Sermon Text: Romans 8:11-19
Date: March 26, 2023
Event: The Fifth Sunday in Lent, Year A
Romans 8:11–19 (EHV)
And if the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will also make your mortal bodies alive through his Spirit, who is dwelling in you.
12So then, brothers, we do not owe it to the sinful flesh to live in harmony with it. 13For if you live in harmony with the sinful flesh, you are going to die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the actions of the body, you will live.
14Indeed, those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15For you did not receive a spirit of slavery so that you are afraid again, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we call out, “Abba, Father!” 16The Spirit himself joins our spirit in testifying that we are God’s children.
17Now if we are children, we are also heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, since we suffer with him, so that we may also be glorified with him.
18For I conclude that our sufferings at the present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us. 19In fact, creation is waiting with eager longing for the sons of God to be revealed.
What Does the Promise of Resurrection Mean?
We said at the beginning of the Lent season that the Sundays in Lent don’t “count.” That is, there are 40 days in Lent, as long as you don’t count the Sundays. And that’s because while the season of Lent is to be a somber and introspective time to contemplate our sin and the price Jesus paid to save us, and while some of that somberness does work its way into our Sunday worship, the Sundays in Lent are little respites, little springs of refreshing water. Some have even called the Sundays in Lent “little Easters.”
The idea of the Sundays in Lent being little Easters is perhaps no more apparent than this Sunday where the resurrection is front and center in our readings and our focus for worship. God showed how he had the power to undo death through Elisha to raise the only child of a family back to life. Jesus demonstrated his power over death when he raised Lazarus from the dead. And Paul in our Second Reading, which is our focus this morning, reminds us of the power of God’s resurrection within us.
But what does the promise of resurrection mean? What does it mean for right now? What does it mean for the future?
Paul attempts to put the resurrection in perspective for us. But, before we can truly appreciate resurrection, we need to wrestle with the reality of death. Death was not part of God’s original design for human beings. He did not create this world, this universe, with death and decay as a part of it. No, he created it to be perfect and flawless, a forever-union between God and the human beings he created, all enjoying the setting of the natural world.
But it didn’t stay that way. Death and decay came to creation through Adam and Eve’s sin. Their disobedience to God ruined everything and corrupted the creation to its very core. Because of them, death came into nature. Because of them, death came to people. As much as we might try to coddle ourselves with ideas like “death is just a part of life,” we know that this is just not true. Any death feels like an unnatural ripping and separation. Nothing about death seems right to us—because it’s not how we were designed.
Death is the wages—the paycheck—for sin. Our sin earns death. Death is most simply “separation,” so we can think of death as physical death—the separation of soul and body—and ultimately eternal death—the separation of a human being from God forever in hell. This is the result of Adam and Eve’s sin. This is the result of your sin and my sin.
But of course, resurrection is the opposite of death. Someone who has been resurrected has had death undone and, at that moment, death seems maybe not quite as powerful or inevitable as it once seemed. Prior to our Gospel, Jesus didn’t tell his disciples he was going to raise Lazarus from the dead; he told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to wake him up” (John 11:11). This says a lot about death as viewed from God’s perspective. While it needs to be solved, it is not something big, scary, and difficult. From God’s perspective, raising someone from the dead is no more cumbersome than waking someone from a light cat nap.
And this is all fine and good—even if it sort of feels like we’re skirting closer to philosophy than theology. Is “resurrection” a nebulous, esoteric term that refers to something we just can’t pin down? Or is it something more solid, more concrete, more tangible than that description allows for?
Resurrection is the undoing of death, the undoing of separation. We mentioned two types of death before—physical and eternal—but there is a third kind of death: spiritual. Spiritual death is the way you and I were born. We were born living and breathing, but dead spiritually, because we lacked faith in God. We were set against God in our sin. Paul wrote to the Ephesians and observed, “You were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked when you followed the ways of this present world. You were following the ruler of the domain of the air, the spirit now at work in the people who disobey” (Ephesians 2:2). This spiritual death was a separation from God—not permanently as it would be in hell, but a very true separation by unbelief that you and I could not change.
If that was going to change, God had to change it. And change it he did. Through his Word and the sacraments, God created new life within you. He raised you from the death of unbelief and gave you a new life, a life that clings to Jesus as the solution to sin. Jesus paid for every sin to bring you spiritual resurrection. When he physically died on the cross, he suffered for each of your sins. When he physically rose from the dead, he proved his victory over sin and its wages, death.
