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This Sunday Podcast
23 Plays14 days ago
S1:E11
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Transcript
Introduction & Weekly Topic
00:00:00
Speaker
Howdy and welcome back to this Sunday podcast. This is Matthew, Pastor Matthew Hardaway alongside me, Pastor Phil Brandt. Every week we take a look at the upcoming Sunday's readings or one of the readings for the upcoming Sunday. Today's podcast will be looking at Romans chapter 6 verses 12 through 23. This is for the fourth Sunday after Pentecost.
00:00:24
Speaker
As always, I'll open up with the collect for the day as our prayer and then
Daily Mercy in Ordinary Life
00:00:29
Speaker
let Dr. Brandt kick us off with our discussion. We pray. Oh, God, because of your abiding presence always goes with... Oh, crap. ah ah my My tripod is in the middle of the the prayer.
00:00:47
Speaker
i read that wrong. All right, try number two. Pick number two. All right, all right, all right.
00:00:57
Speaker
Greetings and welcome to this week's edition of This Sunday Podcast. I am Pastor Matthew Hardaway. Alongside me is Dr. and Pastor Phil Brandt. Every week on our podcast, we take a look at a reading from the upcoming Sunday in the Church Year. Today we will be looking at Romans chapter 6, verses 12 through 23, for the fourth Sunday after Pentecost. As always, I will open this up with the call out of the day for our prayer, and then let Dr. Brandt kick off our discussion.
00:01:29
Speaker
We pray. o God, because your abiding presence always goes with us, keep us aware of your daily mercies, that we may live secure and content in your eternal love. through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
00:01:55
Speaker
Thank you, Matthew. Daily mercy so that we can live content. um that's ah yeah I think a lot of times you sort of blow past those prayers and don't think about them in church on Sunday, but ah this one this one actually connects rather nicely to the to the ah reading today in a, in a really important way, a daily mercy um that, that, that the ordinary life, you know, not the spectacular, not the, yeah not the, not those moments of crisis or of extraordinary, you know, special joy or something like that, but the ordinary life is important to God.
Paul's Rhetorical Techniques
00:02:40
Speaker
And, and, and hence makes it important to us. um i think ah I think that's that's something we we sometimes forget. i think our our our human nature is always attracted to the to the to the special, to the to the to the really significant, and to the dramatic.
00:03:00
Speaker
And we forget just how important you know those daily little rituals that we engage in are and and those those those seemingly mundane parts of our life.
00:03:12
Speaker
That's what Paul's going to be talking about a little bit today. So let's listen to what he says. We pick this up in Romans chapter 6, but if you remember from last week, we skip over a few verses here.
00:03:25
Speaker
And those verses we heard back in January when we came to the Sunday after the Epiphany, and that is the baptism of our Lord. Because Paul in the first verses of chapter six talks about baptism.
00:03:42
Speaker
And so those words are heard every year on that little festival of the baptism of Jesus. um And so we skip them here. But that's kind of too bad because there's a bit of a logical flow going on here. So let's back up and take just a minute before we start the text and see what's what's happening here.
Baptismal Identity & Transformation
00:04:02
Speaker
um Paul is in in a part of his his ah rhetorical ah argument of the book called the, well, it's got this unfortunate name. It's called the diatribe.
00:04:14
Speaker
ah that's Yeah. And I mean, when you think of diatriby, what do you think about that, Matt? What what does that word mean for you? ah I'm thinking it's when my my oldest younger sister is going off on me nonstop about something I did wrong and every complaint that she has under the face of the sun and many times woe is me.
00:04:39
Speaker
Right. And so if you're reading in commentaries, you may run across this. word that This is part of but this is has nothing to do with your sister unloading on you because of your real or imagined ah failings. No, this is this is a technical rhetorical term which everybody in the ancient world would have recognized what Paul was doing here. i wouldn't say everybody, but anybody who had any reading knowledge, who anybody who was modestly educated would have understood this. And what a diatribe is, is an imagined conversation
00:05:21
Speaker
with a ah with with a with a questioner who oftentimes isn't real bright. And and so what it kind of lets you do is imagine you're having a conversation with somebody who's asking kind of stupid questions.
