A well-worn one
dollar bill and a well-worn twenty dollar bill arrived at an
incinerator to be retired. As they moved along the conveyor belt to be burned,
they struck up a conversation.
The twenty dollar bill reminisced about its travels all over the county. "I've had a pretty good life," the twenty proclaimed. "Why I've been to Las Vegas and Atlantic City, the finest restaurants in New York, performances on Broadway, and even a cruise to the Caribbean. ""Wow!" said the one dollar bill. "You've really had an exciting life!"
"So tell me," says the twenty, "where have you been throughout your lifetime?"
The one dollar bill replies, "Oh, I've been to the Methodist Church, the Baptist Church, the Lutheran Church ..."
The twenty dollar bill interrupts, "What's a church?"
The twenty dollar bill reminisced about its travels all over the county. "I've had a pretty good life," the twenty proclaimed. "Why I've been to Las Vegas and Atlantic City, the finest restaurants in New York, performances on Broadway, and even a cruise to the Caribbean. ""Wow!" said the one dollar bill. "You've really had an exciting life!"
"So tell me," says the twenty, "where have you been throughout your lifetime?"
The one dollar bill replies, "Oh, I've been to the Methodist Church, the Baptist Church, the Lutheran Church ..."
The twenty dollar bill interrupts, "What's a church?"
How
many of you have heard of a weapon called the AK-47 assault rifle?
It
was invented by a Russian general named Mikhail Kalashnikov. The gun became
popular with terrorist groups and many nations because it is simple and almost
impossibly to destroy. When the general was confronted about the number of
lives his weapon had taken, the general replied, “I have no regrets and bear no
responsibility for how politicians have used it.”
The
general died in December of 2013, and shortly before his death he might have
regretted his words. In a letter he wrote to the head of the Russian Orthodox
Church, he asked, “If my rifle took away people’s lives, then can it be that I
am guilty for people’s deaths, even if they were enemies?”
All
of us have sins hidden in the back of our minds and in the corners of our
hearts. These private sins give us grief any time they come to the surface of
our thoughts. Even though they might have been forgotten by others, and even
though we have been forgiven by God, the sins still bother us. The apostle Paul
offers us this assurance: “Sin will have no dominion over you, since you are
not under the law, but under grace.”
There
are other people who believe that by doing good deeds they will get to heaven
when they die. Unfortunately, they are dead wrong. The only way we can gain the
new life that salvation offers is to die a spiritual death. In other words, our
sin-filled nature has to die, and the only way it can die is if we accept Christ
in faith. That is the point of Romans 6:1-13.
Just
like Christ died, was buried, descended to hell and rose again, we have to be
“buried” with him by baptism into faith. Only then can our link to our old,
sinful life be severed. When we die to sin, death has no more dominion over us.
We are reborn into a new life in Christ, just like Christ was resurrected from
the dead. Our new “body” is clean, and it must be kept free from sin.
Some
people also believe that once our sins are forgiven, they will continue to be
forgiven, so we can continue to do whatever we want to. The German pastor and
martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer described this attitude as “cheap grace.” People who
have this attitude are forgetting one thing. Grace may be cheap for us, but it
was not cheap for Jesus. He paid a heavy price, because he paid for God’s grace
with his life. Grace is not a ticket to a sin-filled life. Grace does not give us permission to sin.
God’s loving grace is the free offering that leads us to salvation. Grace is
not the same as salvation. Grace is the coming together of Jesus’ perfect
sacrifice and his obedience to the gospel. We do not go to heaven because we
want to go. We get to go to heaven because of God’s grace, but only if we
accept it by faith.
Reconciliation
to God requires repentance, and repentance requires remorse. Remorse requires
responsibility because we have to accept responsibility for our actions.
Repentance restores relationships. Reconciliation reaps rejoicing, as in the
Parable of the Prodigal Son when the father rejoiced at the return of his
wayward younger son.
The
key to salvation is baptism. Water baptism is an outward expression of the
inner transformation of Christ. As we step into the water, we are in Christ. As
we are immersed in the water, we are buried with Jesus, and as we rise from the
water we are raised with him to a new life. As we walk away from the water, we
show that we are walking with Jesus in a new way of life. We can also cry “It
is finished” because everything that can be done about our sins has been done
by Jesus. Our old way of life has been crucified with Christ and we have been
freed or justified from sin. Once we have been freed from sin, we have to apply
what we have been taught about our relationship to sin to our own lives. Once
we have done that, we must say “no” to sin.
