Faith: Fallen Humanity
FAITH: A Celebration of the Canons of Dort • Sermon • Submitted
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· 13 viewsAll people are dead in their trespasses until God brings them alive through faith in Jesus Christ.
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400 years ago, delegates from both Dutch and international churches met over the course of a year in response to a controversial theology concerning the main tenets of faith in Christ. The meetings produced a very thoughtful theological document known as the Canons of Dort. It covers five points of the doctrine of grace, also referred as the five points of Calvinism.
At stake was God’s sovereignty and our assurance of salvation. Arminius, and following his death, his followers, suggested that salvation was based on human response. That God foreknew those who would respond in faith, and he chose them.
To help students remember these five points, the anagram TULIP was used. TULIP stood for Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace and Perseverance of the Saints.
1. New Year’s Resolutions?
a. Yes
Pastor Jim Osterhouse struggled with the Tulip anagram. While it communicates truth, the meaning of the words can be confusing and misleading. He set out to find a different anagram. One day, his friend Rod Marks (a new Christian) came into his office and gave him the anagram FAITH. Faith stands for: Fallen Humanity, Adopted by God, Intentional Atonement, Transformed by the Holy Spirit, and Held by God.
For a more in-depth look at the background information I invite you to check out the Beyond Sunday Blog which you can access on the church’s website. Each weekly blog post will feature a bit more information than could be included in the sermon, daily scripture readings, questions that can be used to generate discussions at mealtimes with your family, or for small groups, and links to other resources.
Are you the kind of person who makes New Year’s Resolutions? Do they help or hinder you? Do they encourage or discourage you? For some people they are great motivators. Resolutions really help them to have a focus, a plan, and it helps them to stick to their decision.
This morning, we’re looking at the first part of the anagram: Fallen Humanity. If you talk to friends, family, even your neighbour over the fence, it doesn’t take long for the conversation to turn to the news or weather. If there’s been a terrible storm, people will talk about it. If there’s a war, or a surge in needles lying around in parks, or a rise in crime, people will talk about it.
Jonathan Edwards, the famous puritan preacher, made all kinds of resolutions in his life, such as: “Resolved, that I will do whatsoever I think to be most to God’s glory, and my own good, profit and pleasure, in the whole of my duration, without any consideration of the time, whether now, or never so many myriads of ages hence. Resolved, to do whatever I think to be my duty and most for the good and advantage of mankind in general. Resolved, to do this, whatever difficulties I meet with, how many soever, and how great soever. Resolved, to live with all my might, while I do live.
All of these things point to the fact that not everything is good and perfect. Talk to people about their own lives, and they’ll be pretty quick to say that while they think they’re not too bad, they know they’re not perfect either.
The Bible tells us why this is. Ever since Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, they and all humanity with them were guilty of sin. says, “sin entered the world through one man.” When Adam fell, he fell completely, and all people after him are completely helpless to save themselves.
Still, others make resolutions and have no luck whatsoever at keeping them. It is another reason to add something to the “did not do” list.
The Bible says in that “All have sinned and fall short of the glory fo God.” That is to say, all have missed the mark, all have failed to live up to God’s standard of living, of meeting his perfect moral character.
b. No
Then there are the people who don’t make any resolutions at all. They know themselves; they know how prone they are to fail. And still others simply don’t find resolutions very effective in their daily living.
To illustrate our helplessness, as described by the Bible, and to show that we’re not, as some have suggested, partially able to save ourselves, Pastor Osterhouse uses the following example.
Resolutions or not, the key to making lasting changes has to do with identity, behaviour and attitude. As Christians, we keep in mind our identity, who we are in Christ, we remember that our proper behaviour comes from Christ living in us, which gives us a hopeful attitude for achieving God’s glory in this life. Our attitude then is not so much what we resolve to do, but what God has resolved to do in and through us.
He says, suppose all of us go to a skyscraper. I ask you all to stay at ground level, while I go to the observation deck, and jump off. I fall to the ground, break a leg, some ribs and my arm. Though I’m in terrible pain, I am still able to drag myself over to a pay phone (my cell phone broke in the fall) and call for help. I can help myself because I’m only partially limited by the fall. That’s what those who think they can offer something to God believe. Yes, they fell, but they can still do something.
Now, suppose I’m miraculously healed from my injuries and I want to show you the Reformed understanding of the fall. I depart from you all at the ground floor, go all the way to the roof, 100 stories up, and I jump. You watch in horror as I fall to my death. I am dead, there’s nothing I can do to heal myself, to help myself or to call for help. I am dead. That’s what being totally fallen into sin means.
2. Future Hope: New Heaven and New Earth
Jesus promises to make all things new. John, while receiving this vision, this revelation, which he wrote down in the book we call Revelation, saw many different things. We can summarise the book of Revelation like this: God Wins. God has defeated everything that works against him.
