Sermon Notes 9/30. “Bound for Glory” Romans 8:18-27

Let’s imagine being in a situation where we’re eagerly waiting for somebody to bring us something really good. You know the holidays are coming up pretty soon – before you know it Halloween will be here and then Thanksgiving and then Christmas and then the pinnacle of it all: that great American holiday Super Bowl Sunday.

I remember when I was a kid about this time of year I would start to get anxious about Christmas. My dad had a kind of a weird sense of humor and every year we would go through a ritual of expectation management. It would start with my dad solemnly announcing that we were broke and there wasn’t going to be any Christmas this year. There would be no presents. He would keep this up over the weeks and days leading up to Christmas, and then on Christmas Eve there would be one final push to convince us all that there would be no presents. And then all of a sudden we would find a pile of presents under the tree and we would go through the whole ritual of eagerly ripping open gifts and feeling the excitement of having a lot of new things. Granted, probably very few of these things had much very much value, we were not a wealthy family, but what was missed in quality was made up for in quantity.

Of course this puts forward a vision of Christmas that is essentially materialistic. I’m sure that now I don’t approve of that outlook, in fact I am repelled by it; opposed to it. Because, as you will find as we get closer to it I am sure, I believe that what our material culture celebrates as “Christmas” in fact has almost nothing to do with the gift of God in Jesus Christ. But you can imagine that this whole scenario I just painted for you would lead to a lot of anxiety in us kids. Not that we ever believed there would be no presents. None of us ever thought for a moment that he would actually go through with his threat. We had history as our guide. There always were presents. But we were anxious because of eager expectation. We couldn’t wait for Christmas to come so that we could dig into that pile of toys.

Can you imagine what that feels like? That eager expectation? Have you ever felt like that?

In today’s reading in Romans the apostle Paul brings up that idea in terms of the whole of creation eagerly awaiting something. Let’s go ahead and read the passage and then we’ll look at how Paul uses this idea.

¹⁸ I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. ¹⁹ For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. ²⁰ For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope ²¹ that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

²² We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. ²³ Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. ²⁴ For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? ²⁵ But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

²⁶ In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. ²⁷ And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. (Romans 8:18-27 NIV).

Expecting

Now let’s look at verse 19 where Paul writes “For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed” That phrase “waits in eager expectation” is one word in the Greek: apokaradokia. Apokaradokia. Let’s say it together: “apo-kara-dokia.” It is a compound word that literally means to lift the head and look into the distance. Like standing on tippy toes and looking for something to be coming. To look anxiously for something good to come into view. Like waiting for Christmas.

But in this passage Paul is telling us that the creation has been doing this. Eagerly expecting … something? What? Verse 20 tells us that the creation is eagerly waiting to be “liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.” (Romans 8:21 NIV) What does this mean?

Groaning

Now we have to consider this within the context of the overall argument of Paul’s letter to the Romans up to this point. We will recall that the first three chapters of Romans essentially laid out the dilemma of both the Jewish and the Gentile Christians in the Roman Church. The dilemma was that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). No one is able to live in right relationship with God because of sin, and therefore all are subject to God’s wrath. What is God’s wrath? It’s not God up in heaven throwing rocks at us, it is God letting us do as we please, and suffer the destructive consequences of that. The consequences are corruption and death. What does Paul say in today’s scripture? “Frustration.” “Bondage to decay.” All of this as the result of the sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

What we have not yet considered but nevertheless follows naturally is the idea that not only was mankind corrupted by that sin; all of creation was made subject to frustration and decay. In God’s judgment on that sin we read in Genesis Chapter 3,

And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field.’ (Genesis 3:17-18 ESV).

So Paul talks about groaning. He says that all of creation has been groaning under the weight of that sin. We see that creation became corrupted between the Garden where God’s first children could have whatever they needed without effort, to the exile where man has to work hard to eke out an existence from the hard ground under the big hard sun. Even worse than that, we see that as mankind became more efficient at extracting resources from the earth there reached a tipping point where now instead of man using the earth for sustenance and caring for the earth as stewards of God’s creation, mankind is destroying the earth out of his own carelessness and greed.

This is kind of a little detour from my main point but relevant nonetheless as an example of how creation groans under the weight of mankind’s sin. How many of you have heard of the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch?” It is an enormous area of the Pacific Ocean where the garbage that is allowed to go out to sea has gathered. You can see here in this picture how large it is and it’s approximate location.

This is what it looks like. It is a huge deposit particularly of plastic waste. Plastic doesn’t biodegrade quickly, so it just floats around in the middle of the ocean. But it’s not harmless. Because it is shiny and colorful it is attractive to birds and other sea life. Often birds will try to feed it to their children.

So aside from being ugly, it’s destructive. And of course this flies in the face of God’s command to mankind to be stewards of the earth. So here I think we see a pretty effective illustration of creation groaning under the weight of mankind’s sin. If you were under this kind of stress and you knew there was relief coming, you would be on your tippy toes waiting for it, wouldn’t you?

Paul says that we also groan under the weight of sin. It doesn’t take much insight to realize this is true. Think about the last time you did something you knew you were not supposed to do. Even if you didn’t get caught, it weighed you down, didn’t it? Sin puts a shadow on your heart. If we did something and got away with it we might feel a sense of relief at getting away with it. But deeper than that there will be the weight of guilt. And if we do get caught, then all of that weight comes into sharp focus. And don’t tell me you don’t know what it feels like to groan under that weight. Again, when you are weighted down by guilt, if you knew that relief was coming, you would be on your toes eagerly searching for it. You couldn’t wait for it to get here.

And finally Paul says that the Spirit also groans. So there’s a lot of groaning going on. But the Spirit’s groaning is different from the creation’s groaning, and ours. Our groaning is suffering under the weight of sin; the Spirit’s groaning is lifting us up out of our sin to give us the ability to conform to God’s will. Paul writes that the Spirit helps us, and that the Spirit intercedes for us. These are two different things, so we’re going to spend a little time thinking about each: helping, and interceding.

Helping

Here’s another fun word that Paul uses. In verse 26 Paul writes that “the Spirit helps us in our weakness.” But the word in the original Greek is συναντιλαμβάνεται (sun-anti-lambanetai). Let’s say it. “Soon – anti – lambanetai.” This is another compound word that when you take it apart has the meaning of someone coming along with us and working with us to carry a weight. So when we think of the Spirit helping us, we might think of the Spirit working side by side with us. But it’s really more intimate than that. It’s more like the Spirit filling us up and giving us power. In a way we can imagine ourselves as machines that are empty of fuel, and so stuck, or dead. “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked…” Paul tells us elsewhere. (Ephesians 2:1-2 ESV). The Spirit is the fuel that we are filled with that allows us to move again. He is the life that allows us to live again.

Now, please be patient with me as I try to connect this with the bigger story of salvation. Big picture. God has a plan to bring the creation back into right relationship with himself. He starts with Abraham and tells Abraham that he will bless all of the peoples of the earth through him. The promise of restoration is through Abraham’s chosen heir. This is first Isaac, and then Jacob (Israel), and then through his twelve sons, from which we get the Twelve Tribes of Israel. The descendants of the twelve sons (the Patriarchs), find refuge in Egypt, but eventually become enslaved there, and groan for relief.

