ローマの信徒への手紙8:1-11 Romans 8:1-11,
従って、今や、キリスト・イエスに結ばれている者は、罪に定められることはありません。キリスト・イエスによって命をもたらす霊の法則が、罪と死との法則からあなたを解放したからです。
（ローマ8:1-2）
「キリスト・イエスによって命をもたらす霊の法則」とは、キリストが、天から聖霊を私たちの魂に送って、私たちを罪から清め、キリストに従う命の道を歩ませてくださるということです。さらに別の言い方で申しますと、キリストの霊が私たちの魂に宿っているので、私たちはキリストと同じように神の子として生きることができるということです。少し先の8章10節を見てみましょう。そこには、「キリストがあなたがたの内におられるならば、体は罪によって死んでいても、“霊”は義によって命となっています」と記されています。これは、キリストの霊である聖霊が、私たちの内に宿っておられるならば、私たちの体が依然として罪の結果死ぬべきものであるとしても、私たちの中にはすでに永遠の命が宿っているということなのです。
私たちは、クリスチャンであっても、自分の中に罪が残っていることを認めないわけにはいきません。私たちの心には、神の掟に逆らう悪い感情が渦巻いています。また、私たちの生活には、神の掟に逆らう悪い習慣が根付いています。そして、私たちの地上の体を持った生活は、そのように悪いものを残したまま、肉体の死によって終わりを迎えます。私たちの心や生活の悪い部分は地上の人生の最後まで残るでしょう。しかし、それにもかかわらず、私たちの心の中には、すでに神の子としての父なる神様への信頼と服従が始まっているのです。私たちの生活は、すでにキリストのように神と隣人を愛する方向へと歩み始めているのです。そして、この地上の生活が終わりを迎えたときに、私たちの魂は、全く解放されて天国に召され、終わりの日の復活を待つものとなるのです。キリストの霊が宿った私たちの存在は、自分でも気づかないうちに日に日にキリストに似たものへと変えられていきます。そして、そして肉体の死によってキリストのおられる天国に召され、ついには終わりの日にキリストと同じような栄光の姿に変えられるのであります。
私たちの内に宿ってくださる聖霊なる神様は、次のような三つの仕方で働いてくださいます。第一に、クリスチャンに神の子であるという確信を与えてくださいます。第二に、クリスチャンの生活を清めて導いてくださいます。第三に、クリスチャンに終わりの日の備えをさせてくださいます。ですから、私たちは自分の信仰と生活を全く聖霊なる神様に信頼してゆだねましょう。そして、日ごとに聖霊なる神様が私たちの内に宿って、私たちをキリストに似たものへと変えてくださることを願い求めましょう。
（5月28日の説教より）
It is the season of Pentecost again this year. On the day of Pentecost, 50 days after the Jewish Passover when Christ was crucified, died and rose again, the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples who were praying in the city of Jerusalem. The events of the day of Pentecost recorded in Acts chapter 2 are very dramatic. On that day, the Holy Spirit came from heaven upon the disciples in Jerusalem, causing them to speak of God’s saving works. And when the apostle Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, preached powerfully about the cross and resurrection of Christ, 3,000 people were baptised in one day and came to believe in Christ.
Such a dramatic event may seem impossible to our modern eyes. However, the beginning of our denomination, i.e., Church of Christ in Japan began with dramatic events reminiscent of the Pentecost of the early church. On New Year’s Day in 1872, a group of young men who had come there to study English held a prayer meeting in a small stone church in Yokohama, which had been built as a place of worship for foreigners. Then the young men experienced a dramatic work of the Holy Spirit. According to Missionary James Hamilton Ballagh, who led the youth, the occasion was as follows. Four or five people prayed in succession. Then the tone of their voices astonished Rev. Ballagh because it was his first experience of a revival which revealed the manifestation of the power of the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of grace. Then again, the thought of these young men astonished him because they had never said a true prayer or called upon the God of Israel in their earlier lifetimes. Such were they who expressed their faith in the crucified, resurrected, and glorified Son of God, Jesus Christ. Thus, was born the Yokohama Kaigan Church, the first Protestant church in Japan.
The work of the Holy Spirit, i.e., the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ, can manifest itself in such dramatic ways, but it can also proceed unobtrusively and surely in our life of faith. Such quiet and powerful work of the Holy Spirit is also important for us. The Christian faith is a belief in the Triune God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. To save mankind from sin, God the Father sent his only Son, Jesus Christ, into the world. After completing his saving works of crucifixion and resurrection on earth, Christ ascended into heaven. Then he poured out the Holy Spirit from heaven and bestowed on us the grace of salvation. Christ’s saving grace is communicated by the Holy Spirit. Faith in Christ cannot happen without the work of the Holy Spirit, and a life of witness to Christ as a Christian cannot be done without the work of the Holy Spirit.
Often, we hear people say that they want to believe in Christ, but they cannot, or that they want to live a good Christian life, but they cannot live a clean life. That is understandable. Telling yourself that you must believe in Christ or that you must live a clean life, does not make you able to believe in Christ or to change your way of life. To believe in Christ or to change our way of life is not something that we as human beings can do. Rather, what we humans can do is to surrender our hearts to God and to let the Holy Spirit rule our hearts.
The Apostle Paul taught powerfully that man is freed from the law by believing in Christ. In Romans 7:6, shortly before today’s Bible verses, we read: “But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.” What this means is that Christ’s death on the cross has freed us from the curse of the law. We cannot keep God’s law of “you shall〜” or “you shall not〜.” The more we tried to keep it, the more we became stuck in the realisation that we could not keep the law, and we were the ones who were stuck in the opposite direction. And we were the ones who were cursed with God’s judgement because we did not keep God’s law. In other words, as breakers of God’s law, we were under the curse of the law.
