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When Time Turned a Corner

Sermon by Rev. Doug Pratt — December 30, 2007
 

By one sacrifice He [Jesus] has made perfect forever
those who are being made holy.
Hebrews 10:14 (NIV)

Time Marches On
We are about to say “Sayonara” or “Adios” to another year—there are just two days left in 2007 before it exits the stage. Some us, for whom 2007 was a good year, will be sorry to see it go. For many of us, though, the attitude is more like: “Good riddance, 2007!” But whether we celebrate or mourn its passing, this year will be gone forever. That’s the way time works: it is linear, not circular. We never come back this way again—it’s a one-way highway with no U-turns possible. We can’t turn back the clock; science fiction writers have, for over a hundred years, tried to concoct fantasy “time machines.” We can’t hold onto our youth. We can’t keep people from changing. We can’t undo what we’ve done.

If any of you had the opportunity recently to re-visit a childhood home or a place where you used to live, you were probably struck by the things that have changed: a new store here, a new highway there, a house or building no longer where it once was. Things are in constant change and flux—and so are people. This is the theme of the new best-selling novel by Christian author Jan Karon. After a successful series of seven books focusing on her main character, Father Tim Kavanaugh, an Episcopal priest in the mythical North Carolina mountain town of Mitford, she has just published Home to Holly Springs, in which Father Tim journeys back to his hometown in Mississippi, and discovers how much has changed since he grew up there.

Take a look at some old photo albums or home videos and you’ll find yourself thinking, “Did we really look like that? How things have changed!” We can’t escape the relentless march forward of time.

Time Turns a Corner
But some events are so significant that they actually alter the future and set us on a different course. People have reflected upon how the attacks of September 11, 2001 changed some people’s lives—and they certainly caused a permanent change in the experience of air travel for Americans, as well as permanently altering the skyline of our largest city. Recently I watched an older movie set in New York City; how eerie it was to see the Twin Towers standing in lower Manhattan.

Many of us here have experienced major course corrections in our personal lives this past year: taking a new job, moving to a new city, getting married, retiring from a career, graduating from college. Each change sets one’s life on a different road. We as a church have rejoiced with young couples who have welcomed their first child into the world; and we have grieved with families who have experienced the death of a parent or spouse. Both events—the happy and the heartbreaking—permanently alter a human family.

In these kinds of occurrences, we could say that time has not merely receded into our rear view mirror, but that we have actually turned a corner and set out in a whole new direction. Life is never the same again.

Made Perfect and Being Made Holy
The most dramatic and significant turning point in human history was the coming and the ministry of Jesus Christ. This “corner-turning” began with His birth (which we celebrated on Christmas) and culminated in His death and resurrection. The significance of what happened, and what it means for us now and on through the remainder of our existence in time and eternity, is what Hebrews 10:14 is telling us about: “By one sacrifice He [Jesus] has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.” The significance of Christ’s death on the cross is that it served as a sacrifice to cover all human beings. It was one death on behalf of many—so that whoever places their faith in Him will receive the priceless benefits He purchased by His blood.

The cross accomplished two separate but complementary works inside of those who trust in Him, and our text spells out the distinction. We have been “made perfect forever” and we are “being made holy.” The first action, to make you and me “perfect” in the eyes of God, is described in the past perfect tense—designating something that is complete and final, accomplished once for all. It’s the tense we use when “time has turned a corner,” when something is permanently altered.

But the second work of Christ within us is to “make us holy,” and that is an ongoing work, described in the present imperfect tense. It’s a task that has begun but is not yet completed. These two parts of our verse sound similar—even synonymous. But they’re not. Let me explain the difference. To be made “perfect” is different from being made “holy.” The term perfect refers to our position before God, and especially before His eternal court of justice. It does not mean that we are sinless—for indeed, none of us are. Rather it means that we have been declared, by God Himself, the sole Justice of the Supreme Court of the Universe, as “Not guilty.”

