03.26.2023 -Fifth Sunday in Lent - Spirit of Grace

Scripture: Romans 8:6-11

Romans 8:6–11 NRSV

6 To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law—indeed it cannot, 8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.

Salads

Many cultures worldwide have salads as a part of their food culture. However, they are not all the same. The concept of salads can be very different depending on where you are.

Some salads are based on lettuce or other green, leafy vegetables mixed with cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, onions, and other garden vegetables. Other salads are made with a variety of fruit. Then some salads are made with pasta or potatoes, sometimes with mayonnaise, and sometimes with meat. And some families mix it all together with jello. So, you don’t always know what you get with the word salad. You might intend to eat healthier and get more vegetables in your diet and end up instead with all the food groups mixed in one bowl.

There are lots of terms and concepts that mean different things at different times and in various places. Our words can lead and guide us, but they can also confuse and hide what we are trying to communicate. That may be ok if you want to make things seem too mysterious or complicated for others to understand. Sometimes when we talk to our doctors, they do not explain how our medicine or their equipment works because they want us to trust them and follow their instructions. We often experience this when things are urgent and it is a life-or-death situation. They take care of the essential details for us.

“Spirit” is one of those words like “salad” that can mean many different things. It is an essential word in our faith, and by God’s Holy Spirit, we can have a personal relationship with Him. Our relationship with God is also a life-or-death situation, but unlike medicine, we cannot have others manage our spiritual lives in our place. We need God’s help and guidance and the encouragement of others, but we cannot give up our part in our relationship with God. It is a matter of life or death. However, when we recognize and hold fast to God’s Holy Spirit, His Grace brings us out of death into new life.

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Death and Life

In verse six of our passage today, Paul wrote:

Romans 8:6 NRSV

6 To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.

In the Old Testament book of Exodus, we learn about Moses leading the Hebrew people out of slavery in Egypt and out to the Promised Land. On the way, they stopped at Mt. Sinai and received the Law. In their forty years traveling in the wilderness, God taught them how to worship Him and live together in the community. We remember the Ten Commandments, which were part of the foundation of the Law. Much of the book of Leviticus and parts of Deuteronomy expand upon that foundation and give instructions for the traditions that would become part of the Hebrew culture and heritage they have carried up to today.

There are a lot of pieces to following the Old Testament Law, but some Jewish scholars have brought it all down to one main idea. God offered the Hebrew people the choice of death or life through the Law. They had lived in sin, slavery, and death in Egypt. God wanted to bring them to new life in the Promised Land. It was difficult, and many chose not to follow God into new life.

For the ancient Hebrew people, death was not an event that happened to you. It was more like a presence that lingered around you. It was not like a person. They viewed death the way we view contagious illnesses. To them, death had germs, and if you got too many on or around you, you might not wake up the next day.

Many laws connected being unclean with death. For example, they were not supposed to touch dead bodies. They were to avoid eating things found on, or that ate dead animals. Anything to do with death was to be avoided, or if it was unavoidable, it required some physical and spiritual cleansing before they could return to society.

This idea of God’s way leading to life and turning away from Him leading to death goes back to the beginning chapters of Genesis. It is repeated often. In Moses’s last words as the leader of the Hebrew people, from Deuteronomy 30, He said:

Deuteronomy 30:15–20 NRSV

15 See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. 16 If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the Lord your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess. 17 But if your heart turns away and you do not hear, but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them, 18 I declare to you today that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. 19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, 20 loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him; for that means life to you and length of days, so that you may live in the land that the Lord swore to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

If we want to live, we must set our minds on the Spirit of God, not follow our desires. But how do we know when we are following God’s Holy Spirit and not something else?

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How to Identify the Holy Spirit

The more you get to know God, the easier it is to recognize when He communicates with you. But let’s start with the basics. God exists in three persons - The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This is called the Holy Trinity, and we sang a hymn about this last week called Holy, Holy Holy. They are three persons, yet one God. They have the same nature, the same character, and access to the same power. Like a three-leaf clover, they exist as different leaves of the same plant. You can’t have a relationship with one without the others.

They don’t contradict each other, either. Are there some things in the Old and New Testaments that we struggle to understand? Yes. But we must recognize that our Bibles hold over 4,000 years of history of the same God. The same God has also continued to work through the past 2000 years. How often do you and I struggle each week to ensure we don’t contradict ourselves? God is consistent, and we can depend on His Word.

If you look for contradictions, you will find things that look like them, but you will have trouble recognizing God. But if you look for the similarities, you will find more than you can count, and you will begin to recognize when the same triune God also shows up in your life. This is because the Law, indeed the entire Bible, is more than a book of rules. It is the testimony of thousands of people who knew and followed God. It is meant to lead us to God, through the person of Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

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Living in the Spirit

Paul wrote to the Romans that we find life when we follow the Holy Spirit and death when we follow the flesh. You could line our passage from Romans today right next to Galatians 5 and see how Paul expounded on this very concept when he wrote that the fruit of the Spirit was: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-Control. He said that there was no law against these things.

You might notice that list does not include Happiness, Comfort, Riches, Fame, Titles, Glory, Popularity, or Power. There are many things we wish for and work toward that are not the fruit of the Spirit. We may want them. They may seem like the light at the end of the tunnel. It may feel like relief or finally getting ahead in life. But that is not God. Our flesh is urging us to chase things that will not last and will only come between God and us.

When we follow God’s Spirit of Grace, we are following Jesus, who is following the heavenly Father. His invitation to follow Him is to pick up our crosses, deny ourselves, and follow Him as we lay down our lives as living sacrifices to please God. It takes supernatural grace to do that. Life in the Spirit is like one of those salads with everything in it, not just the one or two things that are our favorites or the easiest to do. It may not look or taste appealing to our flesh at first. But it will nourish and bring new life to our souls.

God wants you to experience all of the Holy Spirit, all of His grace, and all of the life He has prepared for you. But that means giving up all of the life we hold on to now. You won’t make it very far out of the old life of darkness with one foot still in the tomb.

Today, we will pray an invitation for the Holy Spirit to come and fill us with that life. Then we will sing an invitation for the Holy Spirit to work in us. Next week we will learn how to live that life in the Spirit daily. In the six days between now and then, you can listen to and follow God’s Holy Spirit, checking it with scripture and asking for help from those who help guide you in your faith. Or you can crawl back into the tomb and die a little more each day. God has laid the path before us—life in Him or death on our own. The choice is up to you.

Come back this evening and join us for worship again at 6 pm. Brother Gary Motta will be sharing with us. Sunday School starts in just a moment.