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This Sunday Podcast
23 Plays5 days ago
S1:E12
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Transcript
Introduction to Romans 7
00:00:02
Speaker
Greetings and welcome to another episode of This Sunday Podcast. I am Pastor Matthew Hardaway. Alongside me is Dr. Philip Brandt. This week we are going to be looking at the reading from Romans chapter 7 verses 1 through 13. This is for the fifth Sunday after Pentecost. So as always, I'll start with the collect of the day and then let Dr. Brandt open or start our discussion. We pray.
00:00:31
Speaker
Almighty God, by the working of your Holy Spirit, grant that we may gladly hear your word proclaimed among us and follow its directing. Through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
00:00:48
Speaker
Amen. Amen.
The Meaning of Life Under Grace
00:00:57
Speaker
So we're at we're in Romans chapter 7 here. And we're going to start at the first verse. And this is one of the places where I really think that the ah the modern Bibles that we read do us a ah real disservice.
00:01:17
Speaker
Because we get this big number seven and we get a new chapter and we have a penchant for just starting with the first verse in the chapter.
00:01:28
Speaker
But this These first oh six verses or so are really the continuation of Paul's answer to the question that we started last week in verse 15 of chapter 6, where he's asking, do we does our life have any meaning?
00:01:50
Speaker
You know does
Liberation from Sin Through Christ
00:01:51
Speaker
it matter? Now that we're we're bathed in grace, does it matter if we sin or not? And... um And Paul's going to go into kind of an extended illustration of of what he's trying to get at here. and ah And he's really just picking up exactly where he left off last week.
00:02:14
Speaker
Remember, Paul doesn't write this book with any chapter breaks in it. And the verse breaks or anything like that. but That's all relatively recent, um or at least more recent than the letter. And so when when we start off here with, or don't you know, brothers?
00:02:32
Speaker
Well, that's telling you that you got to go back up and and see what was in there before. And so what what he said last week was, you know, in in in his first part of that answer was, don't you know that, you know, you do you don't want to just go on sinning because that's going to lead to death. That's going to make you miserable.
00:02:50
Speaker
You are going to be a um you're goingnna be ah you're going to be a really unhappy camper if you if you live that way. um that That shameful old, your obedience to those shameful things, those things you are now ashamed of, was destroying you.
00:03:05
Speaker
Why would you want to keep doing that? You don't want to do that. Those are unhealthy. Those are terrible for you. Or don't you know, brothers, and here we pick up with today's reading, for I'm speaking to those who know the law, that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives.
00:03:24
Speaker
And so now he's going to come more into that kind of a metaphysical, theological kind of argumentation that that maybe we're a little more used to when we read Paul. I mean, last week was just kind of like self-serving almost.
00:03:38
Speaker
Well, you don't want to do that. that's You're just going unhappy if you do that. Well, now we're going to talk about a little more of this kind of a freedom peace ah The law is binding on a person only as long as he lives. Thus, a married woman is bound but by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage.
00:04:03
Speaker
Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive, but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man, she's not an adulteress.
00:04:14
Speaker
And so, Paul, I have to admit, yeah I sometimes wonder if Paul had better days than others when he's writing. You know, that that this is not actually, I don't think, maybe one of Paul's strongest illustrations.
00:04:30
Speaker
But um the point is pretty clear that that by what Christ has done in Christ dying on a cross and rising again for us, that that you are kind of in this status a little bit like this widow.
00:04:47
Speaker
um that That you have been liberated from that coercive power that sin had over you in your pre-baptismal state.
00:05:04
Speaker
that That you are no longer in ah in a place where you are bound to that old way. um
Significance of Mundane Actions in God's Presence
00:05:15
Speaker
You've been, you know, like this this this widow, this imagined widow can now is open to, free to marry another person. You likewise are free now to live another kind of life.
00:05:30
Speaker
So and that's what that's what Paul is is getting at here. um It's just, it's kind of hard because, you know, the the whole idea of, okay, her husband died. Well, who was our husband before? The law hasn't died.
00:05:43
Speaker
You know, and well, the the application of this one is just a little looser than, you can't make it into an allegory. You've just got to make it into ah an illustration of the point. And that is simply that that that we as as Christians um have been set free from the bound the the bondage, the the the servitude that we that we used to have Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ. So now you, again, this is where the metaphor kind of, you you just have to be careful. Oh, you died now. Okay.
