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But Now

Dan Oedy — May 9, 2010
 

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INTRODUCTION

Recently I was watching the news, a reporter was on the street interviewing people and getting their perspective on the recent healthcare bill. One man’s response caught my attention; he said, “It is about time we got healthcare for everyone. After all, we are Americans and we should have the best healthcare in the world, we deserve it!” That is quite a statement. “We deserve it?”

I have to be honest, it was the end of a long day, I wasn’t trying to overanalyze or psychoanalyze anyone, I was just trying to watch TV and relax. But I couldn’t help but hear the man’s words echo in my head.
Before long I thought of the recent economic crash the historic financial crumble that has devastated our country. I thought about the corporations who mismanaged money, and the individual investors who chased unwise investments in order to make easy money, and then how they all stood in line waiting for the government bailout; after all, they deserved to be compensated for their loses.

And then a moment later I began to remember the thousands of people who sat in the aftermath of Katrina, people who had ignored the warnings to evacuate, the ones who determined themselves to stay in their homes despite the advice of authorities and then sat for days in the dark, without power in miserable conditions, complaining that the response to the storm was inadequate; after all, they deserved better.

I started to realize, we have an epidemic on our hands; and no I am not talking about the H1N1; although when that broke out we all stood in line and complained about the government’s lack of vaccine, and their mismanagement, and we waited again for our politicians to bail us out, we deserve better!
The epidemic I am speaking of is the epidemic of entitlement.

Somehow the citizens of wealthiest, healthiest and most highly educated country in the history or the world think we have been short changed, that we are owed more than what we have, that we deserve better!
I don’t know about you, but I am really concerned what this mindset will mean for the future of our country. But to be honest, this morning I am more concerned with the damage it is doing to our theology
Because while I think it is true that socially we like to find our way into all sorts of trouble, we like to exercise our freedom, and when we hit rock bottom, and make everything a mess, we sit back and declare that the government needs to bail us out.

Spiritually we play the same game with God. We like to take advantage of our God given free will, we like to make our own choices, we like to decide things without consulting God’s Word, or spending time in deep prayer and meditation, and just when we have totally wrecked chaos in our personal, emotion, social and financial lives, we look to God and ask some ridiculous question like “God why do you allow bad things to happen to good people?”. We want a bail out, we deserve better!

Friends, I am worried about the epidemic of entitlement and the ways in which it can cripple our country, but today I want to focus on how it can destroy our faith. Because if we are ever going to understand our rightful place in eternity, we are going to have to work to de-entitle, un-entitle, dis-entitle ourselves.

And that is what I want us to attempt to do this morning as ask together; “What are Christians entitled to?”

EXEGETICAL STATEMENT

Before we get started I think it is important for us to know a bit about the book of Romans. Paul is the author, and we know Paul’s story; persecutor of the church turned God’s great activist, and one of the most significant theological figures of all time. In fact, this book of Romans is often considered Paul’s greatest work. And it is written to the Christians in the church in Rome. The Church in Rome is likely to have been one of the wealthiest and more successful congregations Paul would work with. I mean, they live in Rome, the hub of the known world. These are likely educated and accomplished people. People like us. People who may also live with a sense of entitlement; therefore one of the significant themes of Romans is to remind the church in Rome the reality of who they are, and whose they are.

This morning we are going to study a portion of this letter Romans 3:9-26, as we seek to answer our question; what are Christians entitled to?” I found three answers to this question in this passage, and so we will look at them one at a time, starting with the answer found in Romans 3:9-18.

ROMANS 3:9-18 (NIV)

⁹What shall we conclude then? Are we any better? Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. ¹⁰As it is written:  "There is no one righteous, not even one; ¹¹there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. ¹²All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one. ¹³Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips. ¹⁴Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. ¹⁵Their feet are swift to shed blood; ¹⁶ruin and misery mark their ways, ¹⁷and the way of peace they do not know. ¹⁸There is no fear of God before their eyes."

I once heard Dr. Alan Myatt, answer the question; “Why do bad things happen to good people?”His answer was shocking, and yet refreshing. As a long time Christian I have heard this question answered in a variety of ways for several years, but this was the first time I heard the question answered and felt satisfied with the response. Dr. Myatt simply said; “They don’t; bad things cannot happen to good people. It is impossible. Bad things cannot happen to a good person because there is no such thing as a good person.”

