Romans 7:15-25a
“The Spiral of Sin”
As many of you know, I went back ‘home’ this past week to my parent’s house in Syracuse, New York to bring back some things.
My parents are moving from the town I grew up in, from the town I have loved to call home, from the place we visit once or twice a year, from a place with a lot of memories…a lot of old friends.
On Tuesday, a very good friend of my family and her son stopped by the house to bring us lunch.
I’ve known these wonderful folks for years, and I noticed something starkly different in the son of my family’s friend.
You see I had always had a hard time getting close to this person because he was so shy and withdrawn.
He had always appeared to be carrying a very heavy load, and although I hadn’t been quite sure what this load was…I knew that it was ruining his life…
…causing him to be miserable…
…making it painful for him to interact with other human beings…
…and difficult to hold down a job or have meaningful relationships.
Then, sometime in the past year or so my father had mentioned that this forty something man had really hit ‘rock bottom’.
My dad told me that he had been living, for six months, in an alcohol rehabilitation center run by the Salvation Army.
My dad had even loaned him some money to live on.
Around the table, this man, his name is Tom, began to talk and talk and talk.
I was shocked by the change.
I don’t think I had ever heard him speak more than one sentence at a time.
He did not appear to be self-conscious in the least.
What he was talking about was a battle, a battle that has been raging in him for a very long time…
…a battle he had been losing for a very long time, but now the tide has turned—although the battle continues and will continue for the rest of his life.
As I listened to his story and took in the transformation that I was seeing right before my eyes, I tried to conceal tears of joy welling up.
I had never before seen him happy.
I had never before seen him look as if he were comfortable in his own skin.
He was talking about alcoholism.
He was talking about addiction.
He was talking about a spiral of sin that had nearly ruined his life completely.
During the conversation he told us that he had been over at a friend’s home, not too long ago, and they were having a conversation about Christianity.
She (his friend) told Tom that she did not believe in the existence of the devil.
Tom, who does believe in the existence to the devil, was telling her that he has felt the power of the devil in his life and knows he is real, but she was trying to dissuade him.
Just then, as they were ‘speaking of the devil’ Tom’s friend went to the refrigerator to get a grape wine cooler.
She called out to Tom, “Do you want one?”
At that moment, Tom felt the devil trying, in a very real way to pull him back down.
He said, “My favorite flavor is even grape. I felt it was more than coincidence that while having a conversation on the existence or non-existence of the devil that I was tempted in this way.”
Tom is now a very active member of his church.
He even teaches Sunday school.
It never ceases to amaze and overwhelm me when I see how Jesus is able to “rescue” us from our bodies of death!!!
In our Epistle Lesson for this morning the Apostle Paul describes a constant war going on within himself.
“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do…
…For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.”
Paul is speaking about his own spiritual struggles, and he is holding himself up as a sermon illustration.
As he does this, he also holds up a mirror and invites us to look at ourselves.
Can any of us relate to what Paul is talking about?
Do any of us wrestle with a sin that continues to fill our lives, and we find that we have no hope of breaking free?
Maybe we have tried many times to break free, but have finally given up.
Maybe we are still trying to break free, but sin is still the victor.
This spiral of sin, or addiction to sin can take many forms…
…I suppose it takes different forms in all of us because we are all different and we all have different places where we are extremely vulnerable.
Perhaps our sin is lying.
Maybe we are caught in a spiral of sin which causes us to behave in certain ways that hurt ourselves and others.
Perhaps we are caught in a very narrow point of view that is hateful, unloving and unforgiving.
Maybe we cannot, no matter how hard we want to, control our tempers.
So around and around we go, deeper and deeper, allowing sin to be our master…
…living from one hellish day after another, year after year.
It really can seem that there is no way out!
And that, I suppose, is what the devil wants us to think.
Remember what we are told in 1st Peter chapter 5?
“Humble yourselves…under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up…Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith…”
In our Epistle Lesson Paul is testifying to his own spiral with sin.
He’s done what everyone of us has done at one time or another and it seems as if there is no way out.
Most people feel they are trapped and stay in their spirals for most of their shortened lives.
Yes, the spiral of sin does shorten our lives because we are usually hurting ourselves spiritually and physically.
The human body can’t take that constant barrage.
Sin, the spiral of self injury, and injury to others by word and deed, it is the opposite of everything that is Godly and righteous.
As Paul cries out: “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?”
Paul testifies to this truth very strongly because he wants us all to know that there is a way out…a way to get off the twisting, turning, spinning wheel…
…the spiral of sin which, if we don’t get off, will lead us to hell!
“Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
There is a way out!
There is only One Way out.
And we cannot get out on our own, no matter how hard we might try.
It is only through faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord that we can break free of sin and death.
Armed with Christ, leaning on His Everlasting Arms, we can be changed, transformed, rescued from this sinking ship and discover a new beginning!!!
Once we have learned that we cannot break away from the destructive sin that rules our lives on our own…
…once we admit this…
…once we admit that we stand in the need of God’s help…
…we must be prepared to hear with joy about a Savior, Who, once we have submitted to His will in trust and obedience, will make the failures of the past as though they had never been.
We learn that we are not left to struggle in our sin with unaided strength, but that our loyalty and fellowship with the Risen Lord can supply us with undreamed of resources of power!!!
That is why Paul’s cry of desolation and despair is able to pass so naturally into the cry of astonished gratitude, and why the talk of defeat in Romans Chapter 7 introduces us to the description of the victorious life in Romans Chapter 8!!!
Go home and read Romans Chapter 8 today, after worship, if you will.
And never, never ever allow the devil to trick you into thinking there is no way out of the hellish spiral of sin!!!
Are you burdened and heavy laden by a yoke of sin?
You are not alone.
Is there a way out?
Yes.
Remember what Jesus tells us in the Gospel Lesson Virginia read earlier this morning: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Let us take Jesus up on this offer today!
Let us take Jesus up on this offer of salvation as we come to share the Sacrament of Holy Communion together—as brothers and sisters—all battling some sin in our lives.
There is no cure for what sin can do except through faith and Communion with the Victorious Risen Christ!!!
All other temporary fixes are just that—temporary!!!
“Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
Only He can rescue us from our bodies of death!!!
