Dying to sin and living in Christ

When God calls us and we answer, “Yes!” we move from one state to a completely new one.   So often when we get stuck in a rut we say “If only I could start again.”   This is actually what we get when we respond to God’s call.   It is an extremely fortunate state of affairs.   Whatever we have done, whatever we have said that has been wrong, it is all wiped out completely.   It need never concern us again.   Our past activities once tied us down as tight as the bonds that tied Isaac down as his father prepared to sacrifice him.

               

Not only do we experience the opportunity to start again but we actually gain freedom.   Some years ago there was a world church council slogan: “Jesus Christ frees and unites.”   This is the very truth.   In the story of Abraham and Isaac, both become free.   Isaac is released from his bonds and Abraham is freed from his promise to do God’s will, regardless of what he is asked to do at that point.   God frees Abraham from the act of killing and from the prospect of losing his beloved son.   This points us forward to Jesus on the Cross.   In this case God gives his Son to be killed.   He goes further than Abraham and makes the ultimate sacrifice.

So often we can look back through the telescope of time and make links between Old and New Testaments.   We encounter many echoes of the Old Testament in what we read in the gospels.   So much of the history of Israel connects with what Jesus said and did as he led his small band of friends and followers around the Holy Land.   Indeed, this was how the people were able to understand the relevance of Jesus – what he stood for and how God is willing to free those who are bound in sin..  It all found relevance in their amazing history.

The first section of Romans 6 in the Good News Bible is headed “Dead to Sin but Alive in Union with Christ.”   In committed alignment with Christ we are freed from sin completely.   In fact, Paul goes further and declared that we are dead to sin.   In other words this is a new life and the old one has died, gone forever.   There is a significant finality about this amazing death of the persons we once were.   All through the 2,000 years since Jesus walked the Palestine roads there has been an assurance that, in this new life, we can achieve goals previously not considered possible.   In the moments of doubt we have whispered to ourselves, “Yes we can.”   The price has often been high but the prize has been won.

We read John’s gospel and we hear Jesus say, “I am the way, the truth and the life.”   Paul spells it out clearly in today’s chapter from Romans:   “Sin must no longer rule in your mortal bodies, so that you obey the desires of your natural self. ¹³ Nor must you surrender any part of yourselves to sin to be used for wicked purposes. Instead, give yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life, and surrender your whole being to him to be used for righteous purposes. ¹⁴ Sin must not be your master; for you do not live under law but under God's grace.”

The key words here are “give yourselves to God.”   To give ourselves to God is to gain immense freedom.   In his famous hymn, Charles Wesley wrote “Tis mercy all, immense and free.”   In his mercy, God sets us free and the immensity of his love is clear for us to see.   That freedom leads us to declare our love for God in Jesus Christ and to say “Therefore we can make a difference.”   After she moved in to the manse I went to welcome our new Superintendent Minister.  We sat together that morning and I said I thought she would make a difference in our circuit.   Her reply was, “Of yes, I’ll make a difference!”

The proof of the pudding is, as ever, in the eating.   We have all seen her make a difference.   Even though we shall only have her with us until next year that difference has liberated us and enables us to move forward in a way we might not otherwise have discovered.   We have become renewed and invigorated so we are equipped to keep the work rolling.   We can use the freedom God has given to drive our mission forward.   It is, I suppose, accurate to describe our circuit as comprising mainly retired people.   Yet, today, I see a light in the eyes of the elderly Christians who make up our little flock that tells me that the future is bright.   It all depends on that light not being put out.   So we need to be sure not to let our spirits dim, but champion the greatest cause of all – that of Jesus Christ.

Turning to our three verses from Matthew’s gospel we learn all about the word, welcome.   Jesus says “Whoever welcomes you, welcomes me: and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.”   If we turn a few pages over we arrive at Matthew 25 where we hear: “Whenever you did this for one of the least important of these brothers of mine, you did it for me!”   And the fact is that acts of kindness are not restricted to Christians.   The joy that kind acts can generate is possible anywhere and at any time.

Recently, during the month of Ramadan, a Muslim drove for an hour after sunset to share a meal in a restaurant with his wife in Manchester.   The restaurant management refused him access because his footwear was deemed inappropriate.   He was wearing slip on sandals.   He left the building and soon found himself in conversation with John, a homeless man.   Because he was homeless John had qualified for a new pair of boots.   He agreed to let the man borrow the boots so he could have his meal in his chosen restaurant.   John couldn’t wear the sandals because he took size 14 and the sandals were 9.   After the meal they met up again and John got his new boots back.   The man insisted on giving John £10 and a passerby, hearing their conversation, added £50!

Many years ago I was speaking to a woman about something I had done.   I cannot remember what it was, but I remember her saying, “You were doing it for the Lord.”   That didn’t make sense to me.   Whatever it was I was just doing it.   It never entered my head that I was doing it for God.   In these last verses in Matthew 10 it is spelled out very clearly that there is a four link chain going on.   Firstly, there is God, out of whose love the whole process of salvation began.   Secondly, there is Jesus who brought that message to humankind.   Thirdly there is the human messenger, the prophet who speaks, the good man who is an example, the disciple who learns, who in turn all pass on to others the good news they have received.   Fourth in the chain there is the believer who welcomes God’s people and God’s message and who finds life in his soul.

Each one of us is able to find our own place in this four link chain.   We cannot all be the same thing.   Imagine what it would be like if we were all preachers or all teachers, all playing out the same role.   It would be chaos.   But when we work out where we fit in with our many different strengths and gifts we find that we make up a complete entity and are able to organise the mission we need to follow.

Playing out all the many parts becomes enjoyment in all senses of the word.   We are set on fire and want nothing else but to go out and spread the good news. October will see two churches in our circuit involved in an event we are calling “Mixed Blessings.”   We have called it that because we all have our own abilities and talents which we can bring to God.   These are our blessings and they are a real mixture.

There is a church in America who, a few years ago, launched a new start with the title, “God is still speaking.”   He most certainly is speaking.   He speaks through Jesus who speaks through and we speak in our own turn as we talk to people who are looking for some purpose, something worthwhile in life.

This is the message in those three verses that complete Matthew 10.   We are all equipped with many gifts and if we put them together we can take the gospel to the world.