Romans 7:14-25a –
The Christian life is one of inner conflict. It is a struggle
between the lower and the higher selves. It is a battle between the old and the
new Adam. It is a clash between the law of the body and the law of the mind.
What is so wrong?
We do what we don’t want to do – “For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want.”
And we don’t do what we want to do – “but I do the very thing I hate.” V. 15
Our better self wants to do right – “I have this desire to do what is right.” Each of us wants to do the
right thing. Not only do we know what is
right. We know we should fulfill it. The
victim of this civil war cries out in despair, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”
v. 24 This conflict that persists, can only lead to despair of self.
Is there no end? No way out? Paul found the solution in
Christ for whom he gives thanks for this deliverance. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! V. 25
The Solution:
Affirm the higher
self? Better yet, rejoice in Christ’s deliverance. St. Paul says, “For I delight in the law of God, in my inner
being.” v. 22
Christ is your peace. Who brings together the two warring
selves into one integrated, harmonious person. He has redeemed you. And when we
come to Him daily in contrition and faith He forgives our sins.
But He does us even better. He gives you His Holy Spirit. So
that you can be the hands, the feet, the fingers, and the toes of Jesus in your
world.
The Reformers taught that a farmer may worship God by being a
good farmer. The Reformation proclaimed that a parent, changing diapers, could
be as near to Jesus as the Pope. This was scandal. But it was also
revolutionary.
"We can't be holy
in the abstract. Instead we become a holy blacksmith. Or a holy mother. Or a
holy physician. Or a holy systems analyst. We seek God in and through our
particular vocation and place in life…Our task is not to somehow inject God
into our work. But to join God in the work He is already doing in and through
our vocational lives. In the daily
rhythms for everyone everywhere, we live our lives in the marketplaces of this
world. In homes and neighborhoods. In schools and on farms. In hospitals and
businesses. And our vocations are bound up with the ordinary work that ordinary
people do. We are not great shots across the bow of history. Rather, by simple
grace. We are hints of hope.”
Through your daily work you become the hands and feet the
fingers and toes of Jesus. Bloom where you are planted; in short, become a
sermon in shoes.
A prayer before we study the Word – Almighty God, our heavenly Father, without Your help our labor is
useless, and without Your light our search is in vain. Invigorate the study of
Your holy Word that, by due diligence and right discernment, we may establish
ourselves and others in Your holy faith.
In our living - Lord God, You have called Your servants to
ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through
perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing were we
go but only that Your hand is leading us and Your live supporting us; through
Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy
Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen
Prayers from Lutheran Service
Book, © 2006 Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis
Luther’s Seal
copyright © Ed Riojas, Higher Things
Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in
Everyday Life.- Tish Harrison Warren ©
2016 Intervarsity Press pg. 94, 189
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