In our passage, , we read, “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live...” We are dead in our sins. We used to live only to gratify the cravings of our sinful natures. Because of this we were objects of wrath. We deserved God’s punishment. For though he made us to bear his image, his perfect moral character, we only lived to gratify the cravings of our sinful natures.
The old way of doing things is no longer. We can see this in the book of Colossians and the Belgic Confession clearly explains it. The old way of worshipping, of sacrificing, of living is fulfilled in Christ, and now we have Christ in us, living in us! We are able to live as God created us to live, because we are new creations in him.
But God, in his great, amazing, incredible, loving mercy, God made us alive in Christ even when we were dead in our transgressions—it is by grace we have been saved. We did not, could not save ourselves. A dead person can’t do anything for themselves.
Pastor Osterhouse uses another example, but I’ll modify it a bit. Suppose you came into the sanctuary this morning, and found me lying on the floor up here, very sick. Upon sitting down you realise that you forgot your peppermint candy for the sermon. You know that I always have one in my pocket, and so you say, “Pastor Paul, can I have one of your mints?” And since I’m sick, I wearily crawl over to your pew, reach into my pocket and give you a Wilhemina Peppermint.
We didn’t make ourselves new; Christ made us new. The Holy Spirit came into our lives and he made us alive in Christ, so that we could respond to him, and confess Christ as our Saviour and Lord. Because Christ is the author of salvation, he works it out in us. And he proves the effectiveness of what he set about to do, he gives us great hope for the future in the vision he gave to John. Read the book of Revelation, if you haven’t read it already. It has some strange, figurative language in it. But the message is clear: repent, the end is coming. Come to Christ, he makes all things new. One day every person, every being will bow down and worship Christ. One day, Christ will complete the good work he’s begun in all of us. He will make all things new, new heaven and a new earth. And then he adds a seemingly strange statement: “There will no longer be any sea.”
Now imagine the same scenario, but instead of lying up here sick, I’m lying up here dead. If you asked me for a peppermint candy, what would happen? Nothing. I’d be totally unable to respond.
a. Should surfers, boaters and beachgoers despair?
That’s the seriousness of humankind’s fall into sin. We’re totally unable to respond to the gospel. That’s the bad news!
If you’ve ever gone to the ocean, it’s a tremendous amount of fun. Is John telling us that God is going to get rid of the ocean? Does this mean the end of deep sea fishing, surfing, boogie boarding?
No, John isn’t describing that sea. Whether the new earth will look like the old one, and whether or not we’ll be able to do the same fun kinds of things, like sledding, skiing, waterskiing, etc. I honestly don’t know, and don’t really care. The new heaven and the new earth will be so far beyond our expectation, that it will not disappoint, and more than the satisfaction that we could ever derive from those kinds of activities, our greatest satisfaction will come from being with God, face to face!
So
So what’s the good news? If we’re unable to save ourselves, how can we be saved? The good news is that God does it! When asked this question by Nicodemus, Jesus answered, “You must be born again.” We need to be brought from death into life. Jesus proved he was able to do this. Even after his friend Lazarus had been dead for four days, Jesus brought him back to life. Jesus is the resurrection and the life.
That’s the bad news! So what’s the good news? If we’re unable to save ourselves, how can we be saved? The good news is that God does it! When asked this question by Nicodemus, Jesus answered, “You must be born again.” We need to be brought from death into life. Jesus proved he was able to do this. Even after his friend Lazarus had been dead for four days, Jesus brought him back to life. Jesus is the resurrection and the life.
God must work in us first. God must call us to life first. In , we see how this happens. The apostle Paul was preaching to a group of women, one of them was a successful businesswoman named Lydia. “The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message.”
b. What does John say has come to an end?
God opens our hearts to hear. God shines the light in us (). God restores sight to the spiritually blind (). God opens the ears of the spiritually deaf (). By nature we couldn’t believe, but God gives us faith. Look at : “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
What John is saying, what God has revealed in John’s vision is this: there will be no more death. The two things that John says there will be no more of is the sea and death. The sea represents danger, enemies, threats, illness, pain, sorrow, suffering and death. It all will cease to exist. It will be wiped from memory.
By faith you came forward to receive Christ. You were able to do this because God first worked in you, bringing you out of death into new life in Christ. Jesus nourishes you, he strengthens you, he recreates you to do good works. Trust the work of Christ in you today and in the week to come. Listen to the Holy Spirit as he leads you to share your faith with the people you meet. Amen.
If there are tears, Christ will wipe them away, for good. How can sorrow exist where the Son of righteousness reigns? How can death exist in the presence of eternal life? How can hunger and thirst exist in the presence of the bread of life and the living water? Jesus will provide all our needs according to his riches. He has promised that to us now, we have it now, but we don’t always experience it. And there are many reasons why we don’t but I’m not going into that now. We will have it all at the coming of the new heaven and the new earth because we will be in the presence of the Son.