00:06:25
Speaker
um So that you may belong to another, to whom to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. And now we get we get another, i think, really important thing about why our lives really matter.
00:06:46
Speaker
Why what we say and what we do is is important for the um important for the living our life, that that that our our words and our deeds are just important.
00:07:09
Speaker
While we were living in our flesh, our sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit and for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive so that we serve not under the old written code, but in the new life of the spirit.
00:07:28
Speaker
And so if in the old it was that old law and that old sin that was at work in us, now there is something else at work in us. And it is that my life through the Holy Spirit, through baptism is connected to Christ.
00:07:47
Speaker
And here's where I am always and ever. um but in But in this instance, particularly, I'm so glad I'm a Lutheran.
00:08:00
Speaker
um ah Because Luther's doctrine of vocation in which he says that, you know God is at work in this world.
00:08:13
Speaker
He's doing, he's active. He's not simply a, ah he's not simply a, um ah ah passive deistic kind of God off in the distance, you know, ah watching the world as sort of the the ultimate and NSA observer of things that are going on. But no, God is down in the nitty gritty of it. He's in the mundane of our lives.
00:08:42
Speaker
and And you go, well, I don't see him. Where is he? Well, he puts on people as a mask. okay he he He kind of hides himself inside those mundane people that are in our lives.
00:08:58
Speaker
So that my child can be speaking God's grace to me. My spouse can be doing it. And now i can be doing that to other people.
00:09:10
Speaker
And that these human interactions that are the stuff of everyday life, whether that's weeding my garden, whether that's taking the trash out, whether that's painting my house, maybe it's maybe it's cleaning, maybe it's it's caring for an ah ailing relative, whatever.
00:09:34
Speaker
Those actions become the presence of God now in our lives. So now my life has taken on a whole new significance.
00:09:48
Speaker
That that when we were when we were separated from that old marriage we had, and to to use that metaphor, that marriage we had to the to the ah to to sin and death, and that we were made we were widowed from that, we now have become, we we haven't just been been um left with an empty spot.
00:10:19
Speaker
it's It's not that God has taken away our sins and left us as a blank slate.
00:10:27
Speaker
It's much more the case that he has displaced our sins with himself. That he has come and by taking up residence in our heart and in our mind, our life itself, he has he has he has occupied that space and that forces out that sinfulness.
00:10:51
Speaker
And the more we talk about that that presence of God within us, the less attractive and the less power those sins have over us. And that we are we are a we are now, our lives become not merely, as we talked last week, sort of, well, you're just going to be a lot happier if you keep the rules.
00:11:15
Speaker
You know, that you're just there's just, you know, you know Don't put your hand on a hot stove. That's going to burn. Right? that's That's just wisdom.
00:11:28
Speaker
But now what we're going to notice is that God is, in fact, making my life important because he's he' dwelling in me. He's part of me. and And he has taken up residence inside my heart. So
The Law and Its Impact on Human Nature
00:11:43
Speaker
that's what he talks about, this new life of the Spirit. Right?
00:11:47
Speaker
it's This is not ah an equal argument, it's a a lesser argument, but ah i taught we talked last week about being held and bound by rules of employment if you have a desire to earn safe money and and spend.
00:12:07
Speaker
um I can't tell you the number of different types of employment I have had that I have not enjoyed. Just every day drudgery and you don't want to wake up. You don't want to go in it just my ah ra last week I said I didn't want to include being a pastor in that role. And again, this isn't an equal argument, but this role is one that's free from all that drudgery.
00:12:34
Speaker
Even though I'm still bound, like there's Sunday mornings, I wake up and I am totally tired and I don't feel well. And I'll jokingly tell the kind or congregation, I get The only reason I'm here is because y'all are paying me. You know, there are some days like that, but I am free from that because it's almost like somebody once said, or it's said a lot, they all cliche. If you do it, if you find a job that you love doing, it's not a job.
00:13:03
Speaker
Yep. Yeah, I had a good friend who was ah who was ah a corporate pilot. He made really good money being a pilot. um But he also said, I i just love flying.
