THE HOLY SPIRIT PROVIDES FREEDOM
February 5, 2006 - Epiphany 5 - ROMANS 8:1-9
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Dearest Fellow-Redeemed and Saints in the Lord:
Today, if you looked inside the bulletin, saw the theme and listened to our text, we are going to talk about freedom. There probably is no greater feeling on earth and our lifetime than to experience freedom. We, of course, live in a nation that is free, and have freedom to do many things. We are free to worship, free to express our opinion, and free to do just about anything we want to do. Yet, sometimes we are held in slavery and captivity, aren’t we? We might think of the cares and worries of this life that weigh heavily upon us. We heard that in Job, our first lesson, where Job says, "There’s nothing worth left living for in this life." He tosses and turns in bed. Job thinks he is not going to find happiness. Job is right in the fact that this world is truly a world, which Scripture describes as a veil of tears.
Today we celebrate the fact that God has set us free. The Holy Spirit gives to us freedom through the knowledge of truth and the message of salvation. One more example of what it feels like to be free. During our lifetime each one of another or us at one time owed a debt. We probably had to make payments every month for land or a house or a car or machinery or something. When we got to that last payment, what freedom we felt when there were no more monthly bills coming for that item. The Lord’s freedom is far greater than any earthly freedom, a feeling multiplied by thousands--the freedom from sin, death and the devil. Paul writes in Galatians: "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery" (Galatians 5:1). Christ has set you and I as believers free from the troubles of this life, free from the cares of this world, and free from the power of sin, from the snares of Satan, and even from death itself. What does Paul tell us?
THE HOLY SPIRIT PROVIDES FREEDOM:
I. Freedom through Christ
II. Freedom to serve Christ.
I. FREEDOM THROUGH CHRIST
When you get the chance today, read chapter 7 of Romans. At the end of this chapter Paul is struggling with sin. Paul is struggling with the fact that he is a wretched man. He says that, "What a wretched man I am. Who is going to rescue me from this body of death?" That is the question that fills Paul’s thoughts. In chapter 8 Paul has his answer. The Holy Spirit gives him the answer, and he gives us the answer. Our text begins: "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Paul has found that Christ Jesus is going to set him free from that body of death, because Christ Jesus does not condemn him. Christ Jesus came to save him, and he has freedom through Christ. The Spirit now gives this freedom to Paul from God through Christ.
Verse 2: "Because through Jesus Christ the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death." Paul knew that sin was around him. Paul knew that he was going to face death. Paul also knew that Christ Jesus came, and paid the price that was demanded of the law--by being perfect and never sinning. Christ paid for the demands that were made by death by being put to death and coming back to life. Jesus promised his disciples that he was going ahead (to heaven) to prepare a place. Christ says that in heaven there are many rooms for the believers.
He continues by describing that the law is powerless: "For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering." Paul is writing this letter to the believers at Rome. You can picture in your mind the Mediterranean Sea and how the nations surrounded it. Jerusalem was located far away to the east and Rome to the northwest. They are almost at the ends of the known civilized world at that time. Most of the believers in Rome weren’t there in Jerusalem when Jesus was crucified. It was too far away. Paul had to remind them time and time again that yes, this Jesus Christ was sent by God, was crucified by man, and was raised back to life by the power of God. In this way Jesus paid the price for sin. That was one of the purposes of this letter to encourage these believers in Rome who could not be at the crucifixion. Paul reminds those who were not there that Christ did indeed come to live, die and rise again. The law was powerless to save them, but not Christ who had all the power in the world. Jesus came from God to redeem them.
Paul explains that again. It sounds almost repetitious, but it isn’t. "And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit." We don’t meet the righteous requirements of the laws. The believers didn’t, but Christ did. That fulfillment of the law of Christ is what covers the sins of these believers and covers the sins of you and me today.
