Share the Solution to Sin

My neighbor has a child that is special needs.  He loves it when we put up our Christmas star decoration.  They don’t go to church.  What should I say?   

I invited the HOA board members to my house last Monday and when I offered him some home-made beef jerky he said, “My church doesn’t let us eat beef during Lent.”  And then he said, “What’s the different between Catholic and Lutheran churches?”  What should I say?  

Maybe you’ve run into those situations, too. 

If you’re dating and find out the other person is an atheist and says, “No thinking person would be a Christian.”  What should you say? 

Your uncle is dying from cancer and he never went to church.  What should you say? 

I suppose in all these examples you could hand your neighbor, your date, your uncle a Bible and say, “Here, read this.”  But this is a thick book and you want to get to the core of what counts the most.  You want to highlight the main truths of the Bible that Divine Peace is built on and how it’s different from other religions.  You want to get to the solution that makes the difference whether a person ends up in hell or heaven.  Today the theme of our worship is Rethinking The Solution to Sin.  In Numbers we heard about a snake on a pole that made a huge difference in the lives of people.  In the Gospel of John we heard the most famous Gospel Passage in the Bible.  Today in Ephesians 2 we will listen to St. Paul and be inspired to

Share The Solution To Sin

What We Do

It has been the same since the days of Adam and Eve.  Death hangs over the heads of everyone because they broke God’s only command, “but you shall not eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, for on the day that you eat from it, you will certainly die” (Gen 2:17).  So almost every day in the DFW area someone learns that their son was in a serious accident on the freeway and he did not survive.  Or “We regret to inform you that your daughter was reported dead at 0800 on July 26.  On behalf of the Secretary of Defense, I extend to you and your family our deepest sympathy in your great loss.” Or “The ultrasound shows that the baby’s heart has stopped beating.”  Reports of death hit us like a ton of bricks.  Really, it’s the timing of the death notice that shocks us, for we all know that we all have a death notice hanging over our heads, but the date just hasn’t been written in yet.  So, when we’re talking to our neighbor, co-worker, boyfriend, or uncle the first thing we want to make clear is that death is a reality for everyone.

While most people won’t argue that we will all die physically, what most people don’t know is that we all were born spiritually dead.  “You were dead in your trespasses and sins.” This is tough to grasp.  What people want to believe is that we are all born innocent.  When I hear people say this I have learned that they mean babies are not responsible for what they do, yet.  However, those the Bible calls sinful actions, but St. Paul is talking about the sinful nature and resulting sinful actions.  You can have a runny nose and cough, but those are symptoms of a virus.  St. Paul is talking about the sinful virus we inherited from our sinful parents and explained what it looked like.

You were dead in your trespasses and sins, ² in which you formerly walked when you followed the ways of this present world. You were following the ruler of the domain of the air, the spirit now at work in the people who disobey. ³ Formerly, we all lived among them in the passions of our sinful flesh, as we carried out the desires of the sinful flesh and its thoughts. Like all the others, we were by nature objects of God’s wrath.   

So, if we are going to Share The Solution To Sin, to be honest with people we care about to know what it takes to have a relationship with God and end up in heaven, we have to help them come to grips with this “Spiritual Death Notice.”  There is no such thing as a sinless baby and no human is holy as God demands as the Psalmist said, “There is no one who does good. There is not even one” (Psalm 14:3).

What Should I say to Share The Solution To Sin?  What Can A Person Do?  Death is the start.  Dead people can’t do anything.  So, in order to get people to Rethink the Solution to Sin we first need to share with them that God’s Word says no one has the spiritual power to reconnect to God.  And until a person realizes that there is nothing we can do spiritually because of our sin nature, they will try to fill the void with something a person can do.  Often times they will confuse our physical nature—that is the ability to choose between earthly things such as should I drive a Ford, a Chevy or a Ram—with our spiritual nature—that is the inability to choose to be right with God.  So, whether you’re talking to yourself, neighbor, co-worker, boyfriend or uncle, tell them that when it comes to having a good relationship with God, to have certainty of where I’m going when the date is written on my Death Certificate, What We Do Is Nothing.  To be changed from spiritual death to spiritual life is a miracle.  The Solution To Sin is…

What God Does

Let me use the example of people being raised to life in the Bible.  In every example of a person being raised from death to life was a miracle of God. (Elisha and the widow of Zarephath’s son, Elijah and the Shunammite Woman’s Son, widow of Nain’s son, Jairus’ daughter, Lazarus or Jesus himself).  God alone was at work changing physical death to physical life.  Likewise, when a person is changed from spiritual death to spiritual life it is a miracle of God.  St. Paul wrote,

“⁴ But God, because he is rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, ⁵ made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in trespasses. It is by grace you have been saved! ⁶ He also raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. ⁷ He did this so that, in the coming ages, he might demonstrate the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. ⁸ Indeed, it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast.”

