I.
Dress codes are almost entirely a thing of the past. My high school required collared shirts, but waved that requirement if you wore a school club or sport t-shirt. On picture day, you had to wear a tie, but no jacket.
Recently, I read about a club in New York that wanted to retain its jacket and tie rule, the problem is that the members are no longer wearing jackets and ties to work. So, they created a scheme where they would rent garment bags to members, emblazoned with the club logo, in which they could store their jackets and ties at the club and change into them when they arrived.
My sense is that dress codes have declined because people found them too constraining, too much of a hassle, and not as comfortable as wearing pajama pants on long-haul airline flights.
This tendency to backsliding (or just plain laziness) is something the apostle Paul himself was accused of.
II.
We continue our preaching series through the lectionary readings from Romans. Today’s reading is from Romans 6:12-23. Paul is talking about holiness and how the law of God is a standard for holiness.
Holiness is a requirement for entry into God’s house, much in the same way “Proper Attire Required” is still posted next to the entrances of nicer restaurants. God’s law is summarized in the Ten Commandments, which we recited today at the beginning of the communion service.
Paul’s first readers understood holiness was expected of them. They didn’t need Paul to tell them that. What made Paul’s message new and different was that he wasn’t saying you have to be holy, he was saying you get to be holy.
Paul writes:
“For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.”
Paul’s argument is a legal one. He was pointing out to his readers that every single one of them had been under indictment. The law was something to be feared. In that sense they were “under” it. They were undergoing its sentence and experiencing its penalties. They were trying to sit down to a nice meal only to be told to leave the establishment for not wearing “proper attire.”
But Paul writes to tell them something has changed. Proper attire is still required, but a benefactor is loaning them his jacket and tie, and so they will get to enjoy a nice dinner after all.
III.
Unfortunately, some of the early Christians (and no doubt some of us today) used this as an excuse to behave poorly at the dinner table. Many even said Paul’s preaching encouraged antisocial and lawless behavior.
In his defense Paul writes:
“What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means!”
The gospel has been used and is certainly used today as a license to do whatever we please.
There is a phrase that is popular today in churches that goes, “God loves you — no exceptions.” This is true as far as it goes, but unfortunately, I don’t think many preachers are taking it very far and use it to excuse every kind of vice and sin.
God, on the other hand, takes it as far as it can go. A few weeks ago, we read in Romans 5:8:
“But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.”
Not even the dead are excluded from God’s love, but the dead are not raised to new life only to go back to the same kind of living that killed them in the first place. This is why Paul writes to us in today’s reading:
“Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness.”
IV.
Two principles are in view in this passage. The first is sin, the second is righteousness.
As children of Adam, we are all born to serve sin, but some of us are reborn to serve righteousness. The process by which some of us are reborn is called Divine Election (or choice) and Paul discusses it at length later on in Romans.
This rebirth (the theological word for it is regeneration) abolishes the first principle (sin) and establishes the second principle (righteousness) in the lives of those who are reborn. Grace is the means by which our regeneration occurs, if it is to occur.
How we view the law depends on which principle we serve. (It’s also an indicator of whether or not we’ve been regenerated.) If we serve sin, the law is a terror to us. If we serve righteousness the law is a well-lit path to holiness.
Paul writes:
“You are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness.”
If you want to know which principle you serve, ask yourself: Do I hide from God’s law? Do I try to explain away its requirements?
If so, then I am one who will be afraid of the law’s verdict and penalties. I serve sin.
But if I read the law with sorrow in my heart for my wrongdoings, then I serve righteousness and am covered in God’s love.
This is the difference between having to do something and getting to do it.
It is the very same jacket and tie, worn to the very same restaurant, to eat the very same fine meal. The difference is in your heart. Do you have to go to this dinner, or do you get to go? Are you being dragged kicking and screaming by your parents, or are you conscience of the fact many, many people are excluded from this meal, ignorant of the fact that such places even exist (and that such fine dining is possible), and that you are one of the chosen few?
That is what Paul is getting at. We don’t have to be holy. We get to be holy. We don’t have to face God as our judge, we get to run to Him and climb up and sit in His lap because He is our loving Father.
V.
Let us apply this grace of “getting to be holy” instead of “having to be holy” to our own lives.
First, we must not abuse our freedom. Paul writes, “You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.” We have been pardoned from the penalties that come from breaking the law so that we may keep the law without fear of punishment.
That is a major difference between a Christian believer and a non-believer. A Christian knows he is a sinner and when he sins he asks for God’s forgiveness, which he readily receives because God’s own Son shed His blood to appease His Father’s wrath.
