At this point, Paul
gives us one of the most beautiful truths in all the Bible. It is the
truth that through faith in Jesus Christ, one's present can become one's
past. It's the truth that our lives have changed from defeat into triumph-v.
11(a). It's sad, but you can never live down your past with some people.
What you were is what you will always be as far as they are concerned.
If you ever lied to them you are a liar. If you ever stole, you are
a thief. If you were ever divorced, you are a divorcee.
What's the first thing that pops into your mind when I mention the following
names. Judas! Hitler! Lee Harvey Oswald! Richard Nixon! OJ Simpson!
Martha Stewart! More than likely, the thought that came into your mind
is the crimes they committed. And through the rest of history, those
crimes are going to be what defines those people. Not so with God. In
fact, there is no life too gross or too corrupt that Jesus Christ cannot
make a past tense out of it.
The only person unredeemable is the one whose heart is too proud or
too hard to accept God's forgiveness. All others can experience transformation.
In other words, because of God's grace, any lost sinner can become a
saved sinner called a saint.
The radical change that takes place, described in verse 11, may be the
first "before & after" advertisement. All three of the verbs are in
the past tense. Therefore, Paul is describing something climactic that
happened to us, and because of that, we will never be the same! Let's
examine each of these three actions which take place the moment a lost
sinner is transformed into a saint when he/she is saved by grace as
the results of trusting in Jesus Christ as Lord.
The first action is one of being washed-v. 11. The verb "washed" is
in a rare Greek voice tense known as permissive middle. This tense is
used to mean to allow something to happen to one's self. And it should
be translated, "you allowed yourselves to be washed."
Now, when we see the word wash in the New Testament we often associate
the word with baptism. Paul is not saying that we are saved by baptism.
In the New Testament baptism indicates that we have come to Jesus Christ
for a spiritual washing. Baptism is an outward sign of an inward reality
of the way in which Jesus Christ has made us acceptable before the Father,
so that we might have an eternal relationship with Him. Before we gave
our life to Jesus Christ the dirt and filth of our sins stood in the
way of any fellowship with God. We could compare the dirt & filth of
our lives to the same kind of dirt & filth we get when we work outside
during the summer. It doesn't take long working out in the heat & the
humidity to get all sweaty and dirty. When you come inside after a hard
day's work, you know that before you can sit on the furniture you have
to take a bath. The dirt & filth has separated you from being able to
enjoy the comfort of your recliner.
So the first place you go is to the bathroom. Now you can turn the water
on, and stay there all day long, yet if you never get into the shower
you will never be clean from the sweat & dirt. It's not until you jump
in the shower and you allow the soap & water to wash all the sweat &
dirt down the drain that you are clean.
The way Paul uses this word shows us that the only part we play in salvation
is when we acknowledge our sins to God and present ourselves to Jesus
Christ for cleansing. When we come to Jesus, and ask him to the Lord
of our lives, we are asking him to wash away all the effects of sin
from our lives. At that moment, Jesus takes his blood and washes away
every stain of the sins of our present lives so they become the sins
of our past.
When we were little kids, our moms or dads had to get us in the tub
and sit beside us to wash us down. Sure we loved to play in the water,
but we were just to young to wash ourselves in a way that ensured we
got every part clean. In like manner, the kind of washing we need to
stand before God squeaky clean cannot be left up to us.
So our heavenly Father takes the precious blood of Jesus Christ, and
washes away every stain of guilt and sin. That way we can present ourselves
to him spotless and clean.
The Bible tells us, that in reference to God, that "He saved us, not
because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He
saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit,
whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior,
so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having
the hope of eternal life." (Titus
3:5-7)
Part of what Paul is teaching here, since the Greek tense indicates
that this washing is a once and for all event, is that once we have
been bathed in the cleansing flood of Jesus Christ's blood, then we
are clean for the rest of eternity. Now this doesn't mean that we can't
do things which will get us dirty again. What it does mean however,
is that no matter how dirty we get, now matter what sin we may commit,
we can still be forgiven by the blood of Jesus Christ.
As we walk through this world the filth from it can certainly find its
way into our lives. It is in this sense that we need an occasional washing
which occurs when we recognize our sins and turn from them in repentance.
From time to time we need to allow Jesus to wash our dirty hands & faces
so that we can be more & more conformed into his image. That what is
known as sanctification-v. 11.
