Sunday sermon: "The War Within"

 Why do Christians struggle with sin? If, as we see in the beginning of Romans 7, we are freed from the control of sin, why do we still do it? This question has perplexed Christians since the very beginning, and we see here at the end of Romans 7 that even the apostle Paul saw this as a struggle.

One easy way to deal with this passage is to say it only applies to those who have not come to Christ. They may want to do the right thing, but can't. This avoids the issue of saying that Christians still sin, but it fails on two fronts. First, all of Romans to this point teaches that without Christ we are dead in sin, helpless, and seek only to fulfill our own desires. Without the saving power of Jesus, we don't want to do good, so we don't have this struggle. The second problem is that it doesn't have an answer to the question raised in this passage, which is why Christians still struggle with sin. If we aren't supposed to struggle with sin, we come to a point of despair as the reality of sin intrudes on our life.

The struggle ensues because there are two principles at war within us. As those who are new creatures in Christ, we have a desire to do what pleases God, and we begin to align ourselves with His will. Still, our old self wants to follow its own desires. We have self-centered habits to break, and the more we mature in our Christian life the more we see in ourselves that needs to be cleansed.

Ironically, it is those who we often extol as the greatest of saints who are most aware of their sin. I would be thrilled to be as mature as the apostle Paul, yet he considered himself to be a "wretched man" when he thought of his sin. Paul understood how serious sin is in God's eyes, and how any sin violates our relationship with God. I believe, contrary to some teachers, that as we grow in our understanding of God's will and in our Christian walk, we will become more conscious of sin, rather than reaching a point where we believe we are sinlessly perfect.

The conclusion of chapter 7 gives us hope: "What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this dying body? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" While we may struggle, we do not need to rely on our own strength to overcome the power of sin. It is through Jesus that we conquer sin. The Holy Spirit gives us the strength to resist temptation and to do what we know is right. Part of growing in Christ is learning to become dependent on the Spirit rather than self. As we do that, we gradually find sin's power waning, the desire of our self to seek its own way weakening, and our ability to serve the Lord strengthening. We may still have that struggle within, but through Christ we can find victory more and more.

Loving the Cross

Here is a well-known quote from "The Imitation of Christ" (Bk. 2, Ch.11) to meditate on as we approach Passion Week:

"JESUS has always many who love His heavenly kingdom, but few who bear His cross. He has many who desire consolation, but few who care for trial. He finds many to share His table, but few to take part in His fasting. All desire to be happy with Him; few wish to suffer anything for Him. Many follow Him to the breaking of bread, but few to the drinking of the chalice of His passion. Many revere His miracles; few approach the shame of the Cross. Many love Him as long as they encounter no hardship; many praise and bless Him as long as they receive some comfort from Him. But if Jesus hides Himself and leaves them for a while, they fall either into complaints or into deep dejection. Those, on the contrary, who love Him for His own sake and not for any comfort of their own, bless Him in all trial and anguish of heart as well as in the bliss of consolation. Even if He should never give them consolation, yet they would continue to praise Him and wish always to give Him thanks. What power there is in pure love for Jesus — love that is flee from all self-interest and self-love! Do not those who always seek consolation deserve to be called mercenaries? Do not those who always think of their own profit and gain prove that they love themselves rather than Christ? Where can a man be found who desires to serve God for nothing? Rarely indeed is a man so spiritual as to strip himself of all things. And who shall find a man so truly poor in spirit as to be free from every creature? His value is like that of things brought from the most distant lands. If a man give all his wealth, it is nothing; if he do great penance, it is little; if he gain all knowledge, he is still far afield; if he have great virtue and much ardent devotion, he still lacks a great deal, and especially, the one thing that is most necessary to him. What is this one thing? That leaving all, he forsake himself, completely renounce himself, and give up all private affections. Then, when he has done all that he knows ought to be done, let him consider it as nothing, let him make little of what may be considered great; let him in all honesty call himself an unprofitable servant. For truth itself has said: “When you shall have done all these things that are commanded you, say: ‘we are unprofitable servants.’” Then he will be truly poor and stripped in spirit, and with the prophet may say: “I am alone and poor.” No one, however, is more wealthy than such a man; no one is more powerful, no one freer than he who knows how to leave all things and think of himself as the least of all."

Sunday sermon: "You Know Better"

As a child, when we did something wrong occasionally our parents would admonish us with the line, "You should know better!" Other kids may have gotten away with the same thing we did, but what mom or dad was saying was that we were raised to follow a higher standard. Truth be told, we probably did know better, but we let our own desires and our own will have control instead of doing what was right.

Paul reminds us in Romans 7:7-14 that this is exactly what the Law of God does for us. It reminds us of the higher standard that God holds for His people. If we did not have this standard revealed to us, we might be able to convince ourselves that we aren't so bad after all. Paul says he was "alive" before he knew the Law. We know from his previous discussion that objectively he was still dead in his sins, as we all are, but here I think he is trying to say that he felt alive. It was the Law that revealed what sin was.

Not only does the Law show us what sin is, it shows us what the consequences of sin are. Sin breaks our relationship with God fatally. When we breach the Law, we are separated from God, eternally condemned to death. If we didn't see God's standard, we wouldn't realize just how impossible keeping the Law is.

Yet this revelation of our condition before God is the beginning of the good news. Before we can understand our need for the saving work of Jesus Christ, we need to know that we have that need. As long as we think we can take care of ourselves, we won't look for an answer from Him. Once we know we are dead, and unable to help ourselves, we start to look for the way out. That's when we are open to hearing the good news that our sin was paid for by Jesus on the cross.

Sometimes Christians disparage the Law. "We aren't under Law, but under grace!" we cry. That's certainly true, but we need to have the attitude toward God's Law that Paul had. Without it, we wouldn't know the high holiness of God, the absoluteness of His standard, and the ways we fall far short of it. Without the Law, we wouldn't realize we need Jesus. The Law has a purpose, even for us today.