00:05:42
Speaker
But the questions, allow you in giving in answering those questions allow you to explore and explain much more fully the content of what you're trying to say.
00:05:58
Speaker
It's kind of somebody who's who's playing devil's advocate and by answering their devil's advocacy, you get to you gotta to do
Sin, Grace, and Misconceptions
00:06:10
Speaker
that. And so the first question that gets raised is this person who says, well, wait a minute, so we're, we' we're you know, that that Jesus forgives sins, Jesus, there's all kinds of grace, there's enough grace for every sin, so and grace is good, so why don't we just sin more so we can get more grace?
00:06:30
Speaker
and And Paul says, by no means. I mean, they're really strong, no way. and And that allows him to go on and explain why not. Why is it that we would um that we would say no to the to to that kind of reasoning. And and Paul's answer there is is rooted in baptismal identity.
00:06:55
Speaker
And that's why we read it inpt on the baptism of Jesus. It's rooted in our baptismal identity. Don't you know that all of you who are baptized into Christ were baptized into his death? And by being baptized into his death, you've also been but raised with him to a new life. You're no longer that that person who would do this.
00:07:16
Speaker
This is simply contrary to your very nature, which God has given you anew. in your baptism. And so we pick up at the very tail end of that argument ah in verse 12 today.
00:07:33
Speaker
And then we're going to get the next kind of stupid question, although this one isn't really so stupid. This one, that as these questions go on, they get a little more, well, should we say pointed?
00:07:48
Speaker
So let's hear what the first, the what what Paul, how Paul wraps up that argument. Let not sin, therefore, reign in your mortal bodies to make you obey their passions.
00:08:01
Speaker
Do not present your members as sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life. So there's that identity piece. You've been brought from death to life. You live now. Don't go lying down in a casket somewhere. You're alive.
00:08:20
Speaker
That's not who you are anymore. Your members present your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you since you are not under law, but under grace.
00:08:35
Speaker
And so Paul is, you know, and and I think in this whole section, Paul's a little bit kind of comes across as a little overly optimistic about us.
00:08:49
Speaker
all right um you know that that we actually have this this sort of freedom from the power of sin. Trust me, he's going to get to the power of sin over you in just a little bit. But in this whole section, he's really talking to that to that new person that God has raised up out of baptismal waters, this regenerate, heaven-bound person.
00:09:15
Speaker
And that that person is free from sin and death and devil. um Now, of course, you and I both know that we live this life of two minds right now. we We have both that renewed and regenerate mind and that old and sinful that are intermingled and woven together in our lives right now. And so um But right now what he's doing is he's parsing those two pieces of us out, and he's looking just at that regenerate.
00:09:54
Speaker
He'll later bring the two pieces back together and notice how they interweave with each other. in fact, that's going to be next week. right But now we get the second diatribe question.
00:10:10
Speaker
What then, says Paul? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means. And I think it's worth pausing right here and asking, what is the actual question? but What is he actually asking here? Should we sin because we're not under law but under grace?
00:10:36
Speaker
I think he's asking...
00:10:42
Speaker
If I know I'm going to receive grace, what's keeping me from sinning? Yeah. Yeah. why why why if If I know I can just go, but if I know i can I can go burn off the calories from that extra piece of cake, why not have the extra piece of cake?
00:11:01
Speaker
Well, i mean yeah but but I mean, but in that illustrate, you're really saying, well, okay, if I eat this extra piece of cake, I know I'm going to have to go spend some time on the treadmill and burn it off. Okay. first You're still in an economy right there of something. What what Paul is really imagining here is is you can eat the cake and not have to go burn off the calories.
00:11:22
Speaker
So why would you have metabolism? Yeah. Yeah. You're you're yeah you're you're you're not going to have to work for it in In the first, you know, kind of stupid question people asked, it was, oh, I can turn grace into a commodity where because forgiveness is good, who wouldn't want more of that? I'm going to go send some more so I can get some more forgiveness.
00:11:45
Speaker
And so here here you see a kind of commodification of of God's love and forgiveness and grace. And Paul goes, no, no, no, no no that's not who you are. That's a denial of who you are. But now we've got a different question that's being asked.
