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"There
Is, Therefore, Now No Condemnation" October
27, 2002 The Rev. Dr. Will Eisenhower Since this is Reformation Sunday, we're going to look at what the
New Testament teaches--in particular, what the apostle Paul teaches--about moral
success and moral failure and see if we can't apply that to our situation today.
The Old Testament has a variety of things to say, and it's not even
obvious how all the various things that the Old Testaments teaches on
righteousness and unrighteousness, on moral success and failure--there's a great
jumble of things, but I think that if we just turn quickly over to Psalm chapter
1, we would see the most typical thing that the Old Testament teaches on this
topic--on good and bad. In Psalm 1 we read: Happy are those
who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread,
or sit in the seat of scoffers; But their delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law they meditate day and night. They are like trees . . .
[the stanza ends:] . . . in all they do, they prosper. [the next verse:] The wicked are not so . . . In the Old Testament we have a very, very clear distinction
oftentimes taught between the wicked, on the one hand, and the righteous.
The good people and the bad people.
Now, if you'll turn with me to our text for this morning, Romans chapter
7 and just the beginning of chapter 8, we're going to see what is the difference
that Jesus Christ makes. Because
even though it is true that every teaching on moral success and failure that we
find in the Old Testament is carried over and repeated in the New Testament,
there is a huge, huge difference. And
we're going to see that difference this morning.
The huge difference that Jesus Christ makes is that I am no longer
required to solve my own problem, because Jesus Christ solves my problem for me.
And because of that, I can now get honest (finally, at last) about what I
am really like at my deepest points. And
we see that the result of that honesty, the result of that very searching look,
is something that the Old Testament could not afford to recognize, and that is
that life cannot really be divided up between the righteous, on the one hand,
and the wicked on the other because actually, righteousness and unrighteousness
are located in the heart of each one of us.
Each one of us is a moral success, and each one of us is a moral failure. And we see Paul talking about this in Romans chapter 7, verse
21: So I find it to be a law that when I want to what is good, evil
lies close at hand. For I delight
in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war
with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my
members. Wretched man that I am!
Who will rescue me from this body of death?
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, with my mind I am a slave to the law of God, but with my
flesh I am a slave to the law of sin. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ
Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of
life in Christ Jesus has set you [some translations say "has set me"
because of the older manuscripts and the diverse testimony there] the Spirit has
you free (or "the Spirit has set me free," he may have said, or
"us free") for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set
us free from the law of sin and death. Now what we have here is a very, very honest look--Paul taking an
honest look at himself and he's saying, "Now, on the one hand, I find it to
be a law that whenever I want to do good, evil lies right there, close at
hand." OK, he's saying he's a
good guy, but unfortunately there are these external temptations that come
along. You're walking along and you
see a chocolate store in the mall there, and without even thinking about it, you
find that you're sort of straying over into the chocolate store and it's not
your fault. Well, he does say he
finds that operating, but look in the very next verse. In the very next verse, he talks about how the problem is really
interior. He says, "On the one
hand, I delight in the law of God." He doesn't say, "I comply with it."
He doesn't say, "I begrudgingly obey it."
He says there is that in him that likes the good, that delights in it,
that has an appetite for recognizing what God's standards are and for being
pleased by it. "But I see in my members another law at war."
And the Greek word there really means "bringing soldiers
against." "Another law
marshaling forces against that in my members."
And he's saying, "That's going on within me."
It's not the case that "but for the chocolate store, I would be just
fine." No,
I desire to be skinny Will and I also desire to eat all of the
chocolate that I've ever seen in my entire life.
I have appetites that war against each other, and that's my predicament. When he says, "O wretched man that I am!" it's not simply
because he does evil. He says,
"O wretched man that I am! I
can't get myself off the hook. I
can't let myself let go of the one set of impulses or the other set of
impulses." So what we have here is a wonderfully profound--and a much more
profound view--a wonderfully profound view of the human person that maintains
that, yes, there is true good in the world and there is true evil in the world,
but resist the temptation of dividing people up. (You know: "There's
evil in the world because of evil people and there's good in the world because
of good people.") No.
The more honest assessment is made possible because I no longer am
required to solve my own problem, and in the freedom that that gives me, I can
look and I can say, "You know what? There's
evil in the world and there's good in the world, and the impulses for both of
those are in me." Now, I wanted to call our attention to how much condemnation there
is when we leave that profound view of the person that we have in Scripture.
