The Subject of the Sentence--July 16, 2026

The Subject of the Sentence--July 16, 2026

"For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." (Romans 8:3-4)

This very point is the difference between hearing the Gospel as Good News and hearing it as a self-help sales pitch.  If the Christian message boils down to, "Here is a list of what you have to do," it is neither good nor new.  But if, as Paul insists here, the Gospel's claim is, "God has already done what we could not do on our own," well, then, everything is different.

These verses from Romans 8, which many of us heard this past Sunday in worship, put it just that plainly.  "For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do." You will note, of course, that God is the subject of the sentence.  In other words, the Actor is God, doing what we cannot--doing even what the Law, which God had first given, could not do.  God does the saving. God deals with sin.  God enters into our humanity.  God enables us to live by the Spirit instead of being ruled by the whims of our worst impulses.  All of it is accomplished by God through Christ Jesus the Son.  In the Christian story, God is the doer, the hero, the Subject.  Saving the world--and all of us as well--is God's action.

Now, for as clear as Paul is here, it's funny how often we Respectable Religious folks have gotten it all backward over the centuries.  Sometimes we can't seem to accept that God has already done the heavy lifting, or that our being saved isn't something we have achieved by our own cleverness, talent, or morality.  Maybe it sounds too good to be true, or maybe we are upset by the idea that God saves and rescues people who haven't earned it.  Or maybe it's about control: if I am the subject of the sentence when it comes to salvation, then it's up to me and my effort to do good enough... and I can also look down on the other people I don't think have done a "good enough" job.  But if God is the One doing the saving because I cannot on my own, then I don't have control over who else God rescues, saves, and redeems.

And maybe that's our persistent hang-up: we would rather keep control (or pretend to keep it) over who is "in" and who is "out" than allow God to scandalous and extravagantly save people who are not on our approved list. If we tell ourselves that being saved is a matter of my individual performance or piety, then there's a gate to be kept and a bar to be met. But if God really is the One doing the saving in the big scheme of things, we have to admit we don't have control over who's in.  God is free to rescue, redeem, and resurrect outsiders, sinners, mess-ups, and stinkers.  Of course, that's exactly how we find our belonging, too--not by our innate goodness, but by God's.  Because God is the One who claims us, we belong even when we are weak, sinful, stingy, and hard-hearted.  There's the trade-off, too: once I can admit that I don't have control over who made the cut, I can also rest in the relief of knowing my belonging doesn't depend on my performance, either.  It is because of what God has done in Christ that we have hope, not what I think I can do on my own.  It is because of God's choice to take on all the burden of human sin in Christ than I am freed from that weight--not because I have done a good enough job following rules and earning gold stars.

Accepting Paul's point is humbling, because it forces each of us to admit we are not nearly as in control of things as we imagined.  But it is also what makes the Gospel genuinely good news in the first place.

I think that's a trade I'm willing to make--how about you?

Perhaps today is a day for grammatical clarity: that is, today is a day to recognize that God has always been the subject of the sentence that is the Gospel's good news.

Lord God, enable us to admit that you are the primary actor in the universe's great redemption story, and to surrender the illusion of control we never really had.