In this second phrase the verb is again in the past tense, but now is
in the passive voice. This is to show us what God does when we are saved.
The Greek word for sanctified not only includes the idea of being holy
in our behavior, but also includes the idea of be separated from the
world to be used exclusively for God. In other words, God has set us
apart for a holy purpose.
This doesn't happen when a person merely gets religious. We are set
apart only because Jesus Christ has invaded our lives and transformed
into his image. It's sad that far too many Christians don't believe
that we can live differently from the rest of the world merely by the
presence of the Holy Spirit indwelling us, changing us from one shade
of glory to another.
The reason why I say that is because we have married the spirit of the
age when it comes to self-help. Because we have bought into the lie
that our past is still our present, instead of believing the truth that
our present is in the past, we allow & make excuses for our former sins
to sneak up and ensnare us again. When Jesus talked to the woman who
had been caught in the act of adultery, he didn't tell her to go and
not sin as long as she could avoid from doing so. He didn't tell her
that he was setting her free for just a couple of days. He didn't tell
her that it would only be a matter of time before she went back to her
old sinful ways. He told her "Go now and leave your life of sin." (John
8:11) Jesus wouldn't have told her that if sinning no more wasn't
a real possibility.
What Paul is teaching here flies squarely in the face of those today
who are saying that it's more important what people believe than how
they behave. Though they would never say so in so many words, their
position amounts to the conclusion that you can practice any & all kinds
of sins, and still go to heaven, as long as your beliefs are correct.
We must never view our standing with God as a free ticket to sin, but
rather as a compulsion to forsake sin. Our beliefs cannot be divorced
from our behavior. You'd better believe that what you believe affects
you behaviors.
Well, if sanctification is the process of becoming holy in our present
behavior, how then can Paul tell us that we have been sanctified in
the past? The answer is that we have been justified-v. 11.
The word "justify" means that one has been declared righteous. The closest
synonym for "justification" is "acquittal." In a criminal court the
defendant may well be guilty, but if he is declared "not guilty," then
he is set free anyway, and because of the law of double jeopardy, he
can never be tried for that crime again.
What does justification have to do with salvation? If you think about
it, the problem with sin is a legal problem. Adam was told by God that
he was "Free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat
from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of
it you will surely die." (Genesis
2:16-17) In the commandment of not to eat of that tree's fruit there
is also the judgment that doing so will bring about the punishment of
death.
From a legal stand-point God is bound by this decree. Which creates
a huge problem because if God does not punish sin then he proves himself
not to be a holy God. And if God is not holy than God is not God.
This problem can only be overcome by someone coming along and paying
off that debt by dying. For the Bible tells us that "In fact, the law
requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without
the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness." (Hebrews
9:22) This seems simple enough if it were not for the fact that
the one who sheds his blood must be perfect. All through the Old Testament
we see that the sacrifices offered up to God on the behalf of man's
sins had to be without any kind of spot, blemish, or wrinkle. In other
words, the sacrifice had to be perfect.
Since no one in this world can meet this requirement God had to do something
drastic. And he did by he stepping into our world as the baby Jesus,
and going through life, tempted by the same sins we're tempted with,
yet never once sinning. It was because Jesus was able to do this that
he earned the right to take our place on the cross. Jesus Christ became
a man because it was a man who sinned, and it must be a man who pays
the debt owed to a righteous God. Jesus Christ meets all the requirements
for being our substitute. When Jesus Christ went to the cross to die
for our sin, he was "The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the
world." (John
1:29)
Look, there not a one of here who doesn't know that if we had to stand
trial for all we've done that we wouldn't be found guilty of committing
sins. And while the evidence is overwhelming, we also have the one who
died for our sins representing us as our defense attorney. In heaven's
court Jesus doesn't deny your guilt. When asked by God Almighty how
you plea, Jesus holds out his nailed-scarred hands and says: "My client
is guilty as charged. But before you pronounce the sentence, I want
to remind you that those crimes have already been paid for. I died for
each one of those charges."
And then God turns to your prosecutor, whose name is Satan, who is vehemently
objecting, and says, "Overruled! The laws of this court have been satisfied.
The defendant is acquitted of all charges. This person is free to go
and can never again be charged for those sins."
Can there be a greater truth in all of the world than the fact that
sinners are justified solely on the basis of the shed blood of Jesus
Christ? Yet why is it that so many churches today have gotten away from
preaching the message that Jesus is the answer to all of lives problems?
