Sermon March 14, 1999 How Was Your Week? based on Romans 8:1-10

Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

How was your week? How are you doing today? We sometimes are asked these questions and answer without thinking. Perhaps we feel the person asking does not really want to hear the full answer, the details of our lives, or what might have gone wrong.

If you ask the Minnesota Gophers basketball team how their week was, I am sure you would get an earful. Following allegations of academic cheating, two starting and two reserve players were suspended from the first and only game in the NCAA tournament. After another player came to the game injured, the Gophers ended up losing. Ask the Gophers about their week, and they will surely tell you it wasn't a good week.

LAW

Now, today, I invite you to reflect upon how your week went. Was it a good week? Did you have a good week in Christ? You may look back on the week and feel like you did not do such a good job at following Jesus. On the other hand, maybe you feel you did pretty good. Maybe you are happy with your "performance."

In you are in group that would consider that you did a pretty good job, I invite you to reflect further on God's Word. Consider now what position you have before God. Indeed, what is God's position in you? The text mentions that you are to be controlled by the Spirit of God. It says the Spirit lives in you.

Now, think about that. The Spirit should control you, which means the Holy Spirit should control your life and your actions. The Holy Spirit is one of the three persons of God, who is fully and completely God. God should control you. Did God control you this past week?

The Holy Spirit does not compel or force us to live a certain way, but it is our duty and response as Christians to live according to the directions of the Spirit.

We are to also understand that the Spirit even lives in us. This is an incredible thing to think about. God has come to live in us. He is your guest.

Who is the most famous visitor ever to come to your house? What if the President were to come visit? That is not as good an example as it used to be, for the reputation of the presidential office has been tarnished. Yet, I would imagine most of us would show a high respect if the president chose to come visit us and drove up with a full caravan and a stream of reporters. Perhaps you can think of other house guests who you would highly esteem.

When you think of the honor given to human guests, then reflect on the honor you give to the divine guest who lives in you. To honor the guest of the Holy Spirit would be to serve fine meals-nourishing yourself on no less a delicacy than God's Word. To respect your visitor, you would give Him full access to all areas of your life. You would not crowd the Holy Spirit into one hour a week. You would give Him full attention at all times. You would respect your visitor by warmly and openly receiving all the gifts He brings.

When the Holy Spirit sends a messenger speaking His Word, you would gather close by, with excitement and eagerness to hear everything your guest would wish to share. Rather than sitting as far away as possible you would gather close to hear and see all that would be shared. This is much like Mary, sister of Martha, who gathered as close to Jesus as she could. She sat at His feet listening attentively to what was said. In the same way, would you gather close to Jesus when He comes, or sit in the back of the room? So, the Holy Spirit who lives in us calls us gladly hear His Word and preaching.

So, reflecting upon your week, did the Holy Spirit control your life? Did you honor the Holy Spirit who is living in you? Did you live as a child of the light or of the darkness? This idea of light and darkness was brought out by last week's reading from Ephesians 5. We are to live as the children of light. Our lives are not to be full of deeds which we would like to hide. Rather, we are to produce the fruits of the light: goodness, righteousness, and truth.

Reflecting on our weeks should lead us to see where we fall short. Indeed, we would best classify ourselves with those who live according to the sinful nature, as the text speaks. We who live according to the sinful nature think of satisfying that nature. Our weeks are full of attempts to satisfy our desires. We try to make ourselves happy. How often do we think of what God wants us to do? Rather, our time is spent satisfying our own desires. This is the mind of our sinful nature. It is the mind of our flesh which is infected with sin.

The mind of our sinful human nature is quite corrupted. In fact, this mind is opposed to God. It is hostile toward Him, says our text. "It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so."

This leads us to the question of our life, which is more important than how our week went. It is a question of how will our life go. If we are hostile toward God because of our sinful nature, what will become of us? If we cannot submit to God's law, what will happen to us? The text also says, "Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God." If we cannot please God, what shall become of us?

If we live our weeks, our years, and our lives counting on pleasing God in order to earn our salvation, then we are living under the law, the law of sin and death, as our text describes it. This law can only lead to sin and death. Try as hard as we may, we cannot keep the righteous requirements of this law. We cannot submit to God's law, for our sinful nature continues to lead us astray. The law is powerless to save us, meaning it cannot provide a path to salvation. The law is a path doomed to failure.

