A Bad First Marriage

Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

And now, here's a message.

The Gospel of Matthew and the Cost of Discipleship

From Pastor Chris Roseberg. The Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew, the 10th chapter. Glory to you, O Lord. Jesus said, Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I've not come to bring peace, but a sword.

For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person's enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.

Whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it. Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Whoever receives you receives me. Whoever receives me receives him who sent me. The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward. The one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person's reward.

And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward. This is the gospel of the Lord. In the name of Jesus.

Amen. The one who finds his life will lose it. The one who loses his life for my sake will find it. Interesting statement on the part of Jesus. Now I would note that we often think we know exactly what it means to, well, find this life.

Isn't that what we're all really striving after? Finding this life? Have you ever noted that when it comes to Hollywood, when it comes to Instagram, when it comes to the Internet, the things that are put before us are strength, beauty, youth.

I always thought it'd be kind of a fun thing to hack the Instagram algorithm, especially on those portions of Instagram where they have portraits of people. And it's always fascinating when you kind of stroll into that part of Instagram.

It's all the beautiful people. I mean, beautiful women, guys with six-pack abs. I had that once. It's ridiculous to think about. Yeah, guys with six-pack abs. I mean, gorgeous, beautiful, youthful, vigorous people.

And I just thought it'd be fun if I could figure out how to hack the Instagram algorithm and put portraits of myself in that section of Instagram. So while people were scrolling through, they, oh, that person's beautiful, gorgeous, and go, whoa, who's that guy?

How'd he get in here? Right? So the thing is, is that we all, we're all getting older. I mean, Sheldon, I'm looking at you. You got gray in your beard, dude. What happened? What happened? I should talk, right?

So you'll note that we all seem to think we know what we got to do. We just need to apply ourselves to the law. We need to just get intentional. We got to clean up our act. We got to mean it this time.

And we'll note that in our Epistle text, there's an interesting metaphor that Paul, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, gives us, and it's a marriage metaphor. And think of it this way. Each and every one of us, according to Scripture, we were under the control and the domination of the law.

And so using Paul's metaphor, let's just kind of put it this way. Our first spouse, spiritually, was the law. All right? Now let's talk about how that relationship worked, okay? Because here's the thing, is that the law is holy.

The law is righteous. The law is good. And being married to the law, well, I'm kind of a poster boy for being a screw-up. So are you. You're a poster child for being a screw-up as well. And so here's the relationship we have with the law.

We snuggle up to the law, and the law says, you're a sinner. You really want to talk about that now? Yes, you're a sinner. You don't measure up. You're guilty. You're condemned. And we seem to think that we can somehow, if we bring chocolates or maybe buy flowers for the law, that the law will say something different to us.

But it never does. The law always accuses us. Always points out our shortcomings. Always points out our sin. Always points out, well, the muck that's on us. Kind of like the way my wife complains sometimes when I do gardening work.

I come back and I smell like a buffalo, right? Because I do. But you get the idea here. And so we think that we can some, if maybe this time we can kind of work that relationship out, man. We can kind of, you know, and finally, maybe someday we'll hear from the law.

You know, you're all right. But we're gonna note something here. Scripture's clear. God did not give us the law in order to tell us that we are righteous. In order to tell us that we are good. The law has a specific function.

And every time God's holy, righteous, just law points its righteous fingers at you and says, you are a sinner. You don't measure up. You are guilty. The law is speaking the truth. And the only truth God has authorized it to speak to us.

Do you want to hear that you are loved? You're not gonna hear that from the law. So you'll note as far as marriages go, this ain't a good marriage. And it's not the law's fault. It's my fault. It's yours.

Dying to the Law Through Baptism

And so consider then the words of our Epistle text. Paul writes, he says, do you not know brothers, I'm speaking to those who know the law, that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives.

The law is binding on a person only as long as he lives. And then he gives the metaphor here. For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives. But if her husband dies, she's released from the law of marriage.

Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she's free from the law, and if she marries another man, she's not an adulteress.

So there's kind of our governing metaphor for our text here. And we all know this is true, right? I mean, if somebody is a widow or a widower, nobody ever condemns them if they decide that they're gonna start dating another person.

Thank God, God has protected me from ever having to do that right now. Did you imagine how pathetic that would be? Chris Rose, we're looking for a date. My profile picture would say, like, please have mercy on me.

But see, the thing is, if something terrible were to happen to my wife, and I were to ever start dating again, nobody would condemn me. Why? Because when Barb and I went to the altar, we stood before God, and we stood before our family and our friends.

We made vows. We entered into a covenant, and the covenant said, until death do us part. Until death do us part. So that being the case, I am bound by the law of marriage, as long as my wife is alive.

And as long as I'm alive, she's bound to it, too. So all of that being case, you kind of get the idea here. So now we've got a conundrum, because the metaphor Paul is using here applies to our relationship to the law.

And note again, he says, a person, that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives. So let me ask you a question. Are you still alive? Seems like a weird question, right? Well, I didn't get the ability to teach last week on the Epistle text from Romans 6.

I was laid out for real. But I would remind you of what the Apostle Paul said in the Epistle text for last week. It begins with a question. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may abound?

And of course, I, you know, I look at this and go, who asks these kinds of questions? Seriously, you think the gospel is a license to sin? I used to think that way. I always remember, you know, when I heard the gospel preached by Dr. Rod Rosenblatt, the most earthy man on planet earth, I mean, he couldn't possibly be saved because he wasn't trying to be saved, right?

