The Radical Act of God.
Foundations Series • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 7 viewsThe message of salvation is radical.
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What is the most mind-boggling thing you have ever heard of or encountered? Within the last 100 years there have been plenty of events that have left our world turned inside out. The world wars, the feminist movement that influenced vast cultural change. How about the sheer amount of cultural shift that has taken place between the 60s to today. 9/11, how many of you vividly remember that? COVID. How that has changed the landscape of so many things! Then there are the experiences in our personal lives that, while common to the majority of the population, are still absolutely life-altering when they occur. Maybe it’s that first time you held your new born child. Or maybe that time you had a big medical scare that caused your life to look very different afterward. All of us have stories of things that have shaken the core of who we are, the sense of safety or contentedness we want to have, and the value set we hold. These are things we can call “radical experiences.” What does radical mean? Well, there’s a few different senses this word can take, but I like this definition from Merriam Webster: “very different from the usual or traditional.” All of the experiences I just listed above are different from the norm. None of them are supposed to be the traditional, or the usual. Some of them are good, some of them are not so good. But all of them are radical. However, I believe there is nothing more radical, nothing more ground-shaking than the message of salvation. Why is that? Because the message of salvation - the message about Jesus Christ messes with the core of who we are, how we think and feel and act, and turns the entire social system of this world on it’s head.
We’re continuing our series on foundations - what we believe and why we believe it. Together so far we have talked about who our God is. The ONE God in three equal, perfectly united persons. From there we have also considered God’s gift to us: His Word. Exploring the Bible and understanding why it really is God’s final, authoritative Word for us. Last week, Pastor Katie walked with us through Creation. __________ For this week and next, we are focusing on the topic of salvation. Here’s what our SOET outlines in brief for us on our belief about this saving act of the Triune God:
Salvation is available to all people by the loving, redemptive act of the triune God. Through obedience to the Father, Christ gave himself as a ransom.
Christ, who had no sin, became sin for us offering himself and shedding his blood on the cross so that in him we might become right with God.
The life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ provide the way of salvation for those who, by God’s grace, repent from their sin and confess faith in Jesus Christ as Lord.
The message of salvation is radical.
Today, we are going to explore Scripture and see how this loving act of the Triune God - to provide salvation to ALL who will call on Jesus’ name truly is the most radical, the most mind blowing thing that has ever happened in our world.
Radical Love
Radical Love
From the SOET: Salvation is available to all people by the loving, redemptive act of the triune God.
Does the Bible back this as true? Good practice whenever we encounter anything is to take the lens of the Bible to it. We don’t try to fit the Bible into this mold, but rather we ask “does this fit the mold that the Bible gives us?” So is salvation really available to all people, as the loving redemptive act of our Triune God? And is this radical love?
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
God loves the world - the whole of his creation even though they have sinned and rebelled against Him. (SOET commentary, 35). The reality is that God offers the gift of salvation freely to all people.
who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
Doesn’t matter who you are, or what you have done, God offers to you through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ the chance to be free of slavery to sin with the ultimate hope of eternal death, and instead to be bought at a price and be a child of God.
SALVATION IS A FREE GIFT OF GOD, AND THE FULL ACCOMPLISHMENT OF GOD.
Not everyone will come to faith - the reality is that there are some who will never accept that free gift. Perhaps this is one of the hardest things for us to swallow, that there are some who will not be saved. But the reality remains that from a Scriptural standpoint, God loves every person and offers them salvation.
Now, how is this radical love? Well consider Romans:
For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
How many of you would choose to die for your spouse? Probably quite a few. Most of us men would be like “oh yeah honey, I’d take a bullet for you!” Makes us feel all manly I guess. How about for a close friend. Probably the same difference, unless we had a stronger pull somewhere else. The same would be true for our children, or grandchildren.
