March 3, 2002 -- THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT
Exodus 17:1-7
Psalm 95
Let us shout for joy to the rock of our salvation. (Ps. 95:1)
Romans 5:1-11
John 4:5-42
Title: “We are not just forgiven; we are changed.”
Verses one to eleven, further develop Paul’s doctrine of justification. Paul has been making the case in both theological and legal terms, and rather technical terms at that. Now, he puts the same ideas into warmer, more relational language. Having laid out the scriptural basis for those saved by faith in Christ being “justified,” or “acquitted,” before the judgment seat of God, he now tells his readers what that means for the period before the final judgment, the here and now. The past is wiped out; the future is yet to be fully present; the present- with its trials, sufferings, temptations- is assisted by the indwelling resident Holy Spirit, ensuring fidelity to the end, living a life befitting an acquitted person and friend of God.
In verse one, justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Justification is the means, the process, and peace is the end, the result. Peace, wholeness, integrity, completeness, is an experience based on one’s new but objective status of friendship restored, amnesty declared. Reconciliation replaces estrangement and the ensuing experience of peace is to be enjoyed, exploited even.
In verse two, through whom we have gained access: All of this was accomplished by the only one who could accomplish it, namely, Jesus Christ. Paul uses language appropriate to the throne room of a king. No one has access to the king, God. Worse, because of what humans have done, the door is forever shut. Or was, until Christ.
We boast: A person who has unlimited access to a king or president or anyone important will naturally boast about it. The Christian is no exception. He or she has instant access to God, but with one qualification. The Christian does not say, “I am good friends with God.” Even though it amounts to the same thing, the Christian says, “I am good friends with God’s Son. He patched things up with God for me and now I can enter his presence as a friend of Jesus. I can always tag along with Jesus. So long as, I am with Jesus I get in any time.”
In hope of the glory of God: So long as, a Christian exists in a mortal body, this remains a hope, but a sure hope. It is not fully realized, but realized enough that the Christian benefits already, while still in the body, from Christ’s presence in and with and to the Father. In so far as, he has “returned,” to his rightful place, seated at God’s right hand, and in so far as Christians are in him and he in them, Christians have arrived as well, even though the process is not completed for them as it is for Christ. The full glory of God, seen by Christ, indeed, Christ himself, is still an incomplete experience for Christians, a hope.
In verses three and four, it is because of reliance on God, hope, that suffering can produce endurance, the ability to continue in the right against and in spite of all odds, which produces character, the power to resist evil because tried in the hot furnace and found worthy. Baptism marks the beginning of a life-long process, but the beginning contains the end, like a seed “contains,” the plant.
In verse five, hope does not disappoint: This is not a hope based on wishful thinking or imagination, but fact, the fact of God’s love. This love was not only seen as one looks on the cross, the proven character of God’s love, but is experienced in the pouring of the Holy Spirit onto and into the hearts of believers in Baptism and Confirmation. Watering is often used as a metaphor for spiritual refreshment and encouragement. In another sense the Spirit is the down payment, first installment, guarantee of the final, full experience of eternal fullness.
In verse six, Christ…died…for the ungodly: Humans were not just undeserving, they were downright contrary, actively resistant to the overtures of God for reconciliation. The grace of God was not just undeserved it was even rejected time and again by humans. This rejection of God’s grace went beyond even a specific act of free-will rejection. The situation had become so bad that humans were powerless over evil and sin. They had pawned their free will, left it in the keeping of Satan, retained technical ownership of it but signed its use over to the devil. Humans could not have become more “ungodly.” The one thing God would never take away from humans, their free will, is the first thing humans will hock in order to get what they erroneously think they need, but merely stubbornly and childishly want. The cumulative effect of such actions has gotten humanity, individually and collectively, into a mess it cannot get out of on its own power, individually or collectively. Only Christ can do that and he has done it.
In verse seven, die for a just person: Paul will grant that in a rare case a person might die for someone who is good or for a good cause. But humans, in the state they got themselves into, are neither good nor a good cause, not worth dying for. However, God does not love us because we are good, rather we are good because God loves us.
In verse eight, while we were still sinners Christ died for us: Nothing could be more humanly incongruous. It would be like a general fighting in a war and standing up to give his life for the other side, the rebels, that they might win! An act of treason? No, an act, a supreme act of love! Who would die for the sake of people rebelling against him, enemies? Christ did not wait until humans surrendered, but while they were still rebelling, rejecting, opposing, he died for them. His death was no mere appeasement of an angry God, it was an act of inexplicable love, unimaginable generosity and good will towards those who were the exact opposite of all he held dear and worthy.
In verse nine, since we have now been justified by his blood, we are saved from God’s wrath through Christ.
Verses ten and eleven, explain our reconciliation through Christ.
Sermon
Paul had his fair share of run-ins with the law, both Jewish and Roman. He knew how unforgiving the law could be. There is a punishment for every crime, but never forgiveness. Legalistic people know all about punishment, but nothing of forgiveness. It would be just like him to use a legal analogy to teach what Christ has done. Legalists would not allow an offender of a law, even minor ones in the case of Pharisees, even after the offender has “done time,” or suffered the punishment, to ever be happy again or to ever forget his or her crime or sin. In the mind of a legalist, once a person sins or commits a crime, that person can never again enjoy peace, joy or even love. He or she should never even smile again, but repent for life. He or she is “damaged goods.” We do the same thing with titles like x-con.