It is Moses who is chosen to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt, but it is not by the power of Moses that the Israelites are able to escape Pharaoh’s armies, but by God’s power. You will recall that the Israelites were led by a pillar of fire, which we understand is the Lord God Almighty himself.

After the escape from Egypt, the pillar of fire leads the people through the desert of Sinai. God gives Moses the Ten Commandments and the Law, and the people entered into covenant with the Lord. A covenant is a deal. In this case, the deal was that the Israelites agreed to live out the law and in return they would be blessed in the land of promise.

So the Israelites thought of themselves as and were God’s chosen people. But we must never forget what they were chosen for. They were never chosen just so that they could be blessed, they were blessed so that they could be “a light to the nations.” (Is. 49:6). By living the law, they would present such a compelling picture of the characteristics of God, righteousness, justice, and love, that they would draw all people of all nations to Him. And thus God’s promise to Abraham would be fulfilled. All nations would be blessed through him.

Now, it was never expected that the people of Israel would be able to accomplish this restoration by themselves. Even as the Israelites wandered in the desert waiting to be led to the Promised Land, God gave them instructions for building the Tabernacle that would give him a place to live in the midst of his people. So you can see in this illustration a model of what the tabernacle would have looked like based on the descriptions found in the Book of Exodus.

You can see that God has created a place for himself where he could live in the midst of his people and not be defiled buy the sin of the people in the Holy of Holies. The Holy of Holies was a place that only the High Priest could enter, and only once a year. And, interestingly, when the High Priest entered the Holy of Holies he had a rope tied to his ankle. This was in case he died while in there, he could be pulled out by the rope, because no one else was allowed to go in.

So God remained untouchable, out of the reach of people because of the sins of the people. God said to Moses, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” (Exodus 33:20 ESV) And yet God still wanted to live in the midst of his people and to guide his people. So he had to erect a barrier. Still, you can see that God’s plan was to be in the midst of his people. Emmanuel: “God with us.”

The temple in Jerusalem built by Solomon had essentially the same layout as the tabernacle. So you can see in this illustration that the floor plan for Solomon’s temple contained a place called the Holy of Holies which was where God’s presence was. The curtain between the Holy Place and the Most Holy place was the barrier between man and God created by sin.

In the book of Matthew we read the death of Jesus on the cross recorded this way, “And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom….” (Matthew 27:50-51 ESV) That curtain was the curtain that guarded the Holy of Holies, signifying that the sin of man had been paid for by the death of Jesus and there was no longer a barrier between man and God.

Now we need to be really clear that the Holy of Holies was not just symbolic. God’s presence actually was in the tabernacle and the temple. We read in Exodus where God’s glory enters the Holy of Holies at the dedication of the tabernacle, and we read in 2 Kings where God’s glory enters the Holy of Holies in the temple. God does not want to live symbolically in the midst of his people. He wants to live physically in the midst of his people. He wants to live with us in history.

Well, we all know that the Israelites did enter the Promised Land but that they never were able to live up to the covenant. From the very beginning it was impossible to tell the difference between the so-called chosen people and the pagans who surrounded them. And eventually, after sending a number of prophets to warn them, God revoked the covenant, scattered the people of Israel, sacked Jerusalem, destroyed the temple, and sent the people of Judah into exile in Babylon. The people were eventually able to return and rebuild the temple, but there is no record of God’s glory entering the new temple. In the book of the prophet Ezekiel we see the glory leaving the temple that was destroyed, but we never see the glory of God returning to the new temple in the Old Testament, either the one that was rebuilt, or the expanded and completely remodeled temple of Jesus’ day.

When do we see the glory of God returning? Does God no longer want to live with his people? The answer is that God yearns to be with us so much that he himself came to do what we could not do in the person of Jesus Christ. When we hear of Jesus walking the earth as God incarnate (in the flesh), we are hearing of God living in the midst of his people, elbow to elbow, as he has always wanted to do; as he did in the Garden of Eden, in the tabernacle, in the temple, and now in the person of Jesus Christ.

That’s mind blowing. That the creator of the universe wants to hang out with a bunch of misfits like us. But here’s something even more mind-blowing than that. In the gospel according to John, as Jesus is telling his disciples that he’s about to be killed, he tells them that this is actually to their advantage. He says, “But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.” (John 16:7) Jesus is talking about the Holy Spirit, sometimes called the Paraclete. In some translations it’s Advocate, like, here, in others it’s “helper.” But the Greek word is another compound word παράκλητος consisting of two words: para, which means alongside, and kaleo, which means called. Called alongside. The Holy Spirit is the one who is called alongside, to help and guide us.

Now let’s look at Acts chapter two at an event that we call Pentecost. It’s after the crucifixion and the resurrection and Jesus has returned to heaven and told his followers to wait. So they’re sitting around in a room in Jerusalem filled with fear and agony, groaning, you might say, and then all of a sudden this happens:

² Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. ³ They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. ⁴ All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues ^x as the Spirit enabled them. (Acts 2:2-4 NIV).

This, my friends, is the glory of God returning to the temple. Only now the temple is not a tent in the desert or a building in Jerusalem, it’s the followers of Jesus. And everyone who is baptized into Jesus receives the Holy Spirit. It may not seem as dramatic as the account we read in Acts, but it has the same dramatic effect. And that is exactly what Paul is writing about when he writes “the Spirit helps us in our weakness.” (Ro. 8:26 NIV). συναντιλαμβάνομαι (sun-anti-lambanomai). Someone coming along with us and working with us to carry a weight. What weight? The weight of bringing the world to glory. Because now we are God’s chosen people.

Interceding

Before we became followers of Jesus, we were dead in our sins, and we did not have the power even to live, let alone to live for God’s glory. But, being baptized, we have received the Holy Spirit, and now we have power. And beyond that, we have direction. That’s the last thing that Paul writes about in this section. He says that the Spirit intercedes for us so that we, who don’t even know what to pray for, will offer prayers that are in accordance with the will of God.

Now this is a big topic, and we’re not going to be able to cover it all today, but we have to ask, what is the will of God? I think each of us will have to experience that in a different way. In other words I think that God’s will is expressed differently in each of our lives according to our own characteristics and inclinations.

But I know that God has a plan for his Church and he has made that plan very clear. God wants his Church, which is his physical presence on earth, to demonstrate his characteristics, which I think can at least begin to be summed up in the concepts righteousness, justice, and love, and to be coworkers with him in bringing about the restoration of creation. This is God’s will: that all of creation will be restored to right relationship with him. That all of the sin and errors and suffering and tragedy of the past will all be forgotten in the new reign of glory.

We have a lot of work to do. If you want to know how much, think of the last time you watched the news on TV and compare what you saw to God’s vision for his kingdom. This is one bit of scripture that I really love so I hope you don’t get tired of hearing it because you are likely to hear it a lot. It is near the end of the book of Revelation and it describes the consummation of God’s kingdom on earth, the completion of his plan for restoration:

21 Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,”  for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. ² I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. ³ And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ⁴ ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

⁵ He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” (Rev. 21:1-5 NIV)

So the Holy Spirit gives us the power to move, and then, if we allow him, moves us in this direction. If someone looks at your life, is this what they see? Do they see you acting against cultural norms and worldly instincts and in accordance with the character of God? When people look at you, do they see someone whose behavior does not conform to the self-centered materialism of our age? Do they see someone who stands up for justice even when it’s not popular to do it, even when it’s hard to do, even when it costs? Do they see someone who is willing to sacrifice themselves for the welfare of others, even those who hate them? These are the signs of life in the Spirit. This is what the world ought to see when it sees the Church, the body of Jesus Christ.

