I'm already holy? Are you sure?

     The book of Romans is a fairly important one when it comes to our Lutheran theology but if you've ever tried to sit down and just read through it, you may find that it is a bit overwhelming.  Paul uses a very systematic, logical argument in his letter, but he also uses a lot of big words like justification, sanctification, and righteousness, not to mention the opposites he uses: law/grace, slaves of sin/slaves of righteousness, death/life, etc.  It is a confusing book!  So, over the next few weeks I hope to be able to shed some light on our readings from Romans.
     Our reading this Sunday comes from Romans 6.12-23.  Unfortunately we don't have the benefit of hearing the first half of the chapter, which is pretty central to Paul's argument, so if you get a chance, read 6.1-11 before Sunday.  Verses 1-11 deal with our new identities in Christ once we are baptized.  Paul reminds us that in baptism our sins are forgiven and we are washed with God's grace (justified) and made pure and holy (righteous) in God's sight.  The result of this is that we are no longer responsible for securing our own salvation, because we are quite unable to do so.  Christ lived a sinless life, and since we are united with Christ in baptism, his sinlessness is granted to us as a free gift, our salvation.  That is where our reading for Sunday picks up.
     Paul begins with the question about sin - since, in Christ, God forgives our sin and we no longer have to follow the law but are free in Christ's grace, does that mean we should keep on sinning on purpose?  Of course not!  Paul then goes on to argue why we shouldn't keep sinning even though God forgives us.  We have all witnessed or heard stories about people who call themselves 'Christian' but whose lives don't look like what we think a 'Christian' life should look like.  Those hypocrites, we say.  And, unfortunately, in my own life I have been one of those hypocrites - I judge others like I rule the world, I rarely give people the benefit of the doubt and think ill rather than nice things, I am the queen of excuses, and most of the time, I, me, and my comes first. 
     Even so, Paul says, we have already been saved and our sinfulness is dead so that God can work on raising up in us a new, better, Christ-like person.  Now, this is what we call sanctification - the living a Christ-like life here and now, where we sin less and do God's will more.  This doesn't mean that the older I get the better I will be at not sinning.  On the contrary, we Lutherans believe that sanctification is a daily process.  Each morning when we awake we are granted a new opportunity to say 'no' to sin so that God can work good in us.  I don't know about you, but I made it about two minutes (if that) before I sinned this morning, so even more than a daily process sanctification is a moment-by-moment process in which the Holy Spirit works in us to produce faith so that God can conquer our sin. 
     And this is the free gift Paul talks about in verse 23 - the consequences of sin is death.  Not only the big DEAD death, but the little deaths that we die every day: the regret we feel when we say something we shouldn't have, the distance we feel when we have an argument with a loved one, the speeding ticket we have to pay because we forgot about those speed cameras...  But, because God loves us, and because Christ gives us his own sinlessness in baptism, the gift we get is life.  Not only the big ETERNAL life, but the little life we live every day: the love we feel for our family when we put them first, the knowledge that even on bad hair days we have value and worthiness, the satisfaction of having that little break in your day...  That is life, and that is what we gain in exchange for our sinfulness when Christ died for us.
     So we don't keep on sinning, but we do strive to say 'no' to sin - not to win our own salvation or to prove to others that we are saved, but because the Holy Spirit works in us so that God's will might be done and so that we are made Christ-like through the moment-by-moment process of sanctification. Now, this is a complete and total mystery to me.  The fact that God has already made me holy sits in pure tension with the reality that I am still a sinner.  But that is the promise of God in Jesus Christ Jesus through the power of the Spirit.  And it is the mystery we live every day.  I'm already holy God?  Are you sure??