When we maintain that profound view, and we say we've got that
predicament of good and evil inside, and Jesus Christ alleviates that--you know,
rescues us from that, and that is why "there is therefore now no
condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus," we are relieved of the
obligation of trying to solve our problem for ourselves. When we leave that profound view, condemnation becomes inevitable.
At election time, attack ads become inevitable because parties, in order
to distinguish themselves, attack whoever their opponents are.
And, you know, you can be a liberal--that's fine.
You can be a conservative. I'm
not going to try to tell you how to vote. Just
consider this: If you see yourself
as a liberal person, chances are, then, when you look at American society, the
most important things to you are advantages in society.
And how a candidate stands on dealing with those advantages in society
makes that person either good or bad. If
you're a conservative, the most important thing in society is not
advantages--it's opportunities. And
when you look at people, if you're a conservative, you say, "OK. How you respond to opportunities makes you either good or
bad." The phenomenal thing--and please let me sort of step into this
delicate arena because we've had a very, very teachable moment recently with the
tragic death of Senator Paul Wellstone--the sudden surprise and tragic death.
And we've all seen what it did on the political talk shows and on the
commentaries, whereas one day there were people who could not say a word good
about Senator Wellstone and now the next day, because he has died, an entirely
different attitude seems to be reigning. You might look at it and say, "Those hypocrites!
That makes me so mad! Those
hypocrites on that Fox news channel!
I don't like it--yesterday they were saying he's a really bad guy and
now . . ." No.
I want to say, actually, this is something wonderfully humane.
Because what it indicates is at a time like this, we're able to say
Senator Paul Wellstone was more than just the positions that he took on issues. And, in fact, there is a profound truth about him that's
entirely separate from the positions he took, and there's a profound truth about
you and about me. There's a much,
much deeper way to regard an individual than to say, "You're nothing other
than the sum total of the stands that you take on particular issues, or the role
that you play in your sphere of influence.
You're nothing more than that."
Well all of us, invariably, at a time like this where someone
dies--we will instinctively drop down to recognizing that. . .
Actually, a member of our church was the one who informed me that Senator
Wellstone had died and she was saying, "Oh, it's a tragic thing, it's a
terrible thing." And I said, "Were you planning on voting for him?"
And she said, "Heavens, no!" People who were not planning on voting for him can say, "But
you know what? The deepest truth
about him was not the stands that he took on issues." We all instinctively recognize that. And from time to time, at a moment of crisis, we will
instinctively recognize it about one another.
The unfortunate thing is--you know, let's just watch and see how long
will it be until the attack ads mount again.
I didn't listen to any of the news shows this morning, but it wouldn't
surprise me even to learn that it was today, because that's life in this world.
Were it not for a word from God that consistently, regularly, teaches us,
"You know what? There's good
and bad in you. There's good and
bad in everyone that you know. And
it is not the case that we can divide up the world between the good guys and the
bad guys." That's a word that
we have from God and that Word doesn't change.
And were it not for that, we would have nothing to rescue us from
the pressures in society that sort of push us against one another.
The recognition of your heart and my heart at a time when a politician
dies is the recognition that the Bible enables us to have day in and day out,
and that is that you and I are more than the sum total of the decisions that we
have made, the choices that we have made. There
is a sense in which we are a much deeper reality, and that's the reality in
which God sees us. We are people
hung up, unable to let go of the fact that we long for good, and turn around and
long for evil in the very next instant. And
God has not left us alone, but has sent us Jesus to solve that problem for us.
Let's pray. Dear
Heavenly Father, we love you and we thank you and praise you, Lord, for your
Word which is our light in darkness. Lord,
we thank you for those things that we fleetingly glimpse from time to time when
they are true are the abiding truths that your Word has for us.
Lord, give us grace to be fed from your Word more regularly, that we
might glimpse the truth in a more sustained manner.
And it's in the strong name of Jesus that we pray.
Amen. . The Rev. Dr. Will Eisenhower Interim Pastor Faith Presbyterian Church Minnetonka, Minnesota [Transcribed from an audiotape of the
worship service on October 27, 2002.] |
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