None of us are expected to be perfect at this all of the time. But all of us are expected to move in this direction. If you think that you are having trouble doing this let me offer an experiment that you might try to help you cooperate with the Holy Spirit. For the next few days, spend five or ten minutes every morning praying the Lord ’s Prayer. It is located in Matthew Chapter 6 verses 9-13. Don’t just say the words over and over; consider what each phrase means. Think about what you are actually praying for. See if that doesn’t have some impact on the way you go about your day-to-day life. See if it doesn’t help you to move your own concerns aside in favor of what God wants for you and for all of us. See if it doesn’t help you to “let go and let God,” in the person of the Holy Spirit.

Let us close by reciting the Lord’s Prayer.

Sermon Notes 9/16, “By This All People Will Know…” (Mt. 5:43-48)

How many of you guys remember 9/11? Some of you were not born yet and some of you were babies, but for those of us who are older, this has to be one of the most shocking memories. I remember I was sitting at my desk at Hewlett-Packard really early on that morning and I saw a headline on the computer screen that an airplane had crashed into the World Trade Center. I didn’t think much of it but noticed that right after that it was impossible to get more information on the Internet. All of the news sites were jammed. Then a while later I got a really panicked phone call where the person who called said, “The World Trade Center has collapsed!” My first reaction was, “No it didn’t.” But as the day went on I realized that it had. And then I realized the magnitude of what had happened. Like everyone else, I was in shock.

It wasn’t long before shock turned to anger. It’s an odd thing that in our age of instant communication it is possible for the media to generate a mob mentality in millions of people across vast distances. Really the whole country was caught up in a wave of emotion: patriotism mixed with defiance. We started to see cartoons like this one and there was a feeling that we needed to retaliate. That we needed to “get someone,” even though we didn’t know who. A lot of people invoked the memory of Pearl Harbor, when the United States’ fleet was attacked by the Japanese Navy. But the problem was that this was different. The world had changed in the sixty years that separated the two events. Our new enemy was not a country, had no geographical location. We could not attack their nation because they didn’t have a nation. But still, there was this deep need to strike back.

America did eventually strike back. But, unlike after the Pearl Harbor attack, the results are ambiguous. There is no clear cut victory, no Victory day. The cycle of violence continues, with no end in sight. This past week there were ceremonies and remembrances to recall the tragedy and honor those who were lost. We are admonished to “Never forget.” And we don’t. But neither do those who count themselves as our enemies. At the same time we were recalling one tragedy, another one unfolded in the Middle East over perceived insults to Islam. Muslims throughout the world have also been told to “never forget.” And they don’t, either.

The result is an unending cycle of violence. Every atrocity calls for a response. Every response invokes an even more horrible atrocity. Just this week I read that angry protestors burned the German embassy in Sudan to the ground to retaliate for the supposed insult caused by a badly made Internet movie produced in California by a bunch of religious kooks. Where is the sense in this? How can it ever end?

For the last few weeks we have been considering Paul’s letter to the Romans and we have in the past couple of weeks been listening to Paul describe how we can tell who is a Christian and who is not. How do we know who is “of the world” and who is “in Christ?” And we have been given some very definite ways of knowing. Today I’m going to take a little bit of a detour from Romans to emphasize that the teachings of Paul in the letter to the Romans reflects not just the theology of Paul but the character of God. I’m going to do that by looking at a short passage in the Gospel according to Matthew. It doesn’t just fit with where we are in Romans, but it fits with where we are in time, as well.

⁴³ “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor ^z and hate your enemy.’ ⁴⁴ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵ that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. ⁴⁶ If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? ⁴⁷ And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? ⁴⁸ Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Mt. 5:43-48 NIV).

These verses come from a section of Matthew’s gospel account that we refer to as the Sermon on the Mount. I’m sure you have heard of it. Of all the gospel accounts Matthew’s is the most “Jewish.” That is, the audience of the gospel account is thought to have been Jews, and Matthew makes more connections to the Old Testament than any of the other gospel writers. Matthew intends to show his readers that Jesus is the one who fulfills Old Testament prophecy and brings about the new age of restoration. Thus, the events in Matthew’s gospel are arranged in a way that would make more sense to someone who was Jewish and had been raised with knowledge of the Old Testament.

Why do you think the Sermon on the Mount was delivered on “the Mount”? When thinking about laws given from a mountain all Jews of that time would have instantly thought of Moses receiving the law from God on Mount Sinai. Here Matthew is making a deliberate reference to that event. The people are receiving the law once again, directly from God. Jesus does not give the people a new law, he reminds them what the heart and purpose of the law was always meant to be, which the Jews had forgotten.

I mention this because I want us to consider that when Jesus was giving this Sermon on the Mount, which consists of standards of behavior for those who follow him, he was not just spouting a bunch of semi-inspirational platitudes about how nice it would be if we all behaved better. He was giving the law. In other places in the New Testament the standards of behavior established here are called “commands,” and “commandments.” So when Jesus tells his listeners – and us – that we are to love our enemies, we have to conclude that he meant what he said.

This should lead us to ask ourselves a number of questions about our own behavior, and I’m going to focus on trying to answer three today: what is love? Why should we love our enemies? And how can we love our enemies?

What is Love?

A few weeks ago you may recall that I spoke to you about how we as Christians ought to act in relationship to each other as members of the body of Christ. At that time I mentioned that there is a glue that binds us to each other in the same way that we are bound to God, and in the same way that the persons of the Godhead: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are bound to each other. The glue that binds the universe together is not “the Force,” it is love. It’s not the pink hearts and mushy feelings love that our culture celebrates; it is the hard, self-sacrificing love that Jesus commanded. He said, ³⁴ “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. ³⁵ By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35 NIV).

Jesus said, “Love one another as I have loved you.” How did Jesus love us? You have probably heard it before: he stretched out his arms and said “I love you this much.” And he died. That is how we are commanded to love each other. That is what sets us apart from the world. That is what makes us a holy nation and a royal priesthood. That is how everyone will know that we are his disciples. As we saw in today’s scripture it is only in love that Jesus calls us to be perfect. (Mt. 5:48).Love is not optional. It is commanded.

What does this kind of self-sacrificing love look like in our day to day relations with each other? The apostle Paul wrote eloquently about this topic in his first letter to the Corinthian church. People in that church were stuck in the ways of the world and having trouble realizing how to love each other. So Paul gave them a vision of it in chapter 13, verses 4 through 8:

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

⁸ Love never fails. (1 Cor. 13:4-8 NIV)

When Paul wrote this, as I mentioned, he was instructing the Corinthian church on how they ought to relate to each other as Christians, as members of the body of Christ. So it might be easy for us to think that that is a standard we can reach. It’s pretty easy to love the members of our own little congregation. It’s not too hard to imagine loving Christians from another congregation. We might go out of our way to show them hospitality and celebrate our distinct differences. But we don’t see anything here that says I have to love Muslims, or Buddhists, or Hindus, or Sikhs, or atheists.

