I hope yesterday’s sermon was a challenging one. Speaking from John 14.15-23, I stated that we are called to obey the empowering presence of the resurrected and ascended Christ. The challenge is simple: Jesus speaks as if obedience to his commands is a possibility. John Wesley would agree. He states, in so many words, that we sin not because we have to but because we do not take advantage of the transforming grace of God. This is a revolutionary thought. Many Christians function from the belief that we will always sin, that is, we will always live in disobedience to Christ. But many of us agreed yesterday that sin (disobedience) is forgivable but not excusable, especially in light of what God has done for us in Christ (cf. Romans 6, 7, 8; 1 John 3, 4). In other words, Christ can really transform us so that we actually want to obey him. This does not mean we’ll get it right; our witness to Christ will fall short of his perfect life. We will make mistakes and misjudgments. Our unique personalities and perspectives will get in the way of fully representing Christ’s love. We will always be frail humans, which means we will be tired, gloomy, grumpy, hungry, and sad on occasion (which is not sin per se). Furthermore, our journeys will consist of failures and setbacks, ups and downs. We won’t live flawlessly. We will be tempted, and we might even glance longer than we should at a particular sin. But all of this does not mean that we have to oppose the purposes of God for our lives. Christ can do great things in us and through us. So instead of embracing a gospel of sin-management (Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven), we must assume that God can really transform us (Christians are not only forgiven but empowered to believe and love). What a challenge! What an opportunity: to live and believe that what God commands he also wills to accomplish in our life. Through the empowering presence of Christ—the Holy Spirit, God is working for our transformation. The only question remaining: Will we work with him? Peace.
Question: Is this expecting too much or too little? If the bar is set too high, we will end up being fakes, too low, and we'll set ourselves up for failure. Any thoughts?
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4 comments:
Pastor David, I thought your blog was sound and thoughtful. I like your phrase, "the gospel of sin management" for many of us that is the best we think we can do. What freedom comes from knowing that we really can live a life of faithfulness. Do you think that John Wesley was living a "sin management" christianity before Aldersgate?
I think that if we are truthful about our journey with Christ, one could do no less than to transform and be more like him.
Yes, the bar is high and the challenge is great but nonetheless, the "Call" rings true. What I hear is: through our love of Jesus, we will desire to obey his commandments (to express our love and honor for him), rather than to obey out of a sense of obligation or of fear. I especially appreciate the add on-- We will fall short but aim for an honest striving. Great Message; great delivery.
k
Hey Paul, I’m no Wesleyan scholar, so I’m not qualified to answer your question. I’m tempted to say that he was NOT living in a form of “sin-management.” After all, his commitment was extremely ardent. But he might have been overly committed to an external form of religion, which produced a rather miserable existence. Who knows? On another note: the gospel of sin-management that seems so pervasive in the American church culture says we will always fail, we’re born to sin. Perhaps we need to acknowledge that we’re born to live holy lives. To err is human but to sin is inhuman. Jesus has come to make us fully alive to God and fully present to our neighbor, in short, to make us fully human. Peace to you!
Hi K. Good to hear from you. I believe you're right, we cannot live holy/committed lives in fear. I like what Henri Nouwen said, once we know there's nothing but love in God, we can commit our lives to him (a rough paraphrase). Even his truth derives from his profound love. Praise God. Peace!
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