Trinity 14
Dear friends in Christ. One of the most beloved bible verses of many is John 3.16: For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. St. John writes something similar in his first epistle [4.9]: In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the [atoning sacrifice] for our sins. In these verses we run across the theme of love, God’s love for us. It really goes back to our creation: why did God create the whole universe and everything in it? –For the human race. Why did he create the human race? Love –so that He might love us and shower us with His love. Why did He create each one of us special and form each of us special in the womb [Ps. 139.13 ff.]? So that He could love us and shower us with His love. That’s why these verses from St. John are so important and so comforting—they point us to God’s love for us. There’s no person than cannot say: “The holy, almighty Triune God loves me.” Why not? God so loved the world. Each of us is part of His creation, the world.
Even when our first parents, Adam and Eve, fell into sin God did not stop loving them; even when each of their descendants, including you and me, were conceived and born in sin, He did not stop loving us; even when we fall into sin many times and often grievously so, He does not stop loving us. Precisely here, when we would expect Him to stop loving us He doesn’t. And what is His greatest act of love so that we can never doubt it? – He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life and that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In love for us sinners Jesus died for us; none excluded. There is no person, including yourself, to whom you cannot say both “God loves you” and “your sins are forgiven.”
Here is this wonderful fact: each person can say that the great love of God of the world—Jesus’ suffering and death on account of our sins, the sins of the world, the sins of all people—is also meant for and includes me. Each person can say, “Jesus came into the world for me, on account of my sin, to save and rescue me.” God so loved the world and we—each of us individually and all of us together are the object of God’s desire; the object of Jesus’ saving work.
But let us also remember the reason why the Father had to send His Son into this world; why without His coming we would perish, that is, be eternally condemned in hell: our sin. Not only did the devil lead our first parents into sin and so corrupt the whole human race, but he also continually works to lead all people further and further into sin and away from the Lord and more firmly into his kingdom of hell and damnation. He tempts people; uses the call and allure and enticements of the sin corrupted world around us; works together with our sin corrupted human nature. What does this mean? Simply this: the devil, too, targets the whole world to lead it into sin and damnation; we, individually, too are the object of the devil’s desire; the object of his soul destroying work.
Each of us, then, is the object of God’s desire: in Christ to save and rescue us from our sin and damnation; and each of us is the object of the devil’s desire to bring us into further sin and eternal damnation in hell. And, in fact, it seems that the devil has the upper hand. After all, he is the ruler of this world [Jn 12.31], and the prince of the power of the air [Eph 2.2]. As we come into this world, we come already as sinners and enemies of God—all the result of the fall into sin by our first parents. It seems all hope is lost but God so loved the world; and this is not some sort of generic love; it is very specific. His love is for each person because Jesus died for the sins of each person. To the Lord, we are a person—not a number.
The love of the holy Triune God is very specific as He comes to us, personally and individually, to bring us to faith so that we might believe in Him [and] not perish but have everlasting life. Think of how specifically God came to you and me—the objects of His desire—and in the Sacrament of Holy Baptism called us by name, washed away sin and worked faith into our hearts—faith that believes in [His only begotten Son]—and brought us into His holy family. There is no way you can doubt, dear Christian, that you—personally/ individually—are the object of God’s desire and love. The Lord says to His people [Is 43.1]: Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are mine. That’s what He said to each one of us at baptism.
But, as wonderful and comforting as this is, as wonderful and comforting it is that we are now the children of God and heirs of heaven and now enjoying every grace and gift He gives us as He leads us to Himself in heaven—that we are the objects of His love and desire—we dare never forget that the devil still desires us, desires to lead us into sin, away from God and into sin. The very fact that God came to us personally in the water and word of Holy Baptism, and called us as His own, claimed us as His own and worked true saving faith in our hearts means that the devil, who also desires us, is our enemy. In baptism, when the Lord first brings us to faith, begins the battle for our souls as we are the ones both God and the devil desire.