The disciples, after Jesus rose from the dead, before he ascended to heaven, went fishing, providing for themselves, doing what they thought was best, what they knew they could do. Jesus provided, again, a huge catch of fish. And when they finally got to shore, he had a meal prepared for them, and he reminded them that they were fishers of men. In Lord’s Supper where Christ is our meal, Jesus reminds us that we’re his disciples too, and called to do the same work! In the new heaven and the new earth, his very presence nourishes us and sustains us!
3. Who makes all things new?
Have you ever had the experience of trying with all your might to do something only to fail every time? You put your whole mind to it, all your will, all your strength, but nothing. Then, along comes a friend, or a family member, and they show you a simple thing, they give you the smallest bit of information, that little insight, or little thing that you were missing, and suddenly, you have it, you can do what you’ve been frustratingly unable to do.
That’s what God does for us in Christ. All our striving, all our efforts to make ourselves new is like trying to push our way through the door, when the sign says “pull”. We push and push, and get nowhere. Christ comes along, opens our eyes, gives us new hearts, new lives, new life, and yokes us together with him, and pulls open the door for us. Suddenly, we’re living the way God created us to live. We desire Godly things; we look for ways to live as Christ, rather than looking for ways to sin. Christ is in us, living in us, yoking us to him, and moving us to live for God’s glory!
4. What resolution should Christians make?
So, if Christ makes all things new, what kind of New Year’s resolution should a Christian make? Every Christian, everyone here, should make this resolution: “Resolved, to be yoked with Christ, trusting in him, living in me, to live through me, solely for his glory and purpose.” (Read Twice)
5. What does Christ promise?
Christ promises to make all things new. Jesus promises to do this. Jesus is in us. Jesus has already made us new. Jesus lives through us, via the Holy Spirit. This is reality. This isn’t a future hope. This isn’t a desire for something far off. It is now. Christ came so that we may have life and live it to the fullest.
These are not mere words. This is the truth! Christ promises to live through us, so that in Him, we can do greater things than he did during his ministry on earth! That’s the promise! Receive that promise today. Let us stop pretending to be God’s people through the things we think we need to do. Rather, let us put into practise the words of : “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” The question is not, “Is it lawful for me to do such and such?” The question is, “Have I submitted, sacrificed myself to Christ?” After that, really doing that, God’s will, shall be clear!
6. How do we overcome?
John says, “He who overcomes.” Whom is John describing? Is he describing some challenge that faces every Christian, which we all have to face and conquer? Again, God calls us to focus on Christ. God calls us to see that in Christ we have everything. In Christ, we are new. “In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (). In Christ, we can, only in Christ; we can do anything at all. Indeed, in Christ, we can do anything and everything. The Apostle Paul said, “I can do everything through him who gives me strength” ().
Let us not forget Christ. He is the primary agent; he is the person at work in us, transforming us in this life, preparing us for a glorious future. That’s reality! It is at times, exceedingly frustrating, and at other times, wonderfully glorious! That’s life.
7. Does verse eight apply to Christians?
Not long ago, I would have looked at verse 8 and I would have seen myself in it. Verse 8 describes our old way of life. It describes people outside of Christ. And it describes the old nature that we struggle against until Christ makes us completely new along with the new heaven and the new earth. But verse 8 does not apply to Christians. It describes the way things used to be, the old nature.
8. What purpose does verse eight serve?
What then is the purpose of verse eight? Verse 8 serves as a warning. This is a sober judgement from God. It warns us of what awaits those who have not received Christ. It warns those who may be sitting on the fence, to get off it, to choose Christ! It is a wakeup call to Christians; let’s get the good news out! This doesn’t have to be your future! There is a new heaven and a new earth coming! There is also a lake of fire. Choose this day whom you will serve! Will it be yourself, your knowledge, your wisdom? Or will it be the clear, true revelation of God?
A few weeks ago, the young people watched a very compelling YouTube video. Some of the scenes depicted in the 33 minute video are tough to watch, because they show pictures and footage from Nazi Germany, the horrors committed against human beings. The movie is compelling because in it, a guy interviews several very different people and he confronts them with their preconceived notions and he takes them to their logical, or in all cases, illogical conclusions.
What it shows is how simple it is to have conversations with friends, with family, where you ask questions to find out what they believe. Part of our resolution to allow Christ to work in us more and more, is to share him with others. Invite friends to church. Have friends over for coffee. Get to know your neighbours. Introduce them to Jesus, not the Jesus they might think they know, but the Son of God, who became a baby, who was circumcised on the 8th day, presented before his heavenly Father, in the temple he designed.
Let us not grow complacent; thinking that we’ve arrived, we’re in. Let us not grow weary, for we can do all things through Christ, who gives us strength! Let us not lose hope, for Christ is making all things new! It is finished; he’s the beginning and the end. He gives freely the living water. Taste and drink, be refreshed and ready for this New Year! Amen!