Is It Enough?

1 Corinthians 15:1-11; Isaiah 53:1-6

 

Have you ever been asked the question “Have you been saved?”

          How do you respond to that question?

                   What are people asking when they ask that question?

 

My experience is that the question really is…

          Have your made a personal commitment to Christ?

                   Because often the follow-up question if you say ‘yes’

                             Is ‘When?’ ‘When were you saved?’

                                      And the answer they are looking for is

                                                When you made your personal

                                                          Commitment to Christ.

                   The right answer according our faith heritage

                             Is 33 A.D. when Christ died on the cross

                                      And was resurrected to eternal life.

                   That is the date when you and I were saved.

                             And that is the work of Jesus Christ,

                                      To save us from our sins… to save the world

                                                From sin… and to reconcile us with

God and with each other.

                   This is why Jesus died on the cross so long ago.

 

So then the question arises, “Don’t we have to do anything

to make this saving work of Christ operative.”

          The question really is “What do we do then to complete

                   The work of Christ in our lives.”

Jesus does 99 percent of the work of salvation

 but we have to do the final 1%

to complete Christ’s work.

          Do you buy into that? 

The Apostle Paul didn’t.

 

He scolded the Galatians in Galatians 3:

“I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.  You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?  It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly exhibited as crucified!  The only thing I want to learn from you is this: Did you receive the Spirit by doing works of the law or by believing what you have heard?  Are you so foolish?  Having started with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh?  Did you experience so much for nothing?- if it really was for nothing.”

 

Paul is pretty tough on the Galatians and on us

          When we start to think that we human being

                   Are capable of completing the work of Christ.

          Paul is convinced that God has done the work of salvation

                   promised by the prophet Isaiah 6 thousand years earlier:

                                     

“He was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5)

 

The work of salvation is Christ’s work. And it is enough!!

And our work as Christians in Paul’s day

and our work as Christian in our day

 is to receive that Gospel with thanksgiving

          and share the Gospel with others.

So when someone asks if you have been saved the answer

          Is ‘Yes’ and you can say it with the same assurance of

                   John Calvin who wrote the words

 “I greet thee who my sure redeemer art.”

John Calvin had a shorthand for the work of Christ:

          Prophet, Priest and King.

                   The saving work of Christ is instructive as a prophet;

                   The saving work of Christ is sacrificial as the priest

                             Who offers a sacrifice (himself) for us;

                   And the saving work of Christ attests to the

                             sovereignty of God Lord and King of our life.

So if Christ does all the heavy lifting

          What do we do in our Christian journey?

                   Paul is pretty clear that our job is to receive and

                             Share the redemptive work of Christ:

          “Now I would remind you, brothers and sister, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received and in which you stand, through which also you are being saved… for I handed on to you as of first importance, what I in turn had received; that Christ died for our sins in accordance with scriptures.” (1 Cor. 15: 1-3)

 

This is a pretty tall order “receive and share”

          Especially in our world of 24 hour television programming,

                   24/7 connection through our cell phones,

                             and a world wide web that never sleeps.

          We are barraged with information, stories, perspectives,

Spin, politics all bombarding our lives in real time.

                             We can’t develop filters quick enough to keep

                                      The junk e-mail, sales calls and spam

                                                In check.

          And there are even times when technology claims

                   To be the new messiah.

 

Even though we live in the information age,

          It is harder than ever to make the time to hear the Gospel

                   And figure how to share the Gospel so that it won’t

                             Get lost in the information explosion out there.

 

But that’s our work according to Paul.

      Jesus’ work is the salvation of the world.

          Our work is to tell the world that it is being saved in Christ.

                  

And if ever we get over confident in our calling

          Paul reminds us that it’s not us but the grace of God

                   Working in us that brings about results.

“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me has not been in vain.  On the contrary, I worked harder that any of them-through it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.”

                  

As Presbyterian Christian’s we live in a paradoxical place

          Of supreme confidence in our salvation

and ultimate humility that is it not us but

          our savior Jesus Christ who has saved us.

So we witness by giving thanks and giving praise

and giving our gifts to God knowing that it all pales

in comparison to the gift God has given us

in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

 

Just as John Calvin provided a shorthand way

of remembering the work of Christ in the 17th century

our Brief Statement of Faith helps us remember

          the work of Christ in the world today.

          We are reminded that Jesus “suffered the depths of human

                   pain in the crucifixion.”

                             It is important to remember that the cross

                                      By which Jesus died was a common form of

                                                Execution for revolutionaries

and that Jesus was one of thousands of people

who were crucified in his day by the Roman government

          This is not to diminish the brutal nature of death on the cross

But to remind us that in his death on the cross,

Jesus was suffering in solidarity with humanity.

          It is the life he freely gave in obedience to God and

Our of the love of God for humanity

and not the form of death

                                      that was salvific in our live.

          God suffers with us in Jesus Christ.

                   He suffered with the Jews in WWII in Germany,

                             He suffers with the Sudanese starving in Africa.

                                      And he suffers with you and me.

And the Brief Statement of Faith reminds us that God is in control

          Even and especially over sin and evil and death.

                   That’s hard to believe when we watch the evening news

                             And the world seems to be spinning out of control.

                   The text says that Jesus was vindicated which means that

                             The justice we yearn for in today’s world

is possible in Christ;

                   The power of sin and evil are broken , which means that

                             We are no longer held hostage by our fear;

                                      No matter what color of terror alert there is

                                                And no matter what fear tactics

                                                          Politicians may take.

                             We are not held hostage by fear when

                                      We believe in Christ.

                                                We might still be afraid but

                                                          We are not held hostage by fear!

                   And we are delivered from death to life eternal which means

                             That we can live courageous and bold lives

in thanksgiving to God:

                             We can send folks down to Mississippi

                                      When a hurricane strikes to offer hope;

                             We can send folks over to Greensburg

                                      When a tornado strikes to offer compassion;

                             We can send preachers from our church out into

                                      Small churches in Southern Kansas

                                                To share the gospel;

                             We can travel in a mission of reconciliation to

                                      Israel and Jordan when the rest of the world

                                                Has given up on that part of the world;

                             And we can reach out right here in this community

                                      Sharing the hope and compassion of the

                                                Gospel of Jesus Christ because his sacrifice

                                                          Is sufficient, it is enough.

          Such is the gospel we have received; such is the Gospel

we proclaim in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen