Sin-fluenza

I don’t know about you, but I have been glued to the news this week. No matter what we have been up to or how sick I have been with my little cold. I have had an eye on the news to find out more about the spread of Covid 19. I can’t help it. This is my first pandemic, and it is the first one that we can all watch in real time as it spreads across the world. It is a little scary to watch but it is also amazing to see how communities are able to track the spread of the disease and put people in quarintine to stop them from spreading the virus. Really I don’t know what we would do if we weren’t able to test to see if people are sick with the common cold or with Covid -19.

And so as I worked on this week’s sermon I realized that The Law of the lord is a lot like an infection test for sin.

If we look at our lives against the Law of the Lord we see the sin in our lives.. And that means the law had the authority to call us as dead in our sin. To send us into and endless quarantine apart form God.

But as we are going to see today, after we have come to Jesus our relationship with the law has changed. As paul says. ..

Romans 7:1–6 ESV

Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress. Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.

Verses 1-6- The law does detect sin.. and before we were in christ that detection only had one result.. death. There was no cure for this horrible disease! Our three central relationships- between God, our community and our creation was horribly poisoned by our sin. The consequences of our sin infection was death! In that way- the law revealed our need for a saviour. Jesus is that saviour who died for us to bring us back into a healthy relationship with God. Now that our relationship with God is not are result of our righteousness. But Christ’s Righteousness. We have lifein Christ- .. outside of the law..

But the big question is how do we understand the Law today. We could resent it. Thinking that because we didn’t know how sick we were till it diagnosed our disease. So it must be the problem. NOw this is a little bit like resenting the doctor who brings us the bad news.. Or worse yet - The thermometer that revealed our deadly fever? Do you blame the thermometer for the fever? Or the doctor for your disease.

As paul says..

Romans 7:7–14 ESV

What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin.

So the Law has revealed our sickness. But that was just one of it’s purposes.

7-14-But the law still serves its two purposes. saved or not. It shows us how to live a beautiful life that is pleasing to God. Remember our call to worship from Psalm 19

Psalm 19:7 ESV

The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple;

At it heart the law is beautiful, and it describes the way to live a beautiful life. I know that this is an unusual way to look at the Law.. But I challenge you this week to think about how your life would look if you followed the 10 commandments. Would it be better or worse? I believe you will find that it will be better. Because Jesus perfectly kept those commandments- and his life was the perfect picture of beauty and grace.

But in the same way that our failure to lead the beautiful life is a stark contrast to what scripture Andthe Law has an automatic mechenism to reveals the sin still dwelling in us. How so.. by prompting us to disobey..

Mark twain and the mule. “Mark Twain said that if a mule thinks he knows what you want him to do he will do just the opposite, and Twain admitted he was like that himself—often mean for the sake of meanness. But the fault lies not in the ideal but in the man who reacts against it.”

Sin creates in my heart and life a mulishness that desires in an instant to disobey the law.. Just for the joy of it..

And so the law is not a fault because I am rebelious- but where the law has succeeded is revealling that sickness within me.

Saved or unsaved I still have a sin infection that must be overcome. And while the law did not cause the infection- it also is not the solution to the infection. Any more than focusing really hard on a thermometer will cause you to lower your temperature. Or looking at a ruler will cause you to grow faster.

But the Law has done something vital for us.. It has revealled our need for God. Not just once to be saved- but our ongoing need for help..

After all this is what paul has been building too. from Chapter 5 - to chapter 8 Paul has been talking about the christian’s struggle with Sin. He has reminded us we are part of a new family. That we are Sons of God not slaves to sin. and that we have freedom to live for God and for his righteousness. But there is a practical problem- We as christians still sin! It is more than forgetfullness- more than an accident.. It is who we were and while the law remindes us of who we will be the difference between the two is vast!

And one that even Paul struggled with..

Romans 7:15–25 ESV

For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

Now as I read that passage I hope you noticed the change in Paul’s tone. How very personal and passionate these sentences were. Here Paul want us to understand that this is not just some abstract struggle but one that strikes at the heart of the christian condition. Even for him.

Here he describes a battle that takes place daily in the heart of the believer. Be Son of Adam or a son of God, to be a slave to sin or a slave to righteousness. To delight in the beauty of the law of the lord or to live in rebellion against it. Within the will of the believer this great battle rages.

We are renewed and being renewed daily by the spirit- But there is still our minds delight in the love of christ and in his fellowship. But our old- selves are just as mulish as ever- maybe even more so- And there is a stark rebellion against God’s will. Pouring forth from the same hearts that sin songs of praise!

Now if you are here and you are not a Christian and you have probably thought that Christians seem pretty hypocritical. Saying one thing and then doing another- Claiming to be Sons of God then stabbing each other in the back. Well You are right. Christians do all of those things and for this reason. We are of two minds! We are literally two persons at war in one beating human heart. And we often fail. This is not an excuse! But I hope it helps you understand the situation a little bit better.

What Scripture is saying here is that to be a christian is not to have defeated sin or escaped sin- rather it is to be made brutally aware of the struggle with sin. A struggle that reveals daily that it is by God’s grace alone that we have been saved. That we didn’t need just a little boost to make it across the finish line. just a few vitamins to be the infections. NO- we were DEAD in our sin and in Christ we have been given new life.

Now this isn’t just academic.. This matter is at the heart of our journey to sanctification. So I want you to think about your personal struggles with sin, past or present. There are sins that you have defeated where God’s spirit has given you victory over that which you used to struggle with and sins that tempt you still. And there are sins that you have not even realized you struggle with that you will one day defeat with the help of the spirit.

Now I want you to think about the great saints of Old.. where they ever triumphant in thier holiness and boastful in thier holiness. NO, they were not.. The motto of the great saints of every age is Oh, how great is my sin and how great is the never ending love of God.

As we mature as Christians. The Cross only grows greater in our understand.. We never forget if or out grow it!

The Cross Diagram

As we will see in the next Chapter we are never intended to defeat these sins on our own. Our victory is found by walking daily in deep reliance on the holy Spirit.

After all that is how it was supposed to be from the begining. God With us, God Guiding us. God Empowering us. Jesus’ Spirit within us is our life support. The more dependant we are on him the more power we will have to refuse the temptations of sin and the sinful sickness that dwells within.

That song, The Lorica, unlocks beautifully the heart of Christian Sanctification.

Jesus,

And in Christ our victory is promised. In the midst of our struggles our failures and our triumphs. When we grow weary or overwhelmed.. When we have grown to reliant on our own strengths and have failed again to keep God’s will. In those moments of despair remember Christ has won us a victory that cannot be lost.

But Christian do not rest on your laurels or grow lazy in your struggle. There is still a battle before you! A kingdom to be won and souls to be saved.

So, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.

Rather as it says in Hebrews. let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,  fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.

lets pray.