The Holy Spirit gives us freedom from God through Christ. Yet, we know that sometimes we are held captive by sin. Each one of us has a certain pet sin that Satan uses time and time again to tempt us and make us turn away from God. But time and time again the Lord draws us back and reminds us of his forgiveness. From time to time we are held captive by the attractions of this world. After all, the attractions, the allurements, the treasures and pleasures of this life we see all around us. We see it in ads on TV or newspapers or magazines or the affluence of our society. The affluence of our society makes us sometimes feel that we should also be that wealthy to keep up with our neighbors. Sometimes we are prisoners then of our own desires. What does the Lord say? He reminds us and warns us with the fact that there is only one master. There is only one to serve. In Luke: "No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money" (Luke 16:13). Because of the society we live in and our nation very often, if you listen closely, just about every news story has the amount of money it is going to cost for a disaster or a life that is lost or the cost of an ad at the Super Bowl today. We hear about money all the time, and sometimes we may not realize how often we hear that. That sometimes can be our master.
But Christ has set us free from the cares and concerns of this world. Why does it happen that we do not always walk down that narrow path? Why does it happen that we are sometimes so concerned and worried about money that we forget about the commission that God has given us--to preach the Good News? Why is that sometimes we become so worried about ourselves that this worry makes us sick? If we don’t have enough to worry about, when you listen to the news, they always find something else to worry about--some new disease or some economic disaster or something that we are going to be short of and prices go up and down. We have our sinful nature with us. Our sinful nature sometimes distracts us. Our sinful nature is always with us day in and day out. We heard a little bit of that in Job as he was grumbling and complaining. Of course, if anyone had something to grumble and complain about, it would be Job. Job lost his cattle, sheep, herds, buildings and his whole family. Yet, in the end he knew that his Redeemer lives. What happens? The Lord describes it for us in the parable of the seed and the sowers, the word that was sown on different types of ground. As he explains it: "The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful" (Matthew 13:22). Maybe from time to time that has happened in our life. Then it is all the more important to remind ourselves that Christ has set us free.
The Holy Spirit gives us freedom. This freedom comes from God through Christ by the Holy Spirit. That freedom that we have is knowing that no matter what happens in this life, no matter how much we worry, it will not change one thing; but instead, the Lord knows and takes care of the smallest sparrow. Our Lord knows the number of hairs on our head, thus he is so concerned about us. Then in the end God says we have been set free through the word of God. We are set free indeed, because we are given eternal life. In John 5 Jesus speaks these words: "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life" (John 5:24). Now that is true freedom. Sadly in our day and age there are more and more people who are held in the grip of the fear of death. Death scares them, because they do not have the blessed assurance that God gives us through the freedom and the power of his word.
The Holy Spirit provides us freedom through Christ. This freedom does not depend on our works, or our wealth, not even all our worry, but this freedom comes to us by God’s grace and is his free gift of salvation. Then, understanding that and beginning to appreciate that divine freedom more and more in our life, we have freedom to serve Christ.
II. FREEDOM TO SERVE CHRIST
Paul traveled thousands of miles after God saved him so that others might be saved. Now he compares this great difference in the believers’ lives and the unbelievers’ lives. Those who stand in the fear of death are gripped by the worries of this life compared to those who stand in the light and knowledge of salvation. "Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires." They seek what is in this world. They look not to the welfare of others, but they look only to themselves. The unbeliever is selfish and self-centered. There is more: "The mind of sinful man is death." Why is that? Paul says the things in this life pass away. The things on this earth, as the gospels tell us, are things that moth and rust destroy. So as the sinful man looks only to this life, he is only looking at those things that pass away and do not last. Their thinking is only death.
As if that were not enough Paul adds even more: "The sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God." Everyone is born as an enemy of God in this world according to their sinful nature. Paul now says that those who continue to live that way cannot please God. It takes faith to please God. At the end of our text, he said: "And if anyone does not have the Spirit Christ, he does not belong to Christ." If he does not have the Spirit, the Spirit cannot set him free. He doesn’t wish to serve Christ. He doesn’t wish to follow or love Christ. This is what Paul says of the unbelievers.
Paul writes to the believers: "but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires." These believers were anxious to receive a letter from Paul. These believers were anxious that Paul might come visit them. Paul finally does visit, but he does so in chains. As he is in chains and in a prison in Rome, he not only visits with these believers, but he is able to testify before Caesar himself and kings and governors.
