Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity—Raised with Christ, No Longer in Bondage to Sin
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
I ask that you do not lose heart at my tribulations for you, which is your glory. For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Maybe some of y'all have been in churches that use this blue Lutheran Worship hymnal. But before that hymnal was printed, the Missouri Synod worked with other Lutheran church bodies to put together the Lutheran Book of Worship. It even has our name in it.
Prepared by the Inter-Lutheran Commission on Worship with the Lutheran Church in America, the American Lutheran Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Canada, and the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, it was published in 1978. The Missouri Synod ultimately backed out, and instead published Lutheran Worship in 1982.
There are several differences between the two hymnals, but I want to focus today on the Confession of Sins. In the Lutheran Book of Worship the confession reads:
“Most merciful God, we confess that we are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves. We have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed by what we have done and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. For the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us. Forgive us, renew us, and lead us so that we may delight in your will and walk in your ways to the glory of your holy name.”
Notice also that it omits the line found in earlier hymnals: “We justly deserve Your present and eternal punishment.”
What concerns us today, however, is the very first line. In Lutheran Worship and now in our Lutheran Service Book, we confess: “Most merciful God, we confess that we are by nature sinful and unclean.” But the Lutheran Book of Worship said: “We confess that we are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves.”
That’s not by mistake. And there’s a problem. To say we cannot free ourselves is true. But to say, as Christians, that we are in bondage to sin is to speak a lie.
It is true that apart from the Holy Spirit, mankind is in bondage to sin. By nature we are dead in trespasses and sins, enslaved to sin, death, and the power of the devil.
Scripture makes this plain. “The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. 2:14). “The imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth” (Gen. 8:21). “The carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be” (Rom. 8:7). “We were dead in trespasses and sins until Christ came and made us alive together with Him (by grace you have been saved)” (Eph. 2:5).
A dead person cannot raise himself to life. So also a sinner, dead in trespasses, cannot raise himself to faith. This is why Paul says, “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God” (2 Cor. 3:5).
Left to ourselves, we are blind, dead, children of wrath, unable to submit to God’s law, and unwilling to do so because we hate Him. In that state, if one could truly confess it, it would be right to say, “We are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves.”
But is it true of the Christian who hears the Word, receives the Sacrament, and bears fruit in faith by the Spirit?
We are brought to saving faith by the working of the Holy Spirit, who never acts without means. He works through the preaching and hearing of the Word: “The gospel…is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Rom. 1:16). “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:17).
So Psalm 95 warns: “Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts” (Ps. 95:7–8). And as with Lydia, “The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul” (Acts 16:14). Jesus Himself says, “Apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).
Before conversion it is true to say, “We are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves.” Even as Christians we confess that without the Spirit’s continued work we would be lost. But when the Spirit brings us to faith, the will is renewed. The one who once resisted God’s law can now say with Paul: “I delight in the law of God according to the inward man” (Rom. 7:22).
So, yes, before the Spirit we are enslaved. But once converted through the Word and Sacraments, we are freed in Christ. To keep confessing that we are still in bondage is not true for the believer. For “For freedom Christ has set you free” (Gal. 5:1). “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Gal. 3:26–27).
It is not God’s will that any should perish. As we sang, “The will of God is always best.” Scripture says, “As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live” (Ezek. 33:11). “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
Our Confessions explain: “Out of His immense goodness and mercy, God provides for the public preaching of His divine eternal law and His wonderful plan for our redemption, that of the holy, only saving gospel of His eternal Son, our only Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ. By this preaching He gathers an eternal Church for Himself from the human race and works in people’s hearts true repentance, knowledge of sins, and true faith in God’s Son, Jesus Christ. By this means, and in no other way…God desires to call people to eternal salvation, draw them to Himself, and convert, regenerate, and sanctify them” (FC SD II, 50–52).
And again: “When a person has been converted…their will is renewed. Then a person wants to do good so far as he is regenerate or a new man, like Paul says…strengthened in the inner man. Then that person will delight in the law of God…and from that time forward does good to such an extent and as long as he is moved by God’s Spirit” (FC SD II, 67–69).
So Paul says, “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God” (Rom. 8:14). And David sings, “Your people shall be volunteers in the day of Your power” (Ps. 110:3).
Yet the conflict between flesh and Spirit remains. Paul writes: “So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. So then I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin” (Rom. 7:21–23).
And in Galatians 5:17: “For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.”
This shows that as soon as the Spirit begins His renewing work through the Word and Sacraments, the Christian can and should cooperate — though always in weakness and never apart from grace. “Working together with Him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain” (2 Cor. 6:1). “For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building” (1 Cor. 3:9). “By the grace of God I am what I am…yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me” (1 Cor. 15:10).
So Paul says: “You are the temple of the living God. As God has said: I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people” (2 Cor. 6:16).
There is therefore a vast difference between a baptized, believing Christian and an unbeliever. The Christian has been made regenerate, a new creation, with a freed will. He is not in bondage to sin. Freed by Christ, he can hear the Word, agree with it, and accept it — though still in great weakness — because the Spirit works in him.
