If you live according to the sinful nature, you will die;
but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live,
because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not
receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the
Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father."
Don’t Be Afraid of God
When we follow the story of Jesus’ suffering and death
every year, the story of Judas always seems to come to the fore. For most Christians the idea of one of Jesus’
closest disciples falling is rather terrifying.
Here was a guy who saw Jesus walk on water, raise the dead, still the
storm, and heard him teach on a daily basis, and even chase out demons himself;
and here he fell from faith! It is
terrifying from the sense that it makes us realize that if Judas could fall,
then so could we. The Bible warns
against falling from faith. Peter writes
in 2 Peter 2:20-21, If they have
escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than
they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have
known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their
backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them.
In line with that warning, Paul tells us to be ready for a
fight in this world. “If the Spirit
of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ
from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who
lives in you. Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but
it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it.” The same powerful Holy Spirit who was able to
raise Christ from the dead is now living in you. He gives you life and the ability to fight
against your sinful nature - which is still doing it’s best to corrupt you like
gangrene. So this battle is not as
difficult as fighting a one man battle.
The Holy Spirit is living in us.
He has changed us. It is like
telling a cat to act like a cat or a dog to act like a dog. It should come naturally for a Christian to
live like a Christian.
But there are Christians who still have a great longing to
go back to their old and sinful lifestyles.
There are young Christians who look at the lifestyles of their classmates
and long to indulge in the same sins as their classmates. Paul has a warning for you. If you live according to the sinful
nature, you will die. The word for “live”
seems in context to have an active meaning to it, like when we say someone is “enjoying
the good life.” They aren’t just sitting
back and doing nothing, but they are actively doing things that are seemingly
fun and enjoyable. The same thing goes
with “living according to the sinful nature.”
He seems to be referring to putting forth an effort to do sinful
things. This can be a variety of things,
as we mentioned last week.
Galatians
5:19-21 The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual
immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred,
discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and
envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that
those who live like this will not inherit the
Our sinful nature likes to
pick and choose what is “really sinful.”
We look at the idolatry and witchcraft and say, “I’m not doing that, I’m
ok. I’m not getting drunk, so I’m ok.”
But Paul also mentions bursting out in anger at people - only thinking about
yourself - saying something that you know will cause one person to be angry at
another person. As baptized Christians,
even we can give in to these urges, and actively participating in these things
that we know are wrong. With a little bit
of effort we have the capability of falling into sin and eventually unbelief.
If you do this, Paul says that you will DIE. This word usually means to die a physical
death. But everyone dies, so this is not
much of a threat if it happens to everyone anyway. There are times in the Bible where it means
more than just physically dying.
John 6:50 But here is the bread
that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die.
John
8:24 I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I
am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins.”
In these contexts when Jesus uses the word “die” he is
referring to eternal death in hell. That
is what Paul is threatening here. If you
end up continually doing things that you know are wrong, you will die in your
sins and go to hell. You will burn in
the eternal lake of fire. He said the
same thing in -
Galatians 6:7-8 Do not be
deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to
please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who
sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.
This is meant to scare us. God doesn’t want us to take Judas’ example
lightly.
II.
Fear does not mix with faith
The
question begs itself - “what sin will do this?”
Do you wonder about your own temper?
About your smoking? Or your
speeding? Or your
laziness? Where does God draw the
line? Once a Christian teenager asked
his teacher, “how far can I go on a date? What is permissible?” He didn’t understand that the very question
is flawed. What is wrong with it? The Christian should not be looking for a
line of sin that he can get as close to as possible without crossing over. He should be doing his best to stay away from
it and not test the limits. When you ask the question, “what about smoking? What about speeding? What about. . . you
are revealing an inner guilt that you feel about what you are doing. Anything not done in faith - that your conscience does not feel good about or even is
questionable should be avoided. If you
cannot confidently say, “I know this is ok with God,” then you should stay away
from it if at all possible. Even if it
is the seemingly smallest thing in the eyes of the world and even ok with your
church or the law of the land, if your conscience isn’t sure about it, you
shouldn’t be getting close to it.
Paul
gets to the heart of the matter as to why this sin is dangerous. For
you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you
received the Spirit of sonship. Even if you think something is sinful that is
not even sinful, it still brings guilt.
Guilt makes us afraid. Doubt
makes us afraid. When you are hunting on
land that you are not sure is ok to hunt on, you get nervous. You worry about the game warden coming. It taints your whole hunting experience. It makes you nervous about getting a kill
since you aren’t sure it is legal. If
you had checked and made sure the land was ok to hunt on, it would have made
your experience much more enjoyable.
Apply that to your faith. When we
are living with guilt because of something we are unsure about doing, it makes
us afraid of God. It makes some people
stay away from church or avoid conversations with their Christian pastor,
parents, or friends. It makes them angry
and defensive, and it makes others seek those who will confirm their sinful
lifestyle even though the law tells them it is wrong. It makes some seek a whole different group
of people to hang out with just to calm their conscience.
