Romans 8:1-10

In the name of Jesus, the only Hope for all who grieve, dear friends,

When I was in the 5^th grade, I probably knew more about kangaroos than any of my classmates. No, I wasn’t an expert on Australian wildlife. The reason I knew so much about kangaroos was because my teacher – Miss Burmeister — made me copy out of an encyclopedia everything written about these animals as punishment for having too many marks behind my name on the chalkboard. You know how the system works, don’t you? When you misbehave the first time, your name goes on the board. Then for each time you act up after that, a mark is made after your name, until finally you get so many marks and have to pay the price. My punishment that day came in the form of about five pages of writing – everything written in the encyclopedia about kangaroos.

Once the punishment had been completed, Miss Burmeister would then allow the thoroughly-disciplined student to erase his name and the accompanying marks from the chalkboard. What a feeling of relief that was! We were able to start all over again with an unsoiled record! And that’s how Miss Burmeister wanted it to remain, for she would routinely remind us, “Now keep the slate clean!”

Our sins bring with them an even greater punishment than just encyclopedia-copying. Eternal death and damnation await all who sin and fall short of the glory of God. But someone volunteered to take our punishment for us! Someone took upon himself the “chalkboard marks” of the entire world! That someone was Jesus, the one who wiped our slate clean by dying in our place. Now, instead of eternal death, we have eternal life to look forward to – all because of our Savior!

This morning the apostle Paul takes us back to our spiritual chalkboard as he encourages us to:

“Keep the Slate Clean!”
I. Look at what God has done for your salvation

II. Look at what you can do to show your appreciation

Paul had been speaking to the Romans about how difficult it was for him as he struggled with sin. He made this statement in the previous chapter (Ro 7:21), “When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.” And a couple verses later he lamented (Ro 7:24), “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” Thankfully, Paul was able to answer his own question (Ro 7:25), “Thanks be to God – through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Paul had joy in his heart because he knew the solution to his sinfulness was already revealed to him in Christ!

This thought serves as the background for our text this morning, as Paul shares his joy with us. He begins (vv 1,2), “Therefore (i.e., because of Christ’s victory over death), there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.” Our sins dominate us by nature, and “the law of sin” says that as a result we deserve nothing but death. But we’ve been set free from that law by another law – “the law of the Spirit of life” – the Holy Spirit himself. Paul mentions the Holy Spirit 21 times in this chapter alone, focusing our attention on the one who is the controlling influence in the lives of believers. It’s only by his power that we realize what Christ has done for us, that we realize we’ve been set free from the law of sin and death.

A friend of mine once told me about a time when he and his brother caught some pigeons and put them in cages. They kept them hidden from their dad until he discovered that they were using the pig feed to feed them. So they were told to open up the cages to set them free. But when they did so, the dumb pigeons just sat there! Finally they had to physically take them out of the cages and toss them into the air. But even then the next day some of them came back and were found once again in their cages!

It’s the Holy Spirit who has to take us and toss us into the air, convincing us that we are free from sin because of Jesus. And it’s the same Holy Spirit who has to come after us time and time again when we foolishly climb back into those cages of sin. He keeps reminding us of what God has done for our salvation. Paul continues (vv 3,4), “For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.” Here’s what Paul means: Because we inherited a sinful nature, our own flesh is weak. We cannot live up to God’s expectations, so there’s no way we can save ourselves by keeping the law, because “the law was powerless.” Paul knew that and earlier admitted as much when he said (Ro 7:18,19), “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing.”

But this is where God steps in by supplying a “sin offering” of his own. He sent Jesus, his own Son, “in the likeness of sinful man,” a true human being, minus the sinfulness. He was the perfect Lamb of God sent to switch places with us. You’ve heard the passage before (2 Co 5:21), “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” That’s so important! Say it with me (repeat with congregation)! Look at what God has done for our salvation! Notice that he says that “the righteous requirements of the law” – what we need to get into heaven – are “fully met in us,” not by us. We’re not saved by what we do, but because of who lives in us – that same Holy Spirit who tells us all about how Jesus did everything for our salvation! He’s wiped our slates clean and made us fit for heaven!

If I would have had a classmate back in the 5^th grade who would have volunteered to step in for me and copy my little essay on kangaroos in my place, I would have been so happy that I would have tried to think of something to do to thank him – maybe give him the Baby Ruth candy bars from my lunch for a whole week! In the same way, realizing how Jesus stepped in for us brings forth a desire to react. Now we want to look at what we can do for him to show our appreciation.