A freed Christian can fall back into bondage if he sins against his conscience, sins willfully against God's Word, makes a practice of sinning allowing sin to rule, and by such action casts out the Spirit. David did this when he committed adultery with Bathsheba and murdered Uriah. Such a Christian does not need re-baptism, but must be converted again by the same means of grace the Holy Spirit used to convert them at the first.
There is a difference between a Christian falling into an occasion of sin and a life of stubborn, willful sin. The latter destroys faith and casts out the Holy Spirit since Scripture tells us the Spirit does not allow the flesh to gain the upper hand.
By confessing differently than the Lutheran Book of Worship, our fathers protected us from two errors. First, the error of the Enthusiasts, who claim that God converts without means, apart from the Word and Sacraments. Many today think the same—that they can be Christians without regularly gathering to hear the Word or receive the Sacraments.
Second, the error of the Epicureans, who imagine that since they cannot convert themselves, they need do nothing at all. They grow idle in prayer, Scripture, and meditation, waiting for God to act without means or even by force. Christians who do not exert themselves in the fight against the flesh but come receive the Means of Grace and then go out and live no differently than the heathen and call it the “freedom of the Gospel” and who even discourage the preaching to Christians to strive vigorously to live a godpleasing life as something that is legalistic.
Both errors lead to despair or presumption. But we know the truth: “For freedom Christ has set us free” (Gal. 5:1). Therefore Christians are diligent in prayer, attentive to the Word, and faithful in receiving the Sacraments. They know the Spirit is at work in them, and though their cooperation is weak, it is real. They are not puppets, but children of God.
At Nain, the widow’s son was dead and helpless. Jesus raised him by His Word alone. Once alive, the young man sat up and spoke. He was not a puppet or a lifeless shell, but truly alive.
So it is with the Christian. Christ raises us from spiritual death, and then we live and speak as His own. As Paul says, “It is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13). Without His Spirit, we would still be dead. If our Lord withdrew His hand, we would again be in slavery to sin, death, and the devil.
But we do have the Spirit. We are regenerate. By His power our will is renewed so that we begin to do good and fight against sin. We are not equal partners with God, as if two horses pulled the same wagon. Rather, we are like soldiers lying dead on the field after the enemy’s arrows. As the enemy charges, our King takes the field. He comes down from His horse, commands His doctors to revive us, gives us armor and weapon, lifts us onto His horse, and leads us into battle. And when we falter, fear, or fall, He raises us again, strengthens us, and keeps us fighting under His command.
Cody has long been a Christian, raised already from the death of sin through the Word and Sacraments, and he has been engaged in this battle before this day. Yet today he continues in that same fight, as one raised to new life with Christ, just as the widow’s son sat up and spoke. Now, in the midst of the battle, we will hear Cody make the good confession against the devil and all his works and all his ways. He will confess Jesus Christ as his Lord, his Savior, and his Captain. Cody cannot do this apart from the Holy Spirit. But it will be Cody himself who speaks this confession and believes it in his heart. For “it is God who works in him both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13).
This is what we sing in the hymn:
“Come, follow Me,” the Savior spake,
All in My way abiding;
Deny yourselves, the world forsake,
Obey My call and guiding.
Oh, bear the cross, whate’er betide,
Take My example for your guide.
I teach you how to shun and flee
What harms your soul’s salvation,
Your heart from ev’ry guile to free,
From sin and its temptation.
I am the Refuge of the soul
And lead you to your heav’nly goal.
But if too hot you find the fray,
I at your side stand ready;
I fight Myself, I lead the way,
At all times firm and steady.
A coward he who will not heed
When the chief Captain takes the lead.
Then let us follow Christ, our Lord,
And take the cross appointed
And, firmly clinging to His Word,
In suff’ring be undaunted.
For those who bear the battle’s strain
The crown of heav’nly life obtain.
So, dear Christians, know your state. You are no block of wood. You are by nature sinful and unclean, but you who have the Holy Spirit are no longer in bondage to sin. You have been set free in Christ. Though weak, the Spirit works in you, leading you into the fight, sustaining you in the struggle, and promising you the crown of life at the end. You are Christians with new hearts that delight in God’s Word, even as you struggle daily against the flesh. That sinful flesh will cling to you until it rots in the grave. But you will rise in glory, free forever, for this is God’s good and gracious will.
Let us pray. Lord Jesus, You have compassion upon the troubled widow of Nain, and You also mourn over the death of Lazarus. We firmly believe that our misery is not only well known to You but that, with Your tears, You also wish to blot out eternal, hellish misery and evil. We also admonish ourselves that, in this vale of misery of the present danger and distress, we would not forget to grieve with those who are grieving and to earnestly prepare for Your heavenly joy. Look upon our suffering and the suffering of all troubled hearts. Gladden us and them through Your Word and Holy Spirit.
When we are discouraged in our struggle with sin, remind us that You fight for us and with us and are always ready to strengthen us, renew us, and lead us by Your Holy Spirit. And especially fix in our hearts the hope of the resurrection from the dead, when sin will no longer dwell in our members and the battle will be over. When the great sorrow of departing from this world comes before our eyes or stirs our hearts, receive, O Lord Jesus, our souls into Your hand. Shorten the pains of death and help us to depart joyfully from here; for You—who are the Way the Truth and the Life—live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one true God, now and forever. Amen.
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