00:12:00
Speaker
and And it's not that I'm commodifying my God's grace at this point. I'm acknowledging it. I'm saying God's grace envelops me, wraps me all over the place. Why shouldn't I just keep on sinning? why Why should I go to the hard work of of you know telling the truth when it's hard to tell the truth.
00:12:23
Speaker
Why should I get up and go to church in the morning when it's a lot easier to stay in bed and and and sleep in. Why why should I why should i you know um be an honest um and neighbor and and and and itd be a helpful neighbor to my to the people in my neighborhood? Well, it's hard to do sometimes. you know they're They're not always easy people to get along with. Why don't I just shut myself off in my house and isolate myself from everybody else? It just is so much easier.
00:12:56
Speaker
Why do I invest in my community, in my neighborhood, in my church? Why do i do these things? Wouldn't it be a lot easier to say, none of that really matters because i have God's grace.
00:13:13
Speaker
I don't have to. Isn't Paul then going to say you're missing out on, well, and this is where potentially
Freedom, Obedience, and Slavery
00:13:23
Speaker
having those first 11 verses,
00:13:26
Speaker
It's the,
00:13:31
Speaker
if I know i am, signed a contract to play for the Houston Astros and I know I'm going to get paid even if I get injured.
00:13:42
Speaker
o ye So I'm not going to go take care of my body. I'm not going to exercise. Right. ah But then I get injured. And now, my am I really a baseball player if I've not done the behind the scenes work to identify as a baseball player?
00:14:03
Speaker
Yep. that That actually is kind of more along the lines of what he's answering in the first one. In the first one, it's more identity. stuck on the first one. Yeah. You're still stuck on the first one. This one is really asking, does my life actually matter?
00:14:18
Speaker
If grace covers all of my sins, do do my sins really matter? do ah Does it really make a difference what I do? I mean, granted, you know, Paul's paul almost fully aware that nobody keeps the law perfectly.
00:14:38
Speaker
And so everybody's life is in sort of bathed in grace. You know every redeemed, regenerate, human being is just bathed in grace. And so you don't have to worry about your guilt. You don't have to worry about judgment from God.
00:14:59
Speaker
And so if you don't have that motivation, why not just keep on singing? I mean, especially when it's just easier, you know, and sometimes it is sometimes doing the right thing is hard work.
00:15:16
Speaker
Why do the hard work of, of you know, I said, being truthful, of being of of being somebody who cares about the the neighbor or who is who is, you know, doing my best to raise my kids? That's hard work.
00:15:37
Speaker
why should i Why should I bother? god God's grace is just surrounding
00:15:43
Speaker
and And I really think that that this is actually a question that people are asking today. You know, what does my life really matter? I mean, you know, science, you know, the the sort of the the the the the the scientific world in which we in which we kind of live today, sort of the the zeitgeist, yeah you know, pretty much says that you are a meaningless,
00:16:09
Speaker
moat on an insignificant planet in the corner of a minor galaxy in this vast universe, you don't really matter. You know, that that in the in the billions of years of of of you know, cosmic existence, you know, you're just a little, you're you're a speck.
00:16:31
Speaker
and and And your life doesn't actually make a difference. um and you know And I don't think most Christians believe that, but but that pressure is applied to all of us simply because we live in this moment.
00:16:48
Speaker
We're always being being told that that we're we're not as we're not terribly important. and and And so Paul, I think, has really surfaced here a kind of question that that, I mean, granted, the the people who don't believe in God aren't asking the question of whether they're, you the sin righteousness question, but they're still asking the question of meaning.
00:17:15
Speaker
They're still wondering if if my life has any intrinsic value to it. And what is it? And yeah I think we're we're all born with this with this innate sense that I do have value.
00:17:35
Speaker
But right now, there's a lot of forces in the world which are really saying you don't have value. You are a cog in a giant cosmic machine. and And, you know, you might get, you you you you won't get, you you don't really have meaning.
