Whose law is it anyways?

Lord, my God, I was moved this morning by reciting the Ten Commandments.

You speak to us, Lord, and as Jonathan said, the law drives us to grace,

and you pour out your grace on us, Lord God.

And because of that, we just pray again, thank you for the cross.

Thank you for the cross, Lord.

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord,

our strength and our Redeemer. Amen.

I read a story this week about a missionary family that was overseas,

and as happens, we find this in the military as well,

when you go overseas, you go without a lot of creature comforts.

And so, like Amy does for me when I'm overseas, they had some family members send to them

one thing that they really liked, which was peanut butter.

So this young missionary family, every now and then, family from home would send them some peanut butter,

and they'd have this lavish gift on their table that they would enjoy for the next couple of weeks.

What they didn't know, until they received said peanut butter,

was that there were other missionaries involved in their circle who really believed that it was a badge of honor

that they didn't have condiments, that they didn't have these creature comforts that they could enjoy.

They really felt like carrying your cross meant not having peanut butter.

Now, this young family was more than happy to let them believe and feel that way and worship the Lord in that way,

and they went on, in the privacy of their own home,

enjoying their peanut butter and whatever condiments that had been sent to them,

not making a big deal out of it.

You fill your boots, I'll fill mine, and we'll just all go on our merry way.

Unfortunately, it became a thing, because legalism almost always becomes a thing.

And this disagreement about the spirituality of peanut butter became a catalyst for a lot of difficulty that they had.

There was just all kinds of issues after this,

and the issues that started with the spirituality of peanut butter ended up burning that family out,

because anybody who's been involved in mission work, it's hard enough,

without fighting over legalistic stuff like that with your fellow missionaries who are around you,

just burn them out to the point that the family left, and the family went home.

Now, to me, this story that I read this week was, it's a silly story,

but it's a classic example of legalism,

and what legalism does within the body of Christ,

attacking when we seek out and attack each other's liberty,

based on maybe a conviction that we have in our own heart.

Basically, someone saying, you know, to be completely right with God,

you need to do this.

You need to go without peanut butter.

You need to do this sort of thing.

You need to live in this sort of way,

and it's imposing that on everybody else that's around them.

In Romans, our passage from Romans,

Paul, speaking to Rome,

is writing to a people who have had legalists come up along beside them,

and start speaking to them,

and trying to get them to change their way away from Christian liberty.

Trying to say, you know, you need to follow,

that's all well and good, the gospel's all well and good,

but you need to follow the law of Moses.

You need to follow, not only the law of Moses,

but you need to follow the law of Moses in this particular way,

in order to really be accepted by God.

And so, that's kind of like the spirituality of peanut butter

that they were putting onto the Romans.

And so, Paul is writing to the Romans in our passage this morning,

721 to 8.4,

and he's addressing this very thing that they're talking about.

He's saying,

he saw, in our passage,

Paul is setting the record straight,

pretty much exactly on the role of the law.

So, if you'll turn with me then, again,

to the passage that was just read.

If you don't have a Bible,

there are Bibles available down front here.

It's a gift from Messiah Church to you,

if you want to take one home.

So, Romans 7.21 to 8.4.

And basically, what this is,

what we're reading,

and what we had read this morning,

is the summary,

Paul's summary,

of what the role of the law is

in the life of the Christian.

We just recited the Ten Commandments

and said,

Lord, have mercy upon us,

incline our hearts to keep this law,

but we don't follow law,

so it can be kind of confusing sometimes.

What is the role of the law?

Any law,

in the life of the Christian.

That's what Paul is dealing with in here.

I'm working on a major,

I was talking this morning,

I was working on a major paper

for one of my courses that I have to get done,

and one of the things I'm learning how to do

for the first time in my school-a-stack career

is how to write an abstract.

Now, if you've ever seen kind of the summary

on the back page of a book,

on what that book is so you can read it,

go, okay, I want to read that book,

it looks interesting.

An abstract is kind of like that.

You're taking 150 pages,

and you're putting it down into about 200,

well, exactly, not about,

exactly 250 words, no more.

I know that because I wrote more than 250 words,

I had to make it less.

It's actually a very difficult thing to do,

I think I'm on my fourth iteration of my abstract.

Of the 450 pages,

it seems like the hardest thing I have to do.

