3.29.20 Romans 8:15
15 For you did not receive a spirit of slavery so that you are afraid again, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we call out, “Abba, Father!”
What Kind of Spirit Do You Have? Fear or Adoption?
It seems that every time I get a cough or a sniffle I’m sure I have the virus. Yet then within a few minutes or hours I feel perfectly normal. Have you had similar reactions? Are you nervous about it? Should you be?
We’ve had two confirmed cases in Bay County, and both of them are alive and well as far as I can see. So from a personal perspective one might be tempted to say this is a lot of hype. But then you see people sick and dying at young ages and you realize that it’s not hype, especially in populated areas. It’s just a matter of time we’re told, and the numbers seem to support that. It is probably safe to say that some are worried more than they should be, while some are worried less than they should be. It depends on your perspective.
Paul gives us a heavenly perspective. He speaks of a spirit of slavery that leads to fear. This fear is in the context of death: living in mortal and dying bodies. It also has to do with sinful thinking and desires. Think about things that we are afraid of now, getting sick, dying, losing our jobs, losing our homes, losing our family, losing our church. There is the fear of the unknown. Some people are more naturally prone to fear than others. The widow fears how she is going to survive on her own. The one diagnosed with cancer fears the treatments and whether the cancer will be able to be conquered. These are legitimate threats to our health and our welfare. Is this fear wrong?
Fear can be a good thing. You want your child to fear talking to strangers online. There’s a lot of creepy and dangerous people in the world. Fearless people also tend to be reckless people and do foolish things. Fear keeps you alive, keeps you from walking into danger that could have been avoided. God even tells us to fear His wrath so that we don’t do things that could lead to losing our faith and being damned. Fear can also be a good thing when that fear takes us to Jesus for forgiveness.
But shouldn’t we just trust God and not be afraid of anything? We trust God to take care of us and we know He loves us, but that doesn’t mean we should go around licking doorknobs and testing fate. Faith is not the same as bravado and foolishness. It doesn’t mean taking a general principle and running into danger with it in order to test it or try to prove how much faith we have. Joseph and Mary were not faithless when they ran to Egypt to escape from Herod who wanted to kill Jesus. They were following the warning of the LORD and they were saved through fearful flight.
Yet faith also sometimes calls for bravado too. Paul had a clear commission from the LORD to spread the Gospel throughout Asia Minor. He knew the dangers that it entailed. He knew he would die for it. Yet he went on, even as the people were pleading with him not to go. Luke wrote,
10 After we had stayed there for a number of days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. 11 When he came to us, he took Paul’s belt, tied his own feet and hands with it, and said, “This is what the Holy Spirit says: ‘This is the way the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and will deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.’ ” 12 When we heard this, both we and the local residents urged Paul not to go up to Jerusalem. 13 Then Paul answered, “What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” 14 Since he could not be persuaded, we said nothing more except, “May the Lord’s will be done.” (Acts 21)
That may have been easier for the Apostle Paul since he was receiving direct revelation from God on where to go and what to do. But how do WE know the difference between true faith and false faith which is nothing but proud bravado? How do we distinguish between good fear and bad fear?
If we want wisdom and proper inspection of ourselves, we need to be careful in what we are listening to and who we are listening to. If you only listen to the news, you will probably be terrified to walk outside. God has been known to defy statistics. Just ask Hezekiah about the odds when he was surrounded by 185,000 Arameans who all ended up dead in their sleep the night that he prayed. But if we only listen to the naysayers we might be emboldened to put ourselves in harm’s way when we don’t need to. Again, it comes down to perspective.
Today’s words from Paul give us reason not to give way to sinful fear. He contrasts fear with the fact that we have “received the Spirit.” In your baptism you received the Holy Spirit. He is powerful and wise! In vs. 11 Paul says, “if the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will also make your mortal bodies alive through his Spirit, who is dwelling in you.” The Holy Spirit raised Jesus from the dead after having been crucified for your sins. If He did that with Jesus’ dead body, then don’t you think He can also bring life to you as well after you die? Look at how God raised the Shunnamite’s son and also Lazarus in our lessons for today. This reminds us that death is not the end. Even though we die, we live with Jesus through faith in His death and resurrection for us.
Think about that when you yourself face death, either from the flu, the virus, cancer, or a car accident. Sooner or later we will all have to face it. But when we die, we live with Jesus and await the resurrection. It may not completely conquer your fear of dying, but it certainly helps fight against it when you know where you go after you die. You know where you’re going and you know who will be there: Jesus and your loved ones in Jesus. You also know WHY you will be there, because Jesus paid for all of your sins. It eliminates your fear of the unknown.
And don’t you also think that the Holy Spirit can influence your thought process in the here and now? This is an important aspect of having the Holy Spirit live in you. He examines your thoughts. He judges the ones that are evil and sinful and unwarranted, and He tempers it with the Word of God and the HISTORY of how God has worked in the world. He then drives you to Jesus to find forgiveness from Him. He guides you in what is right and wrong. He is speaking to you through the Word of God. He is speaking to your conscience. He is second guessing your emotions. He is trying to comfort you with God’s love.
