for confirmation. In James 2:1-10
the Spirit speaks about loving one’s neighbor – a law, and the different
ways that law could be broken. He says that if you claimed to keep the whole
law, but chose to ignore one of them, you have broken all of the law. From a practical viewpoint: So if the
community ordinances say to pick up after your dog when he relieves himself and
you choose not to, you have broken the law, you have sinned. If God says do not
lie, and you try to work around that by painting it white to make it a “little
white lie” – “it’s just a little lie”-no one needs to know right? ha! God knows - you have
broken His law, you have sinned. If the speed limit says 25 and you are doing 45 because you’re late, you have broken the law and potentially placed someone
else in danger because of your poor choice; you have sinned.
So the question comes again. Why do we still sin? Because we choose to. But the overarching reason is that we still retain the falleness of humanity from Adam's act of sin. Paul, in his letter in Romans 7, transparently confesses that he is of the flesh – that is, the remaining fallen humanity is still in him – still in us. Never once does he say that the devil made him do it!…This is Paul, the super apostle, telling us he was still a sinner! Like him, we cannot free ourselves from our falleness. Although we have been converted, we have not been relieved of our fallen humanity. The converted side of our being wants to honor the Lord, to obey Him, express our devotion to Him, but sin dwells still in us. We are a new creation, a new life, have new longings and new aspirations, new impulses - that are incarcerated in redeemed humanity. Working toward all that is right, good, and holy is a challenge because it has to penetrate through our fallen humanity and our humanity must war against that. Paul is in anguish; he cries out for rescue from this body of death!
What is the body of death Paul is referring to?
Some suggest it is the fallen humanity; another view is based on a judgment practice
in ancient times for one who has murdered another. The murderer is forced to
have the dead body – the corpse of the person murdered -- strapped to his back to
die a slow death because the decaying body would infest the healthy body and
eat him to death. Paul saw the presence of his fallen humanity as a corpse strapped to
him – that’s why he cries out – wretched man that I am! Who will free me from this body of death!!?? Paul
concludes as we all should conclude: Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our
Lord! Amen? So in God’s grace we must battle
continuously with the sinful fallen humanity per Philippians 2:12-13 – working out
with the Holy Spirit our salvation (this is not working for our salvation, this is once we are saved working in tandem with the Holy Spirit's guidance and counsel), removing the old self and putting on the
new, following the Spirit’s lead in our transformation - walking that path that
He has designed for us.
So, we come back to the whole “am I still a sinner after being saved” question. 1 John 1 clearly answers that question. After affirming God’s salvation plan in Christ, John speaks to the churchgoers at verses 5 to 10 where he clarifies that we still sin after we are saved. He says if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us; we make Christ a liar and God’s word is not in us. But - in good news there is always a "But God": If we confess our sins, He who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and His blood continues to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Does our sinful nature – our fallen humanity that we
still carry in us and the battle we daily wage against our flesh, our fallen humanity -- does it make us weary and tired (it certainly makes me tired!), does it make us feel heavy laden? What does Jesus tell us in our Gospel
lesson today? Yes, Come to Me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I willgive your rest. That rest is a place in our relationship with Jesus where we
can experience His peace and His joy, His rest - even in the battle.
All of us can point to an act of sin or law breaking that we have done since our salvation – we all have whether we accept it or not. Jeremiah 17 says "The heart is devious above all else; it is perverse, so who can understand it?" (often in the Bible the reference to "heart" is not speaking about our physical hearts but, rather, the center of our desires and wills). We must repent and seek God’s forgiveness. One of the more devastating things we do in our fallen humanity is hold onto anger with a death-grip, which becomes bitterness over time to the point where it poisons our relationships with each other, and alienates us from God. It becomes an idol. We choose not to forgive others, Jesus says, then God will not forgive us. We can try to cite our reasons for being bitter – because so and so did this or that, and God just looks at us and asks us do you want me to put the shoe on the other foot? Do you want Me to remember all of your sins and choose not to forgive you?
In His love and omniscience, God will choose the proper discipline for
each of us; discipline - in this instance - being a disciple or one who is learning to live a certain way, a way that focuses on Jesus. God may allow us to feel the consequences of our wrongdoing, giving
us a reckoning that we are not progressing in our thinking and doing - showing indications of a maturing faith. He trains
us to confess and repent, teaches us the proper fear of the Lord so that we can
be forgiven. Isn’t that good news? We are sinners who repent and God forgives us without any condemnation! That we will sin isn’t good news but God’s
provision for addressing that is! One of God’s promises is to discipline us in
the way He has designed for us; we mess up, commit a sin because our fallen
wills and desires that stem from the mind and heart cause us to trip up. Friends: God
loves us too much to let us live in a lie. Hebrews 12:6 tells us He will
discipline us; again, discipline doesn't mean beating us over the head with a 2 by 4,
even though I make a joke about that sometimes. It is a training in
righteousness and godliness. The Spirit uses the instrument of grace – God’s
word – to train us. Disciplining may also mean that He sometimes will allow
things to happen as a result of our choices influenced by our fallen hearts or
wills. He will allow us to feel the consequences of that error so that we may
realize we must continue to obey Him even when we don’t want to. Yes, you heard
me right – even when we don’t want to. That’s called faith and trust that God’s
way is the only way through this battle. And this is true for any Christian who’s
born of God. And so when we choose to do it our way instead of God's way, we
will suffer the consequences, but God does not condemn us because we who are
saved are continually cleansed by the blood of Christ, and restored to the path
of righteousness.