When
we are baptized, we die to sin just like Christ died for our sins. We become a
new creation, and as such we must live a new, resurrected life. We are called
to make the same type of sacrifice that Jesus made. We must make that sacrifice
as an act of devotion for what Christ has done for us. We must also make this
sacrifice because there are people who have not yet received Christ’s grace.
People need to see God’s grace, love and peace lived out in human form.
When
we are baptized, we become united with him in that we are buried with him. Our
life to that point is over and a new life begins. Our sins have been removed.
The barriers that have kept us from the joy and freedom of the Gospel have been
removed. We are free to live Christ’s love. We have been made righteous because
of Christ’s sacrifice. God declares that we as sinful people are righteous, and
that righteousness is based on a belief and trust in Jesus instead of on our
good works. God imputes or credits Christ’s righteousness to sinners who
believe in Christ and accept what he did for them on the cross. God justified
himself by punishing sin.
The
Law of Moses was good, holy and righteous, but it could not be kept, and so it
cursed the people. The Law could only show God’s standard and condemn people
who could not keep it. It could only trouble people’s consciences about their
deeds just like General Kalashnikov’s conscience troubled him. The Law kept the
people in chains, and today we are still in captivity. Some of us are captive
to shopping. They can’t pass up a sale, even if their homes are already full of
unnecessary stuff. Some people are slaves to food. They have never met a Tim
Horton’s donut that they didn’t like. Some people are slaves to their jobs.
They hate their jobs, but they are being paid too much to quit. Some
corporations are slaves to greed. Their only concern is the bottom line.
Some
people are slaves to human standards. Human standards can only trouble people’s
consciences because humans are condemned when they can’t keep human standards. We
can easily distort the true Word of God by adding our own traditional practices
and making them equal with God’s original plan. We need to stand against these
practices as the Lord did before we become tied to man-made traditions.
On
the other hand, God does not condemn us when we fail to meet his perfect
standards if we accept by faith the knowledge that Christ paid the penalty for
our sins. When God calls us into holy living, his call comes with the
conviction that we are to be different. If we try to run our lives the way we
used to run them, we will fail. The only way to succeed is to have faith in
Jesus. If we do, God will accept us by grace. There is nothing we can do to
make God love us more or less.
How
many of you remember the Peanuts comic strip character named Pig-Pen? The
creator of the comic strip, Charles Schulz, described Pig-Pen as “a human soil
bank who raised a cloud of dust on a perfectly clean street.” Wherever Pig-Pen
went, he had a dirt cloud that loomed around him. It was a nasty, ugly stink
cloud. When we show a lack of self-control by allowing sin to enter our lives,
it is like a big stink cloud that follows us wherever we go.
The
winner of the battle between the Spirit and the flesh depends on which one we
feed. It is like the trapper who owned two dogs that he trained to fight. Every
month he brought them to town to fight. The townspeople would bet on the
winner. The owner also bet on the dogs, and he always won. Some people caught
on and asked the owner how he knew which dog would win. The owner answered “The
one who wins is the one I feed.”
We
must set our minds on the things of God, seeking to please him and be obedient
to him in all we do. That way, we feed the Spirit and insure our victory over
sin. Choosing Christ helps us make better choices in life. When people accept
Christ as their Saviour, they live happier, more fulfilled lives. Christ has
changed what they believe themselves to be. They can trust the promise God made
at their baptism that they would always be his children, and that no sin would
be too big for him to forgive.
1.
Jamieson, R.;
Fawcett, A.R. & Brown, D.: Commentary
Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (Oak Harbour, WA: Logos
Research Systems Inc.; 1997)
2.
Briscoe, D.S.
& Ogilvie, L.J.: The Preacher’s
Commentary Series, Vol. 29: Romans (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc.;
1982)
3.
Norman, R.S.,
“Justification by Faith” as in D.S. Dockery (Ed.): Holman Concise Bible Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman &
Holman Publishers; 1998)
4.
MacArthur,
J.F. Jr.: The MacArthur Study Bible, NASV
(Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc.; 2006)
5.
Radmacher,
E.D.; Allen, R.B. & House, H.G.: Nelson’s
New Illustrated Bible Commentary (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc.; 1999)
6.
ESV Study
Bible. Part of Wordsearch 10 Bible software package.
10. Dr. Jack Graham, “What You Have to Do to Go to
Heaven.” Retrieved from Christianity.com@crosswalkmail.com
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