True Freedom

⁜ Prayer ⁜

Intro

Last week, we looked at Rom. 3:21-30, and we saw there the joyous Gospel news that we are made righteous not by anything that we can possibly do by our own selves. Instead, Paul teaches us that we are made righteous by faith - which is a gift from God.

And so, we saw that from beginning to end the Christian life is grounded in the gift of God's grace, made possible by Jesus' work on the Cross, and granted to us by the Holy Spirit. All of that should drive home for us a deep trust in God's love for us, and a deep sense of humility and hope.

But there is a subtle temptation when we hear of the freedom we have in Christ. When we hear that everything is grace, the temptation can arise to presume that we can just do whatever we want to do and live however we desire to live.

So the line of thought goes: "Well... God forgives our sins and he has justified me... so can't I just go about life as normal now?"

That is a temptation that many have fallen prey to. And is actually quite prevalent today. We can see this as some Christians argue that since salvation is entirely by God's grace, how can churches expect that people live a certain way?

And that question can even seem justified by pointing to Paul when he summarizes the amazing over-abundance of God's graciousness as we see him write in Rom. 5:20-21: "where sin increased, grace increased all the more so that... grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ!"

So shouldn't we then "sin boldly" as Luther is supposed to have said?

Well, as we break open today's reading, yes, we do find that Paul says that "where sin increased, grace increased all the more." But, we should note too that Paul immediately foresees that people would misunderstand and misapply what he is saying here!

That is why he immediately follows that with what we find in Rom. 6:1, which says: "What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?" This is an anticipation of the question that has been raised over and over during the Church's long history.

But we should note what follows after this question. Paul writes in response: "BY NO MEANS!" He immediately cuts off the line of argument - even though he could have so easily affirmed it.

It seems like that was the direction the doctrine of God's gift of grace leading to salvation would lead us in right?

IF we follow what seems to be the logic, it seems that since "all are justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus," as we read last week in Rom. 3:24, THEN shouldn't we be able to live in complete freedom, without any care about sin?

But the problem is that is human logic. However, it is not God's logic. And it is God's logic that Paul lays out for us today.

By means of the Holy Spirit's inspiration, Paul shows us what God's logic in the work of salvation looks like.

And interestingly, that logic is not grace=freedom to live however we want, but instead grace=connection to Jesus in his death, which then leads to freedom as we begin to experience the power of the resurrection in our own lives, which leads to holiness.

Or, to put it in Paul's words (as we see them in Rom. 6:3-4): "Don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead... we too may live a new life."

That is what lies at the heart of this passage, and also of Paul's understanding of what happens when a person is saved. You see, the Gospel message is not about something that has happened in the past, it is a message that is for us to live into today.

The joy we celebrate in God's gift of grace does not just point us to a past event, it points to an ongoing reality. As Paul puts it: we were "baptized into Christ."

But that reality points to three very important facts.

(1) First, is the fact that BAPTISM MEANS DEATH TO SIN.

So we see in Rom. 6:4, Paul writes: "You were buried with him through baptism into death." You see, when Paul uses the word baptism, we need to understand the image he is pulling up for us.

Yes, Paul is speaking about the ritual we think of when we hear the word baptized. But in the first century the word baptized also drew up images of being drowned or of ships sinking.

That is why the earliest baptismal ceremonies in the church were done by fully immersing a person in water. And the symbolism was intended to be stark and immediately recognizable - baptism meant death. To be baptized meant that a whole way of life was being destroyed by God's grace.

So as a person is baptized it points to their being united with Christ and his death on the Cross. What a glorious truth!

And we see this highlighted in v. 6 where he says: "our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin." He turns us to the Cross, where death and sin were dealt their death blow, and he reminds us that what Jesus did there applies to us - because we are united with him. By the Cross we have, as Paul puts it in v. 7 "been set free from sin."

(2) The second fact is that WE ARE ALREADY EXPERIENCING THE POWER OF JESUS'S RESURRECTION.

This is why the imagery Paul uses does not end with death. Which is why Paul continues in v. 4 by pointing out that we were buried with Christ and joined to his victory over sin: "in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead... we too may live a new life."

This is also what grace does. Not only are we joined with Christ in death... we are joined with him in his resurrection power.

But notice that Paul is not just speaking about the future. As he talks about the resurrection and its effect on us, he says - to translate the Greek more literally - that it leads to "newness of life."

In other words, we are speaking about a reality that is already present in this world. He is not saying that in some far distant future we will be made new. But right here and now this is already possible, and God is actively doing this.

Now we can see why Paul writes in v. 2 "We are those who have died to sin; so how can we live in it any longer?"

Because God's power is breaking into the lives of Christians, leading us to die to sin and experience the newness of life made possible by Jesus resurrection, Paul finds it unimaginable for a Christian to willfully continue living a life of sin. In fact he expects that we should be not be living under sin’s power any longer.

(3) And that brings us to our third point. Which is that PAUL IS NOT SAYING THAT A CHRISTIAN CANNOT SIN.

