I am a Cracked Foundation

Romans 7:7–25 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. 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.

Scripture: Romans 7:7-25

Belgic Confession Article 15

Sermon Title: I am a Cracked Foundation

           This evening, we return to the Belgic Confession Article 15. It’s been a month since we looked at the Confession, but you may remember Article 14 mainly dealt with the Fall of humanity. We looked at the big picture that evening, the general effect of sin on us—we are subjected, cursed, and enslaved. Hopefully we each recognize how serious a thing sin is in the eyes of God, and also the pain on us, which God alone can give us freedom and healing from. 

That was Article 14, Article 15 now deals with original sin. Most, if not all, of us have heard messages or Sunday School lessons on this before. We covered it when we went through the Heidelberg Catechism, too. I’ll be referencing three key thoughts from the Belgic Confession as we get into the message, and so let’s listen to Article 15 and then Romans 7:7-25.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as simple as the vocabulary is in this passage, it’s one that I believe a lot of us have trouble comprehending what exactly Paul is trying to say. I’m part of that. The law is not sin, but through the law sin we encounter death. I do what I don’t want to do, and yet when I do those things—sinful things, it’s not me, but it’s my nature. It’s sin living in me. That sounds like Paul is shying away from taking responsibility.    

If you have a Study Bible, one of the notes that you might find on the bottom of the page is that there are two schools of thought with this passage. Is Paul talking about unbelievers, people seriously struggling with their sin and wondering what faith and religion might afford them? Or are we talking about believers—is Paul truly referencing himself and his battle with certain sins? That’s how I read and interpret this—it is from the standpoint of someone who has saving faith, and yet for whom sin is still present. 

In that light, it is a fitting Scripture to remind us of how our brokenness works. Original sin is the belief that every person is corrupted, not first of themselves and what they have done, but this has been hereditary since Adam and Eve. If you would, I invite you to join me in saying the title of this sermon, I am a cracked foundation. Would you say that with me? I am a cracked foundation. You and I, each one of us here, each person in our churches and communities, and our world are fundamentally broken. When a house gets worked on, older houses in particular, and you uncover the foundation, there can be some anxiety about what might be found. A cracked foundation is not just undesirable, it has the potential of putting the whole structure at risk. That’s what original sin has done. We are cracked foundations. The relationship God had originally initiated with humanity is in need of saving.

So we heard at the end of our passage, “What a wretched man am I! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” We need to be saved, and Christ is the answer—he has done that. The actively at-risk has been dealt with—it will not be an issue. With true faith there is no worry that the structure of salvation that rests on us as cracked foundations is going to crumble. 

But in our understanding the life of faith is not solely focused on a moment of us being saved and only our surety of that—the perseverance of the saints. There is a second ongoing part: we need to be sanctified as well. It is in the process of sanctification that throughout our lives, even daily, we are reminded that our foundation is cracked. Jesus is the one who is supporting and necessarily making that structure of salvation safe and true, but in our view and experience the cracks are still there.

That is the impact of original sin, and yet the presence of original sin does not steal our salvation from us. To use language from Romans 8, we can be saved, and the process of sanctification is more and more converting us to be under the control of the Spirit. Paul, we heard in chapter 7 verse 25, sees good in his mind to be a slave to God’s law, rather than by our overwhelming nature to function as slaves to sin with the devil as our master.  But obviously sin is still present. So the takeaway for tonight is how do we understand original sin in the context of our sanctification. 

There are three key things that hopefully we can grasp from Article 15. The first involves a solid understanding of what original sin is. It is “a corruption of the whole human nature—an inherited depravity [infecting even] small infants.” The picture there is of a disease. It is further described in the image of a plant—this is “the root [producing] every sort of sin” We also heard the image that our sins come out “as though from a contaminated spring.” 

In each of the pictures of original sin that Guido de Brès gives to us they start with the core of something. An inherited depravity even in small infants, the root of the plant, the contaminated spring. That’s why I think of the image of a cracked foundation, the core that everything depends upon—that’s where the problem in our world and our lives exists, at the very core. As long as original sin is here, we cannot get away from or expect for sin to disappear. No, it will always be around until sin is conquered in full and Christ makes all things new. We do things like coveting and fighting and dishonoring God, because this root has not fully been sentenced to death.

But these images also point out another reality of original sin. Not only does it affect and infect us at the core, but it is not chosen. A small infant in their mother’s womb does not get to choose if some tragic infection or ailment affects them, the root of a plant does not have a conscious decision of whether it will be healthy or not. So too, a contaminated spring has not chosen to be polluted, that is an effect brought about by someone else. The only way any of these have hope is if something from the outside rescues them; someone with a cure provides that antidote or a pruning or a decontamination. But we must understand that the presence of sin in our lives, while we have a choice as to how we respond more and more as we grow, that sin cannot by our choice be cast out. We cannot choose of ourselves whether we will be sinners or perfect saints—that second option does not exist.

