Atonement

In his morning greeting Brad told about a recent incident involving Dale who was on his way to Canada for a fishing trip when just this side of the border he became aware that he'd forgotten his passport. He must have said to his fishing buddies, "Well, I only forgot one thing" but in this case it was the one thing that matters if planning to leave the country and come back again. In the same way today's sermon deals with one thing of vital importance, the atoning work of Christ Jesus.

After a beautiful introit by Darlene we stood for a moment of silence to acknowledging the passing of Gordy Garrett from the Isle of Mann, who passed this week.

Announcements included two by Cheryl Borndal.
1) We're looking for helpers who can participate in the worship in various ways from special music and Scripture reading to drama and greeters. Cheryl then put her "camp hat" on and made a second announcement.
2) We have 26 kids going to camp this summer from our congregation. Cheryl reminded us to pray for these youth as many will have life changing experiences there. An offering was taken after the service to help defray expenses for these young ones.

The Scripture reading was from Romans 6:12-23, which was followed by a time of prayer.

Atonement

Pastor Brad, a baseball fan, created an imaginary baseball league for us as an illustration to make a few points about today's theme. He called this leabe the All Universe Baseball Association. He said there were special requirements to be in this league. First, you had to have five years experience. Second, no errors for an entire career. And finally, you had to have a perfect batting average of 1,000.

In real life, of course, these kinds of numbers would be impossible to achieve. Even the best batters of all time get a hit only one in three times. And an errorless career has never been experienced by even one ballplayer. The qualifications for the All Universe Baseball Association are but an impossible dream, and any player who seriously sought to qualify for this imaginary league was likely himself living in a fantasy world. No matter how good you are going forward, the errors of the past will not permit you to achieve a perfect, errorless career.

So it is that the illustration sets up Brad's message, based on passages from Romans 3, Paul's letter to the church at Rome.

Brad said that according to Scripture there are two ways to get to heaven. The first is based on performance. That performance is a lifetime of sinless perfection. Not only no errors, though, but also every hit is a home run, a blend of perfect altruism and perfect rightousness in thought, word and deed.

This standard is so high that any realistic attempt to achieve it will end in futility. No one has done this, and no one will. Hence in Romans 3:10-12 Paul quotes the Old Testament passage affirming as such:
10 “There is no one righteous, not even one; 11 there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. ¹² All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”

It is not possible to work one's way to heaven. BUT.... there is another way. And with regard to this other way, all sinners are eligible. This "other way" is to take the righteousness manifest in Jesus and appropriate it to ourselves. This is the meaning of the atonement. All are justified by faith in Jesus' atoning work.

We become eligible to this gift by acknowledging that we are sinners. In verses 21 and 27 Paul notes that this salvation is obtained apart from the law. And again, in Roman's 4:5 Paul re-affirms the same. Salvation is ours apart from the law, irrespective of works.

Brad said he sees three kinds of people in the world today. Group one believes they will get to heaven by doing the best they can, and taking their chances with God. This group of non-Christians justifies themselves by saying, "At least I'm not an axe-murderer." The second group are Christians who believe that by praying, by having a right relationship with God and doing good and hoping for the best that they will get to heaven based on doing the right things.

The third group are those who understand the narrow way, that it is a narrow door... a priceless treasure. And is ours apart from works. Jesus said, "I am the way. I am the door."

The day will come when we stand before God, and some people will have their life record in hand believing it's pretty good, and they God's light will show how their very own records condemn them. Salvation is a gift, a free gift apart from works.

"For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law." (vs 3:28)

When it comes to atonement, it's like Dales forgotten passport. It's the one thing that matters. We need to appropriate that grace into our lives.

The service closed with the classic affirmation hymn, "My Hope Is Built On Nothing Less."

The Other Half of the Story

Today's drear was lifted a bit by Brad bright greeting. Despite the grey outside, he told us that today's message would be the Blue Sky view, which meant he was taking us above the clouds to a larger overview of this summer's theme, an exposition of the book of Romans.

The announcements included...
1) An acknowledgement of several members of the church who ran in yesterday's marathon, including Pam Johnson and Rich Mullvain. Special commendation to Rich who could not run a year ago due to back surgery. Nice comeback, kid!
2) Today is Father's Day. All fathers were to make sure they got a helping of pie after the service.
3) Brooke gave a VBS report. We had more kids than ever this year. More than eighty participated during the week, with a high of 67 on one of the days, only 20 of which were from New Life. The week also raised $823 for Thailand mission needs. The theme this year was Pandamania... "God is wild about you." The kids got it.
4) The blood drive is next Sunday. If you are able to give and will be here, call Ruth Anne by Monday.

Chuck, Ken and Darlene led us in worship today, with Chuck noting that his dad was his first hero. A fitting tribute to begin a father's day service.

After worship, offering and a time of prayer, Brad delivered today's message.

The Other Half of the Story

Brad began with the exclamation, "I am here because of grace." Grace is amazing. But too often we allow time to muffle the amazement of grace so that eventually it is intriguing grace and finally "Ho hum, grace." In church, surrounded by Christian friends, we start to take grace for granted.

So we turn to Romans again and the receive an overview of the first three chapters. Paul notes that all people instinctively understand that there is a God. But in a variety of ways we move away from God, cut ourselves off from Him. After details of debauchery, Paul details how people can get into making and keeping rules to show how "good" they are (better than others) and puff themselves up with a blather of self-righteousness. This latter attitude puts us no closer to God than the former behaviors. In short, as Paul emphatically underscores with a passage from the Old Testament, "No one is good. No, not one."

At this point Brad led us to the book of Ephesians where Paul details our exact situation before grace. We were "dead in our transgressions." Dead equals no life. That is, we can dress them up but dead flowers are quickly wilting and becoming dust. Once cut off from God, the soul dies.

And here is Paul's point: Since all have sinned and fall short, human beings cannot save themselves.

We are wholly dependent on God, then. Saving faith is not a gift man offers to God. It is from God to man. Grace always flows downward.

I was a sinner. Now I am called a saint. Not by merit, not by having matured spiritually. Saint means sanctified for God's service and set apart for His use.

We don't "try to become saints." We ARE saints.

Then Brad had us turn to Romans 5:6-8

⁶ You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷ Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. ⁸ But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

No matter how far you are from God, His grace can reach you. Rahab, the prostitute, is a perfect illustration of this. In fact, she gets numerous mentions in Scripture. In the famous "heroes of the faith" list in Hebrews 11, she is right there with Moses and Abraham.

Grace did not come to Rahab after rehab. She believed, responded to God, and God lifted her.

The rest of her story is equally remarkable. She married and had a son, whose name was Boaz, and she is listed in the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah.

I am because of grace, Brad affirmed. And because of grace, Scripture declares I am God's child, Christ's friend, united with the Lord in one spirit, born of God and the evil one cannot touch me.
What's more... I am the salt of the earth and the light of the world, I am the branch of the true vine, Jesus, a channel of His life, I have been chosen and appointed by God to bear fruit, I am a personal, Spirit-empowered witness of Christ, I am a temple of God, a minister of reconciliation for God and God's fellow worker, seated with Christ in the heavenly realms, God's workmanship, created for good works, prepared in advance. I may approach God with freedom and confidence and know that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

"Friends, you are not defined by what anybody else says you are," Brad said in closing. Fill your minds with the truth of who you really are in Him. Because of grace.