Roman Slavery & Spiritual Lessons
00:17:54
Speaker
And you i think that that really explains, you know, some of the behaviors I see in people. You know, whether it's sort of giving up and saying it doesn't matter. And, you know, I'm just going to live in my parents' basement and play video games for the rest of my life.
00:18:09
Speaker
Yeah. Or is it this, you know, this young person, you know, that sometimes I've got to generate meaning in my life. And so they're going to be in in every club, in every, you know, in in play every sport. And they're going to they're going to do everything they can do in high school and college and like, because they're going to create meaning.
00:18:30
Speaker
for themselves. You know, and, and I think that just kind of continues on, you know, with some of these, these, these billionaires and, and people who are, who are, you know, shooting rockets off into space because they're looking to make a mark.
00:18:46
Speaker
Right. And, and, and so Paul kind of, he's really asking this question about who are we, you know, does does does what I do ever matter? And and that will what I find gotta to find really interesting is this answer.
00:19:02
Speaker
Okay. He says, well, no way. that that you You should not just keep on living this life of of sin because it doesn't matter anymore. Because God's grace is going to cover it all anyway.
00:19:15
Speaker
No, no. Listen to what he said. His answer to this is really interesting.
00:19:22
Speaker
Don't you know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, your slaves are the one to whom you obeyed? either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness.
00:19:35
Speaker
But thanks be to God that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed. And having been set free from sin, have you become slaves of righteousness?
00:19:49
Speaker
Now, I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and lawlessness, leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, leading to sanctification.
00:20:10
Speaker
What's Paul's first answer here? Why don't you what you...
00:20:16
Speaker
um why don't why don't you do what you you know, the easy part. Why don't you just sit? If it's easier. Because it leads to death.
00:20:30
Speaker
It leads to death. Paul doesn't go with this deep metaphysical reason for the answer to this question. Now, I mean, what what he starts off really by saying here is that there is a metaphysical truth. You are actually a slave. You are and And here is really, I think, another challenge to ah what a lot of people say today, and that is that we are absolutely free or that the best life is the life where I am absolutely free.
00:21:06
Speaker
um We have really valorized freedom and and and the free person as that is the best life. that That's when you're living your life at the fullest is when you get to do whatever you want to do.
00:21:20
Speaker
But what Paul notices about is that is that I'm enslaved to somebody, right? I'm enslaved to something, whether that's my own you know desires, my own lusts and passions. You know, I get to do what I want to do. I mean, you know, you you you if you've ever worked with somebody who's struggling with addiction, you know, they'll they'll sometimes say, i just let me do what I want to do.
00:21:52
Speaker
and And I say, well, I i ultimately, you know, legally probably can't stop you from doing whatever you want to do. But right now what you want to do is killing you.
00:22:05
Speaker
It's destroying you. And, you know, it may take longer if you are, you know, not addicted to heroin, but addicted to something else, if you're enslaved to something else. But ultimately, as Paul notices, it leads to death.
00:22:21
Speaker
We're all marching in the wrong way when we when we do that. Rather, he says, do those things we become enslaved to. And and this is, I think, the the really interesting thing is, Paul doesn't imagine anybody's free.
00:22:36
Speaker
No. We're all slaves. Now, he later, ah as I read there, he goes on to say, I'm speaking in human terms here, right? Terms that you could understand. Well, we don't live in in a Roman society In the ancient Rome, something like 20 30% of the people in any given community were slaves.
00:23:00
Speaker
So everybody knew what it was like to be a slave. and And I think it's important to remember it that that slavery was not, you know should not necessarily be equated with the same kind of slavery we see in the United States, which was racially and ah racially based. Ancient slavery was oftentimes much more economic um It was, you know, if if you're if you went bankrupt and you couldn't, and they sold your property, they sold your you know your house, all of this stuff, and it still wasn't enough to pay the debts, they would take you down to the slave market and maybe your family too, and they'd sell them as slaves.
00:23:40
Speaker
And that would free you from your debt because a slave can't hold debt.
00:23:46
Speaker
um But that was sometimes the only way to get free from your debt. was to become enslaved. And so they knew that the specter of slavery really hung over everybody as ah as a possible end. if if i if if If things go really bad, it could happen when wars come and a city got conquered, people would be enslaved.
