In our day, people are very confused by what it means to be a Christian.
You might have noticed this.
Many people who claim the name of Jesus seem to wrap their faith in the cloak of judgmental religious righteousness- if you don’t live according to their standards, worship the way that they worship, you’re considered an unbeliever and condemned.
Others who claim to be Christians make their faith entirely about what they can do to please God- these people continually run themselves ragged by a constant sense that they need to do more, and their faith seems to have very little peace.
Still others have made being a Christian a political identity- wrapped in politics that seek to preserve their own power and privilege, where they seek to “Christianize” the nation, legislating their narrow theological and ethical beliefs and forcing everyone else to conform to them.
And still others think that to be a Christian is simply to have faith- to believe in Jesus, to believe the right theology, and everything else doesn’t really matter in the end because at least you believe.
When non-Christians look at the state of Christianity today, is it any wonder that they want nothing to do with it?
Christians are continually fighting, continually disagreeing about who is the real Christians and who are not.
And out of all these identities that are prominent in Christianity today, none of them actually accurately reflect the way Jesus lived his life- and even non-Christians know that!
Out of all the ways people are trying to be Christians today, one of the major aspects that is lacking is a spiritual vibrancy- a connection to the Holy Spirit that empowers Christians to walk in confidence, in peace, in joy, and be empowered to overcome our own selfish desires and love others with abandon.
Most of what is sold as Christianity today has no spiritual vibrancy- no life at all.
Most people who identify as Christians today don’t seem to know what the good news of Jesus is or why it is actually good news.
Most churches today have become nothing more than social clubs for people that share common cultures or ideologies, instead of centers of spiritual renewal, places where people come to have their lives changed for the better.
In today’s New Testament reading, we are eavesdropping on a letter that the Apostle Paul sent to the church at Rome.
The Church at Rome, to whom the letter of Romans is addressed, was made up primarily of Jewish people who had been in Rome for many years before the gospel of Jesus arrived in the city.
Rome, in the ancient world, was like a combination of Washington, DC and New York City. It was the global hub of power- the Emperor of the Roman Empire, who controlled most of the world at this point, was based there. It was also the hub of culture, arts, and religion.
The Roman Empire was not very friendly to Jewish people, nor was it friendly to emerging new Jewish movement called Christianity. Both groups resisted conforming and assimilating to Roman culture- worshipping the Roman gods, including the Emperor who was called “the Son of God”, and participating in Roman festivals and feasts which often went directly against Jewish values.
Because of this, Jewish folks and the early Christians were mocked, marginalized, and often oppressed by both the general public and by the Empire.
Sometimes, they desired to just give in an assimilate- to live according to the values of Rome, even though they knew it went against how God had called them to live, because it would have given them an easier life.
Sometimes, they desired to just practice Roman religion- to worship the Emperor and the Pantheon of gods and goddesses, because it would have helped them fit in.
Sometimes, they grew tired of resisting the unjust policies and practices of the Empire- the unjust taxes, slavery, and ego-maniacal emperors who demanded obedience to their every desire.
Sometimes, they wondered what the point of holding on to their faith was- it only seemed to cause them more trouble than it did benefit.
Can anybody here today resonate with feeling exhausted trying to stay faithful in a world that has gone mad?
This is the situation of the community that Paul is writing to in the Book of Romans. They are a people of great faith, to be sure, but also great temptation to assimilate to the ways of Rome, to give up walking faithfully according to the way of Jesus.
The only thing that would keep this community walking with Jesus, Paul knew, was if they remained connected to the power of the Spirit.
And this is where our Scripture comes in this morning. In Romans 8, Paul writes to a weary people:
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.
The first thing Paul reminds the Roman Christians of is the truth of the Gospel that even in their weakness, their tiredness, their unfaithfulness- God does not condemn them.
Jesus, in his live, revealed that no matter who you are, what you’ve done, what you believe, that God loves you, God extends grace to you, and God desires to see you healed and restored- always.
This is the story of the Prodigal Son, right?
We may run from God, we may be unfaithful, we may even curse God- but God, like a loving Parent, stands with their arms outstretched to us all day long simply waiting for us to come home and be restored.
Paul tells the weary Romans, you’re not condemned- even when you mess up.
Why? Because God does not operate under what he calls “the law of sin and death”, which is a reference to the laws of the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament.
In Leviticus alone, there are 612 laws given to the ancient Jewish people, and many people thought that in order to be loved by God, they needed to perfectly obey every single law- which proved to be impossible.
Thus, the law constantly reminded them that they were sinners and many of the laws- even laws like do not disrespect your parents, called for the death penalty. This was the law of sin and death.
Even if we aren’t living under Levitical laws, many Christians still live under the law of sin and death today- any strict code that you believe you need to abide by in order to be loved by God, that is a law of sin and death, because it only makes you feel guilty, like a sinner.
You don’t believe rightly- you’re a sinner.
You have a doubt- you’re a sinner.
You said a cuss word- you’re a sinner.
You drank a little to much- you’re a sinner.
You snapped at your partner- you’re a sinner.
You listened to the wrong music- you’re a sinner.
Any set of rules we believe we need to adhere to to be loved by God is part of the law of sin and death.
They don’t actually help us grow closer to God.
They don’t actually help us be more holy or healthy people.
They usually only make us feel self righteous or deeply guilty.
Christ came to reveal that these ridiculous, heavy burdens are not what God desires for us.
God doesn’t care if you don’t have all the right theology, folks.
God doesn’t care if you have doubts about certain doctrines.
God doesn’t care if you miss church on Sunday.
God doesn’t care if you slip up and sin, so long as you’re willing to own it and commit to do better.
