Circling Back to Grace

Circling Back to Grace

A sermon delivered by Rev. Peter T. Atkinson

September 16, 2018

at Bethany Presbyterian Church, Zuni, Virginia

Romans 7: 14-25

Isaiah 43:22 - 44:5

Let us pray,

Help us to see despite our eyes

Help us to think outside of our minds

Help us to be more than our lives

For your eyes show the way

Your mind knows the truth

Your being is the life.

Amen.

I’m not sure if I should start with this, but I think it is harmless enough. There is a great comedian named Ron White, not sure if you’ve heard of him. . . he used to travel with Jeff Foxworthy in the old Blue Collar Comedy Tour. . . and he tells this story about being thrown out of a bar, and then getting arrested. . . and he has a great line, and it is this line that I want to use to introduce this morning’s theme. . . He said when he was thrown out and being arrested that the officer told him he had the “right to remain silent”. . . and he said, “yes I know that, but I didn’t have the ability.”

So much of what we have been talking with the last few weeks, about Paula and his discourses about the law and grace, have so much to do with circumanstances surrounding living according to the law. . . how the law has been replaced by grace, by this new Way of the Spirit, like we talked about last week. . . like last week how we are being called to something new, to live in a new world, a world led by the spirit, made possible in the Spirit by the sacrifice, death, resurrection and life of Christ. . . he has said much about the status. . . the rights. . . and now he brings to the forefront the idea of ability. . . in the first half of chapter 7 last week he calls us to a new life, and now he talks about its struggle. . . Listen Romans 7: 14-25

¹⁴ We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. ¹⁵ I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. ¹⁶ And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. ¹⁷ As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. ¹⁸ For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.^[a] For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. ¹⁹ For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. ²⁰ Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

²¹ So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. ²² For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; ²³ but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. ²⁴ What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? ²⁵ Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature^[b] a slave to the law of sin.

Law Spiritual – I am unspiritual

Sold as a slave to sin. . . what do you think of this “sold”

By whom? – is it like Joseph and his brothers. . . sold into slavery, been making the best of it?

           

            That is an interesting thought with this connotation of Paul and having new life. . .

            Not just like Joseph making the best of a bad situation, but instead called to new life

I do not understand what I do. . . What I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. . .

            This is slave language, it is not free will language. . . it is broken will language

Listen some more –

It is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.

For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.

I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.

What are your thoughts on Free Will?

Have you ever said of someone else. . . why don’t they just? Like you can see the path ahead for them with the right decision being made, but they can’t do it, and you might get frustrated. . . .look its easy, just put it down, just stop doing this, just stop doing that,

People hooked on drugs, who want to get off, know they should get off, know how the drugs are killing them, know that the path they are on will lead to destruction, everyone thinks they’ve reached rock bottom, but something still is holding them in their grip.

I’ve had students. . . just do it, it would be so much easier if you would just do the work, you end up having to do so much more work your way, you have to keep starting over, but if you would just take the time at the outside, outline, put it in order, think first, the writing wouldn’t be so difficult . . . but no, it is, they can’t, they won’t, you could beat your head against the wall.

Why?

What do you think of Free Will? What goes into our decision making? Can it be considered rational?

Because you can look at it rationally. You can look at all the influences someone has, start to put together a picture. . . you can say we are all a product of:

our outside influences,

            people, our parents, teachers, authority figures, books, tv shows, the Bible, Sunday school, regular school. . . all in a big melting pot

but that is mixed with

our experiences,

            What have you done in your life, what mistakes have you made, where have you been, how have you been hurt, loved, cared for, abandoned, ignored?

and some kind of inner workings. . .

It’s there too, that something that is you from before time began. . . those inward parts. . . your synapses, your chemical makeup, your conscience. . .

            How much of that are you in control of. . . and how many decisions in your life have you made when those factors were not part of if. . . how many free choices have you had in that sense?

            So you find yourself in the situation where “I know what is right but I just can’t do it” how does that fit in rationally? Well there is a lot of sin on the affect train there. . . Sin begetting sin right. . . disease passed down. . .