Righteous Living & Wisdom
00:24:09
Speaker
So was a very different kind of thing. It was still a horrible institution, still a terrible way to live. um and but But Paul notes that that that
00:24:20
Speaker
When you are enslaved, you are identified by the one to whom you are obedient. If I was a slave in the ancient world, I wouldn't identify myself as, you know, Philip the slave.
00:24:35
Speaker
I would always identify myself as Philip the slave of, and then I would name my master. And so a slave was always defined by the person he was obedient to.
00:24:49
Speaker
and And that's kind of what Paul is saying here is that that you're identified by the person, by that to which you are obedient. and Is this similar in some ways to how I think a common dream that people might have, not not a goal, this is what my goal is, it is for some people, but that the phrase to be independently wealthy.
00:25:14
Speaker
Yeah, that usually for them, I think, means free from needing to work. I don't need to go to a job anymore. And I still have the resource to be able to do whatever I to do.
00:25:25
Speaker
Right. but But for almost everybody, i had the freedom to go buy whatever car i want, buy whatever house, live wherever I want. But I have to be able to afford that.
00:25:37
Speaker
i have to earn the the funds to to pay for it. And in order to do that, I have to have a job. but or at some rich uncle who died and left you in an inheritance. Right, right. But but and even if I remember correctly, like in some ways, there there are points and times in history where slavery maybe wasn't indentured servitude, servithood, but more, I wouldn't say this being a pastor at all, not for this conversation. Um, but you know, when I'm in high school and i want to be able to do the spring trip to Disney world with my high school quiet, I know mom and dad can't afford it.
00:26:19
Speaker
So i'm going to have to figure out a way of making money, which means I start sacking groceries at the local grocery store. And if I want to go on that trip, I have to follow the rules of being an employee at the grocery store. Right.
00:26:33
Speaker
Showing up on time, being good with customers, ah you know, walking the little old lady out to the car with her sack of groceries. I got to do all those things that I wouldn't normally do.
00:26:44
Speaker
Right. And that means I'm obedient to probably at that point, the dictates of my manager or the store manager or something like that. Yeah. So in in a sense, you know, you could, you can understand every job as, as a, as, as a, you know, not capital S slavery, right.
00:27:05
Speaker
But kind of a a slavery in miniature because somebody else gets to dictate what you're doing. But I mean, the same thing is true of, of like, you know, If you're one of these people who gets up and exercises in the morning, you know, or you're somebody who follows a particular diet, you know, I can be enslaved to my, to my, um to my, you know, Paul talks about being enslaved to your gut.
00:27:31
Speaker
Well, I mean, if you are, if you are a celiac, you kind of are enslaved to your gut because you can't eat gluten.
00:27:39
Speaker
and And, and, and that's telling you what you can and cannot do. Right. I'm insulin-dependent diabetic. Okay. Yeah. So I am a slave to my external pancreases. Right. Or pancreatic devices. Right. And sure, I can eat all the sugar i want.
00:27:58
Speaker
And I could choose not to take medicine, not go see with the doctor. It's going to hasten my demise, and I'm going to feel miserable. Yep. The entire way down to the grave.
00:28:10
Speaker
Yep. But if I, ever so, and I don't want that, I promise you that much. So yeah, I watch how much sugar eat. But when I watch how much sugar I eat, when I'm a slave to my diabetic diagnosis. Right, to your glucose. Right, right. But I get to experience a freedom That is different for me than somebody else who's not diabetic, but I still get to sleep all the way through 20, 30, 40 years from now. Hopefully I won't be having body parts amputated. Right. you know
00:28:44
Speaker
what and And you just get to spend time with your kids and and your wife and you get to have that because you are obedient to this other thing. And so Paul paul says, wait a minute, you're going to be obedient to something.
00:28:59
Speaker
You have to be obedient to something. Be obedient to righteousness that leads to life. you know So that's going to be obedient to the love of neighbor, obedient to the to the to the um honesty and integrity, obedient to the care for self and the world around us.
00:29:22
Speaker
Those are the things that that, you know, against, you know, you can go through that list and in in ah ah in in Galatians, you know, gentleness, kindness, self-control, all those things against which there is no law.
