Quote from Forum Archives on May 28, 2002, 9:49 am

Posted by: bhfbc <bhfbc@...>

RENEWAL AS A WAY OF LIFE #7/8
MAKING THE MOST OF OUR MEMORY
(DYNAMICS OF INDIVIDUAL RENEWAL)
May 26, 2002

TEXT: Colossians 2:13-15

Because of the attacks and the threats of attacks on America, we are
being reminded to remember Memorial Day this year by remembering those
who have sacrificed so much for the freedoms we have in this nation. This
is, after all, the original intent of Memorial Day. The memory of such
acts of sacrifice and self-giving is meant inspire within us attitudes of
gratitude and awareness that the privileges we enjoy have not been
without cost.

Of course, the importance of remembering predates our national holidays
by many centuries. Throughout the Old Testament, festivals were
established and monuments were established as ways of remembering the
Lord and His deeds. To thus remember meant to be once more filled with
awe at God’s works. We find this in Psalm 77:11-15. The Psalmist, after
crying out to God for help and wondering if God has rejected him, prays,
“I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your
miracles of long ago. I will meditate on all your works and consider your
mighty deeds. Your ways, O God, are holy. What god is so great as our
God? You are the God who performs miracles; you display your power among
the peoples. With your mighty arm you redeemed your people, the
descendants of Jacob and Joseph.” The memory of God’s past works was to
inspire the current generation to trust God for their needs as well.

Last week, I spoke about the Messianic victory of Jesus. Because Jesus is
our eternal prophet, priest, and king, fulfilling all the prophecies
concerning the historical lineage of the Messiah, we can trust him that
his works of suffering and sacrifice create the way to salvation for us.
Jesus is the “second Adam,” as Paul related it. As sin entered the world
through the first Adam, so divine forgiveness and redemption have entered
the world through Jesus, the second Adam. If we hope to be able to live
our lives in daily spiritual renewal, we must make the most of our memory
by always remembering who Jesus is and what he has done. As Richard
Lovelace has written, “Salvation is not so much a matter of doing as of
appreciating what God has done.” (Richard Lovelace, Renewal As a Way of
Life, Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1985, p. 115). When our goal
as Christians is to make spiritual renewal a way of life, then we need to
remember dynamics of individual renewal: justification, sanctification,
and the power of the Holy Spirit.

New Testament justification means, simply, recognizing that we have been
accepted by God. Paul writes in Colossians 2:13, “When you were dead in
your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you
alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins…” This is justification. We
are freed from the guilt of our sinful, evil disobedience to God because
Jesus’ righteous acts and sacrificial death have been credited to our
account.

The first four books of the New Testament are called the “gospel,” which
means “good news.” It is surprising how many people, Christians included,
translate “gospel” to mean “news too good to be true.” We cannot believe
that God would do such a thing for us. Surely He requires some work, some
effort, some act of righteousness on our part in order to become
acceptable, forgivable, and loveable. But our attempts at living lives
filled with daily renewal are cut off at the beginning if we cannot
accept God’s way in this matter. Through the work of Jesus Christ, and
him alone, we are forgiven. Lovelace reminds of this as he observes that
“In all his preaching of the kingdom of God, Jesus did not look for moral
achievements in his followers, but for faith in himself. Clearly he
regarded Messianic faith as the key to spiritual growth.” (Richard
Lovelace, Renewal As a Way of Life, Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity
Press, 1985, p. 133).

Likewise, Paul emphasizes this over and over. Look at Galatians 3:2-5.
“Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what
you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you
now trying to attain your goal by human effort?… Does God give you his
Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or
because you believe what you heard?” Just as the ancient Hebrews
remembered and believed the mighty and powerful acts of God leading to
their deliverance, so we remember and believe the sacrifice of the very
Son of God, Jesus Christ, which leads to our salvation. Faith in the
Messiah is our assurance that we have been accepted - justified - by God.
Justification is our first dynamic of individual spiritual renewal.

Justification brings with it the second dynamic of individual spiritual
renewal - sanctification. Sanctification means, simply, “we are free from
the bondage of sin.” As Baptists, we should have no trouble picturing
this because of our way of teaching and practicing baptism.
Sanctification is death to sin and resurrection to new life in Christ,
symbolized by baptism: we are buried with Christ and resurrected with him
into new life. Look at Colossians 2:11-12. “In him you were also
circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a
circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by
Christ, having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him
through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.”

Justifying faith immediately brings with it sanctifying faith. Lovelace
writes, “Our experience must be changed to encompass acts of Christian
love and communion with the Holy Spirit to such a degree that we know
that we are regenerated, ‘born again.’ Regeneration is the initial state
of sanctification. And we must be aware that this process of growth in
holiness continues throughout our lives. Nothing can stop it, not even
the stubborn remnants of residual sin in our personalities. And therefore
every day ought to begin with a response of faith to the second element
of renewal, sanctification: ‘I am free from bondage to sin.’” (Richard
Lovelace, Renewal As a Way of Life, Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity
Press, 1985, p. 144).