Think of Jesus- he healed on the Sabbath, which was against Biblical law. He told the adulterer to “go and sin no more”, only after he said “neither do I condemn you.” He hung out with people that were sinners according to the Bible- and he simply loved them, not judged them. He disregarded some of the ritual commands of the Bible in favor of doing what was morally right.
Jesus certainly didn’t live strictly under religious moral and ritual laws.
No, he lived under a different law.
The law that Paul calls “the law of the Spirit of Life”- this is the law that Jesus summed up so simply: “Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor as you love yourself.”
In other words, the law that Jesus embodied was the law of love.
If you love God- meaning that you take time to build a relationship with God, through prayer, meditation, Scripture reading, and worship.
If you love your neighbor- meaning that you regularly seek to embody radical and ridiculous kindness towards everyone you meet- going out of your way to make people feel loved.
If you love yourself- meaning that you take care of yourself- you treat yourself well, you care for your soul and health, you rest, you experience joy and pleasure, you treat yourself the way your loving Creator treates you.
Then you’re fulfilling God’s law.
LOVE is God’s law.
Love, according to the Bible is patient and kind. Love is humble. Love is generous. Love is sacrificial. Love is joyful.
Paul tells the Roman Christians that because they’ve been loved by Christ- and therefore are not condemned- they are set free from the heavy moral and religious laws they had subjected themselves to.
They only need to live according to the law of LOVE which is the way of the SPIRIT and will bring them LIFE.
Someone here this morning needs to hear that: You are LOVED. God loves YOU. Jesus LOVES you so much that he GAVE HIS LIFE FOR YOU. And the ONLY thing you need to do now is to LOVE GOD, LOVE OTHERS, AND LOVE YOURSELF.
That is what it means to be a Christian.
LOVE. Period.
Your job is not to feel condemned or condemn others for not living up to your standards.
It’s to love. To be loved. To cultivate your love for God.
Isn’t that good news, friends?!
Now, the Roman Christians were clearly a smart and inquisitive bunch, so Paul goes on to basically explain what I just did in the following verses. He says:
For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Paul says that because our flesh is weak- meaning our human ability to be religiously perfect- the law only served to beat us down and remind us of how broken we were.
But God, in Jesus, came to earth to show us in radical fashion both what it looked like if we tried to live under the law of sin and death, and how truly liberating and empowering it is to live under the law of LOVE and LIFE.
On the cross, Jesus stood condemned as guilty in the eyes of the Romans and his own community because he didn’t abide by their arbitrary laws and rules.
Jesus dies, taking on our sinfulness- showing what our sin does- it causes death.
But then he rises again, showing what the law of love can do- bring us a life of power, purpose, joy, and spiritual vibrancy.
The cross and resurrection of Christ are meant to be an image of our lives- we need to die to trying to please God or please others. Die to our desires to earn God’s love or the approval of others. To be crucified with Christ to our desire to perform.
And then be raised to a new life- a life centered on love alone, a life rooted in the freedom that comes from knowing that you are always loved- and your only response is to pour out your love to others.
And when you do pour out love to others, guess what? They experience God.
The best evangelism isn’t trying to convert people to your beliefs.
It’s not to get people to go to your church or be religious like you are.
It’s to love them, truly, deeply, wildly, and they will see God in you and want to know more.
The will sense the Spirit of Life at work in your soul- because when you really commit to loving God, loving neighbor, and loving yourself, you will overflow with the power and presence of God.
Paul concludes this section of our letter to the Romans by giving us a final directive. He writes:
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.
Paul reminds the church at Rome that walking a Spirit-empowered life of love begins as a mindset.
Before you can actually set yourself free from the law of the flesh, the law of sin and death, you have to change your thinking.
And this can be the biggest battle.
It can take some time in therapy to stop believing you’re unworthy of love, that you need to do more to please God, that you need to believe like your parents did, or worship like you grew up worshipping or else you’re somehow making God mad.
These are the things of the flesh- anything that we feel like we need to do to be loved by God or others is a thing that will drain us of our life and bring about spiritual death within us.
But the things of the Spirit- these are the things we do out of the confidence of knowing that we are beloved, that we are worthy of love, that Jesus died to show us how much God loves us, and whatever love moves us to do, we do.
That’s a Spirit-empowered life.
My friend Pastor Andy Stanely sums up God’s requirements in one simple question:
“What does love require of me?”
That’s the only question we should ask, every single day, all day.
What does love require of me.
How can I love God in this moment.
How can I love my neighbor in this moment.
How can I love myself in this moment- and that’s often one of the hardest ones, actually.
What does love require of you?
That’s what it means to live like Jesus, to have a Spirit empowered life.
And when we do live with love as our core, we will experience life and peace, Paul says.
In a world where people are confused about what it means to be a Christian, it is my prayer that we will cut through the noise and confusion and show the world what it means to follow Jesus- through our radical commitment to loving God, loving our neighbors, and loving ourselves.
Which brings me to a challenge for you this week.
I challenge you to take five minutes at the end of each day to write down these three categories:
LOVE GOD
LOVE NEIGHBOR
LOVE SELF
And then list the ways you practiced each of these throughout the day. The goal is not to make you feel guilty for not doing enough- but rather, the goal is to help you feel peace, joy, and connection to God.
If you train yourself to be mindful each day of your desire to love God- to spend time cultivating spiritual connection to God, to love your neighbor- to stop thinking about your own needs and worries and to serve others, and to love yourself- to practice kindness and self care- we’re promised that you will experience profound peace and life.
And who doesn’t want more peace and a more fulfilled, God enriched life?
This morning, may you know deep in your bones that there is no condemnation of you- God does not judge you, God does not condemn you- God loves you and is calling you towards a life of more love.
May each of us heed the Spirits call and be drawn all the more towards Jesus way of love.
Amen?