So, what does the promise of resurrection mean? Well, first of all, it’s not just something that will come in the future; it’s something you and I have right now. If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will also make your mortal bodies alive through his Spirit, who is dwelling in you. Because the Holy Spirit dwells in you, you are spiritually alive. You already have the spiritual resurrection from spiritual death because you no longer are slaves to sin in unbelief, but you live to God’s glory through the faith in Jesus that he has given you.
Secondly, Paul emphasizes that this resurrection means a new life lived today. This is not just head knowledge; it’s of the heart. Knowing your Savior affects the way you live even in this life: So then, brothers, we do not owe it to the sinful flesh to live in harmony with it. For if you live in harmony with the sinful flesh, you are going to die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the actions of the body, you will live. The one living in accord with God’s will is the one who trusts Jesus as Savior. A life of good works, of living the way God wants, is the natural consequence of thanksgiving for God’s free forgiveness. Living by the Spirit does make us forgiven, rather, because we are forgiven, we live by the Spirit. God’s forgiveness causes us to live as he wants in joy and thanksgiving to him.
This resurrection means that our status with God has changed. No longer are we dead in sin. No longer are we God’s enemies, fighting against him. No, through Jesus we have become God’s children. Indeed, those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery so that you are afraid again, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we call out, “Abba, Father!” The Spirit himself joins our spirit in testifying that we are God’s children. Because of Jesus, we call God Abba, an Aramaic word whose closest English equivalent is perhaps “Dada.” It’s the call of a young child who trusts his or her parent completely, who knows that he or she is loved, and who knows that he or she is cared for and safe. What a change! We have gone from being enemies of God to being his dearly loved children.
And even more than just a child, Paul says that you are God’s heir. When he raised us to life by faith, God made us heirs on equal footing with Jesus! This is, perhaps, the most baffling part of a wholly baffling concept. Jesus not only gave his life to pay for our sins that we committed against him when he had done nothing wrong to deserve any punishment, but he also then turns around and shares the inheritance that he alone deserves with us! Now if we are children, we are also heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, since we suffer with him, so that we may also be glorified with him.
Ah, and there’s the rub. We share in Jesus’ glory, we are his fellow heir, but we will also suffer along with him. Not for the same reason—we do not suffer to pay for anyone’s sins—but the life of a Christian is not one of perfect peace and joy in this life. We will have trouble in this life because of the sins we continue to commit; we will have trouble in this life because we simply live in a sinful world; we will have trouble in this life at times because we are Christians. Jesus told us that we would have to bear these crosses. He told his disciples just before he was betrayed, “In this world you are going to have trouble. But be courageous! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
So, suffering and hardship and heartache in this life is not a sign that you don’t have God’s resurrection. In fact, it’s a sign that you do. God uses these troubles to point us ahead to what is to come, to what is better, to what is perfect: I conclude that our sufferings at the present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us. So great will life be in heaven that even the most difficult of times in this life will seem as serious as a dream that disappears when you wake up. In eternity, with Jesus, death will be fully gone, sin will be fully gone, hardship and sorrow will be fully gone—forever!
If these promises have us crying out to God, “How long until you fully rescue us?” that is exactly the point. The resurrection that we have now by faith leads us to long for the final and complete resurrection we will have at the last day. Our triumphing Savior will return; he will reunite souls and bodies and we will be with him as the complete people he originally designed us to be: no sin, perfect harmony with him, safe forever. Is it any wonder that Paul says creation is waiting with eager longing for the sons of God to be revealed? Even the creation around us longs to be released from the corruption of sin; that will happen at the end, at the founding the new heavens and the new earth.
What does the promise of resurrection mean? The promise of resurrection means you have been raised from the death of unbelief by the faith God gives to trust Jesus as your only and complete Savior from sin. The promise of resurrection means that you can live in this new life, right now, praising and thanking God for his gift. The promise of resurrection means that you know you have the complete forgiveness of every sin, which means that in the end you will be rescued not just from physical death at the final resurrection, but you will be rescued from eternal death as God brings you to heaven for Jesus’ sake.
The promise of resurrection means only good. As we continue the final walk with Jesus to the cross, as we look ahead to the garden tomb, remember the one who called Lazarus out from the grave. This same Savior will call you and me from our graves as well, to be with him forever at peace in heaven. Thanks be God! Amen.