The non-believer is often completely unaware that he is a sinner — “Officer, I didn’t see the speed limit sign!” — or, as is more often the case, is completely aware that what he is doing is wrong, but seeks to justify it anyway. “Officer, I was only going ten miles over the limit.”
You see, we cannot escape the law and we all need to justify our actions by its terms, but since we’ve broken the law, no amount of self-justification will work. Only Jesus, who fulfilled the law, can justify us.
Second, we are not freed from our moral and ethical obligations, instead we are now free to fulfill them. This is like the difference between marriage and dating. It’s true that in marriage we “forsake all others” for our spouse, but this frees us to love and cherish him or her and only him or her. We are freed from obligations to others, so that we can love and serve the one we have chosen and who has chosen us.
Third, we are freed from what Paul calls “impurity” and “ever-increasing wickedness.” I think Paul certainly had sexual sins in mind here when he says “impurity,” and by “ever-increasing wickedness” he means all hatred and malice towards each other.
Neither impurity nor wickedness leaves us with anything of which to be proud. Paul offers us the hope that through Jesus Christ we can be free of their legacy — including the guilt we feel — as well.
People think being a Christian is all about feeling guilty. It’s not. It’s about never having to feel guilty again. That’s important, because you will meet many people who try to make you feel guilty. All they are doing is imputing their own guilt for breaking God’s law on you. What they should do is accept what God has done for them in His Son, Christ Jesus.
God the Father imputed all the world’s guilt for all the world’s sin onto His wretched Son who willingly accepted it and bore on the cross for our sakes. That’s why we call it salvation. The cross of Christ saves us from sin: both the power and the guilt of sin.
Finally, and I think this is the most important application of all, we are freed from the burden of autonomy. The Greek root in the word autonomy is nomos, which means law. We are freed from the burden of being laws unto ourselves. Following a course of self-rule, like self-love, leads use to a lonely island of isolation.
Hell has been described as such a place, a place of complete and utter equality, where no one needs anything from anyone because all are completely equal. No economic activity is possible in such a state, because no one has anything more than anyone else, and, indeed, no community is possible there either.
It may sound strange to modern ears, but community needs inequality to exist. Community thrives on differences that make complementarity possible. This why marriage can never be between two equal parties. Rather, it exists between two opposites who come together to supply what the other lacks.
If I lack something but you can provide it, community becomes possible. Economic activity becomes possible. Law becomes possible because law supports and undergirds the communal and economic life of a society.
God’s law is therefore not meant to eradicate difference and bulldoze disparity, but a gift of grace that is meant to help us manage inequality by teaching us to live together in holiness towards God and righteousness towards each other.
Self-law, autonomy, is good only for governing a community of one, and even that not well. You will be forever dining alone, no matter how you’re dressed.
But Paul writes:
“Now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Amen.
Preached on July 2, 2023 at St. Peter’s Lithgow, Millbrook, New York.
Proper 8 - Year A
Romans 6:12-23
Questions for reflection and discussion:
1. Paul was accused of ____________ when it came to the law.
2. God’s law is summarized in the ____________.
3. According to Paul, Christians are no longer under law, but under ____________.
4. Explain what being under grace means.
5. Explain how the slogan “God loves you — no exceptions” can be abused, in the same way Paul was accused of abusing God’s grace.
6. What two principles are at war in us?
7. ____________ abolishes the principle of sin and establishes the principle of righteousness.
8. How we view the ____________ of God depends on which principle we serve.
9. How can a person tell which principle he serves?
10. A person serves the sin-principle if he tries to ____________ the requirements of God’s law.
11. A person serves the righteousness-principle if he reads the law of God with ____________ in his heart for his past wrongdoings.
12. God’s grace frees us from the burden of ____________, of being laws unto ourselves.
Parents and Grandparents, you are responsible to apply God’s Word to your children’s lives. Here is some help. Young Children – draw a picture about something you hear during the sermon. Explain your picture(s) to your parents or the minister after church. Older Children – Do one or more of the following: 1) Count how many times “law” is mentioned. 2) Discuss with your parents why children (and even adults) can’t make their own rules.
(1) backsliding; (2) Ten Commandments; (3) grace; (4) we no longer have to be holy, we get to be holy; (5) as an excuse for every kind of vice or sin; (6) sin/righteousness, good/evil; (7) Regeneration; (8) law; (9) by how he responds to God’s law; (10) hide from, explain away; (11) sorrow, remorse; (12) autonomy