Anyone who has been a Christian for even a few weeks can attest to the fact that we still sin! Let's be honest about that!

So what, then, does Paul mean!?

Well, in vv. 14-18 we see him lay this out for us. He begins in v. 14 by stating that "sin will have no mastery over you, because you are not under law but under grace."

Here we see Paul define for us the true meaning of the freedom we have.

Our freedom is not a freedom to do whatever we want to do. Instead, by being joined to Jesus in his death and resurrection, we are freed from our enslavement to sin. Sin is no longer our lord... we have a new Lord! And our Lord grants us grace to "live a new life."

This is why Paul says in v. 17-18 that "though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness."

{Ref. to Ez. 11:19-20: “I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God.}

Notice that he does not say that it is impossible for a Christian to sin. Nor does he say that it makes no difference whether we sin or not.

No! What he does say here is that sin is no longer our master... and that grace frees our hearts to serve God. That is what the free gift of God's grace does. It removes us from the empire of sin, and it brings us under the empire of God's grace.

So, Paul writes in v. 22 "But now that you have been set free from sin, and have become slaves of God, the benefit you receive leads to sanctification and its end is eternal life."

In Christ, that work and victory is already complete. However, you and I do not yet live in that age when everything will be brought to perfection. And so we still struggle. That is why Paul says that "the benefit you receive leads to sanctification."

And what is sanctification? Sanctification is that ongoing work that God is doing within us as he shapes us more and more into the likeness of his Son, making us holy.

That is why Paul says that we cannot live in sin any longer. God's grace in our lives means that we should see a decrease in sin - we should see evidence of that "newness of life" breaking into our lives.

And what does that look like? Well, it means that sin no longer has free reign over us and instead God's righteousness is increasingly seen to reign within us instead.

That is what Paul means when he says in v.22 that we "have become slaves of God." God's grace makes us into a new being! And the proof of being made into a new being is that we obey God with a heart made new! And that my friends is where true freedom lies! We are free to be holy!

That is good news that all of us need to hear. That is good news to all of us who struggle with sin.

It means that we are not left on our own in that struggle.

It means that we can trust in God's grace to be with us as we battle against sin.

And it also means that when we do fall into a sin, we can trust that the blood of Jesus covers us, and that Jesus is immediately reaching out to lift us back to our feet.

As Paul points out in 2 Tim. 2:13: "Even though we're often faithless, Christ Jesus remains faithful, because he cannot deny himself" (paraphrase).

Let’s finish with a story Pastor Harold Senkbeil shares in his book “The Care of Souls,” which is about a story of a young man who he met at one of the churches he pastored. He writes:

When I met "Ned," he was an insecure young man ....He was likable enough, but beneath his friendly exterior, I soon discovered, were some deep emotional and spiritual scars.

Ned was in and out of alcoholism treatments several times and was deeply enmeshed in sexual addiction that he couldn't conquer, despite heroic efforts and episodic periods of sobriety.

He was convinced deep down that he was unworthy of God's love and would never amount to much as a Christian. He had bought into the lie that something within him was irretrievably broken and that it was up to him to somehow fix it.

Ned made good use of professional therapists. But he also needed spiritual care to fully recover.

He needed intentional treatment with the means that God supplies...

It all revolved around proximity to God. The more Ned's sins isolated him from God, the more he needed to be called back into the community of faith and communion with God. Spiritual therapy for Ned involved a repeated cycle of being called back to his baptism... of his death and rebirth in Christ, reminding him of the restored innocence and purity he had long ago been given by baptism into Christ, the Holy One.

Ned's willpower was helpless to overcome his compulsion, but in Christ he was given a new mind and a new will day by day.

Ned’s spiritual therapy included daily contrition and repentance by which his old sinful nature could be daily drowned and die. Each day he was reminded that he was a new man in Christ.

Proximity to Jesus - the Holy One - was the key to Ned's ongoing recovery. ISOLATED from Jesus, he remained enslaved to his addictions and passions. CONNECTED to Jesus by his sacred word and sacraments, Ned was freed to live each day not as slave but as son within the Father's house, created anew in righteousness and true holiness.

This spiritual therapy in proximity to Jesus didn't immediately cure Ned of his sexual addiction. Habits die hard; especially bad and destructive habits. Ned was not free of all temptation.

But this approach was precisely the treatment that Ned needed so his compulsions lost their obsessive power over him. The holiness he found in proximity to Jesus by means of his word and sacraments broke the vicious cycle of his addiction.

Wrapped in Christ's own righteousness and holiness, Ned had a new and right spirit within, so he no longer needed to act out to numb the emotional pain inside. Now a whole new life was open to Ned in Jesus. (excerpted and modified from: "The Care of Souls," 184-187.)

That my brothers and sisters is what Paul tells us is ours in Jesus Christ! What joyous and freeing news! This is what true freedom looks like!

⁜ Let us Pray ⁜