That’s one of the reasons why reading what we did today in Matthew’s gospel is so inconvenient. Because here we see Jesus say that we need to love everyone, just as God loves. How do we know that God loves everyone? “He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” (Mt 5:45). He does not withhold his bounty or provision from those who turn their backs on him, even from those who despise him. And if we are his children, we must act in the same way.

Why Should We Love?

This might seem to be the easiest question to answer. Why should we love? Because Jesus commands us to love. And, even before Jesus, the scriptures throughout, the Old and the New Testaments, command us to love. The very Word of God the Father commands us to love. It could not be any clearer.

But how many of us are satisfied with that answer? Do you remember when we were kids, some of us still are kids, and we wanted to do something and we asked mom or dad and we were told no? “But why?” we asked. “Because I said so,” came the reply. As if parents exercising godly authority over their children were beyond questioning, beyond the need to explain. And I’m sure more often than not we had to accept that, but we didn’t like it. We were convinced it was unfair; that we at least deserved a logical explanation.

Well that may be true of parents but what about God? Surely God can make pronouncements without being questioned. Who would dare to question God’s commands? And of course it is true that God is beyond our reproach, but nevertheless we would still like to know why we should do what we are being told to do, especially if it involves sacrifice. And in fact we are told why. Jesus says, “…that you may be children of your Father in heaven.” (Mt. 5:45 NIV).

When trying to figure out what this means, we have to remember who we are in Christ. Remember that as Christians we are not in relationship with God by ourselves but only as members of the “body of Christ.” The body of Christ is the real presence of Christ on the earth. The body of Christ is the remnant of Israel who inherits God’s promise to Abraham; the promise that all nations of the earth will be blessed through him. Now it is us. We have inherited the promise of Israel. Christ is a living body, of which we are all part. Christ is the child of God.

Why is Christ on the earth? To bring about restoration. What does that mean? It means to reverse the curse of Adam and Eve. To overcome the corruption and death brought about by their disobedience in the Garden. Don’t think this is just a bunch of metaphorical silliness designed to make us feel better or to give some kind of order to ancient people. Reversing the sin of Adam and Eve means restoring, and even strengthening, the relationship between the Creator and his creation that was broken by sin. Nothing should be more important for us.

What do you know about the relationship Adam and Eve enjoyed with God in the Garden of Eden? God walked with them and they were unafraid. They had everything they needed. There was no sickness, no sadness, no violence, no injustice. There was an unbreakable and perfect love relationship between God and humans. The love of God and humans was the same exact love that the members of the Godhead enjoyed: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Three distinct persons all bound together by perfect, self-sacrificing love. And humans bound up in that same relationship. When we read in the Book of Genesis that God created people “in his own image” (Gen. 1:21 ESV), this is what it means. The image of God in man is love.

So when we are called to love, it is because we are in Christ. Because we are in Christ we are in a restored love relationship with God. I’m not sure we can love our enemies with our own love; I’m not even sure there is such a thing as love apart from God, but because we are “in Christ,” we have to demonstrate Christ’s character. And that character is love. “God is love,” the apostle John tells us, “and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” (1 John 4:16 ESV). “ “We love because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:19 ESV). “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” (1 John 4:8 ESV). “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35 ESV).

We love with Christ’s love. We must love, because it is our new nature in Christ. If we are in Christ, we cannot choose not to love, because Christ cannot choose not to love. And that love is for all. “He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” (Mt 5:45). Is this hard? Sure it is. Even Jesus asked that the cup pass from him (Mt. 26:39-42). But in the end, because of who he is, Jesus died for those who hated him. And that was the supreme act of love.

How Can We Love Our Enemies?

That might be OK for Jesus, but haven’t we set the bar impossibly high for us? When you see the pictures of the Twin Towers in flames, doesn’t it make your blood boil? Isn’t it un-American to think of forgiving the criminals who did this? Don’t you want to see them suffer for this outrage? It is only natural to have these feelings. How can we possibly love the people who are sworn to destroy us?

In order to be able to answer this question, I think we need to take a look at what love is not. The kind of love we are called to as Christians is not feeling. It is action. I am not called to like all of the people I am called to love. But I am called to care for people who may not care for me, who may even wish me harm. Let me give you an example.

Everyone who has been educated in the United States for at least a generation knows who Martin Luther King, Jr. is. He has become a giant in our national imagination. You probably know that last year a new monument was opened in Washington dedicated to his life and legacy. He has entered our national pantheon as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Unfortunately, we rarely think him or refer to him as the Reverend Martin Luther King. But that’s what he was.

His motivation to oppose the evils of segregation and race hatred was the gospel of Jesus Christ. And the method that he chose was the method that Jesus modeled. It was the method of love.

Most people know that Martin Luther King advocated non-violence but beyond that I’m not sure how many people really know what his strategy was. His strategy was to use love as a positive force for overcoming the powers of injustice and hate. It was, in fact, to organize those who were opposed to injustice to do what Jesus did. To answer violence with non-violence, lies with truth, hate with love. Love was at the center of his method. Not human love, but agape love.

Agape is one of the Greek words for love. There are a number of others. There is sensual love that is usually indicated by the use of the word eros. That word is the root of the English word erotic and erogenous. Another word that indicates human affection is philia. One place where we can see that word in our vocabulary is in the name of the City of Brotherly love: Philadelphia, a combination of the Greek words for love and brother. Then, finally, is the word agape, which for us has come to mean the unconditional love of God. It is the love that God demonstrated when he sent his son to restore his creation. When the Bible says, “For God so loved the world,” (Jn 3:16) and “God is love,” (1 Jn. 4:16), agape is the word used in the Greek text.

Agape is total, self-giving, self-forgetting love. It is the love that binds together the persons of the Trinity. It is the love that God created man in the image of. But, it doesn’t necessarily imply affection. Early in his career Reverend King sought to explain his strategy for employing love as a force and he said this:

In speaking of love at this point, we are not referring to some sentimental or affectionate emotion. It would be nonsense to urge men to love their oppressors in an affectionate sense. Love in this connection means understanding, redemptive good will. When we speak of loving those who oppose us, we refer to neither eros nor philia; we speak of a love which is expressed in the Greek word agape. Agape means understanding, redeeming good will for all men. It is an overflowing love which is purely spontaneous, unmotivated, groundless, and creative. It is not set in motion by any quality or function of its object. It is the love of God operating in the human heart.[1]

This is the love that we are called to as Christians. It is with this love that we are called to love our enemies. And yet, still, it seems impossible. And, I would argue, it is, apart from Christ. Because this love is not a human love, it is God’s love. As humans, we cannot love this love. But in Christ we not only can, we must.

What does that look like? Let’s think about a few concrete things we can do to love our enemies. How many of us even know what fuels the rage of Islam against the West? It’s not because they haven’t told us. People today are responding to real crimes that have been committed in the past, some of them in the far past, and real differences that still exist. It is true that we personally did not commit these crimes, but they were committed. We don’t need to bear the burden of guilt, but we have to acknowledge the truth. We have to listen to them, and to try to understand them, even if we disagree.

