The Essence of the Gospel

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION

“If you…know what you have to do and you do not do it, then you are worse off than before.”

~Confucious, 5th century B.C. Chinese philosopher

“Guilt is cancer. Guilt will confine you, torture you, destroy you as an artist…. It’s a thief.”

~Dave Grohl, musician and songwriter; founder of the Foo Fighters

“Guilt: the gift that keeps on giving.”

~Erma Bombeck (1927-1996), humorist and syndicated columnist

“…for those who are in Christ Jesus…there is no divine condemnation, since the condemnation they deserve has already been fully borne for them by [Christ].”

~C.E.B. Cranfield (1915-2015), scholar and professor at the University of Durham

“It’s funny how some distance makes everything seem small

And the fears that once controlled me can’t get to me at all

It’s time to see what I can do, To test the limits and break through

No right, no wrong, no rules for me. I’m free.

Let it go, let it go…”

~Elsa in the movie Frozen

“Freedom is not so much a birthright, as it is an achievement. We are born with freedom of choice, but the way we use our choices makes us slaves or free men.”

~Bishop Fulton J. Sheen (1895-1979), Roman Catholic prelate, bishop and media personality

“The truth will set you free. But not until it is finished with you.”

~David Foster Wallace (1962-2008), writer and academic, in Infinite Jest

“No strength of nature can suffice, To serve the Lord aright:

And what she has she misapplies, For want of clearer light.

“How long beneath the Law I lay, In bondage and distress;

I toiled the precept to obey, But toiled without success.

“To see the law by Christ fulfilled, And hear His pardoning voice,

Changes a slave into a child, And duty into choice.”

~William Cowper (1731-1800), famed poet and hymnwriter

SERMON PASSAGE

Romans 8:1-4 (NASB95)

Romans 8

1 Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. 3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Romans 5

1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ…. 18 So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. 19 For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous. 20 The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Romans 6

5 For if we have become united with [Christ] in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for he who has died is freed [i.e., justified; declared righteous] from sin.

Romans 7

4 Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.

Deuteronomy 30

6 Moreover the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.

Ezekiel 36

26 Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.

1 John 4

10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins…. 19 We love, because He first loved us.