00:29:36
Speaker
Right. And that those are those are, you know, the the the the obedience to to the righteousness. You know, simply...
00:29:49
Speaker
simply you know just being kind to the kid who's sacking your groceries, yeah instead ofroom right instead of Instead of that kind of a person.
00:30:00
Speaker
yeah so So it's interesting that that his his rationale for this one is not actually, i mean, it's rooted in the identity question. You need the first one to get to this one.
00:30:13
Speaker
You're now a different kind of person, but you now are gonna do the you're going to do the hard thing because that is just a way better way to live.
00:30:24
Speaker
you know and And when he goes here, i really think that that Paul is is in effect really reading carefully and channeling through to his Roman audience, really the vast bulk of wisdom literature that's found in the in the Old Testament.
00:30:44
Speaker
You know, those the the Proverbs and the and the Ecclesiastes and um and and many of those those psalms that talk about, you know, that talk about, I love the law of the Lord because he's instructed me.
00:31:01
Speaker
You know, i I live in peace. And it it isn't, you know, and and so it it it isn't that I'm earning God's grace at this point.
00:31:12
Speaker
You know it's not like i'm i'm I'm doing these things so God saves I'm really answering, you know, this this kind of rephrased question. You know the question isn't what do I need to do in order to go to heaven?
00:31:23
Speaker
The question is now what am I going to do now that I'm going to heaven? i love that i love that but God creates everything, everything's perfect, we screw it up, he comes and fixes it but through Christ, but in the meantime, he gives us the Ten Commandments, for example.
00:31:42
Speaker
right when And there's ah schools of thought for Old Testament Israel at times where, know, I am keeping the commandments so that I earn grace, I earn God's favor. When when I die, God sees me keeping the commandments and I get to receive his grace. But the way you phrase it, just that slight shift, I already know when I die, I'm going to experience that. Does that mean that I don't keep the Ten Commandments anymore?
00:32:09
Speaker
I mean, i i I always kind of liken it this way, you know, that, what will you know, um you know so I'm, i'm ah my father was ah was a wonderful, loving father to me.
00:32:27
Speaker
All right. And I know that my dad would have always loved me. My dad has passed away. um But that that i i had he had I had an unconditional love for me.
00:32:42
Speaker
That if if I had ended up being convicted of a crime and sent to prison, my father would have still loved me. You know, what does that inspire you to do?
00:32:55
Speaker
You know, go, you know, hold up a liquor store and get sent to prison? you know You know, it inspires you to do the things that would make your father proud and would would would please him.
00:33:08
Speaker
and And so I think that's kind of where Paul is with this, that we have this, it it isn't that that our lives have been rendered meaningless and empty because grace has taken away that that economy or that that motivation of sin and punishment.
00:33:27
Speaker
Or righteousness and reward. But the fact that and that that that we have been been liberated from that economy of sin and reward and are of sin and punishment and and and righteousness and reward, which are really two two sides of the same coin.
00:33:47
Speaker
That, well, does my life, and Paul says absolutely yes. First of all, that your righteousness, that doing the right thing, that is just a way better way to live. you were going to be way, way happier. Like you say, the diabetic who who monitors his blood sugars and who but you know keeps a track of his his diet and who follows those rules,
00:34:11
Speaker
you know it isn't yeah it is going to have ah just a much happier, less painful, less distressed life.
Slavery to Sin vs. Righteousness
00:34:21
Speaker
And i think yeah it's really I find this really interesting that Paul just goes here with this.
00:34:25
Speaker
He doesn't go to some weird metaphysical ah reality. He goes, no you're yourre just gonna be way happier, way, way happier if you if you do the if you follow righteousness. You got that other stuff? It just it just kills you.
00:34:39
Speaker
It just destroys you. When you were slaves to sin, he wrotedes he writes, to finish this out, you were free in regard to righteousness. Okay? So now he's going to come back a little bit to this identity question.
00:34:52
Speaker
When you were slaves to sin, you were free to righteousness. You you you didn't have to do the righteous thing because you were enslaved to sin. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things which you were now of which you were now ashamed?
