Reformed Evangelical Synod of America

Posts Tagged ‘Union With Christ’

Scripture Readings for the Lord’s Day from the Provisional Book of Common Prayer RESA:

Deuteronomy 4:1-9
Psalm 119:97-104
James 1:17-27
Mark 7:1-23

In our Gospel reading today, our Lord ignores a trivial complaint, unfolds the self-deceptions of our legalism and man-made “spirituality”, and identifies our ultimate problem – our sinful hearts. In our last three Lord’s Days, John 6 has reminded us of the absolute necessity of our union with Christ to translate us from death to life, from ‘in Adam’ to ‘in Christ’, from darkness to light, and from death to life itself because He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

As Jesus’ ministry threatens the power of the establishment leaders and they cannot dispute that true miracles have been done, experts from Jerusalem are seemingly brought in to consult how best to halt our Lord’s progress and make clear how He and His ministry cannot be of God. So they attack the disciples for failing at the point of failing to comply with one of a myriad of traditions that had been created to help the people of God obey God’s law but which had become a law unto themselves… and a system, Jesus shows, that helped corrupt hearts evade the intent of God’s Law.

The real issue is their pseudo-spirituality and pretense of godliness when their hearts are wicked. They want to appear pious. Jesus condemns them because they rejoice in practices like the practice of “Corban” which let them evade God’s will while deluding themselves and others about their hearts’ true condition. Corban was the practice of giving something to God to be held in trust. Resources that might have been used to obey the command to help frail parents were enjoyed by children instead under the pretense of Corban.

The problem is not ultimately the food from outside. In light of Christ, we realize that all food is “clean” in the sense that it cannot truly defile the soul. These “traditions” are but a symptom of our true problem – that our hearts, to paraphrase Calvin, into factories which ceaselessly generate idols. We are corrupted from the inside out and straining at gnats while swallowing camels is our favorite method for denying our corruption and seeking to look good. The world’s greatest modern thief, Bernie Madoff, was known before his arrest as a “generous philanthropist”. Like him we are thieves with smiles pretending our good will before God. Our only hope is to be incorporated into Christ as Question & Answer 20 of the Heidelberg Catechism remind us: Our need is not for a change of opinion or for new mental furniture. Our need is to be grafted into Christ and to receive his benefits! Jesus Christ is the only cure for the sickness of our sick hearts. We must be delivered by the One whom God has appointed to be for us our wisdom, righteousness (justification), sanctification and redemption (1 Cor 1:30). Luther’s Small Catechism makes the same point in its discussion of the sacrament of initiation into Christ, baptism, when it says: What does such baptizing with water signify?–Answer. It signifies that the old Adam in us should, by daily contrition and repentance, be drowned and die with all sins and evil lusts, and, again, a new man daily come forth and arise; who shall live before God in righteousness and purity forever.

This amazing transformation is beyond our power. It comes only from the One who has died for sinners, risen to the Father’s right hand, and poured out His Holy Spirit to fit a people for eternal life. When confronted with the corruption of our hearts, when our deceitful legalisms are exposed for what they are, and when all human hope is lost – we are, by the grace of God, finally ready to receive Him who is all mercy and grace, the One able to transform us and give us eternal life, Jesus the Christ.

Here’s an audio version of this sermon as preached at St. Andrew’s Church

One question our Synod has fielded in the past is “Why the Heidelberg Catechism?”.

As our Synodical work progresses, we will be issuing a revision of the Heidelberg Catechism adapted for our own use. But why not begin de novo?

Hopefully our introduction we provide to a work on the Heidelberg helps answer that question.

The Heidelberg Catechism reflects the fruit not only of that generation but represents a crystallization of thought within the Western Christian tradition itself. It stands as witness to the “Catholicity” of the doctrine of Justification by Faith available to all those who find their hope in Jesus Christ alone through faith alone. In our day of increasingly “churchless” Christianity, the Catechism also bears witness to a paradigm for the Christian life that emerges from the Baptismal Covenant.

With Baptism as the starting point, our faith resides in the objective promise of God through the Church (the Body of Christ in its witness). The other alternative is that we are left disastrously to the subjective experience of the autonomous individual who considers himself free to interpret the Bible however he may will and yet claim to be a “Christian”. In other words, the Heidelberg stands as document that connects the primitive catholic tradition with the challenges of our own day.

For these reasons, our Synod builds upon this classic symbol of the faithful and hopes with it to forge a new Reformed and Evangelical consensus. We pray that such a consensus results in a vibrant contemporary mission and ministry for this day and age.

Scripture Readings for this Lord’s Day:

Joshua 24:1-2a,14-18
Psalm 71
Hebrews 11:24-28
John 6:60-69

Our readings from God’s Word today have been about how we answer the question – where will we go to find LIFE?

As Joshua talked to the people who entered the Promised Land, he called them not to serve the false gods their fathers served in Egypt. Find life in the One who has delivered you, Joshua said.

Moses, the Book of Hebrews reminds us, “chose to be mistreated with the people of God rather than enjoy the temporary blessings of sin”. By faith he turned his back on comfort and security and took God at His Word and was delivered from the judgement brought by the Angel of Death.

Jesus’ disciples this day in the Synagogue had plenty of examples throughout Scripture of taking God at His Word…trusting God to do the impossible and bearing the shame of following the Lord when the supposedly “smart bet” was on the power of the forces of this world.

Jesus has been looking them in the eye and telling them that unless they were fed by Jesus Himself becoming united with them in that mystery St. Paul calls “Christ in you the hope of glory” (Col 1: 27), then there was no hope for them.

Now, even Jesus’ own disciples are grumbling just like the unbelieving Jewish leaders were!

