Sunday July 6, 2008: Zechariah 9:9-10; Romans 8:9, 11-13; Matthew 11:25-30

Our second reading today is from one of the most important chapters of the New Testament. For five Sundays in a row, we will be hearing from Romans Chapter 8. In this chapter of the bible, St. Paul gives us a wonderful teaching concerning life in the Spirit. St. Paul contrasts this life in the Spirit with life in the flesh. Both lives are heading in different directions and there is no meeting point between them. Life in the flesh leads to death and eternal damnation and life in the Spirit leads to everlasting life with Jesus Christ in the kingdom of God.

To live in the flesh is to continue to live a life of the past, a life dominated by sinfulness. For St. Paul, a life in the flesh is not just sexual sins but it is all that is sinful in the human nature. This life is absorbed by self-centeredness and selfishness and it is characterized by a lack of trust in God. It is a pursuit of the momentary and temporary pleasures of this world and a rejection of God. It is a life without Jesus Christ in the center. A life we lived before our encounter with Jesus Christ.

Earlier on in Chapter 7 of Romans, St. Paul gave a teaching on the Law, the Mosaic Law. He says that Christians are freed from the law. “But now we are released from the law, dead to what held us captive, so that we may serve in the newness of the spirit and not under the obsolete letter.” At the beginning of the eight chapter of Romans, he is also critical of the law: “For what the law, weakened by the flesh, was powerless to do, this God has done: …” Why will St. Paul condemn the law? Isn’t the law something that is good? Didn’t Jesus Christ say that he has not come to condemn the law but to fulfill it? Yes, the law is good. However, with the coming of Christ, the purpose of the law has been fulfilled. Jesus Christ is now our new law. What the law could not do, Jesus Christ can now do. The law could not empower us to live as the people God has called us to be. The law only gave us do’s and don’ts without any empowerment to live our full potentials as God’s people. With the coming of Jesus Christ who took on our human nature and lived like every one of us except sin, he has shown us an example of perfect obedience and give us his spirit to be able to live like him.

The empowerment that comes to us through Jesus Christ enables us not live a life in the flesh but to live our full potential as people of the Spirit. We are freed from the law in order not to return to a life of the flesh but we are freed from the law in order to live a life of the spirit. In Galatians 5: 13 – 26, St. Paul makes this point clearer. He tells us that our freedom should not be used as an opportunity for the flesh, but we should rather use it to serve one another in love. St. Paul goes on to list the works of the flesh and these works are opposed to the Spirit: “immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, rivalry, jealousy, outbursts of fury, acts of selfishness, dissensions, factions, occasions of envy, drinking bouts, orgies and the like.” To use our new found freedom in Jesus Christ to do these works of the flesh is to misuse our wonderful privilege and opportunity. The reward for doing these works is death and St. Paul warns us that if we do them, we “will not inherit the kingdom of God.” When we chose to do the works of the flesh, we are choosing to remain in slavery. What these things do is to hold us captive. Think about how you are a prisoner to jealousy or alcohol? Think about how these things rule your life?
St. Paul challenges us Christians to live spiritual lives. The fruits of living in the spirit are: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” These things are not controlled by the law but they fruits of our complete and total dedication of our lives to Jesus. To live in the Spirit is to live every moment of our lives trusting in Jesus and his unconditional love for us. It is living for and only for God. When we live in the spirit, we make Jesus Christ the number one priority of our lives. It is only when we live in the Spirit that we can live our full potentials.

It is very unfortunate that many Christians today do not live their full Christian potentials. It isn’t enough to come to Church on Sunday and spend an hour in worship. We must develop a solid prayer life every day of our lives and invite the Holy Spirit to take total and absolute possession of our lives. If we do not live our full Christian potentials, we cannot enjoy the fruits of the Spirit and thereby cannot enjoy the kind of freedom that Jesus Christ has paid a great price for us. I want to invite you this week to dedicate your lives to the Holy Spirit. At the beginning of each day this week, the very first thing in the morning before you even say “Hello!” to your spouse, I want you to pray, “Come Holy Spirit and help me today.” Try to be aware of the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life throughout the day and I can guarantee you that you will see changes in your life.