But now let me ask you this. Would you choose to die for the person who openly mocks you to your face? Would you choose not just to take a bullet for them, but to be beaten, to be cursed at, and to die some excruciatingly long death for the person that would probably be happy to watch you all go through it? Most - if not all of us - would answer with a resounding NO! But this is what God did for us! While we were still sinners - that means that we were estranged from God. We were living contrary to how God wanted us to live and loving it. Yet while we were still enslaved to our sin Jesus comes and pays the price. God loved us so much that Jesus obeyed His Father, chose to come down and limit Himself in human form, take the eternal punishment for our sins. But God did that for us! This is what we read in the Bible. That even when we rejected Him, He died for us. And He gives us time so that any who would accept Christ as Lord and Saviour would repent and turn to Him. This is radical love - it boggles the mind when you consider the ramifications of it.
Radical Sacrifice
Radical Sacrifice
From the SOET: Through obedience to the Father, Christ gave himself as a ransom. Christ, who had no sin, became sin for us offering himself and shedding his blood on the cross so that in him we might become right with God.
This part of the gospel message is so important, and it demonstrates the act of the Trinity in the outworking of the Father’s plan by the Son. So was Jesus just a victim of our sin? Was He just a victim of the plan of salvation? Some sort of passive participant? On the contrary, Scripture tells us - and so we hold it dear - that God the Son in fact voluntarily sacrificed Himself for us.
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
For our sake. The reality is that none of us could pay the price for the sins we have committed. Only God can do this. Only Jesus Christ - the One whose record was clean, could take on the sin of humanity and die so as the pay the debt we owed.
Ok, so I’d like to borrow a little illustration I saw recently from a fellow named Jeromy Martini, but I’m going to need a three volunteers:
Ok great, you stand here, you there, and you over there.
You are evil
You are humanity
You are Jesus
So, as you can see humanity is enslaved to sin. They are in bondage to it and cannot break those bonds. They are headed on a path to death - not just physical death but spiritual death. Complete separation from God. Hell.
Humanity needs a Saviour. One who is willing to die and take their place. One who will pay the price to set us free. This is where Jesus comes in.
Jesus lays down His life for us. Someone had to die, and Jesus take our place. So Jesus obeyed His Father, and in this exquisite gift of love - as 1 John 3:16 shows us - He laid down His life for us. Why is obedience so important?
For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.
So it was an act of disobedience that lead to the fall of man in the first place. It is also an act of obedience that makes us right with God again.
So Jesus gets in this with us. He dies and pays the price. But as you can see we have a problem, because we’re still attached to sin…
But wait. This is where the story gets even better, because Jesus does not stay dead. Instead, as we’ll see next week by the power of the Holy Spirit Christ is raised to life again. He overcomes death, and therefore defeats it! Now, this is where
1 Corinthians 6:20 (ESV)
for you were bought with a price.
We were bought at a price. Jesus has purchased us. So now, Jesus becomes our new owner. We are free from sin and death, and have new life in Christ. But we were bought and paid for with the blood of Christ. So this leaves humanity with two choices: the choice to be enslaved to sin, or the choice to accept the free gift of salvation and become a “slave to righteousness” as Paul puts it in Romans.
But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
But notice one other thing: Now, Jesus has defeated the powers of sin and death. This is where the idea of Christ’s ascension becomes so important, because this is where we see Jesus ruling above all. And though for a time evil still remains, one day Christ is coming back and will fully put away sin and death forever.
Ok, thank you to our wonderful actors. Well done.
So we see this radical act of love of the Triune God, and that this is also a radical act of sacrifice. Christ ransoms us, obeying His Father unto death. In doing so He pays the debt, ransoms us back overcomes, sin and death, and now reigns. This is radical love demonstrated in radical sacrifice!
Radical Transformation
Radical Transformation
From the SOET: The life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ provide the way of salvation for those who, by God’s grace, repent from their sin and confess faith in Jesus Christ as Lord.
This radical love, demonstrated in the radical sacrifice of our Saviour to the Father’s plan, becomes radical life transformation for us. Jesus came to earth as a human being. He is fully human, and fully God. He lived a sinless life. In doing so, He becomes our perfect substitute, able to pay the price for our sins.
