Exposition by Max A Forsythe
Christ Covenant Reformed (PCA)
One
of the few lessons that I remember from high school chemistry is the differences
in the stability of common elements.
The best comparison of such stability are the first two elements in the
periodic table, Hydrogen and Helium.
One is stable and the other is not.
The stability of these two gases is best demonstrated by their once
common use in lighter-than-air ships: balloons,
zeppelins or dirigibles.
In the thirties, the pride of the German transatlantic air service
crashed in flames in New Jersey.
A contributing cause to the flaming of The Hindenburg was the unnecessary
use of Hydrogen gas instead of the more stable Helium.
Helium, as I remember it, is an inert gas, and very stable in that
ordinary condition.
Hydrogen, however, is extremely unstable and finds it necessary to bond
atomically with other elements.
In that bonding, it can find stability, as it well does in the chemical
compound H2O.
However, left in its pure form to lift a lighter-than-air ship like the
balloons, dirigibles and zeppelins of the first war, the introduction of
something as exciting as a phosphorous tracer round plus oxygen could and did
cause an extremely explosive mixture.
In such a like manner, some saboteur caused the death of many passengers
and crew as well as embarrassment to the German government when the Hindenburg
exploded.
Now
the reason I chose to begin with this example is to lead you to consider your
relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ in what we might call:
the state of grace.
Just like the Hydrogen atom is united to Oxygen to form water and is thus
stable, so too is our relationship with Jesus Christ stable.
Yet, like water, we know the excitable times of our relationship in a
gaseous state, the sometimes frozen state of water, and the more normal liquid
form as well.
Now, let us be careful not to carry this example too far.
Very many people in their unconverted from are just as inert as the
gaseous Helium, and as explosive as the unsteady Hydrogen.
My example is sincerely and simply to demonstrate the necessity of our
union with Christ and to show that that union has some spiritual tensions not
unlike the various states of water.
Let
us turn to our text for today, where we see contrasted the spiritual and
material worlds.
Just as there are, behind the process of chemical bonding, specific
natural laws, so too is there a spiritual process behind our bonding with Jesus
Christ.
In verse fourteen we learn from Paul that the law is spiritual.
Karl Marx certainly appreciated that the law and many other of the great
ideas of mankind were much less than material commodities.
He had a word for these “imaginary
idyll dreams of the mind.”
He called them a
“phantasmagoria.”
Thus, much to the ongoing delight of the worldly in our century, truth,
justice, beauty, goodness and every other mental image important to Western
Civilization is cast aside as being outside of our material world.
Being thus dismissed, man is free to live according to the feelings and
desires produced by his body chemistry and fallen imagination.
However,
Paul, like any responsible Christian, sees the relationship between mankind and
law differently.
Yes, the law is spiritual -- and Charles Hodge tells us why.
The law is spiritual because it is
“in the sense of being divine or participating in the nature of the Holy
Spirit, its divine Author.”
By contrast we are unspiritual, or “carnal,”
as Murray translates.
Our condition is thus contrary to that which is spiritual.
This fleshly sense carries an ethical indictment and the slave state
shows us that we are subject to a power that is outside of our own will.
Just as water is subject to the conditions of temperature, so are we
still slaves to sin even while we are bound to Christ.
In
verse fifteen we see the frustration and confusion that we all know, even as we
resolve to obey yet still find ourselves disobedient.
How often have you wished or desired something good, yet in the process
of life missed the mark!
You know what I mean.
Early in the morning you plan your day and propose to accomplish the
essential tasks, yet at day’s end you are amazed at how far the course of the
day strayed from your plan.
Well did the ancient Scot’s author declare that the plans of mice and
men often go astray.
“What
I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate I do.”
Just this week, I had my teaching plans complete for the day’s
teaching.
Then an unscheduled meeting put me off course and when my classes began,
I had to give the students a work day for their homework instead.
In
the next verse, Paul argues that what is accomplished in practice is not what
was willed.
Yet in spite of this regular potential, Paul still agrees that the law is
good because it shows us how far from God’s ideal and perfect will we are.
So we may thus learn in verse seventeen that our carnal state very often
gets in the way of our spiritual goals.
By no means does Paul disavow the responsibility for the sin that dwells
in him.
It is a material fact of life.
Sin is
a state we are born into and remain in until we are finally united to
Christ when He comes in glory.
Yet, because we are in a state of grace, the sin is not willed.
It is not purposely done.
In
my classroom discipline methods I always try to make a distinction between
willful insubordination and the natural instincts of becoming distracted from
time on task all too easily.
Now some hard-nose teachers will not allow for any classroom
distractions, and they fail to appreciate the difference between willful and
habitual disobedience.
One area where I try to establish proper discipleship is in the use of
language.
If you have not been much in public schools lately you may not appreciate
the low level to which proper language has fallen.
Every once in a while I have to remind students that my drill sergeant of
thirty years ago would blush to hear them talk, and he could cuss someone out in
three languages!
So, I always argue with my charges over the use of the word “ain’t.”
In so doing we avoid the more blatant gutter language.
And always, when I hear the word, I ask what did they mean to say.
If they correct themselves, there is no penalty.
One
young man recently went off the deep end and cussed like a trooper when I
publicly admonished him for this minor problem.
Fortuitously, he decided not to return to our school the next day because
we have too many rules.
The whole class appreciated the more wholesome climate where willful
disobedience and disruption were absent.
In fact, the disappearance of the one student will probably make the
greatest difference for the functioning of that class for the rest of the year.
In
the same way may we know the difference between the elect and the worldly.
Very many of the worldly sin on purpose and premeditate their crimes with
much delight.
The elect still sin, and on occasion even plan to sin, yet ever and
always if they are united to Christ, there is also heartfelt remorse over the
curse of sin, like we see wrung out in Paul’s testimony here.
Those who glory in their getting away with sin and are glad that they do
it are probably very far from the kingdom of heaven.
However, this should not be your focus if you have accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior. If this is so, if you struggle with sin, if you acknowledge sin, if you feel sorry for sin, you may know that it is sin in you that is at work and you are still in a state of grace. May the life-long struggle with sin remind you regularly that you are in this state of grace. And since you no longer consciously plan to sin and do it gladly, you may know that, like the bonding of hydrogen to oxygen, you are bound to Jesus Christ.
Resources Used: The Holy Bible, New International Version
Places Preached:Hodge, Charles. Romans. Murray, John. New International Commentary: Epistle to Romans.
Christ Covenant REFORMED (Presbyterian Church in America) Post Office Box 13926 - Columbus, OH 43213-7926
Rom07c.htm 10 September 95
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