00:13:15
Speaker
you know I love being behind the you know the controls or at the controls of an airplane. And and that that thrill of taking off and that kind of freedom of, you know there's no curb.
00:13:31
Speaker
Right wherever. He said, that's that's still a rush for me. yeah And yeah he had a yeah, he had that job that that enabled him to to do what he loved.
00:13:46
Speaker
Now, of course, he still had to go through all of those checks on his plane. He still had to do all of the, he had to file his flight plans. He had to do all of those things that a pilot has to do because he didn't want to die a pilot.
00:14:04
Speaker
He didn't want his plane to fall out of the sky because he hadn't kept the rules. but um But yet the doing of those things was just such a joy. And yeah, I think that that that this can become something way more. That all of a sudden those things that the world thinks of as drudgery, right? The the the taking care of my neighbor.
00:14:30
Speaker
the um the the The taking care of my children. You know, i mean, look at the way the world today talks about being a parent. Right. and And is it any wonder that a lot of young people are saying, yeah, I don't want have kids.
00:14:48
Speaker
Because we've we've we've told them it's expensive, it's hard work, it's misery. You're not going to get any sleep. You're going to hate it. and And where do we talk about, you know, where where do we talk about, oh, but you're also going to know a love that that you will get nowhere else.
00:15:07
Speaker
yes And ah but you know and and i think there's maybe the the other side of this is, that and that's I think what Paul is talking about right here is that that that you're gonna do those good things now because you're going to you're going to experience God working through you.
00:15:28
Speaker
And that is going to be a complete rush. It may not be a rush in the moment you're doing it. It may feel like work when you're doing it. And you're going to look back on that and you're to oh, wow.
00:15:41
Speaker
I just saw God. And he was in me.
00:15:48
Speaker
and And perhaps, well, and definitely, hopeful hopefully in your child as well. apart From that parenting. Mind of thought.
00:15:59
Speaker
I saw video, you know, just short little silly little social media video. yeah Guys laying down in bed it's like when it's 10 o'clock and you finally are suddenly in to get comfortable and your teenager decides they want to bake a cake.
00:16:14
Speaker
And he shoots up. He's like, ah. I sent it to my family because my my our oldest daughter loves to bake. And and yeah, I can think of a ton of times where like, I am tired. Would you guys just get ready for bed? And I thought that maybe for a moment. Who's in the kitchen banging and clanging? you know It was my daughter. And what was she doing it for? She was doing it to celebrate her little sister. She was making a cake for the fellowship hour after church, before Sunday school, to celebrate her baby sister's baptismal birthday.
00:16:49
Speaker
o I thought, oh, wow. okay That is just, okay, cool. Can I help you with the cake in any way, shape, or form? or or right now I'm feeling like a real jerk because I thought those things. that Oh yeah, there's always that. who um So that's kind of the second half or even maybe the the third part of the answer that Paul gives to that earlier question.
00:17:15
Speaker
Does my life really matter? should i Should I just keep sinning because it doesn't matter anymore? I'm under grace. and and And Paul goes, no, no, not at all. Um,
00:17:28
Speaker
your life your life has become just like connected to the very throne of God. And so washing your dishes has now become a a moment of just cosmic significance.
00:17:42
Speaker
but No, no, no, no, not washing dishes. No. Because Jesus, Jesus has taken up residence in your life. And so those minor little things, yeah I mean, he was a tekton, a carpenter, right? he He built houses probably for a living, you know, pounding um pounding beams into place and and setting bricks and doing those things that that that people who did that job did in the ancient world with his father, Joseph.
00:18:18
Speaker
He took those, you know, he has occupied those mundane things of life. He was a child. He was a neighbor. He was a friend. He was he was he was embedded into a family.
00:18:30
Speaker
All of that stuff is is now occupied by Christ. And in taking up residence in my life through the Spirit, he's occupying all of those things in my life, too.
00:18:44
Speaker
So then he asks this next question. What should we say then? But now we get another one of these questions. Is the law sin? So is the law, is if if if I'm doing something because I have to, does that make it wrong?
00:19:07
Speaker
So if I'm, you know, in in in the earlier question, oh, now i my my life that I live in my obedience to the righteousness of God, this is a this is a good thing. But now I've got those, I still have those rules.
