https://youtu.be/ZYgdEpvIIKU
Proper 9 Sunday Year A 7/5/2026
Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67; Song of Solomon 2:8-13; Romans 7:15-25a; Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30
Rev. Mark A. Lafler
We are continuing to look at the book of Romans…
And our reading today is from the 7th chapter of Romans.
A most interesting and debated chapter from St. Paul.
Mainly because of questions related to who is the I in the chapter?
Is it Paul?
Is it about a struggling Christian?
And often it is read as just that… a struggling Christian… because, at least in our current Christian culture, we identify with the struggle…
It seems to be closely related to the reality of many Christians.
That is…
We try not to sin…
But eventually go on sinning anyways.
Whether it’s bad habits…
Anger issues…
Sexuality temptations…
The love of money or worldly goods…
We try to be good, but we seem to fail too often.
And when we read from Romans 7…
It really seems to be similar to our struggles.
Listen once again to our text…
This time from The Message Paraphrase:
What I don’t understand about myself is that I decide one way,
but then I act another,
doing things I absolutely despise.
… if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions,
I obviously need help!
I realize that I don’t have what it takes.
I can will it, but I can’t do it.
I decide to do good, but I don’t really do it;
I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway.
My decisions, such as they are, don’t result in actions.
Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.
It happens so regularly that it’s predictable.
The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up.
I truly delight in God’s commands, but it’s pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge.
You see it reads like a person who tries to do good but just keeps on messing up…
And because this is in the New Testament…
Because this is written by Paul…
Because this is read in our sense of reality and from our culture…
We often read it and identify with the failure.
Nevertheless, is this what the text is about?
Or is there something else going on?
I want to address this today by answering two questions.
What is the chapter all about?
And
What does it mean for us?
Well, I want to start by suggesting that Romans 7 is not about the struggles of a Christian person with the temptations of sin.
What it is about… the center of focus in our text…
Is the law…
The Torah.
And not that the Torah is wrong or bad.
Not that the Law of God found in the Old Testament was a failed experiment…
It is that the law is helpless to empower what is required.
The law does point out what is right and wrong…
But it does not give the grace to follow it.
What Paul is describing is what it was like to live under the law.
The Law of God is wholesome and good…
But it is inadequate to empower what is required…
It does not give help on how to obey it.
And that is the main thrust of what Romans 7 is about.
It is trying to follow the law with one’s own power.
Think of the Rich Young Ruler who came to Jesus saying that he had followed all of the law.
Jesus response to him was that he still lacked one thing…
Go and sell what you have and give it to the poor.
The Rich Young Ruler was unable to achieve the whole law on his own merit, his own effort, his own doing.
What is the law of God?
To love God with all of your heart, soul, strength, and mind and to love your neighbor as yourself.
Romans 7 is about failing to do this.
So, to answer our first question: What is the chapter all about?
It is about trying to follow the Law of God without the cross of Jesus and the empowering of the Holy Spirit.
One cannot follow the Law of God without Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
So let’s answer our second question: What does it mean for us?
Yesterday, on our nation’s Independence Day I spent some time perusing George Washington’s Farewell Adress.
It was written in September of 1796…
After two terms as our nation’s first president…
He stepped down and wrote what he hoped would be a defense of his administration and some guidance for a continued path for our country.
There is a section that stood out to me, and it has some relation with our topic today.
That is to say: to do well at one thing, you need something else to help you do it.
This is what he wrote:
Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to
political prosperity, religion and morality are
indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim
the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert
these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest
props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere
politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect
and to cherish them….
And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be
conceded to the influence of refined education on
minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience
both forbid us to expect that national morality can
prevail in exclusion of religious principle.
George Washington is emphasizing that to have political prosperity the nation must have religion and morality.
And to have national morality the nation must have religious principle.
Surely something to think about on the birthday weekend of our nation… turning 250 years. … but to our overarching point…
So to do one thing…
You must have something to support it.
Something that empowers it.
Something that makes it capable of success.
And this goes right along with Romans 7.
We already know from our first question that Romans 7 is about following the law without Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
And what is needed is just that…
We need the power of Jesus and the empowering of the Holy Spirit.
The verse right before our text (Romans 7:6) says this:
… we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.
The only way to go about following the law is through the ministry of the Spirit.
Our Romans text ends with this:
Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?
Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
And Romans 8 emphasizes life by living in the Spirit.
So to answer our question: What does it mean for us?
It’s not to say, well following God’s Law is hard so I just need to try my best and hope I make it.
No! We’ll never make it.
It is to say, that the only way we will make it…
The only way we will follow God’s Law is through the one who delivers us – the person of Jesus Christ.
He died on the cross and rose from the grave so that we can be set free from sin and death… sin and death…
The very things that the Law was incapable of delivering us from.
Following the Law of God starts (and it only starts) through the work of Jesus Christ.
And we continue to follow God’s Law…
In this time of sanctification…
In this time of walking out the Christian life…
With the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.
This is why we pray for the Spirit of God to guide and enable us in this world to follow Christ Jesus.
This is one of the benefits we get in church…
The strength of the Spirit.
Through scripture…
Through prayer…
Through each other…
Through the sacrament…
Not because those things are magical…
But because the presence of God is upon them…
Because the Holy Spirit uses scripture, prayer, and sacrament to strengthen us…
To pour God’s grace into our life.
And not just here in church…
But daily prayer and reading of scripture…
Asking for the Holy Spirit to lead our life.
So that we don’t go about life in our own power.
As Christians…
As the people of God…
We have so much more of God available…
The Holy Spirit is present to strengthen us in life.
This is what we prayed in our collect for today too.
Listen to the words of the prayer:
O God, you have taught us to keep all your commandments by loving you and our neighbor:
(There’s the Law)
(And now the petition)
Grant us the grace of your Holy Spirit,
that we may be devoted to you with our whole heart,
and united to one another with pure affection…
The only way to live the Law of God…
Is through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.
Today, may we be strengthened by the Holy Spirit…
In the prayers…
In the scriptures…
In the sacraments…
And in the life of the church.
Thanks be to God, who delivers US through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Amen.