00:35:06
Speaker
And the end of those things is death. you were you You had a, quote, freedom.
00:35:14
Speaker
and And I'm sure that there are times where, you know, keeping track of diet and monitoring blood sugars really is a burden. You know, I have family members who are diabetic and i have I have, you know, parishioners who are. And sometimes it can really, it's just, you know, those those kinds of bodily dietary things, that that can really suck.
00:35:38
Speaker
And so would be nice to be free of that. The reality is it's going to kill you.
00:35:45
Speaker
Now that you have been set free from sin and you have become slaves of God, this is who you are. You are a slave of God. The fruit you get leads to sanctification, so to holiness, and its end, that is eternal life.
00:36:06
Speaker
And ah it isn't that that, you know, by doing these things, that means I get eternal life. I have eternal life. But by living out that eternal life, I'm walking that way.
00:36:21
Speaker
And that is simply going to be way better. It's who I am. i own who my new identity is as a slave of God's righteousness.
00:36:32
Speaker
But it is also just way better. And then we get the last verse in here, which is, Probably one of the more famous verses coming out of out of Romans, the whole letter to the Romans, and that is, the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
00:36:55
Speaker
And here we get, we we really get Paul having to lose the slave metaphor because, you know, uh, uh,
00:37:09
Speaker
Slavery is is is just that, it's slavery. and And ultimately what he's really saying to us is, God has given you this free gift, live it. And that that the enslavement to God really is freedom.
00:37:26
Speaker
That is the true freedom, not the not the imagined freedom of of when I simply follow my own desires. but But it is the true freedom. I've heard a really interesting um ah really interesting definition of heaven.
00:37:47
Speaker
And heaven is where that which I want to do and that which I have to do, the difference between those two things goes away. That I'm always doing what I want to do and I'm always doing what I have to do because they're always the same thing.
00:38:08
Speaker
and and and And I think, know, we're going to have to explore next week, you know, how it is that those two things, that right now we live in a time when those two things don't coincide.
00:38:19
Speaker
know, that sometimes what I want to do and the thing that I have to do, they're different. um But I think what I what i really appreciate about this this last question that Paul brings up here in chapter six really is that, that, you know,
00:38:37
Speaker
is is really this this this this location of the answer to that angst question we all have is really rooted in my identity, but also in simply a ah kind of a a reasonable and clear-eyed look at things and say, yeah, I could do that. God's going to still love me. He's going to still forgive me. I don't need to worry about that. But doggone, that's going to just make me and other people really miserable if I do that.
00:39:04
Speaker
So I'm not going to do that. I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna be a cheat. I'm not going to you know i'm not gonna i'm not goingnna cheat on my taxes, even though I could probably get away with it.
00:39:19
Speaker
Because if I do that, and the government gets stiffed out of its money, and everybody starts doing that, the government, then there's no police, and there's no social services for people. you know there's no There's no Medicare and Medicaid, and those things that people really need.
00:39:34
Speaker
in their moments. And, and I'm just creating a whole bunch of death when I do that.
Freedom & Structure
00:39:39
Speaker
And you can have all kinds of arguments about whether, you know, government is spending money wisely or things like that. That's why you have a democracy. You get to vote.
00:39:48
Speaker
Right. Right. But you, you, you, you don't get to say that, that, you know, it would be a lot easier if the government didn't take any of my money and so I'm just not gonna give them any. I'm gonna find every way I can to cheat them out of it, even if it's not legal.
00:40:06
Speaker
And that that's that that's okay because it doesn't matter No, it does. It does matter because we need the government to build streets and sidewalks. We need the government to you know we need the we need the government to have police and ah and ah and to defend us and to do that And if they stop being able to you know send out the food inspectors to inspect the food that's coming into my grocery store and I die of food poisoning, well, Paul says those things lead to death, right?
00:40:37
Speaker
Yes. Well, it's interesting. We're getting ready celebrate, what, 250 years the Declaration of Independence? And even, you know, our our national anthem, the land of the free and the home of the free.
