The Never-Ending Struggle

With the definition of insanity being: “Trying the same thing over and over expecting different results” one might just think that we are all just a little insane. How many times can one person do the same thing repeatedly before one wakes up and realizes that his or her approach is not working and so it is time to try something different? I can’t tell you how many people I have counseled over the years who get stuck in life because they refuse to change or adapt their approach to things.

It happens often times in dating relationships. depending on where one does her or his searching for their future spouse. I have seen people go from one bad relationship after another because they are picking from the same type of people, or attracting the same type of people. It could be looking for one’s future spouse in bar or continuing to believe there is nothing wrong with you, when there are character flaws that prevent you from having a healthy relationship.

Regardless of what it is that we continue to do expecting different results, we can find great comfort and joy this morning that Jesus’ consistency of decision and life has freed us from the wretchedness of our lives of bad decisions and promises us a new life without wretchedness for ever.

This is nothing new. It has been happening ever since the fall in the Garden. Even St. Paul suffers a bit from this definition of the term insanity. “For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate” (v.15). Sin infects us all. And this dreadful sin that infects us rears its ugly head in some of the strangest of ways.

Take into account the fact that most people today actually think they know better than God, and are better than God with their humanism and political correctness. I have told the gospel story to I cannot tell you how many people. More than once I have heard almost the same exact line that If “God the Father actually sent His own Son to die in our place, that makes Him a child abuser and really sick in the head. What loving parent would do such a thing to their own child?”

This is how sick people have become in their thinking. There was a time when I was picking up a donation from an individual. In speaking with this woman, she was telling me how her husband died a few years previously, and that she was now dating a man who is Mormon. And she was inquisitive as to if she were doing an okay thing dating this man. I proceeded to mention some of the differences between Christianity and Mormonism. To which she retorted, “On, I don’t go to church.” “Oh.” was my response, “Can I ask you why?” thinking that she might have had a bad experience in church that kept her away. She quickly responded to my innocent inquiry with a statement I had never heard from another human being. “Oh, I don’t go to church anymore, because the church is full of sinners and I am not a sinner!”

However, Paul reminds us that there is nothing good that dwells in our flesh. Spiritually, we know the Law, we know God’s will for our holiness of living, and we also should have the desire to do what is right. However, there are days when we get up out of bed and we feel like a monster. Satan’s attacks hit weakened hearts, overloaded hearts, defeated hearts. He fills those darts with lies and poison. And it happens to the best of us. We can tend to focus on nothing but our failures. How many times must I sin against my Lord before it stops. How long must I provoke Him because I just cannot seem to truly repent of x, y, or z.

Despair becomes the flavor of the day when we look at our lives through the lens of our utter depravity. The heart becomes so heavy it flows open with deep sobs and tears.And all the while our own wretchedness is displayed on the movie screen in our mind…every failure is vividly displayed and you wonder how Jesus could love a man like me. “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” Paul knows the pain of his own sinfulness. Paul, one of the most prolific of the New Testament authors, hand picked by God to bring the Gospel of Jesus to the Gentiles…he was hand picked by God to suffer many things. And suffer he did. Ship wrecks, beatings, stoning, and the like. Plus, Paul suffered from his own hand, as we see in this text.

This is all of our lives. Each and every one of us have the Old Man tied around our neck until the day we die. It is so interesting what that Old Man will entice us into. “For I do not understand my own actions. For I do what I do not want, but I do the very thing I hate. How many of you here today find yourselves in this same never ending struggle? you try and try, you confess your sins every week, you promise yourself that you will not do it again and the next thing you know, you're right back at it. This becomes the cycle of your life. Try and fail, try and fail. Some mornings you just don’t even want to get out of bed, you may be thankful for the new day, but you feel so defeated from this cycle that you wonder what’s the bother. Yes, the Lord has given me a new day, but for me it is just another day to fail. The Old Adam clings to us ever tighter, poisoning us with Satan’s lies and no rest in sight.

And even though that Old Adam has been drowned in the water of baptism, he is a remarkable swimmer. Therefore we should daily though confession to our Lord, always remember to confess that you are baptized, that you are a dearly beloved child of the most high God.

Remembering our baptism, takes us back to the time when we were actually at odds with God, literal enemies of Him from conception. It takes us back to that time when water was applied to us, and we heard the gospel message for the first time…I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.” At that moment the blood and water which flow from Christ’s crucified side when He was pierced by the Roman guard, that same blood and water cleansed you from all your sin…Original sin holds no power over you any more. All your sins of thought, word and deed have been drowned and covered with atonement blood.

“Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (25). Yes, Paul concludes the text today with answering his own question with the response of faith, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Yes, and every time when life and sin come crashing in all around us, we can confidently with Paul praise and thank God for what He has done for us in Christ Jesus.

And what has God done for us in His Son Jesus? Well, since we are all born with this dreadful curse of original sin, God knew there was no way at all that we could free ourselves from our sinful condition, we would never be able to make atonement on our own. So, from the very foundations of the world, He knew that He would take the responsibility and pay the price that He Himself demanded for sin. Therefore, God sent forth His Son, Jesus, to assume human flesh. In Jesus, both fully God and fully man, the Law of God was kept in sincerity and truth, by thought, word and deed. Then when the fulness of time had come, Jesus lay down His own life on the cross, an innocent man, and there He bled and died carrying all our sin, all our sorrow, and all our wretchedness. AS Jesus hung His head and said those last words, “it is finished.” all heaven rejoiced, for payment had now been made to free us from our wretchedness.

Now as His redeemed children, we continue to wage this war. Yes, it does seem like a never ending battle, but one day it will end. Until that time, Jesus bids us to come to Him when we are weary and heavy laden and He will give us rest. This war that goes on between the sinful flesh and the renewed spirit is a war that will continue until the day that the Lord calls us home. At that point it may seem that we have lost the battle over our sinful flesh, but sin is the last thing to die in us.

In death, we breath our last breath as the Old Adam clings and fights to the bitter end…he does not want to die, because when he does, in our death, our next breath in the resurrection, that old man stays in the grave, but our new bodies will no longer ever know sin again. The war is finally over, our Savior has won for us our forgiveness, and acceptance by the Father. He has dressed us in the wedding clothes necessary to enter His marriage feast.

One last piece I leave with you. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (8.1). This is the fulfillment of the Gospel for all who believe and are baptized. It is only through baptism that we are joined with Christ in His death and raised with Him in His resurrection to begin our eternal life. As Paul says, As many of you that have been baptized, have put on Christ. (Gal. 3.27). Therefore you are “in Christ”. And every opportunity we have to celebrate the most holy Meal, of Jesus body and blood, Jesus becomes a part of us, as we eat His body and drink His blood shed for us for the forgiveness of sins. We are at one with Christ. And this beautiful Gospel promise in 8:1, takes our days of wretchedness, and begins to turn it around due to the joy we find being fed by God’s Word of Promise and love for each and every one of us. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

In His name and for His eternal glory. Amen