Proper 8 / “You Belong to Another” / Romans 7:1-13
29 June 2014 – Redeemer
Trying to please God by your deeds and words is like living in a bad marriage. God’s Law can never be satisfied. Because of your sin you can do nothing right. If you think you have done something wellthe Law lays another demand upon you. You’ve given to the poor, now give with a cheerful heart, give more than you want to with a cheerful heart, give without thinking you’re wasting your money. When you look for a reward or “thank you”, the Law gives you only threats and punishment. You do your best and your best is no good. Living underthe Law leads you in one of two directions – you wear yourself out trying to please its whim and wishes, but you never succeed. You despair of living happily ever after before God. Or you give up – the Law will never be pleased or satisfied, so you say, “Forget it.” Since the Law will never be happy with you you ignore it, enjoy yourself, and live it up.
Under the Law, wed to the Law there is only death for you – our sinful passions aroused by the Law only bear the fruit for death. All that we make, all that we do, all that we are dies. Houses fall, cars rust, bodies age, even our children die. The Law weds you to your sin and death and the only way out of that marriage bond is death.
The good news is you have died to the Law through the body of Christ. This is a good death for it is the end of suffering ever after. This is the Work of Jesus. Jesus wed Himself to the Law by being born of a woman, born under the Law. By taking on human flesh He subjected Himself to the commandments. But He was born without sin. He was born with an untainted will that was wholly devoted to His Father and the Law. The Law called and Jesus went. It demanded and He obeyed. The Law cried out for justice and He was just. Finally the Law said, “The sinner must die” and Christ said, “I will die for the sinner. Lay the sin of the world upon me and I will receive all that the Law demands.” The Law exhausted itself on Jesus. It huffed and puffed and blew itself out on Him.
Christ has released you from your sin and therefore you have died to the Law. What can the Law demand of you that Christ has not done? What can it send you to do that Jesus has not accomplished? How can it threaten you anymore? The Law has no hold on you because of Jesus Christ. The Law is dead – an old windbag shouting orders and making threats, but with no power or hold over you, because you belong to another – Christ wed Himself to you in His incarnation and wed you to Himself in your Baptism.
Now there is a certain danger in Paul’s comparison of the Law to a bad marriage. He makes it sound like the Law is an evil old taskmaster, something like an abusive husband who verbally and physically beats and batters his wife for his own pleasure. But that is not so. “Is the Law sin?” Paul asks. “Since the Law is so harsh on us that it cannot be pleased isn’t that evil and wicked and at least unfair?” “No” says Paul, don’t ever think that.
The Law is not evil. We are. The Law is holy. The Law is not sin, but it does reveal our sin. That’s why we get angry with the Law, but it is not the Law’s fault that we fall short and cannot meet God’s demands. It is our fault. We are sinners. I don’t want to worship God alone I want to worship me. I don’t want God’s name hallowed, I want my name to have glory and honor and praise. I don’t want to rest from my work and play so Jesus can work on me. I want to do my own thing.
The Law tells me all of that is sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” Coveting is a national pastime in the United States. Every commercial on TV, every ad on your phone and computer screen, and every store is set up to increase your coveting. The goal of advertizing is to distract you from what you have, to buy something you want. “You shall not covet – that marriage that looks better than yours, that house that is bigger than yours, that shed, that job.” You shall not covet. You shall be content. In everything rejoice and give thanks. Even in suffering, even in the nursing home, even in death.
Where would we be if God had not given us the Law? We would not know that sin is alive and well in the world and in us. Where else are you told that gossip and slander are sinful? Certainly not in the magazines you read or the reality shows you watch. Who else tells you that your life does not consist in the abundance of your possessions? Where else are you told that every human being is created in the image of God and worthy of life and your respect, including the unborn, the suffering and the aged? Where else are you taught that your wealth and gifts, your life and body are not your own, but gifts from God? Where else are you called to repent for living for yourself? Every other voice you hear including your own heart tells you to live for you.
But not God’s voice. Without God’s Word of Law your sin would be concealed, hidden, ignored – it would be dead to your eyes – you wouldn’t see it, recognize it, or confess it. When Paul heard the Law it brought his sin to life and then he realized that because sin lived in him he was a dead man.
The Law is good because it leads us to repent. It leads us to see ourselves for what we are. But we only see the Law as good when we believe the Gospel, when we are wed to Christ by faith, when His perfect life and atoning death are made ours in that blessed exchange of baptism. You are only thankful for the surgeon’s knife when your new hip is allowing you walk or your repaired heart is beating well and supplying your body’s need for oxygen. You can only love the Law when you know the way out of its demands. You can only love the Law when you know there is happily ever after united to Christ, instead of the despair and death that comes when you are wed to your sin.
Yet this love of the Law is not complete or perfect in you,because until Christ returns we are saint and sinner. We are wed to Christ by faith, but at the same time we are still tangled up with sin and death until the resurrection. So you love and don’t love the law at the same time.
Let me prove it. What’s your first reaction to the Law? You were playing in the house and broke a lamp. The Law (your mom) says, “Who did it?” What do you do? You deny it. You blame your sister or the yellow lab with the big fat wagging tail. You skip church because you chose to be out late on Saturday night and then I happen to see you in Menards Sunday afternoon. The Law. What do you do? If I’m in plumbing you head to lumber. If I strike up a conversation you make up an excuse. If your children are living together you probably don’t want me preaching about adultery. If you have relatives visitng you might wish we didn’t have closed communion. You know the Law, you understand the dangers of sin, but your struggle to love the Law and its call to repent.
What do you need in that struggle to love the Law? Excuses won’t help. Changing the law will not change God. Calling sin normal or a right won’t do it either. Run to Jesus, hear again the vows of love and forgiveness which He swore to you during His life, death, and resurrection. Return to the vows spoken in your baptism and know this – you belong to Jesus. He has kept every demand of the Law, suffered every punishment for sin and silenced every threat. When your sins trouble you don’t take it out on the Law. It’s not the Law’s fault. Give your sins to Jesus, rejoice in His union with you in the flesh, and on the cross, and in your baptism and in Holy Communion. He is yours and you are His. Don’t fear the threats of the Law. Love the Law for you have been wed to Christ Jesus and that truly means “happily ever after.” In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
Pr. Bruce Timm
28 June 2014 anno Domini