Related to this, we have to learn to forgive. I know it sounds hard or even impossible, but remember that Jesus, to whom we are intimately bound, who is our model, prayed that the Father forgive those who were killing him while they were driving nails into his hands. If we cannot forgive, we must pray and ask God to forgive, and to give us Jesus’ spirit of forgiveness. One of the reasons why violence spirals out of control is because we refuse to forgive. Insult draws insult; blood cries out for blood. When will it end, if we don’t end it? Is this not what Jesus did when he died on the cross? Did he not bear the pain of our injustice so that we could be forgiven?

We must notice here that forgiving someone does not excuse them. To forgive someone does not mean to excuse inexcusable acts. All crime must be paid for. Again, it was because of the necessity for justice that Jesus dies on the cross. So when I say we need to forgive, I am not saying that we need to excuse inexcusable behavior. Justice must be done. But we must be careful that the cry for justice does not mask a hunger for vengeance.

Finally, we must learn to recognize that God loves all of his children with agape love; otherwise we ourselves would be lost. We know that many people in the world do not agree with us or with our understanding of God, and we do not agree with theirs. But we don’t need to. Jesus shows us that even if we don’t agree with them, we have to love them. “He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” (Mt 5:45).

So this means toleration. Some people mistakenly believe that to tolerate something is to agree with it, or to minimize real differences between things. To some it means, for example, that all religions are equally true. “Many paths, one God.” As Christians we do not believe that. We believe Jesus meant what he said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6 ESV).

So toleration doesn’t mean agreement. In fact it means the opposite. It means, even if I disagree with you on every level, I still acknowledge that God loves you, and that Jesus died for you, and that therefore I must love you. We are not called to agree with everyone, but we are called to be Jesus to everyone. If Jesus went to the cross only for those who loved him, it would have been an empty gesture, because at the time of the crucifixion he was despised, and his followers were scattered. He didn’t go to the cross for those who loved him; he died for those he loved, unconditionally.

Let us finally remember that, even if for no other reason, we must forgive our enemies because our own peace is tied up in it. Remember the words that Jesus taught us to pray in the Sermon on the Mount:

¹² And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. ¹³ And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’ ¹⁴ For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. ¹⁵ But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. (Mt. 6:12-15 NIV)

As we experience the remembrance of past atrocities and the reality of new ones, it is easy to get caught up in the emotion that feeds the cycle of violence and hate. It is easy to demand justice against our enemies even as we pray for mercy for ourselves. But this is not God’s way. This is not the Christian way. The Christian way is to follow Jesus in his mission to restore the world to righteousness; to follow Jesus to the cross. We cannot do this by condoning the never ending spiral of division. We can only do this by practicing the agape love that God has placed within all Christians toward all people. Even those who count themselves as our enemies.

Let us close with the Lord’s Prayer.

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[1] Martin Luther King, Jr., “An Experiment in Love,” 1958, in James Melvin Washington, ed., A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr., (San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1991), 19.

Sermon Notes 9/9, “There are no Snozberries on the Apple Tree”

How do we know that an apple tree is an apple tree? If you are a biologist or a tree expert you might be able to tell by looking at the trunk, or the leaves, or the shape, or something like that. But for most of us, the most obvious way of knowing that a tree is an apple tree is that it produces apples. In fact, it will only produce a certain type of apple.

When I was a kid, life was a lot simpler. There were apples, oranges, pears, peaches. An apple was an apple, an orange an orange. Period. Now there are dozens of different varieties of all of these things. If you go to the produce section of your local grocery store, you are likely to find several different varieties of apples: macintosh, gala, pink lady, granny smith, and my favorite fuji (because they are crisp and tangy). Each of these different varieties of apples comes from its own tree. You won’t get a fuji apple from a granny smith apple tree, far less from an orange tree. And if you were to have a tree in your yard that produced fuji apples, you would be very surprised to find that it was also producing some other kind of fruit, like snozberries. Apple trees can’t produce apples and snozberries, or anything else. Apple trees can’t produce apples for a while and then change and start producing snozberries. Every kind of tree produces the fruit of that tree and no other kind of fruit. Even we city folks know that.

Well I’m sure this all seems pretty obvious but at the same time irrelevant. Yes it is true that each kind of tree produces only the kind of fruit that it produces and no other. But who cares? Well, interestingly, the apostle Paul seems to care. Because that is what today’s scripture is about. Not apples and snozberries, but fruit. And not trees either. In today’s scripture reading Paul writes about the kinds of fruits that are produced by different kinds of people. And it is relevant to us. Let’s read it.

⁵ Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. ⁶ The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. ⁷ The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. ⁸ Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.

⁹ You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. ¹⁰ But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. ¹¹ And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.

¹² Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. ¹³ For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. (Romans 8:5-13 NIV)

I think the main focus of this passage is the contrast between life “in the flesh” and life “in the Spirit.” This is not a new teaching either for Paul or for us. A few weeks ago I mentioned to you that the New Testament understanding of reality is marked by two co-existing but completely separate and contradictory realities. This idea, you will recall, is called by theologians “The Doctrine of the Two Ways.”

This doctrine essentially puts forward the notion that everything has to be considered in the context of two opposing realities. One is the reality of God’s perfect love, and the other is the reality of man’s rebellion. God and Satan, Light and dark, Good and Evil, Life and Death, Spirit and Flesh, Redemption and Sin, Christ and Adam; we are all familiar with these great opposing realities. And, according to the New Testament writers, we are all in one or the other of these realms, but never outside or in between.

Paul applied this doctrine earlier, in Romans chapter 6, to the concept of slavery. You will recall that Paul told the Romans and us that we must be either slaves to sin or slaves to righteousness. There is no “third way.” There is no freedom outside of our slavery to Christ. In the text we are looking at today we see pretty much the same argument. Except earlier Paul was looking at the fact of our identification with one or the other way, here we are looking at the effect of that identification.

In this case the contrast is between “life in the flesh” and “life in the Spirit.” Paul’s argument in these verses ponders these questions, “What would it look like to live in the flesh?” and “What does life in the Spirit look like?” One thing that we want to notice up front is that this part of the letter is meant by Paul to be an encouragement to the Roman church, and to us.

Life in the Flesh

What does Paul mean when he writes about “Life in the Flesh?” The first thing we have to do is to understand the word itself. The word that is translated into “flesh” in English is the Greek word sarx. This word can refer to the “flesh” or physical bodies of animals including humans, but most often in the New Testament and particularly in Paul it is used to refer to the world in general. When Paul writes about life “in the flesh” he is referring to the realm outside of the life of God. The realm of the world. The realm of sin, corruption and death.

It is important to note that because that means the “sins of the flesh” consist of more than just physical sins. When we hear the phrase “sins of the flesh” I think most of us think about sins that are committed with the body: sexual sins and sins of excess like gluttony. And it is true that there are sins of the flesh.

