Who Will Rescue Us
- 2 days ago
- 7 min read
Sixth Sunday after Pentecost
Rev. Dr. David M. Oliver
First United Methodist Church
Massillon, Ohio
July 5, 2026
Text: Romans 7:15-25
Opening Prayer: Almighty God, whose Word is authority and power and whose way is love, grant unto us clear minds, understanding hearts, and willing spirits so that we may wisely appropriate your Word of Truth. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.
On this Independence Sunday we are grateful for the 250 years of our country’s existence. If you have been interested, no doubt you have heard many speeches and read many articles about our nation and the 250th.
In light of this, I chose not to focus on our 250th today, but instead to go back to something that has existed for 2026 years and that is the Good News of God has done through Jesus Christ his son to save us personally and corporately from ourselves, our mistakes, errors, and sins.
If you wish to complete the sermon listening guide, please take it out at this time.
We begin this morning in our Scripture reading from Romans with the Apostle Paul sharing his internal struggle between sin and grace, between what he desires to do and what he is able to do.
One of the things that I appreciate about Paul’s writing here is his honest vulnerability. He is not holding himself above others. He is not comparing himself to others and coming out with a favorable conclusion. He is not blaming others for his difficulties. He is not making the excuse that he is just human. Paul is humbly and publicly taking responsibility for his failures. Paul acknowledges that there is an internal battle going on between his flesh and his spirit, between his sinful soul (which is his mind, will, and emotions) and his holy commitment to Jesus.
Paul wants to be fully committed to glorifying Jesus Christ and to the furtherance of God’s kingdom. Yet, he finds himself pulled in another direction, the direction of sin.
With that sin often comes feelings of shame, guilt, and remorse unless we have stopped wrestling with our sin and just given into it and justified it.
We all know people who do this. If we are honest with ourselves we too struggle as Paul does. We too face an internal battle between sin and grace, between fleshly desires and the spiritual life to which God has called us.
I won’t spend much time explaining our propensity to sin because most of us recognize it all too well if we have even a modicum of self-awareness. This propensity to sin can take on many forms. Let the following few examples prompt you to think about your own struggles.
For many men and women living in this highly sexualized culture this means dealing with lust and unhealthy sexual desires and expressions. Because our sexuality is God’s gift to express covenant love and fidelity to our partner, we know that God is not opposed to sexuality or it’s expression. The twisting away of this gift from God and reducing the gift to mere personal gratification is what turns sexuality into something fleshly that causes us to be separated from God.
Sexuality is not the only realm of the flesh. Think about where you get your sense of security. What helps you to feel safe and secure?
Many would respond by saying their closest relationships help them feel safe and secure.
Others would say that having a good balance in their bank accounts provides security.
Still others would say that they get their identity from a club, an organization, a political party, a school which they attend or from which they graduated; perhaps a team that they love watching or on which they played. Those of you who have watched some of the FIFA soccer matches have witnessed what is a profound sense of identification with the nation’s team (whatever nation you hail as your own).
The things I just mentioned can be meaningful, even important. However, if we derive our safety, security, and identity from them they are too important. If you are a Cleveland Brown’s fan you understand this reality all too well. Their record is too unsettling to base our sense of worth, value, and importance on how they perform. All of these examples are insufficient to bear the weight of our lives.
Some time ago I was in a seminar for pastors. The lecturer reminded us of an essential truth…never place your identity in anything you can lose.
We can lose our health, our wealth, our friendships, our family. We can lose our way, lose sight of our priorities, lose sight of our values. We can even lose our faith. There is only one thing that we cannot lose and that is the love of God for us.
God’s love for you is the one and only thing in life and in this world that we cannot lose. Furthermore, the love of God is the only reality that can rescue us from our mistakes, our sin and its mortal consequences…from death (Romans 6:23).
The wisdom to never place your identity in anything you can lose has stayed with me for over 26 years. The reason it was so impactful is that I recognized my own tendency to make some things too important.
At the time, I was on an ascending path in the annual conference. I was the lead pastor of a large church with twelve staff and hundreds of members. I was serving on the Board of Ordained Ministry. I was asked by my colleagues to be the founder of the Order of Elders which was a brand-new organization within United Methodism to provide spiritual direction and guidance for hundreds of clergy in our conference.
Sadly, I became overly focused on my position and my responsibilities and not focused enough on my ongoing, deep, intimate relationship with God. When I should have been absolutely dependent on God, given all that was on my plate, I put too much of my identity in my leadership roles as a pastor and in the conference. I started to derive my sense of success from this recognition rather than from what God was saying to me and about me. I falsely connected my ascending path in the conference with God’s favor and blessing.
God did not allow me to continue long with this mistaken, faulty, external identity. God brought me to the end of myself and my capacity. The things I once valued became a burden rather than a blessing. Gradually, these responsibilities were given up or taken away. God did not allow me to have any other gods in my life. I had to die to those misplaced priorities in order that I could once more come alive in Jesus Christ.
I share this testimony because many, if not most of us, have had the experience of making something or someone too important. We have anchored ourselves to them as if they could rescue us from whatever challenging situation we faced whether it be medical, emotional, positional, financial, relational, legal, etc. We counted on them to be our primary refuge and strength from the stormy chaos of life. Whenever and wherever this happens, we eventually find ourselves disappointed, let down by that in which we falsely placed our identity.
Having described his own internal struggle and the wretched helplessness he felt to deal with this inner conflict on his own, the Apostle Paul asks a key question and answers it resoundingly, “Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 7:25)!
Paul turns to Jesus because Jesus alone has the sufficiency, the power, the wisdom, the steadfastness to provide the safety and security that every human being seeks and needs. Christ alone can save. Christ alone can rescue. Christ alone can deliver us from the law of sin and death into a life of grace and peace filled with the power of the Holy Spirit.
In another letter Paul wrote, “For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1).
Jesus’ exemplary life, his powerful teaching, his sinless death and glorious resurrection purchased our freedom from the ever-present perils of sin and death.
In another passage, Jesus himself said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die (John 11:25-26).
For Christians, the path to life is clearly found in Jesus. He is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). He can and will rescue us. Our job is to commit ourselves to him daily and follow him faithfully with the help of the Holy Spirit and the support of our Christian brothers and sisters in the church.
Jesus loves you so much! He sees what you are experiencing. He knows the path forward that can lead you to new life in him. As we partake of Holy Communion at the railing this morning, I encourage you to give yourself and your concerns to Jesus whether it be for the first time or the 4000th time. He welcomes you to the Table and he offers himself so that you and I may truly live. Thanks be to God!
Let us pray. Mighty, benevolent, gracious God, we thank you for seeking out and saving us. We thank you that life and truth, joy, peace and power are found through faith in you. Come and be seated on the thrones of our hearts. Rule and reign there from this day forward. Although our sins be many, we accept that Jesus’ blood and crucifixion are sufficient to cleanse us and heal us from all of our sin and the death that accompanies it. As we partake of this sacrament, we ask that you would be our Savior and the Lord and leader of our lives. We thank you for the free gift of salvation in Christ who alone can rescue us. In his name we pray. Amen.
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