"To Him be glory forever": 2 Corinthians 5

Showing posts with label 2 Corinthians 5. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 24, 2018

Being Held Accountable

Our daughter got herself into a bit of trouble last week. As a result there were some consequences, one of which was no TV until a particular thing had been made right.

Last night she asked if she could watch the end of her show. "There are only 15 minutes left." As the consequence for the trouble we had given her a particular project to complete, and when it is done she gets her TV privileges back. She's been working diligently and making progress, and so last night she asked for TV, thinking that she was close enough.

I reminded her of the project and asked if it was finished. Hearing "No" I said that nothing has changed. The project gets finished before the TV goes back on.

This morning I took a few moments to explain my reasoning to her. If I err as a parent with discipline, it is in having a soft touch. If I think the lesson has been learned, or at least as well as possible at the moment, I will often back off from the original decision. This morning I explained to her that I felt last night, and still did this morning, that she needed to be held fully accountable for what had happened and its consequences. She needed to learn that in "real life" when our actions have adverse results we often have to accept the consequences to the very end.

A bit later in the morning, when this conversation was percolating in my mind, I began to think about the similarities, and dissimilarities, between how I handled our daughter, and how God handles our sin.

All sin, no matter how great or small as it may seem from our point-of-view, is an offense against a God who is holy, righteous and just. These aspects of God demand that sin be dealt with by God. A god who lets sin slide is neither righteous nor just, and consequently not much of a god. The God of the Bible is holy, righteous and just, all the time, and so he must deal with sin, and he does. But this is where things begin to get interesting.

God could simply punish all sin. This punishment would be eternal, as a finite creature has sinned against an infinite God. The least sin and the greatest sin would demand this punishment. In a sense, this is simply being held accountable.

However, things aren't quite that simple, because God is also a God of mercy and grace. God offers to forgive sin, and let a substitute take the punishment that his justice demands. But forgiveness is conditional, and the condition is believing that God's Son, Jesus, laid down his life to take a person's sin, be it mine, your's, or the sin of anyone else. This, in its own way, is also being held accountable, with the difference being that someone else is held accountable for our sin, taking it's punishment on himself and exchanging our sin for his righteousness.

In 2 Corinthians 5:21 Paul writes it this way:

"For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."

The day is coming when each person will stand before God, and hear the sentence that their sin deserves. Will it be "guilty" as you stand, or try to, on your own righteousness, or will it be "not guilty" as you stand clothed with the righteousness the comes by faith in Christ as your Savior and Lord?

Wednesday, October 3, 2018

Better Than The Alternative?

A good friend and I are hatching a plan to run the Boston marathon in 2020. I'll confess that it is his idea, and a bit more sane of an idea than the last running adventure we did together. That one was my idea, to run four marathons in four days, which we did back in December, 2016. In both cases it wasn’t stated but I believe that the underlying assumption was that we aren’t getting any younger, and so it is high time to take a chance and do something different.

Take a chance. On one hand, what is the chance, or the risk? Between us we have over 85 years of experience running, over 250,000 lifetime miles, and over 120 marathons. We should be able to do Boston in our sleep, although if asleep we'd miss all the excitement! The chance is the qualifying standards.

The Boston marathon has had qualifying standards for maybe 40 years. When I was training for my first marathon, in 1982, my number one goal was to reach the Boston standard for my age group. It took me two more years to make that standard, and another few years to find my groove as a marathoner. I didn't have aspirations to run Boston but if I ever did, qualifying would not be a problem.

Skip ahead to 2018 and with the 2020 Boston marathon just over the horizon it turns out that qualifying is becoming part of the equation in getting there. My friend ran a marathon last weekend and as he told me about it he lamented the seemingly increasing loss of speed with every passing year. Solace was found in the fact that while his recent marathon was one of the slowest he's ever run it did make the Boston standard. Barely. Even better, it falls within the window for qualifying in 2020, and at that time he will be in an age-group with a slower standard, meaning that right now he is in not by seconds, but by nearly 15 minutes.

And my problem is that I'm coming off an injury, just about the worst one I've ever had, and where it is much too soon to tell if my body will handle the marathon distance, let alone be able to produce a Boston qualifying time.

But hey, I'm still running. That's better than the alternative, right?

That would seem to be the conventional wisdom. That virtually anything that goes on and still allows a person to draw breath is better than death. Conventional, but not biblical, wisdom.

Paul talks about these alternatives a bit in 2 Corinthians 5. Verse 8 says:

"Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord."

Just two choices for the Christian. Life in this body, or life in the very presence of the Lord. And when we look at what the Bible has to say about the glories of heaven, they are nothing less than spectacular. Isaiah in the throne room of God. Ezekiel and the glory of the Lord. And John, in Revelation, with his own vision of God's throne.