00:19:22
Speaker
I still have those that those those, that law that tells me what I'm supposed to do. and And if I'm doing those things because I'm supposed to, you talked about it earlier, all i I got to get up and go to church today because, well, they they pay me. um Is that, is that therefore a wrong thing? And he goes, by no means. Those, these questions all have the same answer. By no means.
00:19:46
Speaker
Right. Yet. If it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, you shall not covet.
00:19:57
Speaker
But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. And apart from the law, sin lies dead. And so what he's acknowledging that that that the law has a really weird effect on us.
00:20:16
Speaker
that and and you And you're a parent, you know this. That as soon as you say don't do that, what is your kid going to do? Try to do it. They're going try and do it. And there is this weird, perverse fascination that that children and adults have with the forbidden.
00:20:38
Speaker
And that that the law has this this ability to to do this weird thing to us whereby we become, it almost makes us into more sinful.
00:20:49
Speaker
And paul Paul's acknowledging that. He says, the law does this, has this weird effect on me and on you. i mean, I was once alive apart from the law.
00:21:01
Speaker
And he's imagining that that that life before the law comes to us. But when the commandment came, It awoken. its Sin came alive. It awoken something inside of me.
00:21:14
Speaker
And in that moment, I died.
00:21:18
Speaker
i I perished in that. The very commandment that promised me life, do this and you will live, proved to be death to me.
00:21:31
Speaker
Because not only could I not do it when I was oriented properly toward God, but what's more, what happened is that because of this weird fascination I have with the forbidden, i it actually almost turned me away from doing the right thing.
00:21:50
Speaker
For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me. And through it, it killed me.
00:21:59
Speaker
So the law is good. The commandment is holy and righteous and good.
00:22:10
Speaker
Did that which is good then bring death to me? No, by no means. That was sin. Producing death in me through what is good in order that sin might be shown to be sin.
00:22:23
Speaker
And through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. And so here Paul, in in this in this section
Human Brokenness and the Need for Christ
00:22:33
Speaker
of of Romans is he's going to take us now into this into this reality that we all live in.
00:22:42
Speaker
And, um you know, if if in chapter six, he's really addressing the, the, the, the The regenerate Christian, that that person who rises up from the waters of baptism, the person that is on the on the up escalator going to heaven, okay, because Christ has died for their sins. What is that person saying? Here in chapter 7, he's going to start to say, but yeah, but there's still that old stinker who's clinging tightly to me.
00:23:15
Speaker
And and we'll we'll explore that a little more next week with a you know the good that I want to do. That's the very thing that I don't do. That that reality that that encompasses us all. But um what he's doing here today is is really explaining that that that this good thing, this wisdom, you know do these things and live, that that has a weird perverse effect on on our humanity and, uh, that, that part of our brokenness and, and, and what he's really revealing in this is just the extent to which we are broken.
00:23:58
Speaker
Jesus did not come to pat the marginally alive on the head and say, good job. mean, he came to raise the dead.
00:24:10
Speaker
And, ah And I think we oftentimes like to imagine that that that God really likes us as we are. and and and we are far too content to, you know, we we we have a tendency to say, well, I'm going to avoid, you know, the the big the big self-destructive things. I'm not going to murder somebody. I'm not going to have an affair. I'm not going to, know, I'm not going to do whatever. I'm not going to become a thief and, you know, get sent to prison or something like that. And so that makes me somehow that my life is pretty comfortable and pretty pretty worthwhile.
00:24:48
Speaker
and that And that what I really need is is some cosmetic work on God's part. You know, i need I need this bum knee that I have to get repaired. I need, you know, my my ah my my occasional, i but you know, my my my small vices. I need God to help me with. But but by and large, leave me as I am.
00:25:11
Speaker
And and what's what he's going to really, is he's going to say is here that no, this this God is not in the remodeling business. Okay?
00:25:22
Speaker
God is in the scrape and rebuild.
00:25:26
Speaker
and And he's come to slay the sinner in baptism. And then and i think it's really important to remember that this all started out in chapter 6. Don't you know that we died with Jesus?