Paul is writing,

in these few passages we have,

his abstract,

his summary

of what the law is

and what it does

in the life of the Christian.

As we look at Romans 7,

if we look at Romans 7,

if you look just above it,

the part preceding this

is where Paul is,

that kind of famous passage

where he's like,

I don't know what I want to do,

I do what I don't want to do,

even though I know what's right,

I do what's wrong,

I don't have it memorized,

I probably should if I was a good pastor,

but it's that famous passage

where he's just talking about

that inner turmoil

of the Christian's life

and of within life,

and there's two ways

that scholars actually interpret

that passage

and then our passage as well.

First,

is that this is the,

that Paul is talking about someone

before they come to faith.

Okay,

Paul is talking about

the unregenerate Christian

because,

and one of the key markers

that scholars would say

is no Christian would ever say

wretched man that I am,

no Christian would ever feel

that level of failure,

so Paul must be talking about

someone before they come to faith.

Now,

more Orthodox scholars,

some,

or sorry,

different scholars,

Orthodox as well,

state that actually Paul,

no,

he's talking about someone

after they's come to faith.

And kind of the key marker there

is that Paul says

he delights in God's law

and delighting in God's law

is actually a marker

of a regenerate heart.

So,

it's something that happens

when we can only do

after we come to faith.

And I have to admit,

I spent far too much time

on that one theological question.

Was he talking about this?

Is he talking about that?

Just to kind of land on

something from my own

personal experience.

I actually read this

and resonate with it.

I don't know about you,

but I resonate in my faith life

with what Paul's saying.

I think he's speaking

very clearly

to the Christian experience.

I might be projecting

my own experience on it,

but I really think

it's true to life

and the life of the Christian.

This battle to live up

to the life that God

has given us in Jesus,

it's a real battle.

He talks about it being at war,

and that's my experience.

I don't know about yours.

And so that's what I think

he's talking about.

The Christian life

is not all puppies

and rainbows and prosperity.

I hate to break it to you.

And one thing you're probably,

you know,

one thing that we tried to do here

in this church

is we try to be,

take me to the next slide, please.

We try to be as real as possible

as we can here

at Church of the Messiah.

One thing that Pastor George

will probably never be accused of

is sugarcoating things.

We are all trying to be

very honest in who we are.

And that's what Paul's doing here.

I think he's opening up for us

and we can all just open our hearts

and say if we're honest,

this is the experience

that we have as well.

I look at Paul's struggle.

It's the struggle of faith

being called,

being a human

who's called to new life.

But it's a struggle

with a purpose.

As Jonathan said this morning,

the struggle of faith

drives us to the cross

and calls us to press deeper

into the grace

that God has given us.

Because I love,

if you look between

verse 24

and verse 25 there,

very quickly

Paul turns to grace.

I love how fast

it's boom,

but thanks be to God.

Very quickly,

Paul turns

from the clash

between his consciousness

and actions

to power,

faith,

and hope in Christ.

In that,

basically what I'm saying

this morning is that

in our own spirituality,

in our own Christian walk,

friends,

that is a move

that we need to learn

to make spiritually

consistently.

Because we've experienced failure.

Wow,

that shows me my need

for Christ.

That shows me my need

for the cross

and I'm just going to

press in more to God.

That whenever I feel

the weight of my sin,

it's not a moment

to start feeling

terribly guilty

about myself.

It's a moment

to turn to God

and offer that to God.

In that way,

the law fulfills

its true role

in the life

of the Christian.

That is to make

our sin known

so we can turn to God.

Now,

nomos,

or law,

you can see it here,

has a number

of different nuances

in the New Testament,

especially in Romans

where Paul is talking here.

The primary sense,

the first sense,

is the law of Moses.

Whenever the law

and the prophets

the Bible will talk about,

Paul in here

talks about

the law of the mind

or the law of God.

So,

sometimes in our passage

when he talks about

the law of the mind

or the law of God,

he's talking about

the Mosaic law.

Everything in the Old Testament

and all the traditions

that build up around that,

the law and the prophets.

So,

that's the first way

he's talking about.

The second way

Paul uses law

in our passage

is he's talking about

the law of sin.

So,

this is like,

this is the compulsion,

the law of the world

that works against God.

So,

the first law

is the law of God.

The second is,

or the law of Moses.