GRACE

God, in His grace, did not leave us without hope. God's Word says to us, "For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering." This is God's grace to us. It is His free gift, which we did not deserve and did not earn. God sent His Son, Jesus Christ to be an offering for our sins. Jesus came as God taking on human nature. He bore a likeness to sinful man with the single exception that He was without sin. God became man to offer Himself for us. Jesus was the offering for sins-all sins of all people. Jesus went to the cross and died there so that all sins might be paid for. In this way God "condemned sin in sinful man." He took away the punishment for sin. He removed its sting.

Now we hear those comforting words with which our text began: "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." God no longer condemns us because of our sin. He no longer finds us offensive. This is another way of saying our sins are forgiven. There is no longer condemnation because of Jesus Christ. Again we give Him full credit and give ourselves none. "Through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death." This statement from our text gives Jesus the credit for us sinners being set free. We are freed from that law of sin and death-the law which leaves us no hope. God sets us free from that law, to live under God's grace, here called "the law of the Spirit of life." It is not really a "law" in the sense of commands, but it is simply a rule for how God will treat us, a truth about Him. This is the rule: God no longer condemns us in Jesus Christ. That is the law or truth of the Spirit of life. It is the law which the Holy Spirit teaches us when He calls us to faith. In coming under the law of the Holy Spirit, we are freed from condemnation for our sins and that means we are freed to life. Life everlasting, life eternal, life beyond death is what the Spirit brings to us.

Set free from the law means we live according to the Spirit. In that life, we are pleasing to God. Indeed, Jesus came to die for us "in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit." When we live according to the Spirit, we are seen by God as meeting the requirements of His law. We meet the requirements because all our failures to meet those requirements are forgiven.

As we are called by the Holy Spirit to believe these wonderful truths of what Jesus did for us, we come to have the Spirit of God living in us. Then, with the Spirit living in us, we are controlled by the Spirit, not our sinful natures. We belong to Christ. We submit our lives to Him. Our minds are no longer set on fulfilling the desires of our sinful nature. Instead, living according to the Spirit our minds are set on what the Spirit desires. That mind is set on life and peace. It is set on eternal life. It is set on peace with God.

THE HARD QUESTION

There is a hard question to ask yourself, now. Are you living under the law of the Spirit of life, that is grace, or under the law of sin and death? Surveys indicate that many hold the idea that our deeds or our works save us and so they live under the law of sin and death. A Lutheran Brotherhood survey from last summer said 48% of Lutherans thought they were saved because of their works of loving others. These 48% are living under the law of sin and death. They have missed grace.

For example, you will see this sort of thinking pop up when dealing with the Scriptural practice of closed communion. People with membership in churches that believe something different from our church may become very offended when asked not to receive communion in our church. Rather than seeing it as a simple matter of one's public confession, they see it as a matter of salvation. They see our practice as a suggestion that they are not Christian or will not be saved. They will often reply, "Do you think that Missouri Synod Lutherans will be the only ones in heaven?" Of course we do not believe that. The person saying this has taken communion attendance as a matter of keeping the law-that is the law of sin and death. They take offense at not being admitted to communion because they feel we are saying that they are not righteous enough to receive it. They are living under the law of sin and death.

To become a believer in Jesus means to live under the law of the Spirit of life. Those in whom the Holy Spirit lives are those over whom the law of sin and death has no power. They are freed from the law and they are no longer under any condemnation. The life of the Christian is not a life of compulsion from the demands of the law. Rather, it is a life of response to God's grace given through Christ. God's law serves as a guide for the life in the Spirit.

CONCLUSION

How was your week? As Christians, our answer should be that we are having a bad week in how we do. We are having a good week in that the Holy Spirit lives in us, and forgives us. When someone asks, "How was your week?," give the answer, "It was a bad week because I again disappointed my Lord by my sinful life, yet it was a good week, because I know that the Holy Spirit lives in me and forgives all my failures." Putting it another way, "It was a bad week because of what I did, but it was a good week because of what Jesus did for me." The one who was the sacrifice for our sins makes every week good. May you all have good weeks in and through Jesus Christ. Amen.

Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.