Paul continues. The believers have in mind the things of what the Spirit desires. Listen to this: "The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace." Paul realized that these believers in Rome experienced life and peace. You have to remember that it wasn’t going to be very long before the believers at Rome were going to be persecuted. They were going to be put up on poles at night as torches to light the road to Rome by Nero. This didn’t just happen overnight. Persecution already began here as the teaching of Christianity grew and there were more and more believers. So the government felt threatened. But for these believers, they had life and peace, not granted by the government, but life and peace that came to them through the freedom that the Holy Spirit gave. Paul finishes: "You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you."
Today, the Spirit of God lives in you. He lives in the hearts of every believer. The Spirit of God gives to the believer freedom. With freedom, there is great joy and rejoicing. There is an opportunity to learn what the Spirit wants. There is a great change. In Colossians Paul wrote: "Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation" (Colossians 1:21,22). Once you were enemies of God, born into the world this way. Now through the power of God’s holy word and through the grace of the Sacraments, Baptism and the Holy Supper, describing here what Paul says in Colossians. We are blameless and without accusation because of Christ’s physical death. Jesus’ body and blood remind us of the sacrifice he made so that we don’t have to sacrifice ourselves. Instead, we react with joy and thanksgiving for what Christ has done. Our Lord has treated us better than our sins deserve. Our sins deserve eternal punishment. As we sang the Psalm (103): "As high as the heavens are from the earth and as far as the east is removed from the west" God has graciously and freely taken away all punishment for our transgressions and sins.
Then in Ephesians: "Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God" (Ephesians 5:1,2). We know how much we are thankful to anyone who might give up his life for us. Christ sacrificed himself about 2,000 years ago. Today Jesus wants us to remind ourselves of his sacrifice. We are reminded God’s grace and love in his gospel message. We remind ourselves of that in the Lord’s Supper. Jesus says, "Here is my body. Here is my blood. It is the same body and blood I shed on the cross, the same body and blood that was poured out for us as sinners." How much more are we thankful for the sacrifice of Christ? How much more are we filled with joy to remember Christ is our Savior.
Our God is not an evil taskmaster. He is not a false god, but Christ our Savior is the true Savior from sin who gives us freedom that we might serve him because he freely gave his life for us. We serve Christ in our lives, living, as we heard in this Epiphany season, as lights shining in our sin-darkened world. We do it as people who reflect the joy of our salvation, the fact that, yes, we are certain that the future is secure and we are positive that heaven is our home. Whatever happens between there pales in comparison. Peter wrote to believers who were facing the worst persecution ever, even worse than the persecution at Rome. They lost their homes, business, their families, but if you read 1 Peter you don’t hear much remorse over the loss of material things. Peter writes to encourage them and says it was their faith that gives them freedom, freedom to live a life of thankfulness. "For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men. Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God" (1 Peter 2:15,16). He writes that to them even though they could harbor feelings of revenge against those who stole their property and destroyed their lives, feelings of anger toward God. Instead Peter says, "No, you have freedom to know that by your lives you can still shine because of the knowledge of salvation, because of the positive certainty and absolute guarantee of eternity." We don’t have to face that kind of persecution today.
Maybe, at times, our light doesn’t shine so bright. The Lord says that it still can. All around us there are people as Paul describes here who look to this life and live this life as if this is the life and there is nothing more. Many have their heaven here on earth. We are reminded that the eternal joys of heaven are yet to be revealed to each one of us. The Holy Spirit gives us that freedom. It comes from God through Christ by the Holy Spirit, eternal freedom through Christ. When we were powerless to save ourselves, Christ died for our sins. With joy and thanksgiving we are blessed to have the freedom to serve Christ, to live as Christians. In Revelation, chapter 1 encourages us: "Jesus Christ,...is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father--to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen" (Revelation 1:5,6). And we say "Amen." Pastor Timm O. Meyer
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EPIPHANY 5 Readings: JOB 7:1-7; 1 CORINTHIANS 9:16-23; MARK 1:29-39