We must remember where we started back in Romans 1 with Paul

¹⁸ The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, ¹⁹ since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. ²⁰ For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

²¹ For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²² Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools ²³ and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.

²⁴ Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.²⁵ They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised.Amen.

²⁶ Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. ²⁷ In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

²⁸ Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. ²⁹ They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, ³⁰ slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; ³¹ they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. ³² Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

So we might be able to rationally see, in our Internal, External, Experiential breakdown, where this made by the world, the choice of death affects us in everyway. . . at least in the external/experiential breakdown. Right? We see it around us, we experience it, we’ve been taught it, our Free Will might just not be free?

Stuff is already in motion and we are just reacting to it. . .

Let’s think about David and Bathsheba- - one of the most despicable actions in the history of Sin

            But where does the sin begin?

            Where does the disease start?

With David seeing here, with David summoning her, with David sleeping with her? With David getting her pregnant, by David trying to hide it to Uriah the Hittite, When he decided to have Uriah killed at the front lines. . . any of those suffice as sin for sure, but what gets it all rolling, for at some point they are just the unfolding of the events. . . that the sin of David is lost to his mind in self preservation. . . how do I stop now?

But the text is clear it says, that his army was out in the fields, for it is the time that kings go to war, but David doesn’t go. . . this one issue is at the root of the rest. . . they all stem from it.

Where does our sin start? And why can’t we turn the ship around?

It is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.

For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.

I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.

           

Slavery to sin. . . inability to not sin. . .

Augustine treats of this. . . in the Four states of Man – this is not a Free Will model

These four states

1) able to sin, able not to sin (posse peccare, posse non peccare); The first state corresponds to the state of man in innocency, before the Fall

2) not able not to sin (non posse non peccare); ; the second the state of the natural man after the Fall;

3) able not to sin (posse non peccare); and the third the state of the regenerate man

4) unable to sin (non posse peccare).; and the fourth the glorified  man.

Augustine makes the claim that after the fall we are not able not to sin. . . and he seems to be basing this notion on this section of Romans as well as some other. . .

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do

Broken will –

INTUITION:

As a dwarf in the dark of

His belly I rest;

FEELING:

A nymph, I inhabit

The heart in his breast;

SENSATION:

A giant, at the gates of

His body I stand;

THOUGHT:

His dreaming brain is

My fairyland.

I am at war with myself, war with myself

I am at war with myself, what can I do

When you are at war with yourself, when you’re at war with youself

You’re bound to lose

I was raised a Christian, told that heaven awaits the humble

So I try to toe the line and not to stray

Turn the other cheek, pray for my enemies

But my goddam fists keep getting in the way

The doctor he did tell me that I have eyes just like a bird

2020 vision he did say

20 on the left sees risks, the 20 on the right reward

And I can’t see the sunshine for the rain

So from Paul to Augustine to Freud to My friend Drew Kennedy, to Ron White, so many

have written about this issue of being broken, sinful,

Not understanding ourselves. . . unable to do that which we know is right. . . and imagine how hard it is then to do when we don’t. . . even know what is right. . .

That is who we are, and before I finish with Paul this morning, I want to make sure we remember who God is. . . so lets take a look at the Old Testament Lesson before we follow Paul where he goes next. . .

Isaiah 43:22 and it crosses over to 44:5, remember this is the part of Isaiah where I VBS text of when You pass the waters I will be with you comes from, also last weeks, behold I am doing a new thing. . . this picks up right after that, where it left off.

² “Yet you have not called on me, Jacob,
    you have not wearied yourselves for^[c] me, Israel.
²³ You have not brought me sheep for burnt offerings,
    nor honored me with your sacrifices.
I have not burdened you with grain offerings
    nor wearied you with demands for incense.
²⁴ You have not bought any fragrant calamus for me,
    or lavished on me the fat of your sacrifices.
But you have burdened me with your sins
    and wearied me with your offenses.

