Eighth Sunday after Trinity
The Speaker of the House visited Taiwan last week. Her visit threatened to disrupt America’s official policy on Taiwan: strategic ambiguity. I think that’s what we have going on in our own lives, especially as Christianity intersects desire: strategic ambiguity. We’re partially but not fully committed to being disciples of Jesus. Christianity is good, but let’s not take it too far.
But God demands an end to our ambiguity. “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” [James 4.4]. Jesus says to the church in Laodicea, “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth” [Rev. 3:15f].
We cannot be lukewarm. We cannot be friends with the world. We cannot be strategically ambiguous about following Jesus. It’s all or nothing.
“Sin is certainly not forgiven so that we should do it, but so that we should cease doing it. Otherwise it would be fairer to call it not ‘forgiveness of sin,’ but ‘permission to sin.’”
We heard last week about the radical dichotomy: “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
The Gospel is the free gift of the forgiveness of sins. But make no mistake: you are not free to go on sinning. Luther put it this way: “Sin is certainly not forgiven so that we should do it, but so that we should cease doing it. Otherwise it would be fairer to call it not ‘forgiveness of sin,’ but ‘permission to sin’” [AE 78:269]. Or in the language of today’s Epistle, from Romans 8:
12 So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.
God’s Word tells us we have obligations (“we are debtors”) - but not to the flesh. Our sinful nature tries to seduce us through fatalism. We tell ourselves this lie: “I have to act this way, I have to react this way, because it’s who I am; my nature demands it.” But St. Paul says that’s bunk. You’re not a captive to sin. What does it mean “to live according to the flesh”? St. John Chrysostom explained it to his congregation like this: “Let us not live according to the flesh, that is, let us not make it the mistress of our life. For it must be the follower, not the leader, and it is not it that must regulate our life, but the laws of the Spirit must it receive.”
There can be no ambiguity. You must be clear on whom you will serve.
God’s Word defines living according to the flesh like this:
Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. [Gal. 5.19-21]
There can be no ambiguity. Will you live according to the flesh?
13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
Just like in last Sunday’s Epistle, Paul puts things in pairs to contrast them. You either live according to the flesh, or you put to death the deeds of the body. But notice there’s an instrument in the second clause: “by the Spirit.” In the first clause, you live according to the flesh, whereas in the second, you cannot put to death the deeds of the body by yourself; it has to be done “by the Spirit.”
Baptism bestows the Spirit, but then the disciple of Jesus is led by the Spirit. (More on that in a moment. First let’s talk about the body.)
Notice he doesn’t tell us to put to death the body, but “the deeds of the body.” When God made the world, He pronounced it good. When God made the man and the woman, He pronounced them very good. Matter is not the problem. Corruption has entered the world. The corruption is the problem. This is why God became man. God took on a body, our human body. His deeds redeem our body full of evil deeds. His death redeems our body of death.
But the sinful nature still clings to us. So this life is a struggle, an intense fight against sin as long as we live. Christians must not be lazy or lax. Each day we rise up and by the sign of the cross and the name of the Trinity renounce the devil and all his works and all his ways. We must always kill the flesh so that we are not killed by it. [Portions of this paragraph adapted from Luther]
How do we do that? When we feel the temptation, we stop to think, remember God’s Word, and through faith in God’s promises resist and renounce the temptation. That’s what it means to be led by the Spirit.
14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
The Spirit works through Word, water, wine, and bread. The Spirit leads us when we let His Words guide us. This is why we call the Scriptures inspired. They are Spirited; the words came from the Spirit and were recorded by the prophets and the apostles. St. John says, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
The Spirit’s Word tells you who you are:
15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
The Spirit tells us who we are. You are sons of God. That’s identity. So you are not useless. You are not useless. You are not what your emotions tell you in the moment. You are who the Spirit says you are. And the Spirit says you [plural] are sons of God. This isn’t a male/female thing. It means your identity is wrapped up in Jesus. The things that are His are applied to you. So His Father becomes our Father, which is why He teaches us to pray along with Him, “Abba! Father!” which is a reference to the Lord’s Prayer.
But being a disciple of Jesus is not without cost:
17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
There can be no ambiguity. Identifying with Jesus, particularly in the face of today’s revolution against creation, will make you no friends in the world. Identifying with Jesus means saying that the world has gone astray with regard to marriage, family, children, sin, sex, and salvation. Live not by lies.
We are not even worthy to suffer with Jesus. Let’s repent. Let’s be kind to one another. Let’s put to death the deeds of the body, and pray that this week we will be led by the Spirit. There’s no room for ambiguity. +INJ+