The text this morning is from Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians, the 6th chapter:
Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says, “In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. We put no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way… We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians; our heart is wide open. You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in your own affections. In return (I speak as to children) widen your hearts also.Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
The Corinthian Church was pretty messed up. Paul and Timothy, writing this letter together, had heard what had happened since the first letter. Do you remember 1 Corinthians, the fifth chapter? Paul finds out that in the Corinthian church there is someone who is living in sin with his stepmother. And do you know how the Corinthians were responding? They were fine with it!
The Corinthians were fine with sin! They thought that since they were saved, since there was no necessity to obey the Law in order to be saved, everything was fair game! So, in this case, this stepson said, “Hey, why not?” And the Church said, “Yes, indeed, why not? Go forth!”
It makes you wonder what else this congregation put up with, if they’re willing to put up with that. Did they put up with drunkenness? Hey, why not? Did they put up with gossip? Hey, why not? Did they put up with slander? Hey, why not? Did they put up with racism? Hey, why not? If the grace of God is so good that it frees you to live any lifestyle that you believe is best for you, hey, why not?
But, that’s not the case, is it? The grace of God is good, yes. And it is so good. But it doesn’t free you to live any which way you please, it frees you to live a holy life, pleasing to the Father as you go out and serve your neighbor. This stepson was sinning against his stepmother and his father. Drunkenness may kill someone, gossip hurts a reputation, slander prevents a reputation from ever being rebuilt. And racism. We’ve seen what racism does again this week, haven’t we?
A young man, Dylann Roof, walked into a church, was greeted warmly by the people there, sat with them during their Bible study time, and then, well, killed nine of them. To be racist is sinful. And to be sinful is to sin against God by not serving your neighbor. Racism is sinful, and it hurts your neighbor, just as every one of our sins hurt our neighbors. We sin against them, and, in the eyes of God, gossip, slander, hatred, malice, unrighteous anger, drunkenness, racism, whatever your sin, it is on the same level as murder. If you hate your neighbor, you might as well just kill them; it’s the same thing.
But, you don’t want to do that, do you? Though we are sinners, we are yet saints in Christ, and we don’t want to hurt our neighbors any more. We don’t want to hurt them at all. And if you do, perhaps now is your come to Jesus time. And, as you repent of holding onto that sin, that anger, that lack of service to your neighbor, you are forgiven. I forgive you, in the authority of Christ.
You see, you want to forgive and you want to be forgiven. That’s the work of the Church. You know this. You’ve been taught well all your years. But the Corinthian church, they didn’t. You see, at first, they put up with this guy’s sin readily enough. They, in fact, even seemed to encourage it! But, when Paul wrote the first letter to the Corinthians, they turned from their wicked ways, and called this man out in repentance, closing him off. You see, that’s what the Church does. It takes sin, actual sin, not just our own opinions, and it calls it out for the sake of the person committing it. We don’t call out sin to make ourselves feel better; we call it out so that the person committing the sin may repent and be forgiven in Christ Jesus. Everyone deserves this.
We don’t know how long it took the Corinthian man to repent, but he did. He did repent. He stopped living with the woman, he confessed his sin, and he asked to be readmitted to the Lord’s Supper for they had excommunicated him, it seems. That’s what excommunication is all about, by the way. It’s to cut off the forgiveness of sins, which an unrepentant person cannot receive anyway, for the sake of getting them to repent so that they may come back.
He asked to be readmitted, but the Corinthian church was now facing the opposite error. Now, they were too “holy” to let a sinner back in their midst. First, they put up with one of the most heinous of sins and so many more. Now, how dare a sinner be among them. It is one of the most abrupt about-faces in history. They had cast the man out of their church, presumably to save his soul, but now they wouldn’t let him back in.