For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself.
In His death Christ makes atonement, or pays the debt, giving His life up for us. So he’s paid that debt as we talked about. The sin-debt we had is paid, and the power sin and death had is broken. The curse that occurred way back at the beginning is broken.
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—
Instead, in Christ’s resurrection and ascension Paul says this:
We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
So in His resurrection He paves the way for all who place their faith in Jesus to walk in newness of life. Moreover, as we read in Romans and saw in our demonstration, Christ had to be raised in order that we might be now made right. Now, for those who accept the free gift of salvation - they are transferred from darkness, unyoked from the chains of sin, and instead slaves of God, which leads to eternal life.
So the very last part of our statement rings true:
for those who, by God’s grace, repent from their sin and confess faith in Jesus Christ as Lord.
For any and all who repent of sin and confess Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour, they will be saved.
That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.
What are these verses saying? That for those who place their faith in Christ Christ’s righteousness is given to us as well. Many of you have probably heard this analogy, but it is a good one. And for those who may not have heard it, it is important. Think of a book. On the front cover of this book is written your name. It is the book that has your record in it. Everything you have done, every sin you’ve committed. From the tiniest little dirty thought you’ve had, to the most outrageous sin you have ever committed. It’s all there. That’s what is supposed to lie beneath the cover of that book. But for those who have faith in Jesus, when God opens that book, He sees not the record of your sin, but rather the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and His spotless record. The contents of that book have been removed and replaced, so that now you are righteous before God because of Jesus Christ.
This is radical transformation. Everything changes for you when you meet Christ. Your status, your freedom. And as you live life with Christ, you become more and more like Him. So you continue to be transformed by the power of gospel.
Conclusion
Conclusion
The message of salvation is radical.
The amazing, mind blowing, radical love of the Triune God bought us back from slavery to sin. Through the obedience of Christ we are purchased, and in His resurrection we also have new life. We are radically transformed from slaves to sin into slaves of God. We have the hope of eternal life.
Our statement reflects the testimony that we find throughout Scripture. The message about Jesus Christ. And this simple message is so profound.
If you think back to the beginning, I asked you to think about the most mind-boggling thing you have ever heard of or encountered. If you live on this planet for 20, 30 40, 60, 80 or more years, and often even less time than this, you will encounter life-altering experiences that radically shape who you are. Within the last 100 years alone there have been so many different events that have shaken up the core of our society. They have shaken the core of our being in some cases, challenging who we are, what we hold dear, and where we are going. But nothing compares to the message of the amazing love God has lavished on those who repent and turn to Jesus.
If you do not know Jesus here today, that means you are still living in slavery to sin. Your hope is found in Jesus Christ. The beautiful thing is that you can come to Christ - just as you are - and say, “Lord, I repent of my and ask your forgiveness. I give you my life, and accept you as my Lord and Saviour. Please breath your new life into me as well.” That’s all it takes. But the reality is that when you do that everything changes for you. You experience first hand the radical love of God.
If you know Jesus as Lord and Saviour, you have experienced that radical love firsthand. Many of you here have a strong faith, and have seen many things in your lives. Far more than I have. Of all the life-altering, crazy experiences you may have had, or things you may have seen, the gospel is the most amazing. It shapes who you are right down to the very core of your being. So this week, here is the challenge for you: Go tell someone about it.
I’ve challenged us with this before; maybe you’re getting tired of it. But we need to do this. It doesn’t always look like a “do you know the Lord” conversation. Sometimes it just looks like telling and showing other how God is working in your life. But the challenge still stands, and as we consider the radical love God has lavished on us, I can think of no better way to end our service together than with the commission Jesus gave us as His disciples:
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
You are commissioned to go proclaim the gospel here in this place and wherever God places you, so that anyone who will listen can hear about the gospel that shows us God’s radical love.
Pray