But sins of the flesh also consist of sins that we commit with our minds and our attitudes, if our minds and attitudes are driven by worldly things. If we are living “in the flesh.” So along with the sins that we might commit with our bodies we must include sins like pride, arrogance, hatred, envy, and covetousness. We can be very meticulous about our personal behavior and the way we conduct our physical selves and at the same time still commit grievous sins of the flesh. An example of this is the Pharisees of Jesus time. Their personal morality was beyond reproach, but their arrogance, lack of humility, and hypocrisy was so glaring that it provoked Jesus’ unwavering condemnation.

In fact, this shows us that it is quite possible to be very religious and at the same time very sinful. To have our minds set on the things that the flesh desires. It shows us that self-righteousness and sanctimoniousness are contrary to what the Spirit desires. In chapter 22 of Matthew Jesus pronounces seven woes against the Pharisees and I think people who act like them today. “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, You hypocrites!” he cries. (Mt. 22:13 NIV). “Woe to you blind guides, snakes, brood of vipers!” (Mt. 22:16, 33 NIV.

So when Paul writes “those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires,” (Ro. 8:5 NIV) in contrast to “those who live according to the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires,” (Ro. 8:5 NIV), he is not writing about those who sin and those who don’t. We all sin. And he is not writing about those who are driven by carnal desires vs. those who are not. We are all tempted. Even Jesus was tempted. He is really writing about those who are not “in Christ” and those who are. Between those who are “of the world,” (Jn. 17:16 NIV) as the apostle John puts it, and those who are “in Christ.”

How do we know who is “of the world,” those who live according to the flesh? What does Paul write here? “The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.” (Ro. 8:7-8 NIV).

Let’s return to our illustration of snozberries on the apple tree. Or, to stay closer to the biblical text, let’s look at chapter 7 of the gospel according to Matthew where Jesus observes, “Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. 18 A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.” (Mt. 7:16-18 ESV). Someone who is in the realm of the flesh must bear the fruit of being in the flesh. We can say, because we want to paint that condition in a negative light, that they are thornbushes, and therefore all they can produce is thorns. They cannot produce apples, much less snozberries.

All who are living “in the flesh” live an existence that is marked by death. They are dead to God now, and, unless they are touched by God’s grace, they will experience both spiritual and physical death forever. They could not please God if they wanted to. But, in fact, someone who is really living according to the flesh cannot even want to please God.

Life in the Spirit

In contrast to life “in the flesh” that is marked by death, Paul writes that life “in the Spirit” is marked by “life and peace.” (Ro. 8:6 NIV) What a remarkable difference! Paul himself in one of the earliest writings in the New Testament paints the full picture of the difference between the two conditions. In his letter to the churches in Galatia he writes,

¹⁹ The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; ²⁰ idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions ²¹ and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. (Gal. 5:19-23 NIV)

The distinction that Paul is making in our text in Romans today is that you have to be in one or the other of these conditions. You cannot straddle the fence between the two. As he pointed out earlier in the letter, either we are slaves to sin, or we are slaves to righteousness. There is no “third way.”

But let us also recall that this section of Paul’s letter is supposed to be encouraging to the Romans. And we can see that where he writes, “You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit (Ro. 8:9 NIV). So this is not another place in the Bible where we are being told, “Don’t sin,” or, “Feel guilty about sinning.” It is a place that celebrates our liberation from sin.

If we are in the Spirit it is the result of our fundamental and literally miraculous change from the realm of death and corruption to the realm of life and peace. The thing we want to focus on here is not the terribleness of life in the flesh but the miracle that any of us can live in the Spirit. Going back to our illustration, the reality that Paul is pointing out here is that we have been converted from thornbushes to apple trees. And because of that, we are no longer producing thorns, but our lives start to be characterized by delicious fruit. Our lives become summarized in the phrase “life and peace.”

Now again, I don’t want to suggest here that we never sin, or that we never suffer. Of course we probably do both on a daily basis. But if we are living in the Spirit, our minds are set on different things than they were when we were living in the flesh. Paul writes, “⁵ Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.” (Ro. 8:5 NIV).

What is the intention of my life? What do I want to do? It really matters. That is the way we can tell which kind of tree we are. Because if we are in the realm of the flesh, we will not be interested in the things the Spirit desires. I know there is a saying that goes, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” And there is truth in that as a warning against fruitless faith. The apostle James writes,

¹⁴ What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? ¹⁵ Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. ¹⁶ If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? ¹⁷ In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead (Jas. 2:14-17).

We should heed this warning. Faith without works is dead. But I think what Paul is pointing out is that our works arise from our faith. If we are in the realm of the flesh, in the realm of death, even the desire to be of service will be absent. Someone who is in the realm of the flesh will not be bothered by the suffering around them. They will not care if others are mistreated or oppressed. They will not respond even internally to injustice. They may even promote it.

But someone who is in the Spirit will notice these things, and be bothered by them. Their minds will be set on what God desires: righteousness, justice, and love. I think almost all of the self-inflicted pain we suffer as Christians is the pain of the distance between our intentions and our actions. What did Paul write in chapter 7 of his letter to the Romans?

For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. ¹⁹ For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. ²⁰ Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

²¹ So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. ²² For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; ²³ but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. ²⁴ What a wretched man I am! (Ro. 7:18-24).

“What a wretched man I am!” This is not the cry of a man whose mind is set on what the flesh desires. This is the cry of one whose deeds do not match the desires that have been placed in him by being baptized into Christ, of the man who has his mind set on what the Spirit desires, but continually falls short. And, it is our cry, if we are in Christ.

How do we reconcile this? How can we claim to be apple trees when it looks like all we are producing is thorns? Partially, it can be explained by observing that thornbushes cannot produce apples and do not want to. A mind set on what the flesh desires cannot produce fruits of the Spirit and does not want to.

Partially, I think we can imagine that even though we have been changed from one kind of tree to the other, there is still a lot of the old fruit left hanging on the new frame. We are not producing thorns anymore. The thorns are all there, but they are dead. It will take a while for them to fall away from the new tree. And it will take a while for the new fruit to become evident. But it will. That is Paul’s encouraging message to us today. If we are in Christ, we will more and more produce the fruits of the Spirit, and eventually we will do it perfectly.

I’m going to close by showing a little video that illustrates this in a different way. In this video the preacher Rob Bell uses the idea of musical harmony to illustrate life “in the Spirit.” And I think the progress of the little video will do well to help us conceptualize the process that we are all undergoing as those who now find ourselves “in Christ,” because what we will experience is coming more and more into tune with the musical harmony that underlies everything; into harmony with God. Into life in the Spirit. At first we hear it only faintly. But eventually it becomes a beautiful symphony.

Nooma No. 11: Rhythm

Let us be thankful that we can even hear God’s music, and that it is our destiny to someday be fully in tune with it.

Sermon Notes 9/2, “Love is Not Optional”

In fact I didn’t watch any of the Republican convention. I was out to dinner one night and caught a glimpse of some of it on the TV in the restaurant, but I have to confess that I have an aversion to American politics. This is so for a couple of reasons. First, the nature of the American political system is such that the truth seems to be just something to be manipulated for partisan political advantage. Politicians and those who engage in politics seem to be very loose with the facts. There is no love. There is a tendency to vilify one’s opponents with accusations that may or may not be true. On one level it has the atmosphere of a sporting competition but too often it becomes really dirty and destructive. This is true of both parties. I don’t have an affinity for one or the other party. And as a history professor I can tell you that it has been this way since the beginning of the Republic. I do not believe this is what we are called to as Christians.