And that’s why Paul writes to them. It’s why, in just the previous verse to this passage, Paul tells us that, “For our sake [God] made [Christ] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” He reminds the Corinthians that Christ has borne all sin so that we would be righteous, and more than that, the righteousness of God, His ambassadors, preaching the Gospel of the reconciliation between God and man. Actually, that’s really what chapter 5 is all about: the ministry of reconciliation, the preaching of the forgiveness of sins.
But the Corinthians forgot this. And so Paul is reminding them, do not receive Christ’s forgiveness in vain, that is, forgive as you have been forgiven. Isn’t it true that no one knows the depths of your own depravity as well as you do? Isn’t it true that, besides God, no one knows those special, secret sins that you hide in your heart? And isn’t it true that those sins have been washed away from you as far as the east is from the west? Isn’t it true that our Lord has forgiven you? Isn’t it true that you have received the Lord’s body and blood for the forgiveness of all of your sins from His very hand? If Christ has not condemned you there, then neither do I, then neither can any. You cannot condemn another person for their sin when they are repentant because Christ never did. And guess whose word wins, Christ’s or yours? Always Jesus. Even upon the cross, when Christ by the world seemed to be defeated, He was the one who had taken your sin unto Himself, becoming sin for your sake, and there He died, tortured, beaten, whipped, all because He was innocent, yet bearing your sins. Christ, there upon that cross died so that you would never be condemned, so that He would send His means of grace to you to forgive your sins, and so Christ has.
And so, when the Corinthians refused to forgive the man, Paul wrote again to them, saying that even he, the Apostle of the Apostles, never put an obstacle in the way of anyone receiving salvation, forgiveness. He never would. He never would refuse to bring a person the forgiveness of Christ won for them on the cross. Even if you were Dylann Roof, Paul would come to you, and he would preach to you, and you would repent and receive the grace of God in Christ Jesus. We pray this for this boy. And we pray this for ourselves, that we are always repentant sinners. For when we are, we will receive the grace of Christ all the more.
Paul endured much for the sake of this work. You want to beat him? Fine. Imprison him? Okay. Riot against him? Sure. Starve him, torture him, afflict him in every way? You want to lie about him? Say he doesn’t know the Word of God? Say he’s not really an Apostle or a pastor? You want to say he’s unrighteous, that he’s a dead man, that he’s too poor, that he’s too angry, or too sad, or whatever other lie you can think about him? Fine. But he’s still going to bring the Gospel of Christ Jesus to you.
That’s the ministry of reconciliation. That’s what Christ has done. What Christ has done on the cross is so incredible that it causes a murderous man to repent, turn, and begin ministering to others in the name of Christ. It causes a man who lived in relative luxury to give everything up to bring the Gospel to his neighbors. It caused Paul to be sent out into the world so that the Good News of Christ would one day reach your ear and you would hear and you would believe in the one whom God sent to redeem you from your sins. And what Christ has done, it converts us, repents us, makes us believe, because it always tells us that we are His, and His alone.
Those sins you commit, whether by allowing sin to rule around you, or by thinking yourself too holy compared to those surrounding you, those sins against your neighbor, they have been forgiven this day. You confessed them, they are gone from you. And every sin you ever commit will be gone because our God is faithful and just, ready to forgive all sins.
In the same manner, we should be ready to forgive all sins, for we have been made to be the righteousness of God. And even when we fail in this, our Lord stands ready to forgive you, for He knows your weakness; He took on your flesh. He knows your sorrows; He went to the cross for you. He knows your griefs; He died for you. He forgives you all of your sins; He was buried in your place. And He knows the stubbornness of your heart, a heart He will change and soften; for He was resurrected from the dead for you to give to you the seal and promise of everlasting life with Him. And He can do this; for He reigns at the right hand of God the Father, possessing all power, even the power to forgive sins. That’s what a ministry of reconciliation looks like, the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ all for your sake, that you may hear, you may believe, you may repent, you may be forgiven. That is the true message of the open heart of the Church: Jesus always for you. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment