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.
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