Bible Text: Psalm 51:10-17; Romans 8:1-11 | Pastor: Dr. Tom LaBonte | Paul’s Letter to the Romans is a timeless message of God’s righteousness and our struggle with sin and evil, grace and love. As it was in the beginning and is today, sin and evil surround us. Lawlessness is tolerated, even encouraged, by some politicians ignoring their oath to uphold the law and serve and protect all the people. Peaceful protests which are the right of every American too often turn violent. Rioting, looting, arson, murder, and other violent crimes are dramatically increasing, and the root causes too often ignored. Disrespect of Police Officers leads to hundreds being assaulted and murdered. Public property is destroyed. Churches are desecrated and our religious beliefs attacked. God’s Holy Word is discounted as irrelevant by many in this country, and behaviors condemned by God are lifted-up. Our moral decline is evident as many reject God and the Christian life. Jesus warned us about accommodating ourselves to the ways of the world. There is a price to be paid for not following the way of Christ. And now, we are paying it!   This morning the Apostle Paul has a message of hope for believers in Jesus Christ.

Paul writes the Letter to the Romans as a prisoner in Rome. Paul is guided by the Spirit to carry the Gospel message to the capital of the Roman Empire. Jewish believers in Rome are merging Jewish and Christian beliefs. They and Gentile believers need to hear Paul’s message of the Messiah as Lord of the World, and in whom God’s justice is revealed. Paul teaches if you want justice you will not find it in the Roman Emperor as Lord, but only in Jesus Christ as Lord. By Roman Law, his first loyalty as a citizen should be to the Emperor. He knows his message on Christ will be perceived as an attack on Caesar. Paul also understands the risk of incurring imperial wrath and judgment. Without personal regard for his safety, he follows where Christ leads and is executed on Vatican Hill as a martyr to his faith. Paul walks the talk!

Paul’s guidance to Christians then and to us in Romans 8:1-11 is to Live in the Spirit of Christ! In Romans 8:1-4 (NIV), did you hear Paul saying we should ignore the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, as the Law of God ? Are we to ignore the Ten Commandments? No! Paul lifts-up God’s Torah and Commandments as holy and just. We are to do our best to live by them. He teaches Living in the Spirit of Christ is not about trying to perfectly obey God’s Law as preached by the Pharisees. They taught the Jews must live the Ten Commandments and 600 other purity laws to be judged righteous. Who could live up to that standard? When they are unable to, they are condemned as Godless. Jesus calls the Pharisees hypocrites for placing intolerable burdens on the people.

Paul acknowledges we are all sinners and though we try, we cannot live God’s Law. His point is trying to live by the Law does not free us from sin, only God does. God sent His Son as perfect God and perfect Man to do for us by His life and death what we and the Law could not do. What the Law was powerless to do because of our sin, God did by the saving grace of Jesus atoning for our sins. It is the Spirit of Life in Christ that sets us free from slavery to sin and eternal death. The righteous requirements of God are met in all who believe and Live in Christ Jesus. Give thanks to our Heavenly Father that though we are sinners, He loved us enough to sacrifice His Son on our behalf.

Read Romans 8: 5-11. “The mind of sinful man is death. There are people who do not know Christ because they choose to follow what Paul calls “their bodily nature.” They choose to ignore or attack the love and grace of Jesus. They reject Him and willingly follow the Evil One as obedient slaves to sin. Jesus in His parables of the “Narrow Gate” and the “Sheep and the Goats” teaches they have no part in Him. They walk the path of eternal death to a Hell named in Hebrew as “Sheol,” and in Greek, as “Ghenna.”