The second is the law of sin.

It's that compulsion we have.

And whenever Paul

in our passage,

when you see he says,

the law of the flesh

or the law of our members,

our body,

he's talking about

the law of sin,

that compulsion we have

to go against God's law

that he has there.

And when he talks about

the law of the flesh

or the law of the body,

the law of our members,

he's not saying

our body is bad.

Whenever the Bible

uses the term

sarx or flesh,

not necessarily saying,

oh,

the body is bad

and the spirit is good.

We don't believe that.

Jesus came in the body.

He came

enfleshed.

So,

there is goodness.

But when he talks

about the law of the flesh

in contrast

to God's law,

he's talking about

that corrupt nature

in our flesh.

That fallen part

of our nature,

that sinful part

of our nature.

The shadow side

of human existence.

So,

that's what he's talking

about in the second part.

The third sense

that he uses law

in this short passage

that we have

is he's basically saying

it's a principle.

It's a rule of thumb

that whenever

I think about

the law of Moses,

number two comes along

and battles it.

So,

it's law

in the sense of rules,

one and two,

a different set

of rules.

And number three

is just a principle,

kind of a rule of life

that whenever one comes,

number two is going

to happen.

Now,

by using law

in all these different ways,

Paul isn't like

one of those teachers

you may or may not have

that stood up

at the front of the class

and purposely confused you

so they would feel smart

and you would feel dumb.

what Paul is doing

is he's using

a turn of phrase,

he's using

Greek rhetoric

that his readers

immediately would have

recognized

and known what it was

he's talking about.

Problem, of course,

is we're almost

2,000 years later

and we don't understand that

so it takes us

a little more

time to kind of

unpack what it is

that Paul is saying there.

He's using a rhetorical

device from the time.

What he's basically

saying is this.

Inside,

I delight in the law

of Moses.

I'm a regenerate heart.

I love God's law.

But it's a rule of nature

that a competing authority

works in my body.

It works in my members.

So it's a principle

that the law of our minds,

the law of God,

is always at war

with the law of our bodies.

That is a fact

in the Christian life

and something that

not even Paul

rid himself of.

And so if you are doing

battle with the sin

in your life,

if there is some sort of

some sin that's really

besetting you

and you're struggling with,

welcome to the human race.

Welcome to being a Christian.

Because it's a law

that that's going to happen

within the Christian life.

In fact,

in the life of the Christian,

that exact thing

is the role of the law.

It's not a bunch of rules

we follow to find God.

The role of the law

is simply this.

To show us our need for God.

The law of the Old Testament

shows us our need for God.

This battle shows us

our need to go to the cross.

Romans 3.20

says,

Through the law

comes the knowledge of sin.

That's its function now

in the Christian life.

That's what Paul believed

and that's what he's teaching us.

The new role of the law

is how it helps us

see our fallenness

imperfection

and it makes us cry out

for more of God.

When I was growing up,

my father was a contractor

and one of my jobs was,

we didn't have anything nice

like this,

which is a magnetic wand.

We had a magnet on a rope

because we didn't like

to spend money at that time.

And my job,

Amy will tell you,

I am not the best

at swinging a hammer,

but I can drag a magnet

like no one's business.

And so my job

was to basically

walk around the job site

dragging this hammer,

or his hammer,

dragging this magnet

so that any of the nails,

any of the screws,

anything like that

from that day

that had ended up

on the ground

was picked up by the magnet.

Because when the new people

move in,

you don't want to have

this stuff coming up

every spring

out of the backyard.

A good contractor

will clean up the backyard

every one to two days

like that

or pay some young schmuck

like myself to do that.

Amy and I moved

to Petawawa.

No surprise.

Because the contractor

didn't do that

before they fixed

the house up

that we moved into.

And so for eight years,

because they hadn't

simply taken one of these

every day

and cleaned up the yard,

there were rusty nails

coming up.

There were like screws

about that long.

We had pieces

of sheet metal

appear out of the ground.

And as you've seen

our brood of children,

we have four kids,

young ones,

running around.

It can be a little bit

disconcerting.

You have to clean up

the little bits

as you go along

in order to make

the law unusable.

So when we talk

about the law

in the life

of the Christian,

it's not a weapon

that we use

against sin

in order to overcome

ourselves by our own power

and impress God.

That's not what the law is.