Where is the zeal to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ? Sadly, too many
churches, in their attempts to grow big, have strayed away from the
main thing of Jesus Christ. Instead of being centers that proclaim good
theology, they have become clinics that dispense bad psychology. Instead
of teaching people to deny themselves, pick up their cross and follow
Jesus, they are teaching people how to discover themselves.
We even see this is the area of worship. When was the last time you
heard a new praise/worship song that was written about the wonder of
salvation? While there is nothing wrong with the songs that talk about
how we feel about God, it's just that we're missing the element of singing
songs of praise & thanks to God for the mere fact of saving us. The
songs of old that we have come to call hymns may not contain catchy
words, or be driven by powerful guitar licks, but nevertheless, the
songs contained the truth about salvation.
Although the people may have never left a worship service feeling better
about themselves, because of the songs that were sung. When the service
was over, due to the songs that were sung the people knew that Jesus
died for them. They songs that were sung let the people know that it
was only the blood of Jesus that washed away their sins.
How can people, whose legal status has gone from "guilty" to "not guilty,"
people who have entered into the peace of God, and people who know for
certain that we have a place with God forever, not want to sing songs
that proclaim how all this came about? One of the most powerful experiences
people encounter while seeing the movie The Passion, is that it was
their sins that caused Jesus to suffer what he suffered. That is why
Mel Gibson produced the movie. Many people have told me that they now
think twice before they sin.
And this is what being justified by the blood of Jesus Christ is supposed
to do. When we realize that our legal standing of not guilty before
God, is only because Jesus Christ loved us so much that he was willing
to came into this world to die to pay the penalty we owed to a holy
God, it causes us to want to live holy as well. Being justified brings
life where there was previously death. It's not simply being let off
the legal hook, it's having a new nature and life in Christ.
What God has done for us is something that should direct the conduct
of every day of our lives. Had Jesus not come into this world and taken
our place on the cross, we would still be dead in our sins and bound
for the Lake of Fire to be forever tormented. Shouldn't that truth cause
us to be thankful? Shouldn't that truth give us the desire to give every
bit of our lives to the lordship of Jesus Christ? Shouldn't the reality
of the fact that Jesus has given us a place in his father's Kingdom
to enjoy his presence forever, cause us to want to live lives right
now that bring glory and honor unto his name?
The Lord Jesus Christ has given us a second chance in life with his
precious blood. And the Spirit of God enables us to live our lives in
such a way that we bring glory to the name of God. Because of that,
sin is no longer an option. We have not been given life to live like
the world. We have not been washed, sanctified and justified to walk
in the darkness. The bottom line is that we've been washed, sanctified
and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the Spirit
of God, so that we might bring glory to God in everything we do and
say.
Let me conclude by saying that you don't have to be a prisoner of your
past. I want you to know that there is no sin you have committed that
Jesus Christ's shed blood can't make it become a past tense condition
of your life. The church of Jesus Christ is more like a hospital than
a country club. Let me read to you v. 9-10.
Would those of you whose former life fits into one of these categories
please stand. If your life is spinning out of control, if your lifestyle
demonstrates that you are on the road to hell, I want you to find encouragement
and hope by the people who are standing this morning. I hope that by
noticing how many people are standing up that you now realize that you
too can be set free from those things that are causing you to feel nothing
but despair. I hope that you are beginning to see that there is a way
to be set free from those sins that are causing you to feel like you
are hopelessly trapped in the mess you've made of your life.
Will everyone please be seated, close your eyes, and bow your head.
The only way to be set from sin is through the blood of Jesus Christ!
But before you can become a former anything, you must first be willing
to admit your sinful and hopeless condition before God. You must accept
the fact that Jesus Christ has paid for your sins by His death on Calvary's
cross. You must accept that Jesus Christ is the only one you who can
set you free. Will you let him?
Please listen to these words of a great hymn of faith that tells how
you can come to Jesus and be washed clean of the sins of your present
life. "I need thee precious Jesus. For I am full of sin. My soul is
dark & guilty. My heart is dead within. I need the cleansing fountain.
Where I can always flee. The blood of Christ most precious. The sinners
perfect plea."
If those words contain the cry of your heart, and you would like to
give your life over to Jesus Christ, please raise your hand up and down.
RETURN
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