Free Indeed!

Without the church, liberty becomes license. Liberty is the precondition to love and service. License is the precondition to bondage. It is bonding because when we believe we deserve anything in this world, then our abundance is based upon rights rather than blessings; it leads us inexorably into worship of false gods.[1]

So If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed    (John 8:36)

We seek freedom in so many different ways. The problem is most of those ways only lead us into greater bondage. In seeking to be free from “restrictive” moralism, we become enslaved to our own lusts and passions. Claiming that “No one can dictate what we do but ourselves,” we become spiritual, moral, and philosophical orphans with no home or foundation.

The more laws we create, the more we must agree with the Apostle Paul that we are slaves to the law and not free men. I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”[2] The law can only identify sin. It cannot, by its very nature, abolish it.

It is only through the work of Jesus Christ that covetousness, adultery, lying, stealing, murder, hatred, prejudice, and idolatry, once identified by the law, can be eliminated.

Yet, we try to bind Christ more and more to the church building, and the church building alone. When we do this, we only drag ourselves into greater and greater bondage. We become chained to what we hate and isolated from all hope, peace, love, forgiveness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control. Let us submit to the Son and become free indeed.

Pastor Craig

[1] Laverentz, Eric (2012-05-08). Is Caesar Our Savior? (Kindle Locations 2116-2118). First Edition Design Publishing. Kindle Edition.

[2] Romans 7:7

Baptism

Q. 94. What is baptism?

 A. Baptism is a sacrament, wherein the washing with water in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, doth signify and seal our ingrafting into Christ, and partaking of the benefits of the covenant of grace, and our engagement to be the Lord’s.

                   The Westminster Shorter Catechism

Probably, the majority of people who read this will have been baptized. It would be interesting to ask all of them what actually happened when they were baptized! Some would say that they became a Christian at that moment. Others would comment about it as an entrance ritual for church membership.

In the few lines that follow let me see if I can describe the event. First, Baptism is a sacrament. That means that something takes place during the ceremony besides an individual getting wet. An earlier question of the catechism says by sensible signs, Christ, and the benefits of the new covenant, are represented, sealed, and applied to believers.

Represented: The visible events show us what takes place “behind the scenes.” We use water as a symbol of cleansing. Some denominations use immersion (the person being baptized is put under the water rather than a pouring or sprinkling of water over the individual’s head) to represent a burial and resurrection. The use of water represents a new and righteous life being given to the believer.

Sealed: Something becomes ours that cannot be taken away. In Biblical culture a seal was the consummation of an agreement. In this sense, we give ourselves, or our child to God, and God seals that child as His very own.

Applied: This new life and its benefits mentioned above are applied to us. In a rather irreverent way, compare this to updating your computer. The updates are there. They have been downloaded and installed, but you get little benefit from their presence until they have been applied, until they have been put into practice in the individual’s life.

Most of us understand the part that is represented; we get it. We are assured in our faith when we hear about being sealed. It is a tremendous comfort against our doubtful selves. However, it may be the greatest blessing when these benefits are applied, when we start living as children of our Heavenly Father, knowing that we are citizens of the Kingdom of God.

Pastor Craig

When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.

 Dietrich Bonhoeffer

 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.

 Luke 9:24

 Not only is the cross the historical point of our atonement, it is also a demonstration of what God expects his children to do. It is not part of God’s plan to have his children stand and stare.

Even more important, the church as an institution or even as a movement has been born to die. Someday there will simply be no need for the church. The church is the vessel of the Holy Spirit in the world, the bodily presence of God in the world. When Scripture teaches that someday, at the end of history, the dwelling place of God will be with man, and He will dwell with them and they will be His people and God Himself will be with them as their God it is saying that the church will come to an end.

As long as there is a sinful, imperfect world there will be a place for the church. But, that day is coming when our imperfection will be washed away and replaced with perfection and we will become the dwelling place of God where all that is imperfect is no more.

Jesus also tell us that he does not need the church to change the world. God certainly does use us to be agents of change in the world, but he does not NEED us. God does not wait on the church or limit himself due to our lack of faith.

When Jesus entered Jerusalem the Pharisees told him to silence the mobs who proclaimed him king and Messiah. Christ made it quite clear that God’s praiseworthiness would be revealed. If the people did not do it, the rocks and stones themselves would cry out (Luke 19:40). We are dependent on Christ. He uses us simply because he loves us.

Because the church is born to die, the preservation of the institution of the church is unimportant. In fact, we should be longing for that day when the church will be no more! Therefore our power comes from emptying ourselves, the same way Christ did on the cross. As we empty ourselves, we are filled with the Holy Spirit. If we are filled with our own desire for self-preservation, we leave no room for the Spirit and the church does not do its work in the world. Death to self means alive to carry out the work of Christ.

 Pastor Craig

For I was. . .and you. . .

For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me. (Matthew 25:35-36)

Two Sundays ago I worshipped with an inner city congregation in Philadelphia pastored by my very dear friend, Rev. Paul Cofer. This small gathering of people created a stark contrast between other congregations, sometimes our own, and this outpost of believers.

The average worship attendance in Grace Evangelical Baptist Church is 20, Sunday school, about 10. All their activities take place in one room. Children and adult Sunday School classes share the same space. The church is an abandoned store front leased by the congregation.

Do not feel sorry for this band of believers. They have great dreams because they worship a great God. They continually witness to the down and outcast who, on some Sunday mornings, they can find sleeping on the steps of the church waiting for someone to show up, hoping that this is the place they can find a little hope and peace for themselves. Sometimes the people who wander in would remind you of the very same people that would cause most of us to lock our car doors and check for our wallets and purses. 

This congregation has a dream, truly, one quite like one of ours. They are trying to put a media center in their worship space, a smaller version of what we seek to do upstairs. However, they have an extra hurdle to overcome. They can’t begin their remodel until they put in a security system because the drug addicts, as much as they might come to and receive help from the congregation, would break in and steal the equipment in search of their next high.

A couple of things: First, recognize that the world you and I live in is one of tremendous privilege. We are blessed and protected. Our frustrations and anxieties are based on possibilities that will rarely become realities. Grace Evangelical lives in the realities and hopes for the possibilities. Two, remember that this congregation could probably move out of the inner city to someplace safer, better, nicer, but they choose to remain here because this is where people are who need to hear about Jesus, those very same people who would break in and steal anything of value in the church in an attempt to satisfy that which, for now at least, rules their life until they accept Jesus as Lord. Pray for them. Thank God for this congregation! Pray that we might be so committed to leading others to Christ as well. 

Pastor Craig