Sermons 2026

Text: Romans 7:1-13
Theme: Dead to Sin

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

My dear beloved flock, the text for our meditation is the Epistle of Saint Paul sent to the church in Rome, the seventh chapter verses one through thirteen.

Beloved lambs, I pray that you are doing well today. Do you know what I have here? Right, I have a puppet. Can this puppet do anything on its own? No. All it will do is lie there. But if I put my hand in it, now it is moving, active, and speaking. Anything that my hand says or do, that is what the puppet does and says. Let’s say this puppet said a really really bad word, would you blame the puppet? You might, but the one to blame would be the person controlling the puppet. That is what Saint Paul explains in our text when he is talking about God’s Law and its relation to Sin. He says that sin used and controlled the Law to do bad things. Is God’s Law bad? How do we use God’s Law today? Ponder those questions as you hear the rest of the sermon. You may go back to your seats and those who love you.

1.    Death parts

We hear this promise made at every single wedding service. “I take you to be my wedding wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part, according to God’s holy will; and I pledge to your my faithfulness.” This is a binding promise, made before God and all those present, that you will be faithful to your spouse for the entirety of your life. 

At that moment, husbands become the heads and wives become the ones under their authority. The Greek word that Paul uses for a wife is an under a man woman. Wives are under the control of their husbands and their responsibility and headship. If a woman breaks this promise then she is considered an adulteress.  Why? Because they have broken the vow and are one who stands condemned under the Law. There is only one way to be freed from under this Law. One way to be free of this responsibility. The death of a husband. If the husband is dead, a wife is freed from that obligation and vow that was made. She could use her freedom to remarry or remain single, either is appropriate.

The same is true of us as Christians under the Law. We are no longer bound by the Law. We are no longer constrained by what we must do. We have been freed by its condemnation. How did this happen? A death. Specifically, the death of Jesus Christ upon the cross.  In the blessed waters of Holy Baptism, we are connected to Jesus Christ and His death upon the cross. There we die with Christ and are raised to new life. Through His body, we have died to the Law, we have been set free from its bondage. When Christ’s body hung upon the cross, when God spared not His own Son but gave Him up for us all, when Christ took on Himself for all of us the curse of the Law that struck us all, then we died to the Law. The Law had done its utmost and was done with us, for we were all included in the body of the Crucified. His Law, Gods love, has made His death the death of all. The same act of God that delivered us from the dominion of sin has freed us from the dominion of the Law, and for the same purpose; that we might live to Him who died and rose for us and thus bear fruit for God, the fruit of a life drawn from His life and lived to His glory.

As Rev. Black comments upon this verse, “The union of the risen Christ and the Christian has just been depicted in terms of marriage. Paul continues the figure: such a union is expected to produce the “fruit” of reformed life dedicated to God. “The believer is free to contract a new union with his Risen Lord, and obtain new progeny through this fresh marriage” (Black, Romans, 94) ”

2.    Fruits

This union that we have with Christ leads to the fruit of new life. This is a fruit that we do not produce because of our own power or strength. To try under our own power leads to death because of how sin twists the Law for its own evil purpose. Death occurs because the Law demands perfection. Are you perfect? No, then you stand accused under the Law and bear the consequence of your sin, which is your death. 
Even worse, sin takes the opportunity to rise up and twist the Law into something evil. Saint Paul states, “Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. ”.  Paul uses covet because to covet has an inner heart desire which leads to an outward action. 

When the commandment comes in not to covet, you begin to see that you are covetous. You covet all sorts of things: better health, more money, a different car, a better preacher, worship in the sanctuary, whatever.  And then what do you do?  You resolve to obey the commandment, “Thou shall not covet,” and you earnestly pursue that goal, that you may produce good fruit.  But you don’t escape from the Law, because now you only covet something else.  You covet being a non-coveting person.  You covet righteousness.  It is precisely in trying to fulfill the law that one comes to violate it. 

The Law demands perfection to receive life. As the Lord says in Leviticus 18:5, “You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the LORD.”  Do the Law and you will live. Do not do the Law and you will be accursed. As the Lord says in Deuteronomy 27:26 “Cursed be he who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.”  Do and live, do not do and stand accursed. I stand accused under the Law, as do you. Sin exploited the commandments to deceive us and so kill us. Sin invokes the deadly curse upon us.

The Law shows the stain of sin upon us. The Word of God is as a Lamp to our feet and a light to our path. It shines a bright light upon how deep and corrupt we really are. When we see how deep and vast the corruption of our sinful nature goes, we should be afraid. 

As one of the monks of Qumran once wrote:
“When I called to mind all my guilty deeds and the perfidy of my sires- when wicked men opposed Thy covenant and forward men Thy word- trembling seized hold one me and quaking, all my bones were a quiver; my heart became like wax melting before a fire, my knees were like to water pouring over a steep (IV, 33-34)” 

You see your corruption and mourn because the Law shows how much your have sinned. How imperfect you still are. Picture it this way. When you get done working on the car or out in the garden, you go inside to wash up and what do you see looking in the mirror? The oil and grim of the car, the dirt, mud, and muck of the garden. 

Do we blame the mirror for showing the dirt and grim? Most people rejoice in it as it shows you where you most need to focus to be cleansed. The same is true of the Law. Even though sin corrupts and twists the Law for its own goals, a single step leading to death. We do not say that the Law is evil. Just as, we would not blame the puppet when it says a foul word or makes an obscene gesture, so too we do not blame the Law for revealing to us our sins. As we just sang, the Law of God is good and wise. 

“The law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.  ” It reveals to us our sins, shows us sins corruption and our imperfections, that we might be prepared for the sweetness of the Gospel. 

3.    Guides

The Law also guides us as Christians. It answers the question, so you have been freed by Christ, what does that new life look like?  You listen intently to the Law as it reveals your sinfulness and my own. We quake in terror turning towards God in repentance, remembering the mercy and grace shown to us in Christ Jesus.

We strive to obey the Law as best as we can because it is the good will of God for us. We do this imperfectly, thus why the Christian life is one of constant repentance. Jesus has freed you from the curse of the Law by becoming a curse for you. He has borne all your sins, all the breaking of the Law. You are forgiven because of His sake. Live in that forgiveness as you and I wait in constant repentance, longing for His glorious appearing, and the recreation of the Heavens and Earth to life everlasting.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard, and keep, your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.