The Feast of the Transfiguration of our Lord
August 6, 2017
Romans 7:1-6
The Rev. M. Anthony Seel
Green Arrow Living
Last Sunday in worship at Landmark Church in Binghamton, Pastor Dan Little projected a storm cloud onto the screen behind and above him. He showed us what was behind the storm cloud – a number of grey arrows representing those who live by their own devices, making it up for themselves, living by their own rules, ways, and passions.
By doing so, they were moving further and further away from God.
Grey arrow people encourage others to join them with promises of fun, excitement, freedom, love, exhilaration, joy, friendship, and happiness. They’ll tell you that whatever you want is found in the direction they’re headed.
A green arrow appeared on the screen facing in the opposition direction of the grey arrows. The green arrow said to the grey arrows, “you’re going the wrong way. There is no real fun, freedom, love, joy, or happiness in that direction. That is the way to destruction and death.”
“Turn around and come with me to find true freedom, love, joy, happiness and eternal life.”
Many of those who are passing up by believe that the church is full of killjoys, intent on stripping out of this life all the fun, excitement, joy, and happiness. To them, we’re the people who live according to a rule book that deadens life, makes it dull, boring, and not worth living.
We’re the legalists, moralists, or even worse, fundamentalists.
Except that we’re not. That’s not what the Christian life is about.
Law within the domain of religion can only take us so far. In Romans, the Apostle Paul has been speaking about God’s law on and off since chapter 2. Chapter 7 begins,
v. 1 Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives?
Paul picks up where he left off in chapter 6 and addresses brothers in the generic sense, meaning brothers and sisters, that is, every Christian.
When Paul wrote to the church in Rome following his third missionary journey, he was writing to a mixed church of Jews and non-Jews. He addresses the entire church, even the non-Jewish converts to the Christian faith as those who had at least some knowledge of the Jewish law.
Paul states that God’s law is binding on all persons until we die. The law sets up boundaries for everyone in their sin-bound condition. Paul highlights one aspect of Jewish law in verses 2 and 3.
vv. 2-3 For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. 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 is not an adulteress.
According to Jewish law, the legal status of wives was that they were not allowed to divorce their husbands or to remarry while their husband was still living. Jewish law did permit widowed women to remarry, but otherwise, remarriage of women was forbidden.
Of course, in the grey arrow world, husbands and wives are free to divorce for many different reasons, and come reasons are certainly legitimate. Paul uses the Jewish law of marriage as an illustration for another way of life that is described in verse 4.
v.4 Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God.
Those who have received Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord have died to the law. In Paul’s illustration, the law with all its requirements died with the crucifixion of Christ. Our old selves, those selves controlled by our sinful nature died with Christ on the cross when we received Jesus as our Savior.
Once we receive Jesus as Savior, we belong to the Risen Lord who gives us the Holy Spirit to guide our lives. God’s purpose in uniting us to His Son is so that we can bear fruit.
The two apple trees in our backyard bear fruit about every other year. Last year, we had no apples. This year, it looks like we are going to have a good crop of apples. When conditions are right, we get a lot of apples; when conditions are not quite right, we get none.
The blueberry bush in our backyard bears fruit every year to the delight of birds, chipmunks, and squirrels.
If an apple tree never bore any fruit, would it really be an apple tree? If a blueberry bush never bore any blueberries, would it really be a blueberry bush?
Ecologists speak about biotic potential. They define it as the “inherent capacity of an organism or species to reproduce and survive.” [Christian Schwarz, Natural Church Development, p. 10]
No machine can do that.
When the biotic principle of apple trees is realized, we get apples. When the biotic principle of blueberry bushes is realized, we get blueberries.
When the biotic principle of Christians is realized, we bear fruit for God.
God’s purpose for fruit-bearing Christians brings us back to Jesus’ own words in John, chapter 15. Jesus said,
vv. 1-2, 5 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit… I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”
We receive life from God; it is a gift. As Christians, we draw life from God by abiding in Christ, the true vine. As a branch draws life from a vine, we draw life from Christ.
As we remain in Christ by faith, our relationship with Him allows Him to feed into our lives the knowledge and love of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The evidence for our remaining in Christ is fruit, good fruit, fruit that lasts. We cannot bear good fruit apart from our abiding in Christ. Jesus makes this clear, saying, “apart from me you can do nothing” (v. 5).
Apart from Christ, we are dead in our trespasses and sins. In Christ, we are united to God, brought into the community of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and given true life. What does it mean to abide in Christ?
First, it means that we are connected to Him. We connect with Jesus through faith when we receive Him as our Savior and Lord.
Second, abiding in Christ means drawing our life from Him. We do this by yielding our lives to the Holy Spirit within us and allowing the Holy Spirit to empower and direct us.