00:40:51
Speaker
And yet, like you were mentioning earlier, where we we don't understand what it's like to live in a Roman culture. i don't think any of us understand what it's like or what it was like to live in revolutionary times. No.
00:41:04
Speaker
and And I don't know, i think over the course of 250 years that i ideal loftiness of of freedom, we've we've missed out on something. And yes, so freedom is is excellent. andm i'm not Again, this isn't a government debate democracy debate. But in some ways, it was more, if i remember my history correctly, they were more upset with the not having representation for their taxes.
00:41:35
Speaker
and And not having a ah leader for their government that was they actually cared and that was engaged with those people. and they wanted And so when we don't remember what that was like, now now we've developed this, well, I'm free to do whatever whatever the heck it is I want. Yeah.
00:41:54
Speaker
And, you know, sure. I mean, there's the, maybe there's places for that. You know, uh, I'm thinking of, I forget what it's called. Uh, you take a whole bunch of old cars and throw them into a a field and everybody just starts driving around and crashing into everybody.
Paul's Teachings: Practical Philosophy
00:42:12
Speaker
Oh, yeah, yeah, demolition derby. Demolition derby. I mean, if if I don't, I mean, sure, I am free. I had the freedom to drive. But if I don't have structures in place.
00:42:23
Speaker
Rules. And rules. Yeah. That somebody helped put in place and enforce. Then just trying to get from my house to the church is going to look like a demolition derby.
00:42:35
Speaker
Yep. And that's knife not going to out enjoyable. Right. right And so we we need, we we we and and so Paul says, yeah, obey obey these rules.
00:42:49
Speaker
So yeah it does make a difference. It means something that you do that. It makes your life and other people's lives just better.
00:42:58
Speaker
Love God and love your neighbor as yourself. Pretty sure somebody once really important said that. Yeah. Indeed.
00:43:07
Speaker
Well, Matthew, did you, you know, i I really like I really enjoy Paul's letter. All right. I just i just find that that time spent thinking about this thing has always really benefited me. um it's it's always made It's always made my life, I think, a better thing.
00:43:29
Speaker
that Luther says this is probably outside of the Gospels. o One book that should be read just as much. Yep. for for the edification of the individual believer and then also for the church.
00:43:43
Speaker
Well, and i I think we have sometimes, you know, really lost sight of the fact that that there there have been all of these people who qualify as philosophers over the ages, you know, Plato and Aristotle and John Locke and ah Hobbes and and Kant and, um you know, people like that.
00:44:07
Speaker
I think Paul really belongs in terms of, of a practical theolo, a practical philosopher really belongs to be numbered in that, that bunch. I mean, it may be higher than that bunch, you know, that, that yes that, that he really is saying things that are just eminently practical for people.
00:44:29
Speaker
And I don't want to reduce Christianity to practicality. And and I don't think Paul does either, but, but that, That doesn't take away from the fact that it's there.
00:44:40
Speaker
And it's really useful that that our world would be so much better if people just kept the 10 commandments or at least try to.
00:44:51
Speaker
And. um
00:44:56
Speaker
Right. Well, I mean, Paul's also writing this 2000 years ago, almost at a point in time where there's a big change and how God's creation understands who God is.
Final Reflections & Importance
00:45:13
Speaker
And so I don't, yeah, it's, you're not reducing anything to just practicality. But for Paul's audience, what does this mean? yes you know, God presents himself through Jesus, in Jesus, and Jesus is God. ah but but now what?
00:45:34
Speaker
right I died on the cross for my sins. We need the practical. We need the divine. we need and this This is practically divine. and Well, and and that God is very concerned about, like I said, the mundane in life. really He's really interested in in the living of it.
00:45:57
Speaker
but We should probably wrap up. We've been on here long enough. We'll tax our audiences um abilities, our our willingness to listen to us if we keep going. to ah propp Probably want to give them a break. So until next week.
00:46:15
Speaker
Yeah. All right. Have a blessed one and a wonderful Sunday at church. You as well, Matthew. All right.
00:46:27
Speaker
Okay.
00:46:32
Speaker
I think it would be good before I start the next one if I, uh, I did a quick bathroom break. um yeah let's ah Let's go do that. Sounds good.