And he would always tell me about how Christ had done it all, and that salvation was completely a gift, and that it was not dependent upon our works. And although I attended church every single Sunday, I didn't believe a word of it.

I didn't believe that I was saved completely by what Jesus did, and I was incensed and angry and skeptical and cynical when I heard Rosenblatt talking about how we're completely saved by what Jesus did.

And you know what I heard? It's weird. I heard that Rosenblatt was giving me a license to just go out and sin like there's no tomorrow. So I went up to Rosenblatt, I said, Rosenblatt, if what you're saying is true, then you're saying I could do whatever I want.

Kind of looks at me over his glasses, says, well of course, Chris. But if now that Christ has set you free from slavery to sin, death, and the devil, what do you want to do? Yeah, so you know the Apostle Paul dealt with that same kind of cynicism.

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may abound? Listen to what he says. By no means! Listen to what he says. How can we who died to sin still live in it? So let me ask you, did you die or not?

Are you dead? Well, if you have been baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, you have been united with Christ in his death and his resurrection, and the whole point of Romans 6 is if you are baptized, you're dead.

And we don't mean mostly dead. This isn't a Monty Python sketch. It means dead. You are dead, and you'll note then, here in Romans 7, this baptismal reality is what is being highlighted here, and the implications of it.

Listen to what he said. The law is binding on a person only as long as he lives. Likewise, you have died to the law through the body of Christ. Why? So that you may belong to another. And this is the best part of it, because you'll note we keep going back to the law to save our lives, applying ourselves to it, wanting the law to finally to show any kind of love, compassion, mercy.

It's never gonna do that, okay? We belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, so that we might bear fruit to God. And this is where the illusion is kind of hinted at here, but let me flesh it out.

The church is the bride of whom? Christ. We are the bride of Christ. But note, we were married to the law. How is it then that we're not adulterers, and Christ isn't an adulterer? Because his solution was this, to kill you, and to kill me.

He has declared us to be dead, and dead we are. And because we have died with him in his death, and been raised in his resurrection, now we are united to Christ. And all those things we wanted to hear from the law, I love you, I appreciate you, I think you're the best thing ever.

And never heard from the law, we now hear from Christ. Because Christ has washed his bride in his Word, washed away her sin, her guilt, your sin, your guilt, my sin, my guilt. He has taken us in our lowly, decrepit, muck-filled, filthy, smelly, sinful state, and in kindness, he has washed us clean with his own blood.

God so loved the world, he loved you that he gave his only begotten son. And that son loves you that so much that he laid down his life. He died so that you can live. And like a star-struck lover, he forgives you, he tells you he loves you, he feeds you, he sustains you, he protects you.

He is a much better husband. It's like not even comparable, much better husband than the law. The law only could condemn. But Christ, your Redeemer, your God, your Lord, he declares you to be dead, and so you are.

He's killed you, raised you, and now you are no longer married to the law. You remember what the text says? The law is binding only on the person so as long as he lives. So you're no longer married to the law.

Stop seeking your approval and your life from the law. It will not give you life, or love, or mercy, or grace. That only comes through the gospel. And the gospel tells us what Christ has done for us. So the text then goes on to say, so you have died to the law through the body of Christ so that you may belong to another, to Jesus, to whom the one who has been raised from the dead in order that we might bear fruit for God.

For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions were aroused by the law. And that's kind of the thing. If you've ever been in a church where it's all law, law, law, law, law, law, law, and no gospel, that doesn't make things better.

It makes everything worse. And again, the fault is not with the law. For while we are in the flesh, our sinful passions were aroused by the law. They were at work and our members to bear fruit for death.

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. So what then shall we say? That the law is sin?

Are you kidding me? No. No. Again, remember, the fault is with us. The fault is with you. The fault is with... No, by no means, Paul says. If it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. And see, that's the purpose of the law.

It's to make you a sinner. It is to make you to know that you are a sinner, that you have nothing to offer God. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said you shall not covet.

But sin, and there's that corruption within our nature that affects every part of us, body and spirit, mind and heart, every aspect of us is thoroughly corrupted by sin. But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness.

For apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. So the very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me, for sin, sin seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.

So the law is holy, the commandment is holy, it is righteous, and it is good. So he asked the question, so did that which is good then bring death to me? By no means. It was sin producing death in me through what is good.

In order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond all measure. See, the law does its job when it makes you recognize you are utterly dead in trespasses and sins.

You have no righteousness of your own, you are unholy, you have not measured up, you have broken God's commandments 50 ways from Thursday and you've only done that this morning. And you stand guilty before God to show you that you have sinned, so that you might cry out to Christ, have mercy on me a sinner.

And he does. Today you heard that your sins were forgiven, and the forgiveness I spoke, it's not my forgiveness, it's Christ's. And he wants you to know that in him there is full pardon, in him there is peace, in him there is love, in him there is mercy, in him there is grace, in him there is life.

Because the law tells you you're guilty and condemns you to hell, but Christ suffers that hell for you on the cross, so that you might live. So let us rejoice this Sunday that we are no longer married to the law, that we have been betrothed to another and united with him.

And now we can recognize that in our baptisms we have truly died, and the results of that are amazing, amazing beyond belief. Thank you Lord Jesus for having mercy on me, a sinner. In the name of Jesus, Amen.

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