Secondly, while Paul instructs us to be submissive to lawful ruling authorities in Romans Chapter 13, he also reminds us in Philippians Chapter 3 verse 20 that “our citizenship is in heaven.” I believe that this means that as Christians we find ourselves in a foreign land politically. We are citizens of God’s Kingdom, but we sojourn in an alien city. I think a good way to think about it is to imagine going to Canada. While we are in Canada, we are obliged to submit to Canada’s laws, but our primary devotion as U.S. citizens is to the United States. As citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven residing on earth, we are bound to submit to the local authorities, but our primary devotion must be to God’s Kingdom.

I don’t want to discourage anyone from exercising their rights and duties as citizens of the United States, but I do want to encourage us all to remember that our citizenship is in heaven, and to proceed accordingly.

This is a good place to introduce the scripture we are going to look at today. Starting today we are going to begin looking at Chapter 8 of Romans. This has been called by at least on commentator the “Greatest Chapter in the Bible.” I think it is really inappropriate to say that one chapter is greater than any other, but in fact this Chapter in Paul’s letter to the Romans is very meaty. It starts with no condemnation, and it ends with no separation, and in between we are presented with an exposition of the whole life of the Christian, beginning with regeneration and ending with glory. So while it might not be proper to say that it is the greatest chapter, it certainly is a great one.

Because of that we’re going to spend a little time with it. Today we are only going to look at the first four verses. Even in these four verses there is a lot of material, but we are going to focus only on two words: “in Christ.” What does it mean to be “in Christ?” Who is “in Christ,” and who is not? How do we know if we are “in Christ?” And if we are, how should we act toward ourselves, each other, and the world? Let’s look at it.

8 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, ² because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. ³ For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, ⁿ God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. ^p And so he condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴ in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:1-4 NIV).

I believe that the entirety of the gospel is contained in the first verse of Chapter 8. “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” The therefore represents all that Paul has expressed in the first seven chapters that we have been looking at. Paul has laid out for us in gripping detail the unsolvable dilemma that humanity found itself in as a result of the rebellion of Adam and Eve. Then he announced to us the magnificent, unexpected, and undeserved solution that God out of His amazing and limitless love provided for us. As the consequence of that, all by God’s grace and having nothing to do with the works of man, “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” I do not believe it is possible to overstate how good this good news is.

But let us notice that in verse 1 Paul uses a term that you have heard him use on other occasions, “in Christ.” He announces that this glorious proclamation of a great victory is for those who are “in Christ.” And later toward the end of the passage he states that the requirement of the law – death – has been met for those “who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” We are going to look later at Paul’s explanation of the contrast between flesh and Spirit; for now we want to notice that being “in Christ” and living “according to the Spirit” go hand in hand. But what does it mean exactly? It is obvious that Paul is making a distinction between those who are in Christ and those who are not. That means that this great good news does not seem to apply to everyone, but only to a certain group. Who is in that group?

If you think you have heard me talk about this before you’re right. But this idea is so fundamental to the Christian life, and yet so foreign to our cultural experience, that I think it is not possible to talk about it too much. For the remainder of my time talking to you this morning I am going to focus on the three things in introduced earlier: what is the Body of Christ, what does it mean to be in the Body of Christ, and how should one who is in Christ relate to themselves, each other, and the world.

The Body of Christ

You have probably heard the phrase “the church is the body of Christ.” I think it would be rare to find a Christian who hasn’t heard that and who even might be able to give a passable explanation of what it means. But judging from the way most people who profess to be Christians fit into the world, so that it is almost or actually impossible to tell them apart from people who are not Christians, it would seem that it is rare for people to actually live out the meaning of this statement. As I hope I will be able to at least touch on today, this is not entirely a matter of fault; our whole cultural outlook leads us in an entirely different direction.

Well, it is true that the church is the Body of Christ. What does that mean? Is it just a metaphor? No. The body of Christ is real and visible on the earth. In order to be able to understand this, we have to go way back to the Book of Genesis. In Genesis chapter 12 God called Abram. Let me read it:

12 The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.

² “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.³ I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:1-3 NIV).

“All peoples of the earth will be blessed through you.” This is the place where God sets his plan of salvation in motion. The plan that will reverse the corruption of the created order caused by the rebellion of Adam and Eve. God’s plan is to create a holy nation that will live according to the character of God, who will demonstrate the blessing of living according to God’s character, and thus draw all peoples of all nations back to God.

The books of Genesis and Exodus continue the story of God’s promise through the descendants of Abraham who lived in exile in Egypt but eventually were liberated from Egypt by God through his servant Moses. When Moses was leading the tribes in the desert God gave the people the Law and made a covenant with them. The covenant was that the people would live according to the Law, and as a result they would continue in God’s blessing.

I think it is really important to mention here that living according to the Law was never meant to be a means of earning blessing. It was intended to create a people who expressed in their community life the characteristics of God: justice, righteousness, and love. And why? Because it was by demonstrating God’s character that the nation of Israel was to place such a compelling picture of life in God’s kingdom before the world that all would be drawn to it. Thus God’s promise to Abraham would be fulfilled: “all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” (Gen. 12:3 NIV). The truth of God’s intention is found throughout the Old Testament. One of the most explicit is found in the prophet Isaiah, through whom God says to Israel, “I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”(Is. 49:6 NIV).

Israel was given the Promised Land to create a kingdom where God himself was King whose society was so captivating that people would clamber to Israel to be included in God’s family. We know the word “holy,” and that Israel was to be holy as God is holy. Holy means “set apart.” It means, in this case, that you can tell the difference between Israel and the pagan nations surrounding it because Israel radiates the character of God. Israel was called to be Holy. But Israel was not holy.

The Israelites were quick to focus on the blessings part of the covenant but just as quick to ignore or forget about the other part, the curses. Israel was to be blessed if they were holy, but cursed if they were not. The curses were explicitly stated in Deuteronomy chapter 28.

Very quickly after the Israelites entered the Promised Land they were ensnared by the pagan way of life of the surrounding nations. Instead of living “set apart” lives calling people to righteousness, justice, and love, you couldn’t tell the difference between the Israelites and everyone else. Eventually they even forgot they were supposed to be set apart. God sent many prophets to warn them, but the people ignored and persecuted them, and eventually God invoked the curses by sending the Babylonians to sack Jerusalem, burn the temple, and drag the people into exile. That would seem to have been the end of God’s “set apart” nation. But it wasn’t.

As you go through the Old Testament prophecies calling Israel to repentance, along with many warnings about what will happen if the Israelites didn’t repent you will find the idea of “the remnant.” The idea of the remnant is that even though God would destroy the nation of Israel because they could not keep the covenant, his promise to Abraham always remains valid, so someone has to inherit that promise of blessing all nations through him. So the remnant will be something left over from the nation that was broken who will inherit the promise. The Jews believe that this remnant consists of those who returned to Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile. But although Jews today continue to believe they are chosen by God to be his “set apart” people, as Christians we have to think that God’s continuing work of redemption is being accomplished in a different way.

