Strangely Warmed
(Romans 8: 1-11)
In May of 1738 John Wesley, the founder of our Methodist denomination, was feeling pretty low. He was an Anglican priest and was discouraged that his enthusiastic gospel message was not well-received by his Anglican brothers. In fact, it was flatly rejected. Today his message of “love your neighbor” would be considered as too “touchy-feely” or “woke”. Heavy-hearted, he reluctantly attended a group meeting on the evening of the 24th in a Moravian meeting house on Aldersgate Street in London. It was there, while someone was reading from Martin Luther’s Preface to the Epistle to the Romans, that he felt that his heart was “strangely warmed”. He described it as: “I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.” It’s been described by those who have studied Wesley as his “Evangelical Conversion” or as I would call it: his “Ah-Ha” moment. In 1739 he broke with the Moravians and founded a new society, which would become the Methodist movement.
I believe that Wesley, like the new believers in the Roman church and many of us today, was struggling in his understanding of leading that Christ-like life. He had been born into an Anglican family, his father was an Anglican priest, and his mother was very determined in making sure her children, especially John, were raised to fear and love God. He understood the Word of God and God’s Law and tried his hardest to abide but something was at work in him. He was touched by the misery, misfortune, and injustices being visited upon the least of Jesus’ brothers and sisters on the streets of London and in the very shadows of the church. It bothered him that neither the crown nor the church was interested in doing anything about the plight of the impoverished. So, he took to the streets preaching the Word, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but his message was falling upon deaf ears. There was something missing. That missing piece fell into place on May 24, 1738. We are here today because his heart was “strangely warmed”. Warmed by the Spirit.
If you remember from last Sunday, we ended our reading of chapter seven with Paul proclaiming that: I am a miserable human being. Who will deliver me from this dead corpse? Thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord! He now has a new life under the Spirit and he proclaims: So now there isn’t any condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. Isn’t that what Wesley said where he said he trusted in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation and that an assurance was given him that his sins had been taken away and he had been saved from the law of sin and death? Paul tells his readers, and us, that God has done what was impossible for the Law, since it was weak because of selfishness. He tells us God condemned sin in the body by sending his own Son to deal with sin in the same body as humans, who are controlled by sin. He writes: He did this so that the righteous requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us. Now the way we live is based on the Spirit, not based on selfishness. He’s talking about the transformation in our lives and the liberation of our enslavement into a new life that is not self-centered. It’s a liberation that begins with the saving action of God that has been accomplished by God’s Son Jesus Christ and is mediated by the Spirit. It’s this saving action that rescinds the sentence of condemnation that sinful humans deserve and sets them free from the onslaught of sin and mortality. It’s that sin Paul described that lives in the body that so many of us struggle with in vain. Paul says that people whose lives are based on selfishness think about selfish things, but people whose lives are based on the Spirit think about things that are related to the Spirit. He points out that: The attitude that comes from selfishness leads to death, but the attitude that comes from the Spirit leads to life and peace. This attitude is hostile to God, and it doesn’t submit to God’s Law because it can’t. People, he says, who are self-centered aren’t able to please God. This liberation of which Paul speaks is extended to Christ’s followers in the form of the Spirit, who becomes the new basis for their lives, displacing sin and selfishness.
He reassures his readers that they aren’t self-centered, that instead they are in the Spirit if in fact, God’s Spirit lives in them. And quite bluntly he says that if anyone doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ, they don’t belong to him. He points out that: If Christ is in you, the Spirit is your life because of God’s righteousness, but the body is dead because of sin. He connects the dots for his worried readers when he tells them that if the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead lives in them, then the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to their human bodies also, through his Spirit that lives in them. He’s all but telling them that if they receive and accept the Spirit their hearts will be strangely warmed too.
What the Apostle is telling us is that the Spirt of Christ ends the reign of fleshly selfishness for those of us who are in Christ because the indwelling Spirit works a moral transformation that empowers us to fulfill the righteous requirement of the Law. Not because we have to, but because we want to. This is a new principle for many as the law of the Spirit of Life now governs the believer’s existence. A new life under the Spirit is experienced by those released from the Law and they can’t wait to share it because they are no longer self-centered.
The Spirit of Life is the Holy Spirit. It was present at the creation the world and is the power behind the rebirth of every Christian. The Spirit gives us the power we need to fully live the Christian life. Without it, we are nothing. Paul has divided us into two categories: those who are dominated by their spiritual nature, and those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit. All of us would be in trapped in the first category if Jesus hadn’t offered us a way out. Once we have said yes to Jesus, we will want to continue following him, because his way brings new life and peace. Our task is to consciously choose to center our lives on God. And in every perplexing situation that confronts us we need to ask ourselves what would Jesus do? And then, when the Holy Spirit points out what is right, do it eagerly and without reservation.
The point Paul is trying to make is that when the Holy Spirit is working within you, you will believe that Jesus Christ is God’s Son and that eternal life comes through him. You will then begin to act as Christ directs and you will find help in your daily problems and in your praying. You will be empowered to serve God and do his will, and you will become part of God’s plan to build up the body of his church. In short, the Holy Spirit is God’s promise or guarantee of eternal life for those who believe in him, truly believe in him. The Spirit is in us now by faith, and by faith we are certain to live with Christ forever and that knowledge is certain to warm our hearts.
Let us pray.
Gracious and loving God, every time I feel the Spirit moving in my heart, I will pray. Yes, every time I feel the Spirit moving in my heart I will pray. O how we thank you for the gift of your Spirit that warms our hearts, that moves us gently in the directions we should go and to do the work that brings peace and restores your damaged creation. Move us by your Spirit to be focused upon the needs of others in this world who are struggling to just get by, struggling to make sense out of what is happening to them, their loved ones, and others who are lost and searching. Move us by your Spirit to be the somebodies who do something in Jesus’ name. This we pray with all our hearts, Amen.
To view service, click link below;
7/12/26
Strangely Warmed
A new life under theSpirit is experienced by those released from the Law and they can’t wait to shrew it because they are no longer self-centered.