The very last part of the Belgic Confession says it this way:

"The Son of God will profess their names before God his Father and the holy and elect angels; all tears will be wiped from their eyes; and their cause—at present condemned as heretical and evil by many judges and civil officers—will be acknowledged as the cause of the Son of God.

And as a gracious reward the Lord will make them possess a glory such as the human heart could never imagine.

So we look forward to that great day with longing in order to enjoy fully
the promises of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord."

Life here better than the very presence of God? In even the most glorious of human circumstances there is no comparison. None at all.

Not that I am seeking an end to my human life as I hurry off to the direct presence of my faithful Savior and Lord. He has certainly given me plenty to do at the present! But understanding the future glory promised to all who have faith in Jesus gives me a clearer view of what the alternative to human life really is. It lets me live today with changes that I may not be crazy about,(and of which a slower running speed is relatively mundane!) knowing that one day, on God's timing, he will bringing me to what Paul, so simply and beautifully calls, home. Amen.

Wednesday, August 8, 2018

New Creation

Someone I know has a bit of a problem. She is a Christian, now, but in the past she lived and acted in ways that were very un-Christian, and people who remember that are bringing it to her attention. At least that is what I understand her problem to be. I'll confess that I know her, but not well. I met her, at least once, sometime since we moved to Dulce, but outside of knowing some of the people she is related to I would be unable to tell you anything about what she was like then.

More recently, I have seen her at least three times in the last month. Our conversation wasn't anything substantial, and so I could only tell a person a bit more than I could have several years ago. I do know where she goes to church, and between that fact and something I saw on Facebook I could tell anyone who cared to know that she is a new creation. She is the same person, with the same body, and the same family, but at the same time she is a totally different person. This change is true of anyone who places their faith in Jesus.

In 2 Corinthians 5:17 the apostle Paul puts it like this:

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."

Not only did this person live and act in ways that were un-Christian before she came to faith, but everyone who calls on Jesus as their Savior and Lord did the very same thing. The specifics might have varied, but their effect was basically the same: To live as the god of our own life, rather than to live with faith in the Lord Jesus.

That difference is lost on those who don't love Jesus. When we have faith we can't wash away our past sins. Sometimes the things we did in the past have downstream consequences that will last until the day we die. But the truth of the Bible is that by faith in him, Jesus has removed the guilt and the punishment due those sins.

We still live in the world, with the memories of our past. We will continue to struggle with sin. But our identity is no longer as sinners and rebels against God. Our identity is as children of God, who has made us a "new creation," so that we can joyfully live changed lives as his children. And, perhaps, those changes will begin to show our old friends the love that Jesus will also freely give to them. Amen.

Sunday, March 26, 2017

Exactly Enough

The picture in this post is of Archuleta Mesa, taken from behind our house and looking north. I took it late in the day, near sunset. The top of the mesa is perhaps 3 miles from home, as the crow flies. Dulce sits at about 6800 feet of altitude, while Archuleta tops out close to 9200 feet. As far as Dulce is concerned, Archuleta Mesa is the dominant geographical landmark.

During my sermon on Sunday I talked about God's grace, but in order to understand God's grace we first have to have a sense of why a person would need grace. And the Christian standpoint is that grace is needed because humans sin, and they sin a lot.

How much do Christians sin? That is where Archuleta Mesa comes in. If each of the sins that I have committed throughout my life to this point were represented by a rock the size of my fist, and those rocks were stacked at the base of the mesa, the pile would probably be taller than the mesa. A big pile, and one that grows bigger each day.

That is a whole lot of sin. By comparison, how large is God's grace?

God's grace, His forgiveness of my sin, is exactly enough. Paul, writing to the church at Corinth, puts it this way:

"For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."

Christ Jesus, who had no sin, took all of my sin, every last bit, every boulder and pebble, and exchanged it for His righteousness. The grace He had for me, the forgiveness of my sin, was exactly enough. Or given the fact that while forgiven I remain a sinner living in a fallen world, so that I continue to sin each day, I could say that in both the present and future tenses as well. He has forgiven my sin, He forgives my sin, and on the last day, He will forgive my sin.

I might be writing this in reference to myself, but being a pastor gives me no exemption before God as a sinner. The number of my sins is great, but the forgiveness that comes by God's grace is exactly enough so that one day I will stand before God in the righteousness of Christ.

And this isn’t a gift that is only available to a few people, for He has exactly enough grace to forgive each and every one of your sins too. All you need to do is to place your faith in Christ as Savior and Lord, and you, too, will know the forgiveness that He freely gives. The grace He has for you is exactly enough.