Proper 10 Sunday Year A 7/12/2026
Genesis 25:19-34; Psalm 119:105-112; Romans 8:1-11; Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
Rev. Mark A. Lafler
We are continuing our journey through the book of Romans…
Last week we looked at Romans 7…
The chapter describing the power of the flesh when we do not know Christ Jesus as our Lord.
Throughout that chapter St. Paul is talking about this struggle between doing what is right and yet doing what is wrong…
wanting to do what is good or right… but failing to follow through… failing to live up to the standard of the law…
and finally admitting that it can’t be done…
He says: What a wretched man I am.
He can’t do it.
He doesn’t have the power to live according to the law of God.
The people of Torah… Israel… They were unable to do it.
We can’t do it… we can’t live up to the standard of God…
No one can follow the law of God with only their own person…
Their own strength…
Even if we pull together… as a community…
The power of humanity…
We can not live up to the law of God.
The chapter ends with this question and answer from St. Paul.
Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?
Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 7:24-25).
Praise be to God!
It is only through Jesus Christ that we can be rescued from the hopeless situation of life on our own.
It is only through the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit that we can live this righteousness out in this world.
And with that we turn the page to Romans chapter eight.
Romans chapter eight is one of the most significant, important, and influential chapters in all of the Bible.
And our Sunday lectionary understands this…
As today and the next two weeks our New Testament reading comes from Romans 8.
And right off the heels of chapter seven’s declaration that Jesus Christ is the one who delivers us from sin and death… we have a promise.
The chapter starts with this:
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus…
No condemnation for those who are in Christ…
For Christians…
The people of God.
It mirrors the words of our Lord Jesus from John 3:17 –
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but to save the world through him.
We are not condemned as Christians… but saved…
we are delivered through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross.
The law – the Torah – is good… as it comes from God…
But it also condemns…
It only says what the law of God is…
But through Jesus Christ – his death and resurrection – we,
through faith, are made righteous…
Therefore, we are not condemned by the law.
This is such an important verse…
One to be reminded of often…
A verse to put to memory…
So that it is always there in our thoughts…
As scholar and bishop N. T. Wright suggests:
Jesus’ followers live in ‘no-condemnation’ land.
Whenever we sense in our hearts the dark whisper of accusation, in whatever context, we should go back to Romans 8:1…
pray through verses…
and praise God for the world-changing and life-giving work of the son and the spirit. [1]
You see, no matter what we have done…
If we are in Christ – there is now no condemnation!
In our world…
In our culture, the weight of what we have done is held against us…
It makes roadblocks…
It prevents us from moving forward…
The world is happy to cancel us, to write us off, to make us go away…
But this is not the way of Jesus Christ…
Whatever past sin tries to creep back into your heart or in your mind…
Whatever shame tries to cast a shadow on your emotions or personhood…
Romans 8:1 should be prayed and shouted at those things:
There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
This is not an excuse to go on sinning…
But it is a relief from the weight of sin and death…
There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
And, of course, this is good news for us.
This was good news for St. Paul who wrote it.
This was good news for Charles Wesley…
The 18th century Anglican cleric and Hymn writer…
He put these words to a hymn, writing:
No condemnation now I dread;
Jesus, and all in Him is mine!
Alive in Him, my living Head,
And clothed in righteousness divine,
Bold I approach th’eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.
Amazing love! how can it be
That Thou, my God, should die for me!
—-
And from this opening verse of Romans 8, St. Paul begins to describe this life of sanctification…
this life of no condemnation…
this life of being in Christ.
And there is a theme… and it shows up over and over in this chapter.
And that theme is built on the third person of the Trinity…
the Holy Spirit.
The word Spirit is mentioned 11 times in our reading today.
You see sanctification is about a sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit…
And that work… that ministry… is about giving us life…
A life of freedom from sin.
A life of freedom from the fear of death.
A life of freedom from the bondage of the ways of this world.
And Paul sets up this freedom by contrasting two ways of living…
The flesh vs. the Spirit.
Living in the flesh vs. living in the Spirit
Now Paul is not talking about two parts of human nature…
flesh and spirit…
or body and soul…
He is talking about two ways of living.
Two ways of existing…
of going about life.
By flesh…
or life in the flesh…
it is meant to live one’s life to the lordship of self.
To one’s own will.
To do what I want to do when I want to do it.
It is essentially a life of self-idolatry.
The flesh is also an orientation toward the ways of this world…
Being dominated by rebellion and sin.
It can also be the desire to live according to the law of God yet, trying to follow it in our own power – without the Spirit.
Life in the Spirit…
is life set free from the bondage to self…
from the bondage of sin…
It is actually life in bondage to the Creator…
a bondservant to Christ Jesus.
Life in the Spirit is to live according to the Spirit of God…
to God’s will not our own will.[2]
It is to follow God’s law but not just trying in our own self and determination…
Is to follow God’s law …
with God’s help…
With the help of the Holy Spirit in us.
When we become Christians through faith in Jesus Christ…
we enter a new reality… a new way of life…
a life that is centered on the Holy Spirit and not centered on our self.
Paul said the same sort of thing in a different way in 2 Corinthians (5:17) where he wrote to the church in Corinth…
He said:
…if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:
The old has gone, the new is here!
So as Christians…
As the people of God, we live a new life in the Spirit that God has given us.
Not being condemned by the past…
But living a life that is shaped by the hope we have in Jesus.
The last verse of our reading from Romans today…
Brings our whole conversation together…
If we are in Christ, we have a Spirit within us that brings life.
And this Spirit… this Spirit of God…
gives us the power to choose life over death.
The Spirit empowers us to not live according to the flesh…
But according to life… to the Spirit.
St. Paul wrote:
And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you. (Romans 8:11)
That same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead…
You know – the whole Easter story…
That same event… that same Spirit who raised Jesus…
Is in you.
And that Holy Spirit is working in you to bring forth this new creation.
To bring forth the life that the law could not provide.
To shape us more and more into the image of Christ.
The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is in you.
Yield to the Spirit of God.
Walk in the Spirit…
Live according to the Spirit.
Listen to what the Spirit is saying.
Pray… Come Holy Spirit…
And see what God will do through you.
This is the promise we have today…
There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus…
Because…
the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you…
May we live in that promise.
Amen.
[1] N.T. Wright, Into the Heart of Romans (Grand Rapids: Zondernvan, 2023), 61.
[2] Paul J. Acthtemeier, Romans, Interpretation (Louisville: WJK, 1985), 132-133.