²⁵ “I, even I, am he who blots out
    your transgressions, for my own sake,
    and remembers your sins no more.
²⁶ Review the past for me,
    let us argue the matter together;
    state the case for your innocence.
²⁷ Your first father sinned;
    those I sent to teach you rebelled against me.
²⁸ So I disgraced the dignitaries of your temple;
    I consigned Jacob to destruction^[d]
    and Israel to scorn.

44 “But now listen, Jacob, my servant,
    Israel, whom I have chosen.
² This is what the Lord says—
    he who made you, who formed you in the womb,
    and who will help you:
Do not be afraid, Jacob, my servant,
    Jeshurun,^[a] (upright one) whom I have chosen.
³ For I will pour water on the thirsty land,
    and streams on the dry ground;
I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring,
    and my blessing on your descendants.
⁴ They will spring up like grass in a meadow,
    like poplar trees by flowing streams.
⁵ Some will say, ‘I belong to the Lord’;
    others will call themselves by the name of Jacob;
still others will write on their hand, ‘The Lord’s,’
    and will take the name Israel.

Have you ever read the Godfather, or seen the movie, the book I think does better at this, but this passage makes me think of that scene where the undertaker comes to Corleone, Marlon Brando’s character in the movie and asks him for judgement. . . and he says. . .

We've known each other many years, but this is the first time you ever came to me for counsel or for help. I can't remember the last time that you invited me to your house for a cup of coffee, even though my wife is godmother to your only child. But let's be frank here. You never wanted my friendship. And, uh, you were afraid to be in my debt.

Bonasera: I didn't want to get into trouble.

Don Corleone: I understand. You found paradise in America, you had a good trade, you made a good living. The police protected you and there were courts of law. You didn't need a friend like me. But, now you come to me, and you say: "Don Corleone, give me justice." But you don't ask with respect. You don't offer friendship. You don't even think to call me Godfather. Instead, you come into my house on the day my daughter is to be married, and you ask me to do murder for money.

Bonasera: I ask for justice.

Don Corleone: That is not justice. Your daughter is still alive.

Bonasera: Let them suffer then, as she suffers. How much shall I pay you?

Don Corleone: [shakes his head ruefully] Bonasera, Bonasera. What have I ever done to make you treat me so disrespectfully? If you'd come to me in friendship, then that scum that ruined your daughter would be suffering this very day. And if by chance an honest man like yourself should make enemies, then they would become my enemies. And then they would fear you.

There is a reason that the movie opens like that. . . and why its called Godfather. . . but of course it is a corrupted version. . . for in Isaiah, God is the one who holds up, who formed your inward parts, while in the womb, says do not be afraid for I am with you. . . who loves the world enough to send his only begotten son. . .

Back to Paul. . . perhaps I think the most important word in all of this passage, in all of Romans 7: 14-25

Is what do you think? Law? Spirit? Sin? Good? Evil? Slave? God?

I’ll give you a hint he uses it 27 times. . . in just 11 verses, 27 usages of one word . . .

Yes “I”

This is the first time that he talks about himself. . . this is the first time that he brings himself, his weakness, front and center. . . the rest up to this point has been all theoretical, human nature, sin and death, and law, Adam and Abraham, but now it is Me. I. I do not understand myself, for I do what I do not want to do.

I brought up earlier how we know of people, other people, people hooked on drugs, and we can see their path forward, and we wonder why they can’t, my students, why can’t they see it? It is so simple. . . but we are usually blind to our own. . . plank and spec in the eye right. . .

But Paul doesn’t come up with examples of other people, but gives his own. . .

I think that is important, if we are going to reach, if we are going to help, we have to be able to do that, we have to be able to accept our own wretchedness. . . v24: What a wretched man I am. . . .

I’ve talked a lot at different times about my time on the DC at Blue Ridge, story about the kid in need of grace. . .

If we are going to help anyone we have to be able to face our own wretchedness as Paul does. . .

But look what follows it immediately, circling back around. . .  \

Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? ²⁵ Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

The very next verse is the most famous in the entire letter, and we’ll go there next week, but I’d like to end with it today. . .

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, ² because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives lifehas set you^[a] free from the law of sin and death. ³ For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh,^[b] God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.^[c]And so he condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴ in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.