And what Paul is explaining

is the law

is more of a magnet

that draws out

those areas of sin

in our lives

that we need to offer

to God.

That is the function

of the law

in the Christian life.

Makes us aware

of the areas

we need to give over

to God

because Jesus met

every dot and comma

of the law

for us.

He sacrificed himself

to meet the requirements

of the law

so that we can have

that relationship

with him

in which we walk

with him

and by his Holy Spirit

he deals with these

areas of our lives.

This matters

because life of faith

is not a life

under the law.

It's a life

in the spirit.

I'm not a big fan

of movies.

Unless it's

Lord of the Rings

or Star Wars

I am probably

not watching it.

I haven't watched

Han Solo

because newsflash

hot take

it's not really

a Star Wars movie.

I don't watch movies

other than those things

but what I will do

is I will watch

a movie with my kids.

I don't even

really eat popcorn.

They all love popcorn.

It makes me feel ill.

However,

I'll sit there

and I'll eat the popcorn

because you know

what those really

intense moments

in a movie

my kids turn back

into my little

my little critters

and they snuggle

right in

you know

right into my side

and that's that

moment of intimacy

I haven't had

since they were

they were really young.

And so I kind of live

in movies

function like that

for me.

The proximity

to my kids.

The law itself

in the life

of this people

is not about

entertaining him

with our greatness.

That's not the function

of the law.

The law is about

the intensity

of our lives

realizing what's going on

and God

drawing us

into greater intimacy

with him.

That's what God wants

with you

is greater intimacy.

It's the life

in the spirit

which gives life.

I love how emphatic

again in 8.1

Paul makes that transition

to life in the spirit.

Sometimes he says

therefore

sometimes he says now

but in our passage

he uses both

which is a big deal

apparently in the Greek.

Therefore

now

life in the spirit

he talks about.

In Christ

life guided by the spirit

replaces condemnation

and death.

And then

if we look at

8.3 and 4

for God has done

what the law

weakened by the flesh

could not do

by sending his own son

in the likeness

of sinful flesh

and first sin

he condemned sin

in the flesh

in order that

the righteous requirement

of the law

might be fulfilled in us

who walk not

according to the flesh

but according to the spirit.

so that we were drawn

closer to him

not by showing

how great our flesh is

but by coming to him

and walking in the Holy Spirit.

And it's a continual battle.

If we go back to 7.23

Paul talks about war.

He uses imagery

from war

and from battle

throughout his writings

in the New Testament

talking about

being a soldier

for Christ

and other authors

talk about as well.

This imagery

of the Christian life

being a battle

permeates it.

And when we think

about a war

wars take

a lot of time.

You know

it takes an awful lot

once a war is won

we think about a war

the way we understand it

I mean

I think a lot about a war

it's my job

when we think about war

when a battle

when the battle

is finally won

when the war

is actually won

in a lot of ways

that's kind of the midpoint.

That's not the end point.

Take us to the next slide please.

If we think about Syria

what's going on right now

you see the little black area

up there

and there's some other areas here

you know ISIS has been contained

to there

but in the battle was won

the actual war was won folks

a long time ago

but it's taking time

to kind of mop up the extra.

It's taking time

for them to rid it of ISIS

and stability operations

which is the next phase

of the war

comes after ISIS has left.

And one of the problems

is stability

building stability

in a place you just

clean people out from

who are doing evil things

doesn't make for very good

front page news.

And so often times

peacemaking countries

will move out too early

because it takes time

to win a war

and to rebuild.

If you think about it

when on D-Day

next slide

on D-Day

when they hit the beaches

and they won that war

it took time

to march towards Germany.

It took time

after that

to not make the same mistakes

they made in World War I

which led to World War II.

It takes time

to win a war.

So yes

on the cross

Jesus won the war

and now we are moving

into the time

when we're cleaning up

our lives

when he is cleaning up

our lives

by the power

of his Holy Spirit.

And it doesn't just happen

in an instant.

My point is this

Paul uses military language

because even once

a war is past

its tipping point

it takes a great deal

of time

to finish up.

There's a great deal

of work to be done

to put away

our old self

as Paul says.

And they take on

the new self

that God has given us.

And so we are called

to do something

this morning.

We are called

by the power

of the Holy Spirit

to put the law

into its proper view.

I want to tell you

what I mean by that.