That’s the foundation for what original sin is. Sticking close to the article, we get to our second point. We reject the Pelagian error that sin is only “a matter of imitation.” We have already started to drift into this, but it is very important. The theory of sin by imitation is the line of thought that original sin is false, and sin is only present when we choose to do it, and that choice comes based on copying the wrongdoings of others. Orthodox Christian faith slams the door on that because it is such thinking that would say we can live our whole lives without sin. I could always and completely choose to not imitate the wrongs that others do. 

You probably can see some of the flaws in that view. The most striking, in my opinion, is that it allows someone the ability to say, “I don’t need a Savior.” What if I choose to always only worship God, and honor my parents, not murder or commit adultery, steal or bear false witness, or covet—I don’t need help then. I’ll take my reward, not earned, but deserved salvation. That very thought, however, is sin. To think that we know better than God, to think that we don’t need his once for all sacrifice that is the only opportunity for salvation. The sins we commit and omit are often a choice for us, but original sin is not something that we have the opportunity to choose.   

I want to go a little beyond the Confession though. When we look at Romans 7, we also find another possible argument that some could use to question the need for a Savior. We could look at verses 7 through 13 and argue, “I would not have known what sin was if the law had not identified it. Sin is only as powerful and able to seize an opportunity, if I know it’s a sin. So if I don’t know the law, must I really be guilty of death?” Verse 13 says, “But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.” The question is, does the law make something actually sinful, whereas if I don’t know the law, then is it really sin for me?

Remember I said earlier that there are two interpretations of this chapter—for the unbeliever and for the believer. This is where if you take Paul’s words to be regarding the believer who God is sanctifying, then we’re not talking about salvation and death in the terms of heaven or hell. We read these words instead as telling us about the fruitfulness of the Spirit-filled life. As you have already been saved, original sin is still in you, God shows you what is beneficial. Living in that as many of us hopefully are, we can experience conviction which either the evil uses to try and keep us in guilt or we follow the Spirit being freed. We need Jesus to save us, and then we need him to continue to show us the way to redeemed and sanctified life that he offers to us. 

           That’s the second focus—this really is an infection; original sin is not up for our choosing.  The third focus, now we are going backwards in the article, “[Original sin] is enough [before God] to condemn the human race, and it is not abolished or wholly uprooted even by baptism.” De Brès not only makes a point against the Pelagian heresy but he marks a sharp difference in the faith and theology of the Reformers against the Roman Catholics. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “The Church and the parents would deny a child the priceless grace of becoming a child of God were they not to confer Baptism shortly after birth…By baptism all sins are forgiven, original sin and all personal sins, as well as all punishment for sin.” 

Again, this is a substantial difference between us in the Reformed tradition and the beliefs of the Catholic Church. In that understanding forgiveness is not solely in Christ, his merits and his already accomplished work, but the sacrament of baptism performed by priests is a required part for the forgiveness of sins. It is our tradition’s understanding that baptism is a wonderful gift given to us to continue by Jesus. It does signify what his death and resurrection accomplished, namely that we and our sins are buried with him in his death, and we are raised now and in the life to come to newness of life. But our forgiveness does not depend on our participation in the sign. Nor do we believe that it is the action itself that accomplishes the forgiving. We are forgiven by grace alone through faith—wholly based in the work of the Spirit. 

I don’t bring this up tonight to reignite division with our Catholic neighbors or family members or friends, but it is important to understand where we do have significant differences. Sprinkling a baby with water or practicing full-body immersion does not get rid of sins. It is only by the grace and mercy of God that we receive that gift. As we live as broken foundations, seeing sin creep in again and again because of the presence of original sin, we are given opportunities to yearn for the full work and full redemption of Jesus. Our wills are not enough to put sin to death, only God is able to do that.

Brothers and sisters, as we will leave this place in a little while, may having heard this message strengthen in you that it is God who saves, and if you believe, then you have been saved. Hold that confidence against the temptations of the evil one, who through sin attempts to make us think our salvation is in question. Find your confidence against his temptations and against sin in Christ our Savior alone. Lay your burdens before him, seek forgiveness, grow as you mature in your resolve to experience the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. Remember that all of this is rooted in love, even the love of a Father who has given his only Son and who has adopted us, that we too may be his sons and daughters. Amen.