00:25:40
Speaker
And And that this passage is is really remembering why it is that I needed to die. Because that old human being, as soon as God comes and says, live this way,
00:25:56
Speaker
I'm going to screw that up.
00:26:00
Speaker
I'm just going to mess that up. That that the that the law, which is holy and good, my human nature is going to turn into an instrument of death.
00:26:15
Speaker
and ah And so I don't say that the law is bad, but I say that what I do with it is bad.
00:26:26
Speaker
Our sinful nature wants to say that the law is bad. Yeah. It's not me. It's it's the outside outside external force being pressed against me. Right.
00:26:40
Speaker
And when he says, you know, we were talking about you tell somebody not to do something and they have that perverse desire to do it. We talked last week, I think it was made earlier in this podcast about the the person who cheats on their taxes.
00:26:53
Speaker
There's a rule to follow. But, ooh, like, I could say $500 if I just don't report this. ah And we we are our sinful self just completely ignores fourth commandment, honor your father and mother and the authorities that are placed above you. Forget that doing what is good doesn't just benefit you, it benefits your neighbor. Mm-hmm.
00:27:18
Speaker
Forget that cheating on your taxes is not where you should be having a discussion with your government if you think a tax is unfair. We had this fascination of getting away with it.
00:27:31
Speaker
Yeah. And then if we get away with it one time. Oh, well then I can get away with it again. Well, I like how, I like, i mean, Paul brings up this issue of covetousness in here.
00:27:46
Speaker
and And we've turned covetousness into a virtue. You know? I mean because, I mean, what is really, what what is coveting? I mean, i I ask this question to people regularly, and um and and they almost always come with, well, it means I'm really wanting something.
00:28:04
Speaker
like Well, that's, you know, that's not really coveting. There's nothing wrong with, you know, me walking by a by some you know walking by somebody's brand new car, and saying, oh, I would really like a car like that, and going down to the car dealer and buying one.
00:28:21
Speaker
I have not coveted yet.
00:28:25
Speaker
When it becomes covetousness is when is really when it starts to, when my attitude toward that car and toward my neighbor's car gets all upside down and backwards and janky.
00:28:43
Speaker
All right? i
The Pervasive Nature of Sin and Redemption
00:28:46
Speaker
A number of years ago, my my neighbor, he has a business. All right. And his business was doing really well.
00:28:55
Speaker
And so he went and ah got for his wife a birthday present. He bought her a brand new Volvo. Beautiful, beautiful car. And, you know, mean, I'm at this point, I'm driving a, I'm driving a,
00:29:10
Speaker
a Honda Odyssey minivan, you know, that's got a lot of miles on it because I can't afford, you know, coveting in that kind of a situation, know, I'm probably not going to, I'm not going to steal his car because he would see it parked in my driveway and he'd turn me into the police. I'm not going to steal. not going to break the seventh commandment, the stealing commandment. I'm going to break the, I'm going to break the coveting commandment.
00:29:40
Speaker
And what that that's going to talk about is my attitude towards So what am I going to do? you know if i if i'm if i'm Well, I'm going to walk over there. I'm going to steal his joy of it. I'm going to walk over there. I'm going to say, oh oh, I heard those vulvas. They got a lot of problems.
00:29:57
Speaker
you know They got mechanical issues. Or I heard that yeah they don't get very good gas mileage or something like that. i'm goingnna or Or I'm going to ask how much. going say, well, you got it at this dealer. I heard they got a much better deal over there.
00:30:10
Speaker
yeah I'm going to somehow just diminish the man's joy out of having the thing. is And that's that's where coveting shows up. It's in this kind of hyper-competitive life that we live that that I imagine that when I go into ah i go into a ah transaction with my neighbor and and I kind of take advantage of him, you know,
00:30:36
Speaker
yeah you've you've got you You showed me you've got these guitars on your wall over there. You go down to the guitar dealer, you buy a new one, and and are you buy you're in they're buying a used guitar, and you this you realize this person doesn't realize that this guitar is actually really valuable.
00:30:53
Speaker
you know This is a really valuable instrument. It was made by some famous guitar maker, but they just think it's a regular guitar, and so they're going to sell it to you for $50, and you realize that thing's worth $2,000.