In the
parable of the ten minas, one man was very afraid of the master. In fear he buried his mina and did nothing
with it. The master came back and called
him a wicked and lazy servant because in fear he did nothing with his talent
that he could have. Fear is what ruined
his relationship with his master and led him to inactivity. In fear Adam and Eve ran from God. Fear leads the sinner - like Adam and Eve -
to run from God - when they should be running to Him. Fear leads to sinners putting more effort
into hiding and running and defending themselves, rather than openly serving in
a God pleasing way.
III.
Remember the cry of the Holy Spirit - telling you who God is and
who you are
This is
not the spirit God has given you. He
doesn’t want you to have that kind of a relationship or view of Him. God has pictured Himself as a forgiving
Father to you. Remember the parable of
the Prodigal Son? The Father was not
waiting for the son with a billy club so He could beat the tar out of the son
for wasting His possessions. The Father
was waiting for the Son with open arms.
He didn’t want to condemn the runaway and wicked boy. He wanted to welcome the boy back. When He came back in repentance the Father
put his best robe on the boy and slaughtered the fattened calf for the
boy. Instead of condemning the boy, he
forgave him.
This is
how God wants us to view Him. Paul said,
“you received the Spirit of sonship. And by
him we cry, "Abba, Father." This is an intimate term that is
drawn on throughout the Scriptures. Paul
told the Galatians 3:26-27 You are all sons of God
through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ
have clothed yourselves with Christ.
Paul also wrote to the Colossians in Colossians 1:21-22 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your
minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s
physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish
and free from accusation— Notice throughout these passages how and why we
are God’s children - “BY HIM” - through faith in Jesus. The problem was not with God - it was with
the Colossians who were enemies of God IN THEIR
MINDS. It was Jesus who said in Matthew
11:28-30 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give
you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble
in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my
burden is light.” God wants us to
feel comfortable to come to Him.
So how
are you viewing God? Remember how He
paints Himself. He is not like a
prosecuting attorney looking for some loophole or law to condemn you of or kick
you out. If you are still struggling
with different things in your life that you feel guilty over - he recognizes
your weakness and understands when your sins are not done out of
rebellion. He knows that you are but
dust and He still loves you in Christ.
God is in the shoes of the Prodigal Son’s father. He has gone through a lot of work to bring
you into His house and cover you in His righteousness. He wants you to look at Him as a generous and
forgiving Father - as your defense attorney who has given you a beautiful robe
of righteousness and slaughtered the fattened calf for you, as well as giving
you some talents to use on his farm. He
doesn’t want you to fear him. He wants
you to come to him for forgiveness and strength in the midst of your weakness
to battle your sin.
How can
you come to him? Paul writes to the
Romans, those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. You don’t have to come to him, because he has
already come to you in your baptism. The
Holy Spirit leads you into the battle through the Gospel of Jesus. The more you hear Jesus speak, the more you
see Jesus suffer, the more you see Jesus die, the more the Holy Spirit leads
you to God’s love and mercy and compassion.
Through the Word the Holy Spirit leads your conscience to see what to
avoid, what to repent of and what to get rid of in your life. He shows us that hateful speech and anger and
vengeance need to be avoided. He leads
us to see that we don’t need to be jealous of unbelievers. The Holy Spirit leads us to do and say things
that our sinful flesh doesn’t like and that the world and the devil hate. The Holy Spirit leads us down the path of the
cross, where we give up things that are going to hurt us and we do things for
other people that take hard work and sacrifice.
The Holy Spirit leads us down the valley of the shadow of the death.
On the
horizon, we see three crosses standing, with Jesus hanging in the middle. Beyond it we see an empty grave and a risen
Christ ruling with sin in the grave.
With these pictures the Holy Spirit bids us to walk through the valley,
fearing no evil, knowing that the same God who died for us and clothed us in
Himself is waiting to take us home.
When you are walking across an icy parking lot you will
hold onto anything you can to keep your balance and keep yourself from
falling. The last thing
you want to do is fall and break your hip or your ankle. As Christians living in a sinful world with a
sinful nature we live in a similarly precarious position. We fear a much greater fall - into hell. We fear being another Judas. That’s ok.
We should fear it. It is meant to
be fearful. Don’t forget however, that
we have already fallen, and the Holy Spirit has already picked us up and placed
us in the body of Christ through the Gospel.
God reminds us that the Holy Spirit is in now in us and by our sides
with His huge hands around us. Jude
says, “he is able to keep you from falling.” He won’t let go of you - don’t let go of
him. Trust Him to lead you into battle,
facing sin, death and the devil. Trust
Him to keep you from falling and don’t be afraid. Amen.