The first thing we do is to ask the Holy Spirit to help us develop a new mind-set (v 5), “Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.” Two conflicting mind-sets are described here. They’re totally opposite of each other. One is to live for the flesh and please the sinful nature. The other is to live for the Spirit and please God.

The end results are also on opposite ends of the spectrum (v 6), “The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace.” Try for a moment to put yourself into the position of an unbeliever to try and imagine the haunting fear that they must have concerning their future. All they know for sure is that someday they will die – “the mind of sinful man is death” – that’s all it leads to, and the sad fact is that it gets worse, because physical death leads to eternal death for the unbeliever, whether they believe it or not.

Notice the contrast for the believer – “the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace.” As Spirit-filled believers, we know where we’re going. We have “life” – eternal life – to look forward to. And with that knowledge comes “peace.” Most of you may know by now that early yesterday morning Fred Lietz was called home to be with his Lord. If you spent any time with Fred over the last two years since he had been diagnosed with his illness, you couldn’t help but see on display the “peace” that exists for a believer even in the face of a disease that would ultimately take his life. That’s because Fred’s mind was “controlled by the Spirit,” the Spirit who gave him “life and peace.” And that’s why Fred was never afraid of death. It had no power over him. Instead he truly died in “peace,” and now he lives with his Savior in “life” eternal.

Do you want that same kind of peace, peace that will keep you from flinching even in the face of death itself? Then don’t let sin be your guide. Reacting to God’s love by living contrary to his will only pushes him – and his peace – farther away (v v 7,8), “The sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.” One theologian puts it this way, “Fleshly men are set on pleasing themselves; spiritual men please themselves by pleasing God.” We need a new guide to help us show our appreciation for what God has done for us (v 9), “You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit (there he is again!), if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.” Show that you belong to Christ, that you’re “controlled . . . by the Spirit” by the choices you make in life. In Galatians Paul tells us (5:24), “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.” The sinful nature no longer has to control us, because when Christ was nailed to that cross so was our sinful nature!

That’s why Paul can conclude with this thought (v 10), “But if Christ is in you, our body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.” Because of sin our bodies will die, but because of Christ they won’t stay dead. They will be raised up and cleaned up – they’ll be glorified! Then they’ll hook up once more with our souls — eternally “alive because of [Christ’s] righteousness” — once more to live forever in the mansions of heaven! This is every Christian’s hope, because “Christ is in you,” and he’s given you a clean slate!

Let’s keep it that way! With the Spirit’s power, keep that slate clean. How? In 2 Corinthians Paul says (13:5), “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves.” We all hate tests, but here’s one that’s so important. Test yourself to see if you “have the Spirit of Christ,” if you “belong to Christ.” Answer these questions: What motivates the decisions you make in life? Do you usually do what you want, or do you look to see what God wants? How eager are you to let God guide your life? Do you look to him and his Word for answers? What does your church and Communion attendance look like? Do you come to his house merely out of habit or enough to stay off the delinquent list, or do you come to let the Spirit have more control of your life and to let him strengthen you through Word and Sacrament? When it comes to heading home to heaven someday, are you O.K. picturing yourself traveling alone, or are you looking for ways to bring others along with you? Is your faith – and your Savior – such a personal matter that you keep it all to yourself, or are you driven by our Lord’s Great Commission to go out into the world and use his Word to make more and more disciples?

If you’re like me, you got an “F” on that test. But that’s what happens when we let the sinful nature rear its ugly head in our lives. I wish that I could say that my article on the kangaroos was the last document that I had to manually photocopy during my grade-school years, but I sadly admit that I made use of a couple more volumes of the encyclopedia before I reached high school. My slate didn’t stay clean. Each and ever day, we all sin. We all fail the test. Thank God that his Son didn’t! And thank God that his Son swapped papers with us, and that he keeps giving us a new paper – a clean slate – to start over again and again in showing our appreciation for all that God has done for us! With the Spirit’s help – and only with his help – slowly but surely we get better at doing what God wants us to do. And when we mess up, Jesus is there with that giant, cross-shaped eraser to make everything clean once again!

In view of such love, why would we ever want to live to satisfy the sinful nature? Instead, get in step with the Spirit, and let him help you keep the slate clean!

Amen

–Rev. Jonathan Rockhoff