Trinity 8
Dear friends in Christ. Holy Scripture is abundantly clear—once, by God’s grace, when we become Christians, we make a whole bunch of spiritual enemies. Their whole goal is to destroy our God-given faith in Christ as Savior. Although they were always our enemies, they really didn’t rear their ugly heads because we were safely in the devil’s kingdom, slaves to sin and devil, with nothing but death and damnation awaiting us. But then Christ came to us in His holy word and Sacraments and by these His Holy Spirit worked faith in our hearts. By this He rescued us from the devil’s kingdom; by this He freed us from slavery to sin; by this He gave us the gift of full abundant life—beginning now and into all eternity.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells us about one way that the devil is trying to destroy that one true saving faith in Christ in our hearts—by false teaching and false teachers [Matthew 7.15]: Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. What one believes, their faith, is of most vital importance! That’s why the devil fills the world with all sorts of false religions and teachings. For the sake of our immortal soul, we must be on guard against them. That’s why we have to know, oh so very well, our Scriptures and the Scriptural foundation of our doctrine. That’s why it’s vital that we are in Church to hear our Lord’s word rightly taught. That’s why it is vital that we read doctrinally pure devotional books at home. That’s why it’s vital that we have friends who can point us to the truth of Scripture.
As we examine our text this morning, we will see another spiritual enemy—in cahoots with the devil—hard at work to destroy our faith—our sinful nature.
1. St. Paul begins our text: Therefore, brethren, we are debtors--not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. Notice, he is addressing the brethren, that means Christians. What he writes applies to us today. And what does he say about the Christians? For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. Notice the two things he says about us: first, if you live according to the flesh—the flesh, our sinful nature; and then: For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. That means the Christian is led by the Spirit of God, and thus a son of God, but at the very same time, can and often does live according to the flesh. Elsewhere [Romans 7.19], St. Paul confesses, The good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. St. John states [1 John 1.8]: If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Following in the footsteps of these blessed apostles, Luther described the Christian as at the same time saint and sinner.
What does this mean? It simply means that as Christians, sin remains in us. Once we are Christians, we are not free from sin, free of our sinful nature. Instead it is part of us until our dying breath. That’s why our sinful nature is such a powerful weapon/ ally that the devil has. Not only, as Christians, are our spiritual enemies outside of us—the world around us, for example, enticing us with its temptations; but our spiritual enemy is inside of us as well. That’s why we need to be extra vigilant that we not listen to ourselves, to our hearts, look inside of ourselves—but look outside of ourselves to our Lord and His revealed will in His word for what is right and what is true. Just as Christ warns us in today’s Gospel about the false teachers outside of us, so too must we be on guard against what is in us.
That old sinful nature in us, which St. Paul here calls the flesh, is with us from conception and birth. That’s how we are born—sinful! St. David confesses in the Psalm 51.5: Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. It’s not as if we are conceived and born good and get corrupted along the way. Instead, we are born corrupted and add to that corruption. That’s original sin—the sin and guilt that we inherit from Adam that is passed down generation to generation. The wretched thing is that it stays with us and there’s no getting rid of it. To be sure in the waters of holy baptism, we are cleansed from its guilt; we are forgiven the sin but that corruption remains—we still have that sin with its desires within us. So now the condition of us all—even the Christian who at baptism renounced the devil, all his works and all his way—is that we have sin within us, that flesh, that old sinful nature. And what happens? –as sin dwells within us it uses our body for its evil purposes, to carry out various sin, that we commit actual sin—what St. Paul here calls the deeds of the body.
But remember, St. Paul is addressing, the brethren, us, dear Christian! Although sin dwells within us, even though we have an old sinful nature, even though it was not destroyed in baptism, in baptism God gave us the Holy Spirit, He gave us a new self—the Christian in us that loves Him and wants to do His will. Paul’s Spirit inspired words are directed toward us as we are now engaged in that battle with the devil and his allies trying to destroy faith in Christ. We, dear Christian, have been rescued out of the devil’s kingdom; we are freed from slavery to him; we are enjoying full spiritual life. And that’s why there’s a battle! That’s why our spiritual enemies, especially our old sinful nature, are rising up against us—to destroy our faith in Christ and so bring us back to slavery to devil, sin and damnation.
Because we are Christians we are—and have to be—engaged in this battle! That’s Paul’s point. We can lose faith; we can lose that new life in Christ; we can lose the precious gifts for forgiveness of sin. How? By not fighting against sin; by letting our sinful nature, our sinful desires, have their way! St. Paul in our text: For if you live according to the flesh you will die. To put it another way kill sin before it kills you!