Christ put away

the legal requirements

of the law

so that we could

be zoomed out.

Okay, here's a picture

of downtown Ottawa.

We're kind of way up there.

Anyways, up there.

We're zoomed out now

to the 10,000 foot view

of the law.

That's what Jesus gave us.

And what do we see?

What did Jesus say

the law was?

All the law

and the prophets.

What did he say?

Anybody?

Point to him.

Love God.

Love your neighbor.

Love God.

Love your neighbor.

That's the 10,000 foot view

of the law.

It's not the minute details,

all the little side streets

of the law.

It's the broad law.

And so even when we recited

the Ten Commandments,

if you notice,

there's two tablets

of the Ten Commandments.

Those that have to do

with loving God

and those that have to do

with loving one another.

And that is the 10,000 foot view

now of the law

that we measure ourselves by.

We allow that to search us out

so that we can find the way,

the places in our lives

that we need to invite God into

in order to do it all over again

and allow God to continue

that process of sanctifying us

and bringing us

into relationship with him.

From this level,

God, Jesus showed us

and he said,

love God

and love your neighbor.

It's summed up by Jesus.

So that's why when we look to Jesus,

he draws us into the living

in the power of the Holy Spirit,

not under the law.

Later, Paul will say in 8.6

after this passage

to set our minds on the Spirit.

Coupled with 8.4,

it's a call day by day

to cultivate

a spiritual inclinement

towards him.

To incline our hearts

towards spiritual things.

So that,

as 2 Corinthians 9.8 says,

God will be able

to make all the grace

abound in us,

not by our own power,

but by having sufficiency

in all things

at all times

will abound

in every good work

in the power

of the Holy Spirit.

Not because we're following

some law,

because we've allowed him

to search us out

and do battle

for us in our hearts.

The law helps us

see our weakness

so we can continually

offer those areas

to Jesus

and let him transform us

by the power

of his Holy Spirit.

It's a celebration,

friends,

of the cross.

That's what Paul's doing here.

He's celebrating the fact

that the cross

put all that stuff away

so that we can truly

have an open,

honest,

dynamic relationship

with him

in which,

when things come to light,

we're just honest

and we allow him

to move on it.

I'm going to move on

to the big finish,

I think.

The big finish for me

is sometimes

there's some cutting room

floor stuff

that comes out

of my sermon prep.

Some of you here

might be questioning

whether or not

there's actually

this law out there

that everybody

is measured by.

That there's what we call

the meta story.

There's a big story

out there

all-encompassing

universal law

or truth

that we're measured by.

That's not very popular

in Canada

in 2019

to think that.

However,

at the same time,

while our culture

tries to tell us

there's no

all-encompassing truth,

our culture also believes

in inalienable

human rights.

Is that the right term?

Inhuman rights.

At the same time,

well,

there's no truth

but there is such a thing

as human rights.

And the reason we believe

in such a thing

as human rights

is because

the law of God

is written

on our hearts.

You know what's wrong.

I know what's wrong.

After I'm finished

beaking on up here

about Paul,

we're going to be praying

and we're going to pray

about

the 25th anniversary

of the genocide

in Rwanda.

Friends,

killing upwards

of a million people

in a hundred days,

if anybody in here

thinks that's not wrong,

well,

you've got problems.

we know,

we know

the difference

between right and wrong.

There is such a thing

as right and wrong

and it's not,

friends,

just a matter of opinion.

Genocide is wrong

is not a matter of opinion.

If you disagree,

we can talk afterwards.

There is a freedom

from the discord

each human feels

and we know

there's a way

things ought to be

and there's a way

things are.

And friends,

there's a freedom

from the discord

between the way

we think things

ought to be

and the way things are.

Between the way

we are

and the way

we believe

we should be.

And that freedom

comes through

faith in Jesus

and it comes

through the life

of the Holy Spirit

that he calls us to.

So if you're thinking

about it here this morning

and you feel that discord,

I really would like

to invite you

to consider Jesus

and the freedom

that he brings.

Let's pray together.

Loving God,

you have given us

the law

to drive us

to grace

and you lavish

your grace on us.

We pray that you would

have your mercy upon us

and incline our hearts

to keep your law

in our hearts,

measure ourselves by it

and offer ourselves to you

when we find ourselves wanting.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.