In Isaiah Chapter 11 we find one of the places where the remnant is predicted. This is almost certainly a foreshadowing of the coming Messiah. Since we know that Jesus is the Messiah, then we can say with some certainty that Jesus is the remnant promised in the Old Testament. Jesus is a remnant of one.

Now here is the really important thing so you have to pay attention to this otherwise you will miss everything. Jesus Christ in his resurrection lives as the remnant, the light to the nations, God’s holy one, who inherits God’s promise to Abraham to bless all nations. What does this have to do with us? We are baptized into Christ, into his death, burial, and resurrection. Thus when we become Christians, we are no longer our old selves who lived for selfishness; we become members of the body of Christ.

We must understand that when I say members, I don’t mean it like members of a political party or a social club; I mean it like members of the body. Hands, feet, eyes, everything. We lose our separateness from God and from each other and become integral parts of a greater whole: the body of Christ, the nation of Israel. Nowhere is this expressed better than in Paul’s letter to the Galatians where he writes: “²⁰ I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” (Galatians 2:20 NIV). And again this is confirmed by the apostle Peter where he writes:

⁹ But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. ¹⁰ Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (1 Pet. 2:9-10 NIV).

We can no longer live for ourselves. We have been restored into the same life that Adam and Eve experienced in the Garden, the Image of God, the life of the Trinity, who have existed forever as unique persons bound by unending, self-sacrificing, self-forgetting love for each other.

Well, so what? The consequences of this change are dramatic and profound. Paul has been writing about it for a couple of chapters in Romans and I expressed it a couple of weeks ago as being similar to being changed from a cucumber to a pickle. If you put a pickle in a basket full of cucumbers it is easy to see which is which. And so it ought to be for us as members of the body of Christ among people in our secular society. Except in our case it will not necessarily be our appearance that is different, it will be our behavior.

But our behavior in the world at large starts with and reflects our behavior in the church, in the body of Christ. So I want to explore a little further this idea of the body of Christ as the nation of Israel. Let us recall that God’s choice of Israel was not based on any merit on their part. We can see this reflected in Deuteronomy chapter 7 where God tells the Israelites through Moses that he chose them simply because he loves them and because of the promise to Abraham. (Deut. 7:7-8 NIV).

In fact, it’s really hard to know why God chose the Israelites. They ended up being stubborn and rebellious malcontents throughout their history. The Bible is full of stories about how the Israelites flaunted God’s laws and commandments, defied him, and complained about and against him, sometimes performing unspeakable atrocities. And yet God continued to love them. And it is the same with us. God did not choose us because we are pretty, intelligent, and smell good. From my own experience and the knowledge I have of my own sinful past and present, it is hard to figure out what God does see in me. But for some reason he loves me. I think that’s one of the reasons why grace is so amazing.

But at any rate God did not choose Israel just to bless them. He chose them for a mission. The mission was to be a light to the nations, bringing all people to salvation, into right relationship with God. And just as God’s promise continues and will not be forgotten, so God’s calling to his people remains the same: to be light. To reflect justice, righteousness, and love. To bring the world back into communion with God.

If we wonder what the church’s mission is in the world, we need only look at what Jesus did and said. He said, “...The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost” (Luke 19:10 NIV). That was his mission. And because the church is the body of Christ, that is the mission of the church. And when I say church, I don’t mean Rock Presbyterian Church, or Bansuk Church, or the Korean American Presbyterian Church, but the universal body of all Christians, of all believers, of which we are a part, both as individuals and as a congregation.

Now here is a place where I think we have trouble. When we read the Bible or have it read to us, because of the biases of the culture we live in, we try to apply it all to ourselves as individuals. So for example when we hear the Great Commission in Matthew: “Go and make disciples of all nations,” (Mt. 28:18 NIV) we think, “OK, I personally must go and make disciples of all nations.” But when Jesus said this, he was not talking to one person, he was talking to all of his followers together. It is not the mission of individuals to make disciples of all nations, it is the mission of the church.

In order for that to happen, the body, the church, must be healthy. A sick body cannot do work, only a healthy one can. And that is where we fit in as individual members of the church. Our primary responsibility in God’s greater plan of salvation is to use our unique individual gifts to build up the body and keep it healthy, so that the body can carry out Jesus’ work of redemption.

Now, we are going to do a larger discussion of spiritual gifts when we get to chapter 12 of Romans. For now let me make a couple of observations that will help us to wrap up this message today. Each of us has at least one and probably more unique gifts or talents that we are called to give freely for the benefit of the whole church. Some of us can preach, some of us can pray, some of us can sing, some of us can serve food, or show compassion, or a number of other things. These gifts highlight our unique but important place in God’s overall scheme.

As humans we sometimes believe that some gifts are more spectacular than others, and therefore that some are more important than others. But in fact nobody’s gift is more important than anyone else’s. The right index finger is not more important that the left big toe. Each has its own useful function in contributing to keeping the body healthy and whole, so that the body can do its work. I might have the most fantastic gift imaginable, but if it is not being used to build up the whole body of Christ, it is worthless. A body whose members are fighting against each other is diseased. It will eventually die.

This means that whatever gifts we have we are to use not for building up ourselves but for building up each other. This is hard for us to comprehend because it is counter-cultural. In the world it’s all about me and what I can get out of it: money, property, and prestige. See how great my gifts are as compared to others’! But this is not God’s way. In God’s kingdom, each must sacrifice for the good of the whole. This is the model of Christ on the cross. This is confirmed in Philippians chapter 2 where Paul writes:

⁵ In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: ⁶ Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; ⁷ rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. ⁸ And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! (Phil. 2:5-8 NIV)

This brings us finally to the question, how can we relate to each other in such a way that the body is healthy, so that Christ’s work of redemption can continue? And the answer is that there is a glue that binds us to each other in the same way that we are bound to God, and in the same way that the persons of the Godhead: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are bound to each other. The glue that binds it all together is not the force, it is love. It’s not the pink hearts and mushy feelings love that our culture celebrates; it is the hard, self-sacrificing love that Jesus commanded. He said, ³⁴ “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. ³⁵ By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35 NIV).

Jesus said, “Love one another as I have loved you.” How did Jesus love us? You have probably heard it before: he stretched out his arms and said “I love you this much.” And he died. That is how we are commanded to love each other. That is what sets us apart from the world. That is what makes us a holy nation and a royal priesthood. That is how everyone will know that we are his disciples. It is only in love that Jesus calls us to be perfect. (Mt. 5:48).Love is not optional. It is commanded.

There is so much more than this that could be said. But I can’t talk forever and my goal is to finish talking before you guys finish listening. I do want to encourage us all to really spend some time thinking about what a self-sacrificing love would look like in our relations with each other. Let me just close with one view of it that can be found in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian church. People in that church were stuck in the ways of the world and having trouble realizing how to love each other. So Paul gave them a vision of it in chapter 13, verses 4 through 8:

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

⁸ Love never fails. (1 Cor. 13:4-8 NIV)

This week go home and read that for yourselves. 1 Corinthians Chapter 13. Spend some time really thinking about what it means in terms of our relationship with each other and the outside world. What should this look like in practice? Pray that the Spirit will work in and through us so that we together, as the body of Christ, can hasten the glory of God’s kingdom. Amen.