But instead of us who cannot keep the law, Christ died on the cross and took the curse of the law. In doing so, our relationship with the law was liquidated. In other words, by Christ’s taking the punishment we deserved and paying the debt we owed, our relationship with the law became zero-loaned and liquidated. Once our relationship with the law became liquidated and terminated, we are no longer bound by the letter of the law, which says “you shall〜” or “you
shall not〜.” We only need to live according to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, whom Christ sends from heaven.
This is what we read today in Romans 8:1-2. Let me read it again. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For the law of the Spirit, which brings life through Christ Jesus, has set you free from the law of sin and death.” “The law of the Spirit, which brings life through Christ Jesus” means that Christ sends the Holy Spirit from heaven to our souls to cleanse us from sin and set us on the path of life in obedience to Christ. Put another way, the Spirit of Christ dwells in our souls so that we can live as children of God, just like Christ. Let’s look a little further, at 8:10. There it says: “But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” This means that if the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit, dwells in us, we already have eternal life in us, even though our bodies are still mortal as a result of sin.
We cannot afford not to acknowledge that sin remains in us, even if we are Christians. There are bad feelings swirling in our hearts that go against God’s law. And in our lives, bad habits that go against God’s law are ingrained. And our life with our earthly bodies ends with the death of the body, leaving such bad things. The bad parts of our hearts and lives will remain until the end of our earthly life. But nevertheless, trust and obedience to God the Father as the children of God has already begun in our hearts. Our lives have already begun to move in the direction of loving God and neighbour as Christ did. And when our lives on earth come to an end, our souls will be totally liberated and called to heaven, where they will await the resurrection on the last day. With the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us, our beings are transformed day by day into Christ-likeness without our even realising it. We are then called to heaven where Christ is, and finally transformed into the glorious likeness of Christ at the last day.
God the Holy Spirit, who dwells in us, works in three ways. First, he gives the Christians the conviction that they are children of God. Second, He purifies and guides the Christians’ life. Third, He prepares Christians for the last day. Therefore, let us trust and yield our faith and life totally to God the Holy Spirit. And day by day let us ask God the Holy Spirit to dwell in us and transform us into Christ-likeness.
According to Luke 11:13, Christ made a promise to his disciples: “How much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” It is indisputably certain that God the Father in heaven will give the Holy Spirit to Christians who are God’s children. This Christ had stated earlier in Luke 11:11 and 12: “What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?” Fish and eggs are nourishing and nourish children’s life. On the contrary, snakes and scorpions are poisonous and harmful to children’s life. In other words, Christ said, “Would a father who loves his children give something that harms his children’s life instead of something that nourishes his children’s life? No, he would not give them. Rather, he would give something that nourishes his children’s life. For even an imperfect human father does so, much more so, the perfect Father in heaven, who gives the Christians, the children of God, the Holy Spirit who nourishes life!”
Since the promise that God the Father and Jesus who is at the right hand of God the Father, will give us the Holy Spirit is sure, we should live our lives with a firm trust in that. I would like to offer two practical preparations for the Christian life as follows.
Firstly, we should not think that we can change ourselves or others in our own strength, but humbly yield to the work of the Holy Spirit. The desire to change ourselves and others in our own strength often manifests itself in demands “to do something” or “not to do something” to ourselves and others. As a result, “the old way of the written code” (Rom 7:6), from which we were supposed to have been delivered, comes to dominate us once more. It is important that we have a desire to live a good Christian life. However, it is wrong to pursue a good Christian life thinking that it is in our own strength to acquire it. A good Christian life is shaped only by the work of the Holy Spirit.
A good Christian life is shaped by the work of the Holy Spirit, which means that when we live a life of prayer, observing worship services every week and reading the Bible every day, we are transformed from the deepest part of our hearts, and this transformation is gradually manifested in our deeds. Therefore, we should continue to humbly ask, “Lord, if it is your will, change me.” Beyond that, “I will change myself in this way” or “I will change that person in this way” are rather fleshly thoughts that boast of their own strength and will not bear the fruit of a good Christian life. Or, on the contrary, some people say, “I have no desire to have myself changed by God. I just live by inertia.” For such people, God will give them the desire to be changed through various opportunities. When things don’t go their way in their daily walk, they can pray, “God, what does this show me about your will?” and God’s mysterious will to change them will be revealed.
Secondly, an important attitude in the Christian life is not to inquire whether you can go to heaven or not, or whether that someone can go to heaven or not, but to yield to the work of the Holy Spirit. Efforts to enter heaven in one’s own strength are still often prone to so-called legalism and self-justification. It is not our deeds themselves that guarantee our entry into heaven, but the Holy Spirit who dwells in us. Verse 11 of today’s passage says: “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” It is the indwelling Holy Spirit who guarantees us eternal life in heaven and the resurrection of our bodies on the last day.
And in Romans 8:15 and 16, which follows today’s passages, we read as follows.
For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.
This means that if we have the desire in our hearts to call out to God the Father, it is evidence that the Holy Spirit dwells in our hearts. Therefore, the fact that we are gathering together in worship and praying together like this, is itself evidence of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in us. And as Ephesians 1:14 says, the Holy Spirit is “the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it,” those who have received the Holy Spirit can indeed inherit eternal life in the kingdom of God. In this way, it goes without saying that the church, the community of Christians, is enriched when each Christian is filled with the Holy Spirit and walks towards inheriting eternal life in the kingdom of God. And not only that, but a life filled with the Holy Spirit and aiming to inherit eternal life in the kingdom of God can also guide the people and society around the Christian to a new way of life following Christ.