Resurrection Lutheran Church, St Catharines

“To all... who are loved by God and called to be saints:

 

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 1:7).

 

Today’s Epistle Reading follows last Sunday’s Epistle Reading in Romans Chapter 6. Last Sunday we meditated on that Word of God which we know from the Funeral Rite and the Small Catechism’s teaching on Holy Baptism. St. Paul writes in Romans chapter 6, “Do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6:3-4).

 

We considered that as those who are baptized into Christ, our life even now is one united to the Christ that we confess at baptisms in the Creed. “We know that our old self was crucified with Him” (Romans 6:7). We “were baptized into His death?” (Romans 6:3). “We were buried therefore with Him through baptism” (v. 4). “just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (v. 4).

 

Such a lofty Christological concept as the baptismal union of Christ with those baptized into Him is something that can take a lifetime to ponder. As Psalm 139 puts it: “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high. I cannot attain it” (Psalm 139:6). We would do well to contemplate every day on some aspect of what it means to be baptized into Christ, into Him as we confess Him in the Creed.

 

In today’s Epistle, taken a few verses later in the same chapter, St. Paul realizes that due to our human weakness, our limited ability to contemplate such wonderful mercies of God, he could state the implications of our baptism into Christ in easier terms. And so he used the concept of slavery, something very familiar to the people of his day. Perhaps we think that slavery is not so familiar to us, but it is not hard to adapt St. Paul’s illustration to types of slavery that are still very active in our society, such addiction and prostitution. And of course, some of the slavery that was active in Paul’s day did involve addiction and prostitution.

 

“For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification” (Romans 6:19).

In terms of prostitution the parts of the body that St. Paul is referencing as “members” are clear. And how those body parts can be used for impurity and lawlessness we ought not dwell upon too much. Even outside of prostitution we have enough trouble keeping those body parts away from impure and indecent acts. Pornography and other sexual addictions are widely recognized as dangers. Yet at the same time our enslaved society is constantly pushing for the individual’s freedom to exercise sexual rights of perversion from the earliest stages of adolescence. We even put such on public display in festivals and parades.

 

But our sexual organs are not the only members that can be enslaved to sin. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus stated that although adultery is one of the sins mentioned in the Ten Commandments, it is also sinful to look at a woman with lust (Matthew 5:27-28). “If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away” (v. 29). So the eyes are another body part that becomes enslaved to sin, almost as if the eyelids are held open by some inhumane torture device forcing you to look where you know you ought not.

 

And there are more. Your feet keep taking you to places where you should not to go, as if chained in a long line of captives being force-marched through a minefield of trespasses. Your hands reach out to take what belongs to others. Your ears delight in hearing rumours and gossip. Your tongues like to slander good people and to use ungodly language and tell lewd stories. This is what it is like to be enslaved to sin, prostitutes of the prince of this world, the members of your body being used for impurity and lawlessness.

 

And although you may have thought that you were exercising your freedoms, your right to live your life for your own pleasures, the truth is that you were in chains and you couldn’t get out. Like sex trade workers or people who choose to shrug off employment so that they can live an unfettered life indulging their addictions, the truth is that that kind of freedom only leads to death—death from disease or violent attack or overdose—and eternal death in hell as the wages of sin. That is your reward. That is your payment. That is what you get for putting your life and your family and your eternal salvation on the line in order to serve these sinful pleasures.

 

But the life of God’s baptized people is not to be like that. St. Paul tells us that as we have newness of life through our baptism into Christ, our members (our body parts) are no longer enslaved to sin. They do not have to do these things that lead only to guilt and shame and death. Yes, those are the things that you are ashamed of. If anyone found out about what you are doing with those body parts the embarrassment would be unbearable. If your deeds were reported in the news or on social media, you would want to crawl into a hole and die.

 

So St. Paul reminds us that as we are now united to Christ in our Baptism, the chains of sin have fallen away. The shackles are unlocked and we no longer have to follow in step with the forced march into a minefield of trespasses and sins. The wonderful and inspiring grace of God in Holy Baptism is that these very same members that have worked impurity and lawlessness, are now set free to do works of righteousness and holiness.

 

One of the earliest Church Fathers wrote to second century Christians:

Once your feet ran to the temples of demons; now they run to the church of God. Once they ran to spill blood; now they run to set it free. Once your hands were stretched out to steal what belonged to others; now they are stretched out for you to be generous with what is your own. Once your eyes looked at women or at something which was not yours with lust in them; but now they look at the poor, the weak and the helpless with pity in them. Your ears used to delight in hearing empty talk or in attacking good people; now they have turned to hearing the Word of God, to the exposition of the law and to the learning of the knowledge of wisdom. Your tongue, which was accustomed to bad language, cursing at all times; it produces healthy and honest speech, in order to give grace to the hearers and speak truth to its neighbor.” Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture. New Testament. Vol VI. 170. Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans.

 

Through your Baptism into Christ you have been set free from sin, and that means you are free from shame. Those former impure and lawless things that your bodily members once did, were crucified, died, and buried with Christ. God has taken your guilt and shame away by nailing it to the cross with His own Son, whose precious life paid for them all and whose holy blood has washed them away. “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23) and Jesus accepted the wages of your sin. He died for you and for all of those impure and ungodly things that your body parts have done in obedience to your lusts and desires.

 

The hands of Christ were nailed to the cross so that your hands could be unchained from stealing and striking. The feet of Christ were pierced so that your feet would be unshackled to walk away from enticing allurements. The eyes of Christ stung with sweat so that you could turn your eyes away from leering and look upon the poor and needy with His compassion. The ears of Christ filled with blood from the crown of thorns on His head so that you could stop up your ears from gossip and open them to the Words of eternal life that come from the Lord Jesus. His side was pierced with the Roman spear so that you would no longer follow your sinful heart’s desires, but recognize the holy heart of Jesus and His desire that you be set free from sin and death “to serve Him in righteousness and holiness all the days of your life” (Small Catechism. Creed. Second Article).

 

The end of a life bearing such fruit is not death but life eternal. And it is not given as a wage due to a worker, a payoff to a prostitute or a fix for the services of an addict. Rather, it is a free gift. “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). It is as much a gift of Christ as the bread and fish given to the crowd who heard the Word of Jesus telling them of these things (Mark 8:1-9). They did not have food of their own. They did not have the means to buy their supper. Yet Jesus not only fed them for the day, but through His Word gave them Himself and the free gift of forgiveness and eternal life that He came to secure for them through His cross and resurrection.

 

He set that crowd free from their sins as He sets you free today. You have heard the same Word of forgiveness and life in Jesus Christ. It proclaims that every one of your bodily members has been set free from slavery to sin, so that it might be unfettered for works of righteousness that proclaim the glory of God in Christ Jesus, and the new life that is now yours through your Baptism into Him.

 

 

“Now to Him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ... to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen” (16:25, 27).