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Under Grace, Not Under Law · The Holy Pause

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: A reading from scripture, Romans chapter 7.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: Brothers and sisters, I'm talking to you as people who know the law.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: Don't you know that the law has power over someone only as long as he or she lives?
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: A married woman is united with her husband under the law while he is alive.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: But if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning her husband.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: So then if she lives with another man while her husband is alive, she's committing adultery.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: But if her husband dies,
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: she's free from the law,
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: so she won't be committing adultery if she marries someone else.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore,
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: my brothers and sisters,
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: you also died with respect to the law through the body of Christ so
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: that you could be united with someone else.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: You are united with the one who was raised from the dead so that we can bear fruit for God.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: When we were self-centered,
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: the sinful passions aroused through the law were at work in all the parts
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: of our body so that we bore fruit for death.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: So we're about to enter in chapter 7 into Paul's discussion about the relationship
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: between law and grace and law and sin.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: There's a couple things we need to say about the law before we get going.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: And that is first that Paul has a deep respect for the written law.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: He was in fact a Pharisee who knew the written law in and out.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: And he saw in other parts of this book the value that the law provided for those
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: who were still under the tyranny of sin.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: That we in fact needed the law to help us create boundaries around ourselves
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: because sin always bore fruit of death.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: And so the law he saw in the time when it was the controlling narrative in our lives
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: as an incredibly valuable tool.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: So he's not saying the law is bad or evil or sinful, but that is no longer necessary.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: And that's important because sometimes in the Christian world,
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: our discussion of the law is incredibly anti-Semitic.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: We come at the law from this place of judgment and superiority
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: over those to whom
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: the law is still an important part of their faith.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: And we need to be careful because Paul never says that
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: there is no place for
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: that way of practicing faith.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: Paul instead says There is a different opportunity.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: That there are other, there is now a new path to God.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: You no longer have to follow the rules of the law in order to get to God
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: because now Christ is offering you a different way to do it.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: And that's so important for us to hear because we tend to think of everything as
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: an either or situation.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: Paul here is reminding us That while we are in a relationship bound by certain rules
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: and certain characteristics, that those are the rules by which we are bound.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: That's his marriage metaphor here.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: That while you're married to your spouse,
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: you are bound by the rules that govern a relationship,
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: the rules that help to make that relationship healthy.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: But when that other person dies,
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: when you are no longer in that relationship, you are no longer bound by its rules.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: You are in fact free to create a new set of boundaries and rules in a new relationship.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: And all of us know people who have been married once or twice,
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: who had to figure out for themselves in those relationships what their rules
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: and boundaries are going to be.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: And so Paul here is offering the opportunity to understand and experience
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: a different way of experiencing God.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: And that is through the lens of grace.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: That through our baptism,
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: we are given the opportunity to enter into a new relationship no longer bound by
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: the rules of the old one.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: And while that may sound a little complicated, it's really quite simple.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: It means that when you are baptized, you are given the opportunity to live under grace.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: Which means possibilities every day.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: Which means the freedom to make choices that do not lead to sin and death.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: But instead to life and to freedom.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: And then you're given the power of the Spirit to enable those behaviors every day.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so pause here is that message here is that
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: the old relationship was good too.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe this might be a better one for you.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: Or at least a different one.
• 5:30
  [music]
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: So I invite you to try it on today.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: What rules are you living by?
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: What rules have you bound yourself to, which may not actually be valid any longer?
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: Make a list maybe of the rules and operating procedures by which you live your life.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: And then I invite you to consider which one of those Were created by sin.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: And which one of those give you freedom gifted by God?
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: Join me in prayer.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: God help us to remember that the old ways are good.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: That things that happened in our past have value and worth and continue
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: to give us memories that inspire us every day.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: But then in our baptisms,
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: you offer us the grace to enter into a new path,
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: a new relationship with you, which is based on grace and love.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: Help us to choose that path,
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: the one that leads to the fruit of the Spirit,
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: which gives us the freedom to know kindness and joy and deep abiding hope.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 6:59
  [music]