00:31:05
Speaker
And so what do you do? You give them the 50 bucks and you run before they figure it out, right? and And you snicker to yourself, oh, I got the best of them.
00:31:16
Speaker
you know, that's coveting.
00:31:20
Speaker
That's what coveting is. You haven't broken any law, even stolen. But you sought to take advantage of your neighbor. Right, and our world says, wow, you got a great deal.
00:31:31
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah. The world world turns you into the into the hero and the other guy into the sucker in that situation. you know so And in essence, aren't you, in some ways, though, also breaking the seventh commandment?
00:31:48
Speaker
Because you, in and a sense, stole $1,950 from your neighbor. Sure. In a sense, you could you could argue that. But, I mean, legally, you haven't stolen anything. Spiritually, though. Spiritually. very you know but yeah The guy has agreed to the
00:32:09
Speaker
price you haven't You haven't cheated him out of his... I mean, you you've you both agreed on a price. You just happen to know that it's it's a foolish decision on his part.
00:32:22
Speaker
um you So here I am with my neighbor in his car again. And he's got an 18-year-old son at this point. And I look out a few weeks after he buys the new car for his wife and I look out and his son drives a a little white Honda Civic, I think it was.
00:32:42
Speaker
And, you know pretty, pretty basic car. And I look out there and and the whole front right fender of that Civic is crumpled up. He's been in a fender bender accident, you know, you know, where's coveting show up here? Well, it's not that, you know,
00:32:59
Speaker
and I think what it means is that I'm kind of laughing into my cornflakes as I look out the window and see my neighbors, you know, his car has been, been damaged and I go, ha.
00:33:10
Speaker
Yeah. So I, I really think, you know, coveting is where we, we flip those two reactions, you know, that, that, that, that when my neighbor bought the new car, my reaction should have been to rejoice with him in this, in this cool new thing that he was able, this, this gift he was able to give to his wife.
00:33:28
Speaker
And and when when my neighbor's son has ah has a fender bender and comes home with a crumpled up fender on his on his car, I should grieve with my neighbor.
00:33:39
Speaker
mean, oh, that's too bad. I'm sorry to hear that. yeah It's when we kind of flip those things. When I when i can't have joy at my neighbor's joy, and when and and being a good German, we have this word for it, Schadenfreude, which is where I have joy at my neighbor's suffering,
00:33:59
Speaker
um that's, that's coveting, but we've turned those two things. I mean, look at how much, how much of our, of our, like our, our, to watch television, how much humor isn't actually laughing at somebody else's misfortune.
00:34:18
Speaker
You know, and And I think what what Paul's doing in this section of Romans is really bringing to the surface just how messed up we really are.
00:34:33
Speaker
These things we think are normal and good, and these things that we believe are are in fact um just, well, life, right?
00:34:47
Speaker
we'll go Paul goes, no, no, these are all broken. This is all. I think that's why he goes to that last commandment, that coveting commandment, you know, which we, and the Romans, by the way, also, they they really felt like taking advantage of your neighbor was the sign of wisdom, was the sign of being successful.
00:35:13
Speaker
that is That is when you know you've arrived, is when you can totally screw your neighbor over. And um i think paul Paul is really saying,
00:35:24
Speaker
Yeah. that's That's just really messed up, guys. Sinful beyond measure. Yeah. yeah yeah And he said the wages of sin is death.
00:35:38
Speaker
um But the free gift of God is eternal life. and and
Transformation and Salvation Through Christ
00:35:47
Speaker
and And so in this this section, and it's going to play out, you you again, we're we're These are called pericopes. And what that that word literally means is to cut around.
00:35:58
Speaker
um And what we've done is we've taken this text, we've cut around it and lifted it up and we're just looking at this piece. It needs the part that goes before and the part that goes after. Because, you know, as we as we read into next week just a little bit, you know it's going to be that that famous sort wrestling match that Paul sees. He says, oh, I look at myself. I'm really messed up. I can't.
00:36:20
Speaker
I just, the good that I, I want to do the good, but I don't. i can't. and the and the And the bad thing that I don't really want to do just find myself doing that all the time. know, at the end of it, he's finally going to say, who's going to rescue me from this body of death?
00:36:37
Speaker
Praise be to the Lord Jesus Christ.