2. Not only, then, are we the object desired, but we are also the battleground. The battle for our very souls is going on right now inside of us—the battle between the new self, the Christian created in us in holy Baptism, and our old sinful nature that we were born with and which works together with the devil to tear us away from God and to destroy faith. That’s what St. Paul is talking about in today’s Epistle as he describes each Christian as a spiritual battleground—the battle for our very soul: But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. When we were brought to faith—and for most of us that was in Holy Baptism—the Lord created a new self, the Christian in us; that part of us that loves the Lord and wants to do His will. But when we are baptized, Baptism does not take away the old sinful nature we were born with. We still have it until our dying breath. That’s why we pray in today’s collect, what our daily prayer is as Christians: Keep You Church, we beseech You, O Lord, with Your perpetual mercy; and because our weak flesh without you can only fail, keep us ever by Your help from all things hurtful, and lead us to all things profitable to our salvation. We continue to need the Lord as we are engaged in our spiritual battles—the new self/ Christian in us against the old sinful self that works together with the devil.
As Christians, we have the desire and resolve to do the Lord’s will, but we are weakened by our old sinful nature that we were born with. St. Paul writes elsewhere about himself, who, too, like each Christian, was a battlefield [Rm 7.19]: For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Is this an excuse for sinning—I can’t help it; I still have my old sinful nature? No! It is cause for continued repentance and reliance on the Lord for strength to fight all the harder for the faith and against sin.
We need the Lord’s help and mercy because the battle is all about us; we are the battlefield. That’s why the Apostle says: But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. The idea is that we keep walking by the Holy Spirit in us, that we keep following the lead of the One by whom in water and the word we were born from above and renewed; that we follow His promptings and do so relying on His power/ strength to do them. Lead by the Holy Spirit and strengthened by Him, that is, to walk by the Spirit, there is no way we will complete/ carry out the desires that still rage in our corrupt nature. Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
Do you see how it is all about us, that we are the battleground—our old, corrupt nature fighting it out with the new-self, the Christian in us? For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. Each Christian must say: “It is my flesh/ corrupt sinful nature that is fighting against the workings of the Holy Spirit.” That sinful nature we are born with, is that habitual inner inclination to evil; it distrusts God and instead trusts things like money, power, etc.; it doubts God’s mercy. Through the prophet Jeremiah [17.9] the Lord gives this description of the human heart: The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can know it? It is this human heart/ our old sinful human nature which does not want to be converted, nor can it be—it must be killed and crucified—that rages within each of us trying to lead us into sin and away from the leadings and promptings of the Holy Spirit into a life of faith and good works. Again, from baptism on, this life long struggle begins and so the Apostle here says: Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
The wonderful thing is that although when it comes to conversion, we in no way cooperate with the Holy Spirit—after all, how can we? We are just that sinful nature that is hostile to God and spiritually blind and dead—but after conversion, after the Holy Spirit works faith in us, we have that new self, that Christian in us that wants to do and delights in doing the Lord’s will. After conversion we, the new self, cooperate with the Holy Spirit and follow His impulse and strive not to let sin rule. Our text: But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. We are led by the Spirit; that’s not coercion, but His loving grasp on us. With the Holy Spirit leading us, we are not under the law; that means that from God’s holy Law we learn what His will, desire for us is and because we know Him as our dear loving God and Savior, we want to do His will. Led by the Holy Spirit we do the Law cheerfully and strive to live according to it.
A Christian who doesn’t care about fulfilling God’s law is no Christian! These are two different things: not caring about fulfilling God’s Law and willfully doing evil works—that’s no Christian; and the other thing is striving to do the Lord’s will, striving to live a life in accord with God’s will but failing due to the weakness of the flesh—that person is a Christian. Good works are not optional; a person cannot act against the Law willingly and still have faith. The Christian in the battle for the soul, the Christian who is the battleground is in this life still burdened with much weakness. Here we have a great and powerful weapon and help in this battle—the holy Absolution and the Blessed Sacrament. Our sin and weakness of flesh often lead us into defeat at the hands of the devil and his temptations and the call of the world; we do not always keep walking by the Spirit but sin and at times grievously so. But the battle is not lost—when we sin we run to confession that we may hear and receive the forgiveness/ absolution; we run to the Blessed Sacrament to receive forgiveness and to receive Jesus who with His body and blood is in us in a wonderful and miraculous way to strengthen us. Rejoicing in that forgiveness and strengthened by our gracious and merciful Lord, the Holy Spirit produces faith and virtues in us: the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. INJ Amen.