Dear Christian friends:

Some months ago Ted Turner, a major stock holder in Warner Communications, gave a billion dollars to United Nations charities. Was his gift truly pleasing to God? He is an admitted unbeliever in Jesus Christ. (Explain) 1 Corinthians 13:3, "And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing." True, we can, to some extent, obey the letter of the law, but do not have the right motives and spirit and so fail to please God. These outward good works may please the world and receive its praise, God may even reward people for these shell works in this life on earth, but they don't count in heaven.

He reminds us that we are obligated to live following the Holy Spirit. We are not obligated to live after the flesh as the unbelievers do. (verse 12) First, we need to clarify what Paul means by "living after the flesh." He simply means to live under the law, to seek to be justified by the law, by our own good works which the law demands.

In chapter seven he showed that it is impossible for sinful humans to be justified by the law. The law the Ten Commandments, are good and holy. They were given by God through Moses on Mt. Sinai. But because of our corrupt nature we are unable to keep the law. In fact, trying to live under the law makes us worse, not better. (Read Romans 7:7-14) Living after the flesh leads to eternal death. (verse 13a, read it)

We are not obligated to live after the flesh. It does nothing good for us! It condemns us to eternal death. However, St. Paul here implies that we are obligated to someone else. We are obligated to live after the Holy Spirit. (read verse 13)

What does it mean to live after the Holy Spirit? St. Paul explains that in Romans 8:1-4. (Read it) The Holy Spirit has done great things for us through the Gospel, through Baptism and through the Lord's Supper. He has led us to believe in Jesus Christ, that He came to keep the law for us, that He suffered the curse of the law for us, that we are now justified by faith without the works of the law. The Holy Spirit also leads us to love God because He first loved us and sacrificed His beloved Son to redeem us.

We gladly obey the Ten Commandments, loving Him with all our heart, soul and mind and loving our neighbor as ourselves. And when we fail to obey His Commandments the Spirit causes us to be contrite, sorry, and to repent, to try with His help to do better. That's what St. Paul means when he here writes, "If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." (verse 13b)

St. Paul encourages us to live after the Holy Spirit by reminding us that we are debtors to the Holy Spirit, obligated to follow His leading to do the good works that please God. He furthermore encourages us to follow after the Holy Spirit by reminding us that the Holy Spirit has made us children of God, who should live as His children.

We, as children of God, have not received the spirit of a slave in bondage. (verse 15a) Those that have such a spirit live under the law and after the flesh. They, like the Pharisees of Jesus time on earth, seek to be justified by the law. They may keep the letter of the law, but not the spirit of the law. They thus become self-righteous, proud, despising others while they themselves are just as bad or worse than the people they condemn.

They are like the Pharisee in the temple who despised the tax collector. They either become arrogant hypocrites or despairing basket cases who fear the judgment and wrath to come. To them God is a stern Judge who hands out monstrous, vengeful sentences of doom.

There are millions in our world today who have this spirit of bondage to fear. Some try to appease God with their false, Christless religions; others salve their conscience by denying that He exists; some seek to forget Him through work or pleasures. But they are all slaves to the law and their own sinful lusts, and fear the judgement to come. And we, also are in danger of returning to this spirit. Thus the reminder!

But we have not received such a spirit from God through Jesus Christ by the Spirit. We have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba Father. We love Him and freely and gladly serve Him.

When one is adopted it means that he before had another father. In our case, the father of lies, the devil. According to our natural birth we are not the children of God. But by His grace and mercy, through baptism we have been born again as it were, and adopted into His holy and eternal family. (recite Galatians 4:4-7)

We can now address God with these tender words, "Abba Father." This is an address of filial love and confidence. On the night before He was crucified Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, "Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt. (Mark 14:36) Since, we are now allowed to address God in the same way as Jesus did we are indeed His true children and He is our true Father and all that we do in faith is most pleasing and acceptable to Him, even though it's not perfect.

A son was preparing to leave home for the first time and go to college. The father and mother were respected people in the community. They were concerned about the many new temptations that would confront their son away from home. The father thought about what he would say to his son to encourage him to walk the straight and narrow path. So, as the son was about to board the bus the father looked him in the eye and said, "Remember whose son you are." That's what we, the children of God, need to remember also.

St. Paul has reminded us that the Holy Spirit has given us the spirit of adoption, so that we as dear children freely and gladly serve our dear Father in heaven.

Now in serving Him by living after the Spirit we will meet resistance and persecution from the world. Those who walk after the flesh always persecute those who walk after the Spirit, just as Ishmael, the natural born son of Abraham, persecuted Isaac, the supernatural born son. Ishmael was born of the slave woman, Haggar, but Isaac was born of the free woman Sarah. Those who insist on being justified by the law can't stand those who are justified by grace through faith alone. Those who are born of flesh always persecute those who are born of the Spirit. Of this St. Paul reminds us in verse 17.(Read it!)

St. Paul encourages us to live after the Spirit even though that entails suffering. Christ, our elder brother with whom we are joint-heirs of all of heaven's glory, had to suffer persecution before He could enter into His glory, so must we.

Living after the Spirit will also today cause us to suffer persecution. It is true that here in America where we still have religious freedom and human rights the persecution that we suffer is more subtle and not as overt and violent as in many other countries of our world that do not enjoy these freedoms and rights. Do you know that in 1996 159,000 Christians were killed simply because they were Christians? Dr. Paul Marshall, a scholar who has studied these matters for several years and who has recently written a book on the subject, estimates that in sixty nations around the globe some 200 million Christians live under conditions of active persecution and another 400 million live in situations of severe discrimination. And it is even beginning to happen here in the USA. (Tell how Cassie Bernall was killed in the Columbine High School massacre)

So we, too, need to be prepared to follow the Spirit in suffering. We have the example of Jesus. (1 Peter 2:21-24) Our text tells us that we are to "suffer with Him," which means like Him. Peter tells us in his first Epistle that Christians are called to suffer as Christ did, patiently and without seeking revenge. He writes, "For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.

We will be glorified together with Him in heaven if we now on earth suffer with Him, led by the Spirit. (Revelations 3:21) Jesus promises that we shall sit down with Him in His throne in heaven: "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne." Jesus reassures us to accept suffering saying, "Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." (Revelations 2:10)

Indeed, Jesus is the King of kings and Lord of lords, and we shall be the kings and lords with whom He reigns in glory forever and ever.

May God grant us His Holy Spirit so that through the Gospel Word and Sacraments we may walk after the Spirit while here on earth and then enter into glory.

Amen.