The 3 “R”’s of our Spiritual Life
Scripture: Joshua 5:9-12 II Corinthians 5:16-21
Luke 15:1-3, and 11-32
In the passage in Joshua, why does God make it a point to specifically mention where the Israelites camped?
Gilgal is located in the same region where Abram first received the promise that the land would belong to his family and where he built his first altar unto the Lord.
They have come full circle now and God wants them to remember that He has fulfilled his promise.
The meaning of the word Gilgal is “rolled away.”
Our scripture passage this morning takes place right after Joshua had reinstituted the practice of circumcision.
For the 40 yrs while they had wandered in the desert they had not been obedient to this instruction and there was now a whole generation which did not know God’s commands.
So it is fitting that the name of this place means “rolled away” and symbolizes their obedience and God’s intention to roll their sins away based upon the shedding of His own blood.
Even today we sing, “At the cross at the cross where I
first saw the light, and the burden of my sin “rolled away.”
The children of Israel are in the land of promise.
A new place. No more wilderness wandering.
The reproach of the old life is rolled away.
It was a new beginning for them.
It is the same for us when our sins are rolled away.
Jesus through the cross has led us into our inheritance.
We can take possession of our “Promised Land.”
Notice that Israel celebrates the Passover for the first time in their new land. It was their thanksgiving celebration.
We read in verse 10 of today’s reading:
“So the children of Israel put up their tents in Gilgal; and they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month, in the evening, in the lowlands of Jericho. And on the day after the Passover, they had for their food the produce of the land.”
Passover celebrates the feast of redemption, when the firstborn died if there was no blood sprinkled on the doorposts.
I want you to see the parallel of our Christian experience.
It was after the Passover when they took possession of the first things from that land and they started to experience the blessings.
Passover is the reminder of what God did for us on the cross.
After the penalty for our sin was paid in full, we could experience the blessings of our inheritance in Christ.
V12 says, “The manna stopped the day after they ate this food from the land.”
The manna was a daily reminder that God was looking after all their needs; that it was God, their Father, who was always watching, caring, loving, forgiving, providing all their needs, etc.
It pointed again to the New Testament truth that, Jesus said that He is the bread that came from heaven. (John 6:31-35).
In Him all the promises of God are yea and amen.
We can cast our cares upon Him because He cares us.
So our first “R” stands for REMEMBER.
Remember the reproach of your sin has been rolled away and redemption has been provided.
Remember the promises of God and His provision and protection.
Remember He sprinkled His blood on the cross beam so that you would not die.
Now look at our passage from II Corinthians….
Listen to what Paul says in verse 16.
“So we have stopped evaluating others by what the world thinks about them. Once I mistakenly thought of Christ that way, as though he were merely a human being. How differently I think about him now!”
Paul has learned a big lesson. He can’t evaluate others by their external appearance or their reputation.
He was guilty of thinking Christ was only the son of a carpenter, a mere man and a religious fanatic.
He made it his goal to kill Christians and try to stamp out this movement.
Then when Paul had his Damascus road conversion the tables were suddenly turned on him and folks didn’t believe he had become a Christian.
They suspected him of trying to infiltrate the ranks and find more Christians to kill.
How could he expect them to believe his goals had been so radically reversed and his heart changed?
He wasn’t even recognizable as the same man!
That is our problem when “public sinners” accept Christ.
We continue to think of them as bad people.
We resist bringing them into our fellowship.
The drug addict matters to God!
The Wall Street investment broker matters to God!
The prostitute matters to God!
The IRS agent matters to God!
The classroom teacher matters to God!
The homemaker matters to God!
Every person has worth and infinite value in the eyes of God and that is why He allowed Jesus to die for us!
What is there that is "old" in your life that you would like to be freed from, but can't seem to shake?
Is it your reputation?
God will change you and will never remind you of your old life again.
When someone gives their life to Jesus, God begins a new “act of creation” in their lives.
They aren’t merely reformed or rehabilitated.
They are recreated. (verse 17)
Illustration…One Sunday as they drove home from church, a little girl turned to her mother and said, "Mommy, there’s something about the pastor’s message this morning that I don’t understand."
The mother said, "Oh? What is it?"
The little girl replied, "Well, he said that God is bigger than we are. He said God is so big that He could hold the world in His hand. Is that true?"
The mother replied, "Yes, that’s true, honey."
"But Mommy, he also said that God comes to live inside of us when we believe in Jesus as our Savior. Is that true, too?"
Again, the mother assured the little girl that what the pastor had said was true.
With a puzzled look on her face the little girl then asked, "If God is bigger than us and He lives in us, wouldn’t He show through?"
Good question, huh? Does he “show through” in you?
My second “R” stands for recognize.
We should not recognize forgiven sinners as who they used to be, but recognize Christ living in them now.
Paul says we then get to represent Christ to others and share the good news that they, too can be forgiven.
He says we are “ambassadors”.
The ambassador reflects the agenda, convictions, truths, and causes of the one he represents.
In the same way, we proclaim what God has done for us so people can come to know Him and respond and be reconciled to God.
That is my 3rd “R”….reconciled.
Now let me tell you something I just learned from the insight of William Paul Young, author of “The Shack.”
In that book he pictures God the Father as having nailprints in His hands too, based upon that verse 19 of II Corinthians.
Just as Abraham and Isaac went together to the mountain for the sacrifice, at Calvary “God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself” and that is why Christ could no longer look up in heaven to see Him and thought He had been forsaken.
This is what God has done to show us divine love.
It culminates in the cross.
The cross is God’s love at the flashpoint of its power.
Anyone who is reconciled to God is called to be a minister of reconciliation.
Our final scripture passage in Luke is so familiar that we nearly forget the ultimate truth of it is, “Jesus welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
The parable of the Prodigal Son is really the story of the loving Father.
He shared his wealth with both sons.
One was good and faithful but the other was stubborn and wayward.
One returned and was welcomed and given a ring a robe and a banquet.
The other failed to “let Jesus show through” him in being as warm and welcoming. He couldn’t see his own sin of pride and jealousy.
The father loved them both and gave them both the same reward of His forgiveness and a future home with Him…a full inheritance.
All Christians are not the same as far as how long they sinned and how much they have been forgiven.
But they are all saved in the same way by the blood of Christ, and they all inherit eternal life.
Whatever we were is in the past, forgiven and covered by the blood of Jesus.
Whatever we are now is by His gracious unmerited favor.
Romans 3:22 says, “This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe, there is no difference.”
So we REMEMBER that Calvary was our Gilgal.
The place our sin was rolled away.
The place our provision and protection was provided.
We RECOGNIZE it is a place of no condemnation.
But it is a place of celebration.
We are not what we used to be.
We are forgiven and we are free.
And it is a place where we are RECONCILED.
There is nothing separating us from the love of God.
Because of Calvary, the Father welcomes us home.