So I am going to cite some scriptures that urge us to
seek God’s mercy, advises us how to protect ourselves from the world, the
flesh, the devil – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride in riches. Part of the godliness training is our accepting & wearing our
spiritual armor that God has provided us for defensive and offensive purposes. In
Ephesians 6:10-18 the Spirit directs us in putting the armor on; we are
fighting spiritual battles so spiritual armor is a necessity. Every day God wakes us up we must put on that armor. Every vulnerable
part of our faith walk is to be protected, lest we get lured back into sin. The parts of this spiritual armor are: the breastplate of righteousness, shield of faith, truth girded about our loins,
feet ready to share the good news, helmet of salvation, sword of the Spirit,
and praying in the Spirit – the last two items being critical to the
effectiveness of the rest of the armor. We
cannot do this apart from the Holy Spirit and God’s Word. If you think that you
can be transformed and protected in your walk without God’s Word and His Holy
Spirit, then you have been deceived in a mortal way. Because we cannot. Peter tells us,in his first letter 5:8-9, that the devil walks about like a roaring lion,
seeking to devour someone. Who is he looking to devour? Not the people he
already has in his control. He's looking to devour us. Those who have been
chosen by God. Because he does not want to see us have that victory that
Zechariah talks about in our first lesson where we are rejoicing in God. The devil does not want us to rejoice in God: he wants us to hate God as much as he does. As we
commit to the effort of the Spirit’s work in us, we will see ourselves
beginning to mature to the extent that our sin acts begin to dwindle.
In addition to armor, we have an advocate in this struggle: 1 John 2 identifies our intercessor as none other than our high Priest Jesus Christ, who continually intercedes for us. Also see Romans 8:34. As we wrap up I want to refer you to a small handful of scriptures about what else God provides for us in our battle: His amazing love and mercy. While we don’t have the time today to read them through I'll give you the cite and you can check your Bible or BibleGateway and search forgiveness of sins – long list of scriptures! The scriptures I will share are just a glimpse of what God is doing. This instrument of grace that He gives us is powerful. But do not abuse God’s grace by sinning on purpose. You open yourself up to the devil. Jot these down: Psalm 32:1,3,5,11. Psalm 103:11-14; Isaiah 44:21-22. They all confirm to us God’s mercy and love in the act of forgiveness of our sins, blotting out our mess-ups, intentional or unintentional. Remember, though, not to take God’s grace in vain like Israel did; the Old Testament is filled with accounts of their sin which led to their utter destruction. An even closer to home example: last summer we began praying as a church for the church without a script seeking God’s face, direction, grace and mercy and His provisions. Each week I looked forward to the prayer group growing; however, each week the prayer group lost a member, until after a month of that we were down to 3, sometimes 4 people. And then, it ceased altogether. Shortly thereafter, a brick gets thrown at the upstairs kitchen window, and through the window in our sanctuary. Not too long after that, a brick is hurled at the front door and then thrown through a sanctuary window. Then the man goes around to the chapel window, kicks it in, and once inside he trashes the chapel. A coincidence – I think not. God’s ways and discipline are sometimes to allow the negative in order to produce the positive in us. Do not abuse God’s grace, but rather rejoice that He has loved you and I before we were a little twinkle in our daddy's eye - from before the beginning of time, that He has given us everything we need to fulfill our calling. That He extends us mercy and grace – things we do not deserve in the least bit. Friends - Is God good to us? Can we praise Him again for all He has done and is doing for us individually and what He desires to do for St. Christopher’s to keep our hearts open and our church doors open. Let’s end with the 1st verse and Refrain we sang at the beginning of the service and Rejoice– Amen? Waving our scarves lifting our hands: let’s give Him praise and honor - maestro.
ENDING –
Brothers and Sisters – In all our battles, may we cling to the Rock who is
Christ as we move thru battle against the world, the flesh, the devil, the lust
of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of riches, so that when we
are finished with this life and this body of death, our reward will be total
bliss, no more tears, only complete joy to the glory of God. Amen?
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