Do you know what you just heard?  It’s the gospel!  It’s the best news anyone could ever hear.  God graciously went to work to raise us up from spiritual death to spiritual life.    What did the Israelites do to be healed from their snake bits?  Nothing. God did it with his promise of healing by looking at the snake on a pole.  Nicodemus, what did you do to be born from your mom and dad?  Nothing.  Lazarus, what did you do when Jesus raised you from the dead?  Nothing.  And what did you do to be raised from spiritual death to spiritual life?  Nothing.  Paul summed it up in this phrase, “and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast.” God did it all.  And just to show how impressive and powerful God’s word is, Paul added, “⁶ He also raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” God is so big and so powerful and so gracious that he brought you to spiritual life and he considers you right now to be seated on the heavenly thrones through faith in Jesus Christ.

So, whether you’re talking to yourself, neighbor, co-worker, boyfriend or uncle, tell them that when it comes to having a good relationship with God, to have certainly of where I’m going when the date is written on my Death Certificate, that the Solution To Sin now and forever is that God Does Everything.  We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, created and sustained by God by the power of the Gospel in Word and sacrament.  Rejoice. Be Thankful.  God created you and God adopted you as his own dear children by the power of Jesus Christ.  Is that it?  Is there nothing more I need to say?  We did nothing.  God did it all. And

That Changes Everything

Our being brought to faith is God’s gracious miracle.  And some might be tempted to say, “If God has forgiven all my sins, then why can’t go out an sin all I want because I’m forgiven anyway”?  That attitude is not from a heart of faith, but a heart of mockery.   After God creates faith in our hearts, faith works.  We get to be what God has made us.  His adopted children living free in Christ, but that doesn’tmean we live free from Christ.  So, what are we going to tell our neighbor, co-worker, boyfriend or uncle?  St. Paul took care of that. “⁸ Indeed, it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast. ¹⁰ For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared in advance so that we would walk in them.”  Faith works!  Faith is alive.  Faith is so certain in God’s grace and forgiveness that we can stake our lives on it.  

So, let’s make this real.  How am I going to get this congregation to behave?  I will keep talking to you about sin and your Savior which changed you on the inside so you can slowly but surely mature as children of God.   How am I going to get people to stop their addictions (alcohol, video games, porn, etc)?  I will announce God’s judgment on sin and how we deserve his punishment both now and forever.  Then I will announce the miracle of God’s love in Jesus Christ.   God uses the gospel to change them on in inside and take them from thoughts about pleasing themselves, to pleasing God.  How am I going to convince you that everything you have is a gift from God and you are only being a manager of those gifts?  What is going to convince you that your offerings to God are a reflection of your faith in God?  What will convince you to be firstfruit, generous, proportionate, cheerful givers because you can’t think of anything more fun to do with your blessings than to use them to share the gospel with more people and be a not part of the congregation who is greedy or stingy with their gifts?  I will share God’s promises with you that change you in the inside and turns greed to generosity and builds your trust in Jesus.

So, whether you’re talking to yourself, neighbor, co-worker, boyfriend or uncle, tell them that when it comes to having a good relationship with God, to have certainly of where I’m going when the date is written on my Death Certificate, that the Solution To Sin now and forever is that not anything we do, but that God Does Everything.  He changes us on the inside so that we can walk around motivated by his love in the good things he has prepared for us to do.  We get to live free in Christ.

We all know people who have been turned off of organized religion.   Tell them they might want to rethink that because your organized religion is helping hundreds of families in the Texas Wild Fires because Jesus loves us so much.  We all know people who don’t think going to church is worth anything.  Tell them to rethink that because at your church you are build up by the Good News of Jesus who loves us and died for us to forgive us our sins.  I can’t hear that enough.  We all know people who are busy with job, families, friends, parties and kids that all they can focus on is money.  Tell them to rethink that because when the date is written on our death certificate, we’re not taking any of that money with us.  Dear Christian friends, tell yourself, your neighbor, co-worker, boyfriend or uncle, tell everyone that when it comes to having a great relationship with God there is nothing we can do, because God has done it all for us.  And that changes us to have a wonderful life free in Christ—Who Is Our Solution To Sin!  Amen!