It had to be a source of great irritation to legalists that Paul would use an acquittal in a court of human law as an analogy to explain what God has done in and through Christ. They could follow Paul to a point. They would have no trouble, for instance, relating to the need for atonement or appeasement, the need to suffer punishment. But when Paul speaks of acquittal, undeserved amnesty, they could only be shocked, even infuriated. To depict God, the judge, acquitting sin without requiring “doing time,” paying a fine, or something like that was unthinkable. And it gets worse. To depict God as doing this out of love for humans, the very humans who are in a state of active rebellion against God, while they are still sinners, that is unconscionable! And, it must be admitted that even Christians find it unique. Never has there been in all of human history an instance of such behavior.
No doubt the legalists would object that God in doing this has set a terrible example. He is saying by his forgiveness that sin does not matter. They confuse acceptance of a person with approval of a person’s behavior. They mistakenly think that God’s forgiveness is tantamount to approval. They object that they have no answer to their children’s questions. Thus, Paul and Christianity must be snuffed out. We just cannot look up to a God and follow him as a “role model,” if he is going to go around forgiving everyone. In the name of God, God must be stopped! Yet, that is exactly what God has done. He not only preaches forgiveness, he does it. He accepts us even loves us, even when and while he does not approve of our behavior.
Because of that, because of Christ’s actions, because of his Spirit living in us, we can here and now experience peace, reconciliation, wholeness, friendship with God, because Christ fixed things between God and us. And this is just the beginning, the down payment! Guilty of sin but acquitted because we are attached to Christ, we can smile and rejoice, a no-no according to the legalists. And they are dead wrong about forgiveness being a license to sin more. We are not just forgiven; we are changed. We have Christ’s Spirit within us empowering us to resist, avoid and conquer evil in the present and future. Walking around with that power, that grace, who would not smile?
On hearing the Christian message the legalist asks, “Where is the justice in that?” They do not like love being the context of God’s justice. But Christians have to be on guard, for they, too, might ask that question at times, times when they suffer wrongly. God’s love, especially proven in the cross, is God’s brand of justice. It is not the “Even-Steven,” or “Get-Even” brand. Legalists are not the only ones who can complain about the way God is when things do not go as we would like or expect. As long as God’s love is in the world, so is God’s justice and it can be seen in crosses and suffering, for those who look. The answer is not found in human logic or words, but in a human person, our Lord Jesus Christ.
We cannot figure God out. We can only configure ourselves to God’s Son and reflect, by our godly attitudes and behavior, God’s character and characteristics, his love, his compassionate justice.
We will have peace with God if we step back and let God be God and Christ be our savior.
Accepting Christ as our savior means changing our behavior.
The peace and joy we experience now is but a foretaste of eternal peace and joy later.
In union with Christ, even suffering can be turned into a good outcome.
The vision of eternity gives us access to the strength of Christ to endure time and its ravages.
In Christ we can love those who do not love us and those whom we do not like.
Salvation and Surgery: When a person has had an operation for the removal of a cancerous growth and the operation has been successful, that is not the end of the story. Even though the cancer has been removed, there is still danger of infection, complications and even the return of the cancer. Moreover, there might be undetected cancer cells remaining, waiting to flare up and grow. Salvation works the same way. Even though Christ has removed our cancerous sin by the operation of Baptism, that is not the end of the story. We can get infected or re-infected. We can develop complications unforeseen, and the sinful condition can even return if we do not monitor ourselves and change our behavior. Like the surgical operation, the Baptism is successful, but there is more to it than that. Like a cancer survivor or an artery bypass recipient, we have to totally redo the way we live, what we eat and drink, our exercise habits, etc. If we are to enjoy good health, the physical equivalent of spiritual peace, for more than a short period, we must never forget the threat of a relapse. The same is true of the baptized Christian. When a person reverts to his or her former ways and sins again, it does not mean that the Baptism was ineffective or did not “take,” it is that the baptized has foolishly thought he or she was granted immunity instead of amnesty, to use the same legal analogies as did Paul in this passage. No, it involves a lifetime and life-long process of repentance, a continual change or adjustment of heart, mind and body and, consequently, of behavior. Though Christ is like the surgeon and performs the operation from start to finish, the patient must then do his or her part not to undo what the surgeon did by returning to behavior that caused the problem in the first place or, at least, provided the environment for the cancer, sin, to grow and take over one’s whole life.
Salvation and Relationships: When a person falls in love, the feeling is so intense and pervasive that the person believes it cannot get any better. So it is when a person first realizes, really realizes, what Christ has done for him or her. It feels so good that the person erroneously thinks he or she has reached the peak or fullness of the experience. As time goes on, and presuming that the relationship lasts and grows, the person realizes that, though there are peaks and valleys, ups and downs, variations in emotional intensity, nonetheless, the experience gets better. While everyone feels at the time of beginning love that the feelings will last forever, they do not. In many cases, the relationship dies, most often because of unhealthy behaviors. In cases where the relationship grows, something deeper and more substantial takes over, more powerful than feelings, though less palpable. One’s attitudes begin to become more solid and are more pervasive than even emotions. As the couple enters into more and more varied situations, encounter struggle and disagreements, the attitudes trump the feelings and they not only remain together, they actually meld together. Their relationship extends into every aspect of their lives, far more pervasive than the romantic aspect. It becomes total. So it is with salvation. It is like a long love affair with Christ. Positive emotional affect may or may not be present, but the behavior is the same regardless. That’s fidelity. While the actual behavior is not predictable, the assurance of the presence and support of the other person is constant. Each partner takes the other into consideration no matter what the attitude or activity. Couples will change, willingly change, things about themselves out of consideration for the other. This can be as minute as changing one’s usual toiletries or as important as changing one’s entire outlook on life in order to become one. So it is with our relationship with Christ. Amen.