I bet most of us are stung a little bit by that comment, because let’s be honest, most of us think of ourselves as good people. But when we judge our own goodness, we judge based on relative terms. I think we often think of the worst people in society; pedophiles, rapists, murders, corrupt CEO’s and politicians, the lady down the street who gossips about everyone’s business and the guy in our foursome who always kicks his ball from the rough to the fairway; these are the people we look at when we judge ourselves, and honestly, by comparison, we look pretty good. We look noble and honest; caring and generous; loving and kind.

But there is a problem when we evaluate ourselves in this manner. The problem is for Christians, the standard is Christ. So at the end of life, when we stand in judgment, we will not be graded on the curve compared to the dregs of society. We will be judged for our Christ likeness. And when we break open the pages of Scripture and we discover the nature of Christ, and we see true love, and full compassion, and unlimited grace, and real sacrifice, we suddenly realize that we have fallen short of the standard set by Christ, not by a hair, a handful of choices, but every second, or every minute in every hour of everyday we fail to live up to the example Christ has set for us.

Dr. Alan Myatt is right, and here in Romans Paul agrees with him, because when we hold ourselves to the appropriate standard of Christ, we realize how embarrassingly short we fall. When we realize that the standard is Christ, we must confess that we have fallen short.

So, what are we Christians entitled to? I think Paul answers the question in this way, based on our own “goodness” we are entitled to nothing. Because when we are honest with ourselves and honest about the standard set for us, we have to be honest that we have fallen miserably short, and we have earned nothing.

Let’s continue, because Paul continues to answer our question.

ROMANS 3:19-20 (NIV)

¹⁹Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. ²⁰Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.

Let’s break this down for a minute; Paul is talking here about the importance and usefulness of the law in our understanding, and he tells us that the law helps us understand our sin. Well, how does that work?

When we commit our lives to Christ, we commit ourselves to obedience, to the observation of God’s law, to honoring his commandments; to living by God’s standards rather than the standards of the world, these commandments and standards are the law. Now we could go through the list of commandments and consider each one, but for the sake of brevity, we will just narrow our focus.

When Christ was asked the most important commandment his response was; “To love the Lord with all your heart, all your mind and all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself” Jesus said these are the two principles that ALL the law is based on. And to assist our understanding, let’s just focus on that second part.

Do we really love our neighbors as much as we love ourselves?

My friend Bryan lives in Charlotte, and I was listening to him talk one day about his benevolent giving. Bryan was telling us all about a day when he went to a lunch in downtown Charlotte, a nice lunch with some important people, it was a business meeting. Bryan had a great time and made a big sale, which meant a good commission and so Bryan left the lunch in a good mood. And as Bryan was driving home from lunch, he stopped at a light and saw a homeless man begging at the intersection.

Bryan went on to tell us about how he felt moved by the Spirit to give the man some money. So he opened his wallet. Bryan realized all he had left was a $20 dollar bill, so he closed his wallet. While he continued to wait on the light, he continued to feel the nudge of the Spirit to help the man, so Bryan hesitantly obeyed the Spirit and gave the man the last $20 in cash he had on him.

Bryan told us how the man’s face light up in amazement, how the homeless man said to him “God bless you brother, God bless you! Thank you!” As he drove away, Bryan knew that he had done the right thing.
As he shared his story, he was encouraging us all to be so benevolent, and to be open to giving in such significant ways. I think we would all be impressed with Bryan wouldn’t we. But let’s take a step deeper in this, let’s really evaluate this situation.

Did Bryan love his neighbor as much as he loved himself?

As we go forward, in answering this question you need to know a few things. Bryan drives a $35,000 car. He lives in a $250,000 house, and Bryan went to a lunch in downtown Charlotte that cost him $25 where he made a good chunk of money. On the way home he gave the guy the last $20 he had on him, but he also passed 6 ATMS where he could have withdrawn $2-3k without over-drafting his account.

Now, I don’t want to go on record equating money to love, but since our society does, I think it is acceptable for this illustration. And there is no doubt that Bryan showed this homeless man “some love”… but that isn’t what Jesus said.

Jesus said, love your neighbor as much as you love yourself, as you love yourself, in the same way you love yourself.

A wealthy man, with everything anyone could need, buys himself a fancy lunch for $25 and on the way home he gives a man with nothing $20 and we are to think he has done what Christ has required.
But here is the bigger problem.

