Christ Lutheran Church
Cleveland, Ohio
June 28, 2026
by: Rev. Dean Kavouras
Pentecost 5
Dead To The Law – Alive To Christ
“You likewise, my brothers, have died to the Law through the body of Christ so that you might belong to Another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God!” (Romans 7:4)
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Today’s epistle has many moving parts, but let us see if we can untangle it a bit this morning.
THE COMPARISON
Saint Paul begins by using something common to teach something less common. Disregarding the idiocy of the last 60 years everyone knows that marriage is a life time commitment and promise: and that the only thing that can properly end the marital bond is death.
Should a married man or woman leave their spouse and join themselves to another they commit the grave sin of adultery. An infraction of God’s 6th Commandment. But, on the other hand, if one of the pair should die, then the marriage is over and the remaining partner is free to join to another.
In the same way when the earliest Christians, who were Jews received Blessed Baptism, it is as if their old spouse – the Jewish Law – died so that they were now free to join themselves to another, namely Christ who died for our sins and rose again to give us life.
What was the agent that made them dead to the Law? It was the Body of Christ. What does that mean? Exactly what Saint Paul writes in Romans 10:4 that, “Christ is the END of the Law, for righteousness, for all who believe.”
Said another way when our Lord appeared in order to “destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8) the Law, the Old Testament, attained its goal and purpose which is Christ crucified for us.
The Lord makes it clear in St. Matthew that he did not come to abolish the Commandment which is “holy and good and righteous.” But to show himself as its fulfillment. Said another way everything that our God promised in the Old Testament found its finish. It’s “terminus ad quem” in the “body of Christ on the cross.” Or said yet another way, just as there is no such thing as January 32nd there is nothing beyond Christ crucified and raised again. He is the fullness of the Promises of God in whom, “the fullness of the Godhead dwells, bodily.” (Col. 2:9). And so anyone who looks to anything else in heaven or on earth, or in the universe, or in the depths of the sea, or in science, finance, philosophy or in the gratification of the flesh will come up empty. Because there is nothing beyond Christ and him crucified and this Divine Liturgy in which he unites himself to us in love.
THE PROBLEM WITH THE LAW
That said Paul is also anxious not to mislead anyone.
The Law, he says, is not the problem. Instead the problem is the fleshly heart of man, compromised by the sin gene, that free-floating radical that has spread itself into every fiber of our being.
He says moreover that apart from the Jewish Law – think the 10 Commandments here – sin was no problem. Because if there is no prohibition against something then everyone is happy. Man can go on doing whatever his little heart desires because: what does it matter if no one objects?
This is the mindset of the dead culture in which we must live. No one objects to its disgraceful practices, indeed the whole world either approves or at least remains silent about it. So where is the problem?
Moses is the problem with his Commandments written not in a word.doc that we can delete. But written in stone.
Jesus is the problem, who not only affirmed the Commandments but made them even more implacable. You remember. “You have heard it said of old that thou shalt not commit adultery, but I say to you that if a man even looks upon a woman and lusts after her he has already has committed adultery in his heart.
The church is the problem because she won’t stop throwing a Mosaic Monkey Wrench into the works … to the utter dismay and rage of devil, culture and even our own flesh.
At this point Saint Paul adds this into the mix: “I would not have known sinful desire except that the Law said, ‘Thou shalt not covet.’” Which means you shall not desire what is not and cannot be yours. Such as your neighbor’s spouse or belongings.
With the coming of the Law sin which was latent became patent. What was implicit became explicit. And now true desires of men, and his complete hatred of God came rushing out of the closet.
Now sparks were flying around everywhere. Now sinful man who was happy the squalor of his own ignorance came alive. Came alive because with the Law the sinful heart could not see its thoughts, words and deeds. Not as neutral. Or as a chosen life style. Or, “that’s just the way I roll.” But his “choices” were now revealed as a slap in the face of God. As crowning him with thorns and spitting in his face.
Now his dead conscience came to light and became as contrary as a two year old. Rebellious as a teenager who imagines she has lived under too many restriction for too long.
And now she willfully crosses every line to show her great displeasure at being told what to do. Or in the words of Paul, “Sin is now shown to be exceedingly sinful.”
No. This sermon will probably not be published in the APA Journal.
THE LAW TODAY
Now there is a difference between us today and the earliest Christians, converted Jews, who were making a break from the Law of Moses. It was an ugly divorce because their religion was their entire identity. It wasn’t just what they did, but who they were.
It was often cumbersome and still is today if you speak to an orthodox Jew. But humanity needs such restrictions. After all who would drive over the Valley View Bridge if there were no curbs or concrete barriers preventing guarding you from the 215 foot dive, which would be the longest 3.6 seconds of your now-about-to-be-over life.
Yes, when a child of Abraham became a child of God in Christ he had to die to the Law; and embrace a New Law. The Law of the Spirit of Christ and now in this healthy marriage “produce fruit for God.”
Paul’s language here is marital in here. When one is freed from the Law because it died, and married to Christ by the mighty atomic-powered Sacrament of Baptism, the Bride becomes more fruitful than ever.
Now it isn’t the Law of Moses that concerns us today but what we might call the “Law of Modernity.” It plays on our desire to be loved and accepted, praised and lionized by the whole wide world. We want or face known on the “world wide web” so that everyone can see us. And we want to attain all the “likes” in the world – and OI how they make our neurotransmitters sing for joy. Who needs peace from Christ? Who heeds heaven when they are already living in heaven?
But like those earliest Jewish Christians who died to the Law; we too must die to the totalitarian Law of Culture; and “through the body of Christ” be married to another. To him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God!”
What do we gain from our servitude to the Law of Modernity? Exactly what Napoleon Bonaparte said. “To be a successful politician promise people everything and given them nothing. And that is what we get from culture. Promises as hollow as the head of a chocolate Easter bunny.
But with Christ we have “abundant life, the presence of God, the fullness of joy, and pleasures forevermore at his right hand.” (Psalm 16:11)