Sermon: No Condemnation Text: Romans 8:1-11; Psalm 130

Transcription

1 Pastor Chris Matthis Epiphany Lutheran Church, Castle Rock, Colorado Lent 5, Series A Saturday, April 5 th, 2014 Sunday, April 6 th, 2014 Sermon: No Condemnation Text: Romans 8:1-11; Psalm 130 Focus: There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Function: That their guilty consciences would be healed by Jesus Word of forgiveness. Structure: Four Pages (Law-then-Gospel) Locus: I believe that Jesus Christ has redeemed me, a lost and condemned person (SC, 2 nd Article of Apostles Creed). Trouble in the World Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. We live in a world that loves keep score and telling you what you re doing wrong. Sometimes, mistakes are just part of the game. In baseball it s three strikes, and you re out. Other times it s merely annoying, like when you have a backseat driver trying to give you directions or pointers on your driving. Media pundits track approval ratings for presidents and other politicians. Teachers track attendance and hand out detentions for kids who are habitually tardy. Insurance companies and the police dock points off your driver s license for traffic violations. But sometimes the record keeping is even more serious. Some people can t let anything go, and even if somebody apologizes to them for some offense, they nurse a grudge forever. I remember a woman dying of cancer who, on her death bed, insisted to me that by absolutely no means whatsoever was her sister to be allowed at her funeral. Whatever sin got in the way of their relationship, these two sisters hated each other and refused to forgive for decades! I know people who are so negative, so angry, so embittered by things people have done to them, that they have a memorized rap sheet in their heads for nearly every person they resent. They refuse

2 Matthis 2 to forgive what people did to them yesterday, last week, or even years ago, and so they let bitterness take root in their heart, poisoning all their relationships and turning them into mean and nasty people. They re not happy unless they re unhappy about something and have someone to complain about. Every day is an opportunity for them to lash out and punish the people in their lives: Remember when? You never! You always! You only ever Don t go there! Better to forgive and let go, instead of linking yourself to someone forever by chains of bitterness. And then there is the worst rap sheet of all: a guilty conscience. Sometimes we feel so badly about what we ve done wrong, that we don t feel forgiven. We know we re forgiven, but we don t feel forgiven. Sometimes we joke about Lutheran guilt, but it s no joke. When we confess ourselves to be poor, miserable sinners, we cannot forget that by God s grace we are also the baptized, forgiven, and adopted children of God! We re so used to getting down on ourselves, that sometimes we freak out when we don t feel guilty. One time I felt so much relief over God s forgiveness that when I woke up the next day, I felt badly for not feeling guilty! Our former district president, Rev. Randy Golter, likes to say that a guilty conscience is the devil s playground. The Hebrew word satan means accuser. And that s what Satan does. He flings our sins in our face and stands in accusation, pointing his finger at us. In Psalm 51, King David laments, My sin is ever before me (Ps. 51:3). His conscience bears witness against him as a constant reminder of what he did wrong. In the Christian Church, we talk a lot

3 Matthis 3 about forgiveness: God forgives us, we need to forgive others. But sometimes we can t even forgive ourselves. We re tortured by a guilty conscience and weighted down by the sins of our past. We let our sins define us, and our identity becomes what we did instead of who God made us to be. Instead of the forgiven children of God, Satan tricks us into believing that we re liars and cheats, adulterers, divorcees, drunks and addicts, gossips and grumblers. And when you let your sins shame you and define who you are, it becomes easier and easier to give into those temptations and repeat those pet sins. Why resist what is inevitable? Trouble in the Text That s what troubles the apostle Paul in the verses right before today s epistle lesson. In Romans 7, Paul frets about his inability to obey God s Law. Because of his fallen, sinful nature, he cannot carry out God s commands and do his will. Instead, his will is bound to sin, and apart from Christ he has no free will. His life is stained by sin, and his conscience accuses him. Paul writes: For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 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 (Rom. 7:15, 18-19). In other words, Paul finds himself in a lot of doo-doo because he can t do what God expects him to do, but he keeps doing the evil he doesn t want to do. If you try to keep all of God s Law and stumble at even one point, you re guilty of breaking all of it (Jas. 2:10). And so the cards are stacked against us, and our consciences accuse us. Paul knows that he s a sinner, and sin is deadly dangerous The wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23a). Paul knows the right thing to do. He wants to do the right thing. But he s a sinner, and he can t do what God wants him to do. Every time he tries, he mucks it up. He cannot do the

4 Matthis 4 good he wants to do, and the evil he doesn t want to do, he keeps on doing! Sound familiar? What a terrible predicament! So in desperation, Paul cries out, Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? (Rom. 7:24). Who will save me from myself? Grace in the Text And then Paul answers his own question with the only hope for guilty sinners and weak consciences. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Rom. 7:25). Thank God for Jesus literally! The Lord Jesus Christ is the only hope for sinners! Apart from Christ, we re hopeless and less, condemned for sin and doomed to die. So because we couldn t keep God s Law, God sent his Son Jesus to keep the Law for us and take our place and punishment on the cross. For our sake [God] made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21). Despite everything we ve done wrong the sin we ve done, and the good we ve left undone God sent his righteous Son to die for us. Jesus Christ is our righteousness, and in him we become the righteousness of God. That s why Paul begins Romans 8 with this powerful, earth-shattering, life-giving assurance: There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:1). There is no condemnation no punishment, no death, no eternal consequence for those who believe and trust in the Lord Jesus. No matter who are, no matter what you ve done or haven t done, God loves you and forgives you and accepts you as you are in Christ Jesus. There s nothing you could ever do to make him love you more. And there s nothing you could ever do to make him love you less. God just loves you and forgives you because God is love. Instead of condemning you for your sin, God condemns Jesus for your sin. And in so doing, he destroys the power of sin. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh,

5 Matthis 5 could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us (Rom. 8:3-4a). Grace in the World Because of Jesus perfect life on earth and his perfect death on the cross, your guilt is atoned for. Jesus blood covers your sin and washes your conscience clean. There is NO condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:1). As David writes in today s Psalm: If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared (Ps. 130:3-4, NIV). God doesn t keep a record of wrongs. He s not keeping score. So why do we? My confirmation pastor once shared with me a story about a woman he was counseling regarding guilt in her marriage. Apparently, she was overwhelmed by a serious guilt complex because her overbearing husband humiliated her at every turn. Whenever she made a mistake or did something wrong, he d call the entire family into the kitchen, announce what his wife had done wrong, and then mark it on the calendar for all the family to see. The calendar served as both warning and reminder of her sins. My pastor friend listened empathetically to this heartbreaking story and then opened his Bible to Psalm 130, where he read, If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness (Ps. 130:3-4). Then my pastor looked at this poor woman and said, God doesn t have a calendar in the kitchen. God doesn t keep a record of wrongs. She broke down in tears of joy, and for the first time in a long time she had a glimmer of God s grace. Even if her husband was cruel, unkind, and unforgiving, our heavenly Father is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love (Joel 2:13.

6 Matthis 6 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:1). Jesus died and rose again to forgive your sins and give you eternal life. The Law of God, your conscience, the devil, and other people can no longer accuse you because you are a baptized, forgiven, and redeemed child of God. The Lord keeps no record of wrongs (Ps. 130:3-4). As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our sins from us (Ps. 103:12). He forgives your iniquities and remembers your sin no more (Jer. 31:34). God doesn t keep score. So now you can stop keeping track and stop keeping score. There is no condemnation if you are in Christ Jesus. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him (John 3:17). God loves you and forgives you. So you can forgive others too. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.