By obeying the desires of our old sinful nature, obeying the wicked desires of our flesh, our old sinful nature, by carrying out its evil lusts, we can lose spiritual life; we can lose our Christian faith; we can expel the Holy Spirit from our hearts. Sin, then, kills us—spiritually.
That’s why our old sinful nature, our flesh, is such a powerful enemy and it is within us! To put it differently: evil works destroy faith; good works are not optional. For if you live according to the flesh you will die because a person then goes against conscience—one formed by the word of God as to what is right and wrong; the person who knows the will of God and yet willfully and continually goes against the working, leading and prompting of the Holy Spirit, such a person grieves the Holy Spirit and eventually will expel Him from the heart. And where there is no Holy Spirit, there can be no true saving faith; and where there is no true saving faith, there is spiritual death—now and forever. Faith that receives the forgiveness of sins—true saving faith and spiritual life both now and forever—does not remain in those who resist the working of the Holy Spirit and instead follow their desires of that old sinful nature. Therefore, dear Christian, kill the sin before it kills you! But how?
2. Dear Christian, you are a Christian! You don’t just have a sinful nature, but you have the Holy Spirit in you. He was given you in the waters of Holy Baptism, the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit [Titus 3.5]. As He was given to you in Baptism, He doesn’t just give you the blessings Jesus won for you by His holy life and death on the cross, blessings that we enjoy; instead He is a power at work in us and He is never idle! It is in and by the power of the Holy Spirit that we then begin to kill the sin in us before it kills us. The power to kill the sin in us is not a power that we have in and of ourselves—remember: as we come into this world we are slaves to sin and devil; instead, only by the power of the Holy Spirit can we kill the sin before it kills us. For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
That’s why we need always to pray, like we do in today’s collect: Grant to us, Lord, we beseech You, the Spirit to think and do always such things as are right, that we, who cannot do anything that is good without You, may be enabled to live according to Your will. Because by ourselves we cannot do anything good spiritually and live as He wants us to, we ask the Lord to keep giving us the Holy Spirit so that He may work in us and on us, leading us to fight against, to kill sin in us, to keep resisting what it wants to do. In order to put the remnants of original sin to death, we need the Holy Spirit. Again, in the power of the Holy Spirit in us Christians can and should kill the flesh, that is, not obey the wicked desires of sin dwelling in us.
Listen to that glorious description of the Christian from St. Paul in our text: For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. When the Holy Spirit comes to us—be in in Holy Baptism or later in life through the word—He creates that new self, the Christian within us; He creates a clean heart in us. He doesn’t destroy our will but makes us capable of willing and doing the Lord’s will of think[ing] and do[ing] always such things as are right. So as the Holy Spirit leads us to do the Lord’s will, as He leads us in battle against the evil desires of the sinful nature within us, we aren’t doing it against our will, not by coercion; instead we are doing it voluntarily through our will renewed by the Holy Spirit.
Our lives as Christians are passive—we are led by the Spirit of God; and they are active: as we put to death the deeds of the body. Really that’s two different sides of the same coin. The Holy Spirit leads us into every good work—that is, He leads us out of love for God and our neighbor to follow our Lord’s will as expressed in the Ten Commandments; and as He does so, He empowers us to put to death the deeds of the body, that is, that we do not give room or place to the works of the sinful flesh. That’s where that battle comes in—that struggle between our old sinful self and the Christian, that new self in us. As we, with the help of the Holy Spirit, suppress our sinful desires, not allowing the sin in us to use our bodies to carry out its evil longings, we are—by that—crucify[ing] our flesh with its passions and desires [Galatians 5.24]. We are killing the sin—before it kills us.
We kill the sin as the Holy Spirit draws us from and keeps us away from evil and leads us into every good work—and that we, the new self, the Christian in us, gladly and willingly do. But, again, if we reject the work of the Holy Spirit, if we do not follow His leadings and promptings, if we continually and willfully give sin the upper hand and do its bidding—if we live according to the flesh—it will kill us, spiritually, now and eternally in hell. That’s the battle we’re in now. And often, to drive us to despair of Christ and His grace and forgiveness, the devil try to get us to think that our sin is too great to be forgiven.
But, dear Christian, For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God, that is, if you still feel in yourself that struggle against sin, if you still want to kill the sin before it kills you, you are still in grace. Yes, we fight against sin and will often lose—but if we confess our sin and hold to the forgiveness in Christ, the Holy Spirit is still in us and leading us! We are still sons of God and heirs of heaven! The Lord assures us in the word, in the absolution, in the Blessed Sacrament that our sins are forgiven in Christ. In these the Spirit Himself bears witness to our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. By the Lord’s grace, in the power of the Spirit, live the Christian life: kill the sin before it kills you! INJ Amen.