Third, it means using the means of grace that God has given us to grow in Christ. I was struck by our first reading today from Exodus. As Moses descended from Mount Sinai, we’re told that “the skin of his face shone because he had been talking to God.”
That was a physical demonstration of the power of spending time with God. People will notice something different about you after you’ve spent time with God. Green arrow people radiate with God’s love.
God gives us the means of grace to grow His presence within us. Those means of grace are the Bible, prayer, worship, fellowship with other Christians, and the sacraments.
Mostly, abiding with Christ means just spending time with Him. Relationships grow as we spend time together. As we spend time in Scripture, prayer, and worship, our relationship with God will grow.
As we respond to Jesus in faith, being obedient to His Word to us, we will grow even more. Jesus did say, “if you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love” (John 15:10). It really doesn’t do any good to hear Jesus speak in Scripture and ignore what He’s said to us.
The evidence for belonging to Christ if fruit – that’s what Romans 7:4 says. The fruit in our lives shows whether or not we belong to Jesus.
Good fruit comes from Christians who abide in Christ. Good fruit are good deeds and righteous living. All that honors and pleases God is good fruit. Paul contrasts this good fruit with bad fruit in verse 5.
v. 5 For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death.
Living in the flesh is a description of our before Christ days. Before we received Christ as Savior and Lord, we lived according to the flesh, that is, according to “our sinful passions.” Before we surrendered our lives to God, our lives were ruled by sin.
Before Christ, we had a propensity for sin. Paul says that that propensity was “aroused by the law.”
Quick! Don’t think about pink elephants.
Do not visualize a unicorn.
Do not eat the cookies in the cookie jar (where is that cookie jar, anyway?).
John Calvin understood our human condition well. God’s law gives us a clear standard, but we rebel against it. Because of our corrupted nature, God’s law inflames within us “lustful desires.” Calvin says, “perversity and lust break forth with greater fury, the more they are held back by the restraints of righteousness.” [Commentary on Romans, p. 141]
You know about that – every one of us has experienced that. Without God’s Spirit at work within us, that is our life predicament. With God at work within us, we can serve God and bear good fruit. That what the “new life of the Spirit” is about.
The fruit of our wrongdoing is death, spiritual death followed by physical death. That’s the bad news. The good news is in verse 6.
v. 6 But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.
Through Jesus Christ, we are released from the judgment of God although we have repeatedly broken His law and are deserving of His wrath. By the grace of God, we are made right with God by Jesus Christ His Son so that we can now serve God in the power of the Holy Spirit.
This life continually gives us two choices – we can serve sin and the devil, or we can serve God. It’s either one or the other. Without God at work within us, we cannot serve God. With God at work within us, we can serve Him.
I read a memoir this week written by a man that I have admired. This man did much good. He gave millions of dollars away to charity. He financially supported hospitals and children’s charities. In his memoir, there is not one mention of God. I was reminded of the words of the prophet Isaiah, who says that our good works are like filthy rags before God (Isaiah 64:6). God who is perfect in all ways is not impressed by our good works.
By the power of the Holy Spirit within us, we can live into the newness of life that only God can give. As Paul says in Romans, chapter 8, “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.” It is by following where the Spirit leads us that we receive the new life that Jesus has promised to give to us.
Paul also writes, “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.” It is God’s Spirit that gives us life. The Spirit that gives us life also directs our ways if we ask Him to do so.
The Apostle John writes about the assurance that the Holy Spirit gives us:
“By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us His Spirit.” [1 John 4:13]
It is the Holy Spirit who assures us in our inner being that we belong to God through Jesus His Son. It is God the Holy Spirit who enlivens our spirit and enables us to experience the new life of the Spirit.
We experience this new life by trusting God with every detail of our lives and allowing God to direct our ways. When we’re in charge of our lives, we cannot experience God’s forgiveness, love, and power. When we’re in charge, we experience impure thoughts, guilt, worry, discouragement, frustration, envy, jealousy, and other negative emotions.
When we feel these emotions, it’s time to ask God why we’re feeling them and ask God to forgive us for whatever is blocking His grace from us.
When we yield our lives to God’s Spirit within us, we will experience the freedom that comes from God’s forgiveness, love, and power. When we yield our lives to God’s Spirit within us, we will grow in the fruit that God gives to His children – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Green arrow living is the new life in the Spirit. Green arrow people bear good fruit – good deeds and righteous living. Green arrow people point the way to true life for the many grey arrow people around them.
There are many enticements in this life that can turn us away from true life. Those enticements hold sway in the lives of grey arrow people. The best thing that you can do for the grey arrow people in your life is to shine the light of the gospel into their lives by the way you live and give them a verbal witness about Jesus when you’re with them.
We were once held captive to sin just like them. Now, the best thing that we can do for them and ourselves is to live the new life in the Spirit. In doing so, we will bear fruit for God, by the supernatural work of God the Holy Spirit within us.
