(Remember, different sermons for Wesdnesdays than for Sundays!)
There's only one thing for you because of your sin. Death. You've got to die. You've got to be crucified. Your sinful flesh is selfish: All those works of the flesh that St. Paul lists, adultery, hatred, envy, jealousy, murder, and all that—it's all selfishness. It's all about you. And the solution to that selfishness is not a self-help program. The answer for all your hating God and hating your neighbor isn't try harder. It's not fix yourself or twelve steps of anything. Only one thing is going to get rid of it. It's got to be killed. You see, the Lord isn't in the business of changing sinners. He kills sinners. That's what sin brings. Sin means death as the direct curse and punishment from God Himself. So you're a sinner. You have sinful flesh. Born dead and corrupt, unable to love God and unable to love your neighbor. There's only one solution: kill it. Crucify it. Make it dead. God kills sinners. When His Son took upon Himself all the sins of the world, what happened? He died. So it must go with your sinful flesh. God kills sinners. But He does it even by making them alive in Christ Jesus so that the death of your sinful flesh is not the last word but the life that He gives you in Christ.
St. Paul says, “You have crucified your sinful flesh with its passions and desires.” This death has already happened. Crucifixion is nasty business. It was a torturous form of death. But crucifying of your sinful flesh begins with Jesus' death for your sins. He is crucified as a common criminal to show that He was “numbered with the transgressors,” that is, treated not like the Son of God but like a common thief and sinner. On the cross, the Father beheld His Son not as pure and holy but as a sinner, covered in YOUR sins; but on that cross, they were HIS sins. His idolatry, adultery, greed, murder, and every other sin and wickedness. On that cross, not only our sin but our death was His. The very curse of sin which we are under was on Jesus so that He not only suffered terribly, He also died. And that is the beginning of our sinful flesh's crucifixion, when Jesus undergoes being crucified.
But St. Paul writes in the book of Romans that when we are baptized into Christ, we are baptized into His death and resurrection. That means that because you are baptized into Christ, the crucifying of your sinful flesh doesn't happen on a cross but at the font. There, with water and the Word, just as your sins became Christ's so His crucifixion becomes yours. Your death of sin is given to Jesus and His death of salvation is given to you. And as He had power over that sin and death by rising the third day, so your Baptism gives you new life and makes you a new creation in Christ. God doesn't change sinners, He kills them. He killed your sinful flesh at the font by water and the Spirit. And He raised you to new life by that same Spirit who comes to you through water and the Word. By crucifying your sinful flesh, and making you a new creation in Christ, the Lord is saving you from sin and death! As Paul says, those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. So the Lord gives you His Spirit in Holy Baptism so that by Christ you will triumph over that sinful flesh. If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law that condemns and kills any longer!
Now, all those fruits—love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control—these are what the Spirit is at work in you bringing about. And notice something: Just as the works of the flesh are all about selfishness, so the fruits of the Spirit are worked in you by the Spirit for the good of others. Anger, for example, is all about you: you don't like someone or something and you're upset about it. But patience, longsuffering, is about your neighbor, bearing with them in love and not holding their sins against them. Adultery and fornication come as the result of our lusting and desiring to have things our way. Self-control, on the other hand, is worked in us by the Spirit so that we don't run all over others by our selfish living. Idolatry comes because our flesh hates God. But faithfulness is worked in us by the Spirit so that we trust in Christ and live from His forgiveness and good gifts. And so it goes. The works of the our sinful flesh are obvious: they are the things that please us and don't care about anyone else. The fruits of the Spirit, however, are the Spirit's working through us. And how does that happen? When the flesh is crucified, killed, and gotten rid of and when we are given the Spirit. Where does that happen? In Christ's holy church where each day that Old Adam drowns in our Baptism. Where the Absolution delivers us from the judgment of the Law by proclaiming that we are forgiven. By the Body and Blood of Christ by which our Savior ourselves dwells in us with the holy and sinless flesh by which He Himself saved us from our sins.
The Christian life isn't about figuring out what we do wrong and trying to fix it ourselves! The Christian life is about repentance and faith. True repentance cries out for the Lord's mercy to rescue us from the works of our sinful flesh which makes us not do what we want to do! And true faith clings to Christ who, by His forgiveness, works in us by His Spirit to produce those good fruits in us. There is the Christian life: to have our sinful flesh crucified over and over. That guy's gotta die! And to live by the Spirit, which means to live by the Word and Sacraments where forgiveness is given out and the Spirit works in us to glorify God and love and serve our neighbor. You have crucified your flesh. Because Christ was crucified for you. And you are Baptized into Him. And now the Spirit dwells in you. And your fruits are His, and they are good. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
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