00:36:41
Speaker
It's going to be Jesus. There's only one way out.
00:36:47
Speaker
There's only one way out of this. And and and and that's kind of that's going to involve God. That if I don't have that answer to this conundrum that he's raised, I'm just, you know, I'll never live that life he describes in chapter 6.
00:37:10
Speaker
I'll never be that. Without his, without Jesus. I got have
00:37:19
Speaker
that. So this first half of chapter seven, this is tough. This is a hard sermon to preach.
00:37:29
Speaker
You kind of kind of want to be looking ahead there or looking back a little bit and figure out, well, how, but yeah, it's, it's a, It's got a really strong um thing to say to to all of us as human beings that that might imagine that god God's fairly happy with me. You know, that that God's idea of heaven is kind of, I don't know, suburban suburban Lutheran. Well, yeah.
00:38:02
Speaker
well and
00:38:06
Speaker
front her i I am so thankful to be not just Lutheran, and and I'm not one usually to jump on
00:38:19
Speaker
denomination bashing conversations. It's just that I don't like it at all. ah But it does irk me when you have church bodies that avoid this.
00:38:35
Speaker
is and and and start to, as a as a church body with church leadership, um teach contrary to this and teach the the God loves you just as you are. Yeah, there's sin. Yeah, you're going to mess up a little bit here there. But but and just but you're missing the the the absolute corrupt nature of what the fall did to And ultimately what you're also missing then is the energy that comes out of the graciousness that God shows to a fallen, broken creation. Right. That if you make salvation small, if you make sin small, you make salvation small.
00:39:20
Speaker
Right. Well, I want to make sin small because that way I don't have to work hard at it. that Well, that's right. then then my then Then the salvation becomes something of a matter of indifference to me.
00:39:31
Speaker
So, yeah. That's a tough text. It's a tough text, but it's a really, really necessary one. And one that that has to come back again and again to us. that that Yeah,
00:39:48
Speaker
I really needed that Jesus. He does. and And this isn't just a ah ah small cosmetic thing that he's doing for me. This is, he's not in the remodel business. He's not saying, oh, the the house has good bones. We'll just, you know, put ah put some new cabinets in or or replace the replace the the appliances. We'll be good.
00:40:12
Speaker
No, it's it's bring the bulldozer in in the water of baptism, slay the sinner, and raise up raise up the new one. Right. It's definitely not cosmetic. Dare I say more cosmic?
00:40:27
Speaker
Mm-hmm. yet just you know the the battle that's being waged for us yeah that we perceive but we don't know just how awful that battle is this is i think paul yep trying trying to to get into it and and help us see Yeah, we we are where worth trying to find the the appropriate way of saying it, but I have my mom's way of saying in my head. um we're I'll just i want go an awful one here. We're just SOL.
00:41:06
Speaker
Without Christ, but with Christ and baptism and his grace and his mercy and his forgiveness, then we we get to live a life that bears fruit, leading to repentance and salvation.
00:41:25
Speaker
Right, which I think, you know, comes back to them really the first part of this lesson, and that is that that that it is through the presence of that Holy Spirit, that that new life in the Spirit, that presence of Christ, that that renders all of my life cosmically significant, um is also now going to be the thing that renders my life
00:41:47
Speaker
eternal it's going be the thing that renders my life holy because because it isn't because christ doesn't take up residence in my life be because's because my life was particularly good no it's because he's gracious and because he's god sounds like matthew chapter 9. it does Just a little bit.
00:42:17
Speaker
He eats
Conclusion and Preview of Next Episode
00:42:18
Speaker
with sinners and tax collectors. How dare he? oh Or even luke the end of Luke 15 where by the time you get to the end of it, both brothers are lost. They're all they're all screwed.
00:42:38
Speaker
Matthew, it was fun. Yes, always is. Thank you for carving out time to do this and
00:42:47
Speaker
We'll see you a week. Pick up with the rest of ah rest of Romans chapter 7.
00:42:54
Speaker
Pray hard. It's a little bit easier to preach. Yep. So pray hard, preach well. Usually in that order.
00:43:06
Speaker
Usually. or at the same time. All right. Well, sir, you have a blessed week. And you too. right.