Again, I emphasize that sanctification is a result of saving faith, not a
prerequisite. Sanctification is the second element of our spiritual
renewal, not the first. Clearly, belief in God has always meant a change
in behavior. God’s people were called upon to remember God through
sacrifices and rituals and celebrations and travel to physical locations
so that they could respond in thanksgiving by their lives. The New
Testament calls our very bodies the “dwelling places of God.” Most
people, even those who profess no faith in God, treat churches and
temples and synagogues and other places of worship with an additional
sense of respect. We recognize such locations as places where a
mysterious interaction with God takes place.

New Testament faith rightly takes that mysterious interaction out of a
building or geographical location and places it smack dab in the middle
of each and every one of us. God is not “over there” someplace in this
church or that church; He is right here in His living temple. Our
realization of this, created by our faith and belief in Jesus, causes us
to say, “Whoa! Wait a minute! God is here, with me, right now, each and
every moment. The same God who sacrificed so much to justify me is right
here with me now. The same ‘good news’ which brought about my salvation
is also bringing about my sanctification.” You see, we so often allow the
old sinful nature to keep some control because we fail to remember what
God has done and where He resides. But when we remember what God has done
and where He resides and that He is our first love, then we also remember
His victory over sin and death. We remember that moment when we said
“yes” to God and believed with all of our mind and our heart that we
wanted to live like God wants us to live. Making the most of our memory
means remembering Jesus’ victory over the flesh, the world, and the devil
and then living so that this very victory is made real in our lives.
Sanctification is the second dynamic of individual spiritual renewal.

The third element of individual spiritual renewal is the Holy Spirit
within. The power of the Holy Spirit maintains our communion with God.
This is vitally important, probably even more important than we typically
realize and recognize. Most, if not all, of us usually equate
demonstrations of victory over sin as signs of our right relationship
with God. If I am victorious over sinful lust; if I refrain from
drunkenness; if I toss gossip out of my life forever; if I never commit
an act of adultery or some other sexual sin, then I am closer to God.
While most might follow this logic, because I am fairly certain that most
of us have applied this logic to our own lives, it is not an accurate
logic. Lovelace helps us understand this when he writes, “Victory over
sin without communion with God would be a meaningless contradiction,
since God’s highest will for our lives is communion with him. A
legalistically faultless life lived without fellowship with God would be
hollow. But a flawed life which struggles to maintain communion with God
is still pleasing to him and may be full of vital spirituality.” (Richard
Lovelace, Renewal As a Way of Life, Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity
Press, 1985, p. 147).

This is indeed one of those natures of the Kingdom of God that we
describe as paradoxical. In other words, one thing leads to something
quite unanticipated. But this gives us insight into why David, even
though he abused his power to commit adultery with a married woman and
then caused her husband to be killed in order to cover it up, was always
considered as one of God’s “favorite servants.” in spite of this
atrocity, and even other sins, David maintained an attitude of communion
with God. It also gives us insight into why the Pharisees were always at
odds with Jesus in spite of their righteous behavior. Turn to Mark 7:5-8
for just one example of this. “So the Pharisees and teachers of the law
asked Jesus, ‘Why don’t your disciples live according to the traditions
of the elders instead of eating their food with unclean hands?’ He
replied, ‘Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it
is written: These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are
far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules
taught by men. You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on
to the traditions of men.’”

The Holy Spirit within creates that communion with God which is necessary
for our daily spiritual renewal. In addition to communion with God, the
power of the Holy Spirit within enables us to have victory over sin. We
often call this “perfecting our sanctification.” The Spirit leads us into
the understanding of divine truth so that we can grow spiritually. The
Spirit guides us in our prayer. The Spirit binds us together as a body of
Christ.

Christians act as if fellowship with the Holy Spirit is difficult to
establish. Actually, it is very difficult to avoid. Scriptures promise us
that the Spirit dwells in every Christian. “Do you not know that your
body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have
received from God?” (1 Corinthians 6:19) A New Testament concept of the
Spirit’s control and empowering of our lives is expressed as “the
fullness of the Spirit.” There are two types of filling. One usage refers
to the equipping of believers with spiritual gifts and energy. In this
manner, Christians are equipped for both specific tasks and for the
continuing function in the body of Christ. The other usage designates the
fine-tuned control and energizing of the Spirit in our lives, which
increases as we claim victory over sin. “Both are needed to carry out the
present ministry of the Messiah in building his kingdom. A powerfully
gifted person who shows little of the sanctifying grace of the Spirit’s
control can be impressive but dangerous, like a runaway buzz saw. On the
other hand, a saintly Christian endeavoring to do a work for which he or
she is not gifted will be a gracious failure.” (Richard Lovelace, Renewal
As a Way of Life, Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1985, p. 150).
The Holy Spirit within is the third dynamic of individual spiritual
renewal.

So this Memorial Day, make the most of your memory by remembering the
Messianic victory of Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God. Remember that
believing faith in his sacrificial love gives us freedom from guilt.
Justification - God accepts us. Remember that we are freed from bondage
to sin through the sacrifice of Christ on our behalf. Sanctification -
freedom from bondage to sin. Remember that the Holy Spirit dwells in the
life of every Christian so that we may maintain communion with God. The
Holy Spirit within - personal fellowship with God. As you remember the
love of God and His saving mercy through Jesus Christ, let these three
elements of spiritual renewal be at work in your life so that you can
live a life of daily renewal.

Rev. Charles A. Layne, pastor, First Baptist Church, Bunker Hill, IN

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