1. Freedom

Me:

I’m glad that you are here for the beginning of a brand new sermon series, Beyond Belief. Over the next few weeks we will be examining a few core verse from the NT letters of Romans and 1 Corinthians.

If you are new with us, this series is a part of a larger spiritual growth campaign that we began last September called Core52. We have spent the last year studying core verses through out the entire Bible and today we are on core verse 41…only 11 left!

Guilt and shame. I mention them a lot when I preach sermons. We’ve all experienced both, but what are they exactly. Let’s start with guilt. Guilt is a feeling you get when you did something wrong, or perceived you did something wrong. Your grandma told you not to eat the cookies she had just baked. You couldn’t help yourself, so you took a cookie when she wasn’t looking and ate it. The cookie tasted good, but not as good as you had hope because you felt guilty. We experience guilt when we cross a boundary line and do something that we know we shouldn’t do. We all have experienced the weight of guilt. Now, the thing about guilt is, sometimes we can make amends for our guilt. You could go back to your grandma, tell her what you did and apologize. There maybe consequences, but you have done something to make things right…to alleviate the guilt.

Here’s the thing about guilt; it’s not a bad thing. If you were to touch a hot iron or pan, the nerves in your hand recognize the pain and immediately tell your brain to move your hand. Guilt works in the same way. You feel guilt and you recognize that something is wrong, whether intentional or unintentional. The guilt tells you to do something to correct what you are feeling. So we feel the weight of guilt and we have to figure out what to do. This is where often get into even more trouble because we don’t know what to do with our guilt. We may try to ignore it. Medicate it. Or just do nothing at all hoping it will go away. I think we all understand and have felt, the weight of guilt.

Shame. Feeling that you are bad, worthy of contempt, or inadequate as a person. Whatever you have done wrong had become your identity. Shame is much more prevalent in eastern cultures where families and communities live in this honor/shame culture. For example, a family chooses a daughter’s husband in a prearranged marriage. She doesn’t want to follow through. She dishonor’s her family and brings shame on herself. She is labeled as the one who disobeyed her family. In our culture, it might be the stigma of not living up to the family standard, or it could be the label that happens when we make bad choices or bad things happen to us. Divorce used to be a big one. That was the one in our family who got divorced. Shame becomes and identity. You’re the cheater, the one in prison, the alcoholic. I think you understand the identity or the label of shame. It’s hard to lose that identity isn’t it?

Without question, guilt and shame are problems! So what are we to do with guilt and shame? Is there a clear pathway away from the weight of guilt? Is there a way to shake the feeling that we are failures as Christians? Is there a way to lose the identity of shame and find a pathway to freedom?

God:

If you have a Bible or device go to Romans chapter 7. If you are on the YouVersion Bible app, go to Events and then look for Iowa City Church. All the sermon notes and Scriptures will be there.

Here’s some quick background on Romans. It’s written by the apostle Paul to the church in…you guessed it Romans. It’s deep, profound and wrestles with many of the difficult topics that the first century Christians were trying to figure out, most importantly, what does it look like to follow Jesus? What is this new life in Jesus look like. For example, in chapters 1-4 Paul unpacks what the gospel is. Then in chapters five, six and seven all have to do with freedom. Freedom from death in chapter five. Freedom from sin in chapter six. Freedom from the Law in chapter seven.

Here is where we want to hang out. When Paul speaks of the Law, he is referring to the OT Law, God gave his people to follow. The tension that Paul is addressing comes from this question: Now that we have Jesus, what do we do with the Law? This was tricky because some of the laws don’t necessarily apply, like the ones about tattoos for example. However, many of the OT Laws we were still being taught, for example the Laws regarding sexual ethics, anger, stealing, murder, and coveting. So how were they to use the Law while still following Jesus?

The Law is good.

Romans 7:7 NIV

What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”

The Law reveals God’s character.

The Law reveals God’s will.

The Law identifies sin.

The Law is good but limited.

This isn’t the Law’s fault, it’s our fault. Paul calls it our flesh or sin nature. The Law points us in the right direction, but it doesn’t get us there.

(Example GPS) The voice tells us the way, but it doesn’t steer our car or put foot on the gas.

The other problem with the law is the it actually intensifies sin.

Take a group of Jr High boys to the swimming pool. They see the list of rules.

DO NOT RUN AND JUMP BACKWARDS!