We have been acquitted of all of our sins, because the penalty for those sins has been paid in full by Jesus. He served our sentence of death on the cross. So we are now and always will be, in the eyes of the eternal moral law, innocent. And just as in the American justice system, so also in God’s, there is no “double jeopardy.” Once we are declared “not guilty,” we need never fear being convicted. Once you are a Christian, your eternal salvation is secure. This is how time turned a corner with the work of Christ. His sacrificial death satisfied the demands of divine justice.

The second result of Christ’s work in and for us is called by Hebrews “being made holy.” This is a lifelong process. It is the step-by-step, day-by-day work of making ourselves in actual practice into the people we have already been declared by God to be for all eternity: His beloved and perfect children. The process of growing in holiness is one that is never completed until we die, our sinful nature is washed away, and our sanctified and perfected souls are with the Lord forever. Until that time, Jesus calls us to keep working at the process of making ourselves more and more into holy people, who follow the example He set for us while He was on this earth.

And this is the supreme goal, the greatest and highest calling a Christian can aspire to during his or her lifetime. As we approach the beginning of the New Year, this holiday typically finds many of us in an introspective, self-examining mood. We think about what changes, what goals, what resolutions we want to make for the year to come. Some of us will make a renewed effort at time management, or weight management, or financial management. Some of us will decide to go back to school, to look for a new job, or take up a new hobby.

The most important resolution we can make, every day of our lives, is to submit ourselves to Jesus to cooperate with Him in the process He’s committed to in each of us – what Hebrews describes in terms of “making us holy.” There are lots and lots of specific things that are involved in that.

Key to Success: Not Trying but Training
Before we close, I want to share with you one secret. If you are serious about making strides of spiritual progress in the year 2008, to become at least a little bit more of a holy and godly person than you have been, keep this in mind: The most common mistake Christians make in their efforts to become more holy is to think that success comes from willpower, from trying harder. We think if we can just screw up the energy and the determination and the passion to pray harder, read the Bible more, control our temper and our tongue more tightly, resist temptations more vigilantly, etc., then we’ll succeed. That attitude will more likely lead to failure. Our zeal, our determination and our passion all can cool so easily.

The key is not “trying harder” to grow as a Christian. Rather, it’s patiently building the right practices into your life, and then repeating them over and over. In other words, the secret to success is not trying but training.

Every year Sports Illustrated magazine chooses a “Sportsman of the Year.” Several years ago it was cycling champ and repeat winner of the Tour de France Lance Armstrong. He was asked the secret of his success. He replied that it was not a matter of trying harder than his opponents when the race begins; rather, he believed it was that he trained harder, every day, year-round—and that his fitness regimen was more stringent than any other cyclist alive.

For four hours per day, in-season and off-season, in every type of weather, Lance Armstrong was on his bike. He relentlessly fine-tuned his heart, his lungs, his thighs and his calves. While he was competing, many believed Armstrong to be the best-conditioned athlete in the world. An exercise physiologist from the University of Texas tested him and discovered that he could pedal a bike at a speed of 32 miles per hour for an hour straight. Yet when he tested other fit male college athletes (10 years younger than Armstrong), it was found that the average one could last only 45 seconds at that pace. According to Sports Illustrated, it was not trying but training that made Lance Armstrong a champion.

That’s the purpose of all the activities commended to us in scripture and in Christian literature that are known as the “spiritual disciplines”: prayer, scripture reading, giving, worship, serving, fellowship. As we do them regularly, we train ourselves to think, to feel and to act more and more in the way we should—just as an athlete’s repeated training activities help him or her to perform the tasks of their sport more consistently.

If God is putting it on your heart to train yourself better towards holiness, the best way to make that happen is to add a new discipline to your life. Visit our church library or book center and pick up a Christian book to study; join a class or small group; volunteer to teach children; carve a regular time out of your daily schedule to pray; plan on attending worship at your church weekly. These are ways that our spiritual muscles can be developed. And what seems hard at first will become easier and more natural.