It reminds me of a recent show on Netflix called “Tidying Up” with Marie Kondo. She goes into people’s homes and gets them to reorganize what they have, get rid of what they don’t need. This is a weak picture of what the Holy Spirit does for you. When you don’t listen to the Word of God or receive the sacrament, it is easy for your sinful thoughts and emotions to get cluttered up. Before you know it, you have a room of your life that is completely consuming you. It’s all you worry about, a child, a relationship, a job, your health. So you get worried about it. You lose sleep over it. You revolve your life around it, trying to fix it. But you don’t know where to start, so you get overwhelmed and you just quit. Or you try to ignore it and just close that part of your life. Maybe you also shut the door on your life and don’t let anyone else in to what you’re thinking because you’re embarrassed and scared and you don’t know what to do. The Holy Spirit comes in to change that, so you don’t live your life in embarrassment and fear.
The Holy Spirit brings Jesus, who is full of forgiveness and grace. He gently opens up the doors of embarrassment, convinces us to take our guilt to the curb of Christ, and let Him dispose of it all at the cross. He reassures us that He is committed to us and that we are forgiven. It isn’t as if the Holy Spirit didn’t know what He was getting into when He moved into your soul. He decided to love us in spite of the mess we make of ourselves. He decided to come in and comfort us! This is a wonderful gift from God that keeps on giving!
What’s one of the gifts that Paul talks about from the Spirit? You’ve received the Spirit of adoption. Usually when people are adopted they might think, “My parents didn’t want me.” That’s not the case here. Sometimes children are adopted in order to rescue them from abusive situations. John wrote that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. (1 John 5:9) Think about that. People are born children of Satan. You were born in the abusive home of the devil. That’s not a fun place to live. He embarrasses you. He lies to you. He abuses you. He locks you inside and tells you that you’ve been abandoned and that no one could love you. He wants you in hell, that’s it. He wants you to be miserable and consumed by fear.
But through baptism the Holy Spirit comes and says, “I want you more!” Jesus dies for you to set you free from sin and death and the devil. The Holy Spirit bathes you in Jesus and takes you into the house of Jesus. Here you find God who says to you, “You are my child now. By the blood of Christ poured on you in your baptism, I’ve taken you into my house. I’ll take care of you. I’ll protect you. I’ll feed you. I’ll guide your life in such a way that you can perform good works to the glory of my name. I’ll make sure that all that happens to you will serve to strengthen your faith and keep you clinging to Jesus.”
That doesn’t mean that life is easy as we wait for the Final Day. He sends us into the world to sacrifice ourselves for the good of others. We face dangers in this world. But we always know where our home is, with Jesus. The prodigal son knew right where he could return to when he left the plantation. We have the same gracious God, and we don’t have to leave the plantation. The Holy Spirit says, “Stay here! Just trust in Me. No matter how difficult it gets, trust in me, come to me.”
When we look at ourselves, and how we perform as His children, we might think that we don’t really belong because we aren’t as good as we should be or because we don’t feel like we do God any good: like we are worthless. But what did Paul tell the Roman Christians? You did not receive a spirit of slavery so that you are afraid again, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we call out, “Abba, Father!” The Spirit himself joins our spirit in testifying that we are God’s children. It almost seems odd, doesn’t it? We need the Holy Spirit to convince us who we are? But that’s exactly what we need! He does this by pointing to how gracious and forgiving God is!
The only grandpa I ever knew was a big guy. He used to be a boxer. He had a deep voice and he was kind of scary to me, but he never threatened me in any way. I remember one time he wanted to give me his slingshot, but I was afraid to take it for some reason. I think that I felt it was too expensive of an item to give away. I didn’t want him to give me such a nice gift, but after I talked with my mom she said, “Go ahead!” Because of our sins, and because of God’s holiness, we feel the same way with God. We feel insignificant in His sight, as if we didn’t really matter in the big scheme of things. But the Holy Spirit says to us in the Word, “Yes you do! When you’re adopted into His family, you get all of the benefits that come with that blessing. Don’t be afraid of His forgiveness. Don’t be afraid of His love. Don’t be shy to ask for His gifts.” This helps us tremendously, especially in fearful times!
Maybe you’ve watched the show Amazing Race on CBS I think it is? It has a couple going through strange places looking for clues in a race of time to get from one place to another. I’ve only seen snippets of it, but what I’ve noticed most is how couples interact with one another. Some yell and fight, others work well together and cooperate. How they work together is integral to how they run the race.
In these difficult times, many are bickering over what is being done and how it should be done. People are hoarding toilet paper and many other items to the harm of others, trying to stockpile as much as they can to survive. Others are completely ignoring the warnings and only being concerned about themselves and what THEY want or how susceptible THEY are. Take a step back. Think about how they are behaving. They are living like pure evolutionists, “Survival of the fittest” or “Eat and drink for tomorrow we die.” This isn’t what you were baptized for!
The Holy Spirit speaks to us differently. He says, “Keep listening to the Word. Pray to God! Remember who you are, as God’s baptized child. You are forgiven through Jesus. You are redeemed by Jesus’ blood. You are saved. You are loved. As long as you keep clinging to Jesus in repentance and faith, God will never reject you. He won’t let go of you. He has you in the palm of His hand. As long as you’re resting in God’s grace and love and forgiveness in Jesus, you’re in the perfect place!” What kind of a spirit do you have? The Spirit of adoption: the perfect Spirit, the Holy Spirit, to comfort you with His love, forgiveness, guidance and strength: thank God for His Spirit and the calm that He brings through the Word, keeping everything in a heavenly perspective! Amen.
