Formed and reFormed by Jesus
What’s the Big Deal About Christmas?
“But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared…”
Jesus’ name = God is Salvation
But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” - Matthew 1:20-21
Yeshua
Joshua
Jehova/Yahweh is Salvation
This passage is looking at how God saves His people.
Did you notice how the idea of God being our Savior is like bookends to this passage?
v.4 - … goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared
v.6 - … whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior
1. The Doctrine of God’s Mercy
A. This isn’t just one thought. Its our “World-View”
A World-View is a formative thought. Foundational
ie “Never get involved in a land-war in
- Never trust a person in a tunic – Land of the Lost
- All religions are human inventions
- We connect to God by being good or by having good intentions
B. Only Two Real Options – Mercy or Effort
Look at v.5
…he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, - Titus 3:5
Not because of works done by us in righteousness
But according to his own mercy
What are “Works Done By Us in Righteousness”?
Simply put, this is anything we do that we think will get us a step closer to God.
- Being here today
- Feeding the poor
- Praying
- Loving your family
- Listening in class
- Working hard to pay the bills
- Not cheating on your marriage
Every little, every big thing we do … it all qualifies as a “work done by us in righteousness”
- Paul isn’t being sarcastic
- This isn’t a veiled way of calling us “self-righteous”
- He’s saying, “For the sake of argument, let’s say you could actually do something good.”
- Would that deed or set of actions be enough to pay for your soul?
? What is there to pay for?
- Sin
- Sin becomes a debt
- Infinitely holy God
God’s Standard (The Great Commandment)
“And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” - Mark 12:28-31
Our Ability To Obey This is Limited
“Can you live up to all this perfectly?”
With This Framework, Our Best Works Fall Radically Short
We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. - Isaiah 64:6
We’re all sin-infected, sin-contaminated. Our best efforts are grease-stained rags. We dry up like autumn leaves— sin-dried, we’re blown off by the wind. - Isaiah 64:6 (the Message)
So that’s option one … connecting to God based on what we do.
Words, Performance, Deeds
What is the other option?
What is God’s Mercy?
Jesus paid for our sins.
In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. - 1 John 4:10
PROPITIATION / ATONEMENT
The cross is the most widely recognized symbol in history.
* Art
* Jewelry
* Tertullian taught Christians to make the sign of the cross
The Cross reminds us not so much of Jesus’ life … but of His death
- Excruciating lit means “From the Cross”
- Josephus crucifixion = the most wretched death
Only for the most despicable deaths
- Began with the Persians 500 BC
- Continued for 900 years, until
- Long suffering, died slowly of asphyxiation
- No decent burial, just left to rot, and then thrown into the dump
- Sometimes up to 6,000 were crucified in a day, put on a highway that stretch 120 miles
- Spartacus died in battle
- 6,000 followers were crucified
- I-5 from
- Sometimes men were crucified at eye level so people could look them in the face as they died
- Women were crucified facing the cross because no one wanted to see a woman in that much pain
THE COLLISION OF GOD AND SIN by Oswald Chambers (My Utmost for His Highest, April 6th)
"Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree." 1 Peter 2:24
The Cross of Jesus is the revelation of God
The Cross did not happen to Jesus: He came on purpose for it. He is "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." The whole meaning of the Incarnation is the Cross. Beware of separating God manifest in the flesh from the Son becoming sin. The Incarnation was for the purpose of Redemption. God became incarnate for the purpose of putting away sin; not for the purpose of Self-realization. The Cross is the centre of Time and of Eternity, the answer to the enigmas of both.
The Cross is not the cross of a man but the Cross of God, and the Cross of God can never be realized in human experience. The Cross is the exhibition of the nature of God, the gateway whereby any individual of the human race can enter into union with God. When we get to the Cross, we do not go through it; we abide in the life to which the Cross is the gateway.
The centre of salvation is the Cross of Jesus, and the reason it is so easy to obtain salvation is because it cost God so much. The Cross is the point where God and sinful man merge with a crash and the way to life is opened - but the crash is on the heart of God.
Elaborating on what happened on the Cross: Romans 3, 2 Corinthians 5
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. - Romans 3:21-25
From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. - 2 Corinthians 5:16-21
Result of What Jesus Did:
- Saved
- Washing of regeneration
- Renewal
- Holy Spirit
- JUSTIFIED BY HIS GRACE
- A different way of view things
- You’re expelled
- Look in his pocket – a gun, hand on the trigger
- He didn’t change the action, he justified it
- A new way of looking at it
- A new view on the same action
- The essence of being a Christian is justification
- Accepted
- Righteous in God’s Sight
- HEIRS
- Your status
- Forgiven
- Adopted
- Loved
- HOPE OF ETERNAL LIFE
Eternally safe
The Gospel is News about What Jesus Has Done … Not Good Advice on How To Live
Your saved by what Jesus did … not by Jesus’ teaching.
? What’s Your Default World-View?
- Works of Righteousness
- Mercy
2. If It’s “ALL HIM” Then It Must Be “ALL HIS”
Lady talking to Tim Keller
I Get it now … if he did everything, then there is nothing he can’t demand.
George C. Scott in the movie “The Bible”
-Abraham and Isaac
3. What Keeps Us From Living This?
Past
Family
Religion
4. Is This “Excellent and Profitable”?
Why be good?
Now that fear of rejection is gone, do you loose all motivation/incentive to live a good life?
- If so, then your only real motivation to live a good life was FEAR
If the Gospel and its freedom sets you free to sin … that is showing that your heart is really loving “sin” more than it loves the Gospel of Jesus.
1799 – John Newton is writing to Mrs. Wathen, King George III’s eye-doctor (oculist) on signs
First a broken and contrite spirit. This is indispensably necessary, for by nature we are full of pride, and God resisteth the proud but giveth his grace only to the humble. Second, a simple and upright spirit free from artifice and disguise. It is said of the blessed man, whose sins are forgiven, in his spirit there is no guile. He is open and undisguised. Thirdly, gentle and gracious tempers. If a man like a lion takes my medicine he presently becomes a lamb. He is not easily offended. He is very easily reconciled; he indulges no anger; he harbors no resentment; he lives upon forgiveness himself and is therefore ready to forgive if he has aught against any. Fourthly, benevolence, kindness, and an endeavor to please in opposition to that selfishness that is our natural character. Fifthly, a spiritual mind that is the beginning of life and peace, a weanedness from the world and its poor toys, and a thirst for communion with God through Christ.
Applying this beyond church/theology
- Marriage
- Civic Duties
- Self-Image