The boys hadn’t even thought of that. They see the rules as a challenge.

Again, this isn’t the Law’s fault, this is our fault and our weakness and sin. So as chapter seven ends, we have this sense of sadness, even hopelessness. What a mess! Paul even describes it in his own life:

Romans 7:24 NIV

What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?

This is the apostle Paul! He is not only revealing how this tension with the law can cause a battle inside of us. He is also pointing out how the Law causes guilt and shame. Guilt because when we break one of the laws, like coveting, we feel guilt because we know we have crossed the line. We feel shame because we realize that we are law breakers. Paul even uses the word “wretched” to describe himself. You can feel the weight of guild, shame and sadness all in this one verse. What do we do with the guilt the law has stirred up in us? What about the shame?

In the very next verse he gives the answer.

Romans 7:25 NIV

Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

So through Jesus, God has delivered us from our sinful selves, and the things in us that the Law cannot fix.

God has done through Jesus what the Law cannot do.

Here’s our core verse, and a verse you must memorize and put into your heart.

Romans 8:1 NIV

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,

Someone here needs to hear that right now. You are not condemned. If your life is positioned in Jesus, if you have defined your relationship of faith with him, then you are clothed with Christ…he is your covering. Here’s a bad example that might help. Let’s pretend you are Tony Stark of Marvel Avengers fame. When Tony Stark puts on the Iron Man suit he becomes Iron Man. Bullets deflect away, he can be thrown around like a doll but he is safe inside of the Iron Man suit. Tony Stark can even make a horrible decision, go into an unsafe place while wearing the suit, the suit will still continue to protect him.

By positioning our life in Jesus, we are not condemned for the sinful choices we will continue to make…more on that in a second. It also changes our identity. Our identity is now found in Jesus Christ. We are his, we are a part of God’s family and there is nothing that can change that. What that means is you aren’t your sin, you aren’t your shame. Your identity is Jesus. Isn’t that good news!?

So how does this no condemnation thing work?

Romans 8:3 NIV

For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh,

Through Jesus our sins are forgiven. Not just the sins we did last year, or last night, but also the sins that you are going to do today and tomorrow. The sins you intentionally do as well as the sins you do unintentionally. To remain in Jesus means that our sins are forgiven and there is no condemnation. However, you will still feel guilt. When you sin, you will feel the weight of guilt…but here’s what’s different. Before Jesus, you didn’t have a pathway to release your guilt. Now, by putting yourself in Jesus, you know you are not condemned…and you can reconcile what you have done wrong. For example, if you tell a lie, because you know you are not condemned, you can apologize and make things right with whoever you lied to. If you took something or gossiped about someone, you can make amends, apologize because you are not your sin anymore. In so doing, the weight of guilt is lifted and released.

But it doesn’t end there. He helps us live a life of righteousness.

Romans 8:4 NIV

in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Through the presence of the Holy Spirit we can live a life of righteousness.

This is one that takes some practice and mentoring with. It’s a skill that needs to be developed. Instead of learning to live according to the flesh, where we do what our instincts say, we learn to live according to the Spirit. Our flesh is weak and is almost always going to lead us down a path of comfort, indulgence or pleasure. The Holy Spirit is there to guide us onto different paths or if we choose a wrong path, the Holy Spirit will use guilt to convict us to reconcile and turn things around. If you have time, read through the Galatian letter. Paul goes into great detail about keeping in step with the Spirit.

Here are a few examples you might experience:

You engage in an unhealthy bad habit, and your feel guilty after wards. That’s the Holy Spirit.

You feel guilty about not attending worship service. That’s the Holy Spirit.

You feel convicted to go talk with someone or build a relationship. That’s the Holy Spirit.

Here’s the point. When we recognize our position in Jesus, we don’t have to worry about the identity of shame, and we understand what to do with our guilt. Most of all, we understand that our Heavenly Father is our ally…he is for us. Here’s how Paul wraps up Romans 8.

Romans 8:31–32 NIV

What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

God proves, through Jesus that he has done whatever it takes for us to succeed…even when we fail. So what to we do with our guilt and shame?

When we remain in Jesus we can live a life free from the weight of sin, guilt and shame.

Let me wrap up with an account of how Jesus handled guilt and shame.

Close with the story of the woman caught in adultery.

John 8:1–11 NIV

but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”