WEEK 20

Greetings! My name is Michael Young and I am privileged to serve as the Pastor of Emmanuel Community Church here in my hometown of Huntington, WV.  I am excited by the privilege to share with everyone at Neighbor Collective about a subject that is both central to and polarizing within the Christian faith. 

Sin is a complicated and nuanced theological concept.  The presence of evil in the world raises legitimate questions about human and divine agency.  

• How (or perhaps why) does a Holy God permit sin to exist? 
• If we are created in the image of God, how can we engage in evil? What is God’s response to humanity’s engagement with evil?  

These questions are valid to ask and should be explored. But they are beyond the scope of this sermon.  

The objective of this sermon is to explore the predisposition of human beings towards sin. Our task in this sermon will require that we accept the reality of sin in our world, even if we are not able to fully rationalize or explain in theoretical terms.  

The propensity towards sin is discussed by the Apostle Paul  in Romans. For those who desire to follow along in the text, I will be reading from Romans 7. In this chapter Paul contrasts the law with Christ.  Within this chapter are several things which I believe will help us to understand our desire to sin. 

Paul begins by comparing the law to the laws that governed marriage during his day.  If the husband were to die, the wife would be freed from her obligation/covenant to him.  In a similar way, when we die to the law we become alive to Christ.

Verse 5 is a key verse here.  Paul says that when we are in the flesh, the law arouses our passions and desire to sin.  Here is the first key to understanding sin.  Notice it is not the law that is responsible for sin, BUT rather our sinful passions are found in our flesh which the law arouses.  

Romans 7:5 – “For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death.”

In fact, Paul goes out of his way to make sure the readers know the issue is not with the law. In fact, he actually calls the law holy in 7:7-12.  By positioning the law as holy Paul is hedging against the argument that there is no moral underpinning to freedom in Christ.  Paul is attacking the idea that we find so prevalent in our modern expressions of faith.

“God loves me and will forgive me; therefore I can live without any moral constraints.” Some even suggest that God does not care how we live because He has already forgiven us. 

Paul frames the law as being spiritual, which gives the Christian faith a moral underpinning.  By arguing that followers of Christ should abide by a moral code, Paul has created a tension which the rest of the chapter addresses. If Christianity has a moral code found in the law, why are we unable to keep it?  Why do we continually fall short? 

The next section (7:14), Paul casts the law as spiritual, but humanity as carnal enslaved to sin.  This provides significant insights into our desire towards sin.   

1. The verse suggests a spiritual realm and an unspiritual (natural realm). 

2. It also seems to suggest a tension between the two.

3. It also suggests the unspiritual world is ruled by sin which has the power to enslave

4. Sin cannot be overcome in the carnal world.  

The rest of section Paul details the struggle between the spiritual and carnal world (7: 15-20).  Despite knowing the law is good and that he should abide by it, Paul finds himself enslaved to his sinful nature.  This section provides some interesting information about our understanding of sin and our desire towards sin.

1. Paul considers sin to be alive.  This suggests that sin is more than behavioral; The idea of “missing the mark” which speaks to behaviors is only looking at the surface.

2. The power of sin is so strong that despite knowing what is good, Paul is unable to carry it out. 

Paul presses this even further in the next section (7:21-25)

1. Despite his desire to be good; evil wins out.  Paul is powerful to overcome the chains of sin.

2. In his heart he knows that God’s law is good, but sin has weaponized the law against him. 

Paul has now produced a crisis point.  Something has to give.  Being created in God’s image, Paul is aware of the spiritual realm from which the law resides, but sin provides a barrier that he is unable to overcome.  This leads Paul to ask “Who shall deliver me from this body of death?” The answer is Jesus Christ.  God through Jesus Christ has broken the chains of sins and closed the gap between the unspiritual and spiritual worlds.  

Allow me to conclude with some final remarks 

1. Sin is more than a behavioral.  Behaviors are a mere symptom.

    

2. The text we examined suggests that sin is rooted in our inability to navigate the spiritual realm where the law resides. Sin has weaponized the law against us requiring the law to be kept outside the spiritual realm.

    

3. Our ability to address sin is through Jesus Christ.  He bridged the unspiritual (natural) world and the spiritual world.  The barrier between them erected by sin has been demolished.

    

4. We must resist the temptations to address sin in purely natural terms.  This will lead to behavior modification and never impact our way of being in the world.

    

5. It is through the resurrection of Christ and pouring out of the Spirit upon all flesh that we can properly address sin by disarming its ability to weaponize the law against us.

    

6. When we engage the law with the spiritual realm, through the power of the Spirit, as it was intended to be, we are no longer enslaved to the law through being empowered by the Spirit to keep the law.  This effectively changes our way of being in the world. 

Our desire to sin is directly tied to being created in the image of God. This imago Die pushes us towards mimicking the holiness of God found in the law.  Yet, when we attempt to move towards keeping the law apart from God, the law merely arouses our passions to sin.  

So the next time you find yourself in a position where your passions are aroused towards sin, remember that attempting to curb these passions apart from God will deepen them.  Instead of going at it alone in a purely natural way, allow the Spirit of Christ to reform your sinful passions into expressions of holiness by helping you to see sin as a spiritual issue that manifests itself in the material world. 

Let’s pray together.