It’s important to remember what has gone on earlier in Chapter 6 – Jesus has fed the 5000 in the Wilderness with a miraculous display of God’s Power… then Jesus has walked on the water.

They loved Jesus for doing these things!

In other words, they loved the things Jesus could do for them. They loved it when Jesus put on a good show. They loved having a Messiah at their disposal! They loved it when Jesus would pour out God’s blessing on them but when it came to being united with the one who is Truly God and Truly Man – they rebelled at that and were repelled by that.

And Jesus doesn’t water His words down to keep them around. He wants them to know that eternal life only comes to those who eat Jesus’ flesh and drink Jesus’ blood. “Eating His flesh” and “Drinking His blood” which we do sacramentally in the Lord’s Supper means to become one with Jesus and it refers to what happens when Jesus in His Ascension pours out the Holy Spirit. It is through the Holy Spirit that Jesus’ glorified Body becomes the source and wellspring of eternal life for everyone who is united to Jesus. Through the indwelling life of the glorified Christ applied to us through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, we become people who are alive in Christ instead of remaining those who will die in Adam.

We have a perspective these disciples didn’t have. We have the entire New Testament and what I consider Paul the Apostle’s reflection on this topic in Colossians 1 to help us understand… but Jesus didn’t let them off the hook. He let them know He wasn’t talking about “cannibalism” or something earthly and carnal. He was talking about a new world coming where, to enter it, these disciples would have to be transformed by Jesus. But evidently even His disciples weren’t ready to hear about that.

They wanted blessings, but they didn’t want anything that would require them to become something they weren’t already. It goes back to thinking they were already fitted for heaven. Jesus says no, you’re not! You can only be fitted for eternal life if you are drawn by the Father and united with Jesus Christ’s lifegiving existence in ways they couldn’t – and didn’t care to – comprehend.

Jesus notes their unbelief – He essentially says “If that offends you, what’s going to happen when you see me ascend back to heaven?”

Jesus as the Son of Man is the fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy in Daniel 7:1-13. Jesus is the Son of Man whose kingdom will overcome every other kingdom of the world and before whom the nations will bow! But Jesus tells us that His invincible kingdom will not come without Him, the Son of Man, first being lifted up on the Cross through His suffering and agonies on the cross. There will be an ascension – and incomprehensibly to the Jews – a shameful death along the way. (see John 3:14)

If there’s one thing they didn’t want more than to have to be transformed to be fitted for eternal life, they didn’t want to risk their eternal destiny on a Messiah who says He is going to ultimately conquer – but after a Cross. Nor do they want to be reminded that to benefit from our Lord’s Ascension, they must consider themselves sick and dying like those sinful Israelites in the Wilderness! After all, for Jesus to be lifted up like the Serpent in the Wilderness, those looking to Him must consider themselves as weakened, sick, vulnerable, and sinful as those dying Israelites who were healed there! And so they reject Him just like His enemies.

Jesus explains that this unbelief has resulted because these people have not been given the gift of believing in Jesus from the Father (v. 64). When Jesus told the people that they must not have been chosen by the Father to follow Jesus because of their unbelief, that was the “straw that broke the camel’s back”! Jesus’ words strike at their own concept of themselves as the elect People of God by virtue of their lineage. St. Paul discusses this topic at length in Romans 9-11. Here Jesus simply states that trusting in Him is the Gift of God, of grace and not of works (cf. John 6:29)

Our Lord then asks the Twelve whether they will leave too…

St. Peter asks “To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life! You are the Holy One of God!”

By calling Jesus the “Holy One”, Peter echoes today’s Psalter selection – Psalm 71 – and ascribes to Jesus the faithfulness and blessing Israel ascribed to Yahweh, the Lord:

Your righteousness, O God, reaches the high heavens. You who have done great things, O God, who is like you? You who have made me see many troubles and calamities will revive me again; from the depths of the earth you will bring me up again. You will increase my greatness and comfort me again. I will also praise you with the harp for your faithfulness, O my God; I will sing praises to you with the lyre, O Holy One of Israel. Psalm 71:19-22

Just who ARE we saying Jesus is when we call Him “Lord”? If Jesus is truly “Lord” in the fullness of the language of scripture, He is truly the one in whom the fullness of Yahweh dwells bodily (see Col. 2:9). Only in that way can He be the “Holy One of God” who is the “Holy One of Israel”. As such, He is the One who exists for His own purposes and not for ours. In His grace, His own purposes effect our salvation and blessing, but those mercies flow from His purpose to bless. They are not ours to command as we will.

Many who call themselves disciples, pastors, ministers today are like those who abandoned our Lord. They love the idea of Jesus for what they can receive. There are ministers who are “in it” for the money no matter what part of their soul must be for sale. There are many disciples who will follow Jesus because they hope He is a Messiah who’ll fill their belly, fatten their wallet, and build their (our!) little empires.

But tell them that everything must change about us, that even our ability to believe is the gift of God, that before the eternal glory is revealed, the agony, humiliation, and pain of a cross must be carried. Tell someone they must be born again and repent more profoundly than they have ever known before… and they will find another pastor who will massage their ears to avoid hard words.

Suddenly we reveal that, to us, Jesus Christ is not the Holy one of God. For us, if we will not repent, we show that we considered Jesus to be a Messiah at our disposal and the heavenly gifts at our command. We deny by our lack of repentance that our Lord has come for His own purposes and we are called to humble ourselves before Him!

Blessed are those who can hear these hard words of Jesus and not turn away!

Blessed are those who realize – there’s no place else to go to find eternal life!

Blessed are those who are willing to have their sins and shortcomings removed and to be filled with all the fullness of God!

Bishop Huckaby’s sermon on this topic is available here: To Whom Shall We Go?

Also available:

M. F. Sadler The Gospel According To Saint John