Bryan did more than most of us would do. Shoot, $20 is a lot of money man. When I mentioned how much Bryan gave the man, someone in this room thought to themselves; “Whoa $20, that is too much! You don’t know what that man will use that money for, maybe a dollar or two but $20? Bryan is a fool!”

Most of us are in a financial situation similar to Bryan’s, and yet when we give a demonstration of love to someone in need, we do exactly what Bryan did; we wait for the opportunity to bring it up in conversation to be sure others know of our benevolence.

Jesus didn’t say; love your neighbor a little bit, with your abundance, when you have the time. Jesus said; love your neighbor as much as you love yourself, THE REST OF THE LAW HINGES ON THIS!!!
This morning as we consider this commandment of Jesus, we have to realize two things. First, Bryan went way beyond what most of us would do in that situation. Second, even going beyond our typical efforts, Bryan fell miserably short of meeting the requirements of the law.

I remind you that Paul said the law helps us become conscious of our sin, and so here, as we see how badly we fail to meet the law, we have to realize the magnitude of our sin. When we don’t meet the requirement of the Law, we sin, and Paul also tells us that the wages of sin is death. DEATH…

So as we ask ourselves this morning, what are Christians entitled to? Our second answer is, under the law of God, we are entitled to death.

So far, what we have seen is that Christians, on our own goodness are entitled to nothing, and under the law of God we are entitled to death.

Not a lot of good news yet is there? And you look at me wondering, I thought we were supposed to celebrate the good news of the Gospel. Stick with me, we are about to hear the good news, in fact we are about to hear the great news, in fact we are about to hear the best news the world has ever heard!!!

One of the great questions any religious system of belief is “How does a Good and Holy God deal with sinful and selfish people?” As Christians, God’s response to this question is what sets our faith apart from just about every belief system in the world. While most religious systems believe in a holy god off somewhere leaving the people stranded on earth to work their way up a scale of righteousness, our God, the true, big G God of the universe doesn’t do that, he doesn’t leave us here. God sees us in our nothingness, God sees us in our death, and God decides to put skin on and come to earth in the person of Jesus the Christ and pull us out of our nothingness and death. Let’s look at how Paul records this:

ROMANS 3:21-26 (NIV)

 ²¹But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. ²²This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, ²³for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. ²⁵God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— ²⁶he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. 

I think one of the biggest problems we have in the contemporary church is that we read the Bible with 2000 years of Christian history and theology and we think, “Yeah, yeah, Jesus died for me, to save me from my sins, I get it.” But step out of that for a minute. Be a Christian in first century Rome a minute. Consider what it was like to live under the law, where every day you accounted for your sins, and your shortcomings, and every day you tried to make appropriate sacrifices for your failings, and every night you went to bed keenly aware that you had failed your holy God and you were entitled to nothing but death.

Be a Roman for a minute. Be a Roman and hear the words, BUT NOW… Yes, you were dead in your sin, yes you were entitled to nothing, BUT NOW Jesus has come, BUT NOW Jesus has given himself on the cross, BUT NOW Jesus has changed the paradigm, BUT NOW Jesus has rewritten the covenant, BUT NOW Jesus has come down from the throne at the right hand of God and put himself on the center cross so that the words BUT NOW could change history…

Humanity, entitled to nothing but death… but now…

CONCLUSION

Friends I hope we see this morning, that there is only one person in the history of the world who is entitled to ask the question “Why do bad things happen to good people?” and that man is entitled to say why did the horror of the cross happen to the greatest person who ever set foot on the earth. And let me tell you, the answer wasn’t because the crowd got out of hand. It wasn’t because the plan went wrong. It was because at the beginning of time God saw us in our nothingness and in our death, and the Triune God began to act to redeem us.

Friends, the door to heaven was locked. Picture one of those big metal doors like in an alley in an old gangster movie and we go up to pound on it, and a little slit opens in the door and Peter looks out and says “What’s the password?” You and I could sit there for hours and days and weeks and generations talking about our own goodness, about how we go to church twice a month, even in the summer, and about the $20 dollars we once gave to a homeless man, but let me tell you now. That door isn’t going to open unless we know the password, “Jesus Christ gave his life to save me from my sins”

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me, I once was lost, BUT NOW, I am found… I was blind, BUT NOW, I see…