Rev. Steven S. Billings
Pentecost 25
Sermon
11-15-2015
Hebrews 10:11-25
11 And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the
same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when Christ had
offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right
hand of God, 13 waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a
footstool for his feet. 14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all
time those who are being sanctified. 15 And the Holy Spirit also bears
witness to us; for after saying, 16 "This is the covenant that I will make
with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their
hearts, and write them on their minds," 17 then he adds, "I will remember
their sins and their lawless deeds no more." 18 Where there is forgiveness
of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.
19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter
the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he
opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, 21 and since
we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a
true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from
an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold
fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is
faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good
works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but
encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
Pelagianism is a heresy that denies original sin and asserts
that you not only can but must cooperate in your salvation. Whether it's of
the Roman Catholic variety, which teaches that God starts your salvation and
you finish it, or of the Wesleyan/Arminian type, in which you make the
commitment and God then helps you along, either way, you end up giving
yourself credit for something you have little or nothing to do with.
Salvation is a free gift of faith granted purely and solely by the merits of
Jesus Christ, who suffered, died, and rose again to give it to you. Even
faith, which grasps the promise, is a gift of God given through the Means of
Grace.
But Pelagianism is a sword that cuts two ways, and either
way can be deadly. On the one hand, it leads its adherents to believe they
have somehow saved themselves by their decision and/or works, which is an
insult to Christ. (How do you like it when someone else takes credit for
what you've accomplished?) And, besides this, it is ultimately a trust in a
false god, for what else can you call it when you make yourself your own
savior? And it is clearly a reliance upon the law, which never saves but
only accuses, and a complete denial of the gospel. (In no way is it "good
news" to believe that you have to keep the law perfectly in order to be
saved!) Jesus didn't die to make you a better person so that you could earn
your way into heaven! Jesus didn't die to make bad people good; He died to
make dead people live. You can fit a corpse with the finest suit of armor,
give him the sharpest, sturdiest sword, and seat him on a grand stallion,
but when you shove him into battle, he's not going to accomplish much. Why?
Because he's dead! And so are you without Christ. Your works amount to
nothing, gain you nothing, and if you allow yourself the delusion that you
are alive and fit for fighting, you are still dead in trespasses and sins,
and there's nothing you can do about it except rot. You're dead, and you
stay dead, if you believe that by your decision and works you can save
yourself. That's one way in which Pelagianism kills.
The other way is built on the principle that when you take
credit you also have to take blame. If you're going to make yourself
responsible, that's great when things go well. You can stand tall, puff out
your chest, and say, "Look what I did!" But when things don't go well . . .
If you've made yourself responsible, it's not nearly as much fun, is it. If
you're the hero when things work out, what are you when they don't? When
you put yourself in the driver's seat, you have to live with the
consequences, whatever they happen to be.
So, you've made a good decision to follow Jesus. You've
stacked up a bunch of good works to prove to yourself and others that you're
really a child of God. You dress right, never curse, go to church every
Sunday (or Saturday, as the case may be), and avoid sin of all sorts at all
times.
Great! Feels good. You can almost feel the strain as you reach around and
pat yourself on the back.
And then it happens. Your sinful nature rears its ugly head
and you fall from your roost and land in a heap at the base of your
self-appointed pedestal. How do you feel now? Like a complete failure?
Hopeless? Lost?
Disgraced before God and your peers?
But, do you know what your peers are really thinking? Oh,
sure, there will be those who wag their head with a tut-tut-tut and say,
"Look at that. I knew it. I never felt he was a true believer. I was
never convinced she was a real Christian." And they will believe they could
determine by your wrapper what kind of a book was inside.
But there will be others - probably a much higher number -
who will say, "Man, I'm glad that wasn't me." And they will pity you. And
they will live in fear of the day it happens to them. Because they know it
will.
They know it's inevitable. Because, despite what they say they believe,
despite what their church teaches, they know that deep down they are sinners
- sinners who could not possibly save themselves, no matter how hard they
tried. Because that's the reality, folks. You can't save yourself. And if
you convince yourself you can, and the inevitable reality comes screaming
through, what does that do to you? I'll tell you what it does: It
absolutely demolishes your underpinnings. It shatters your pillars. And
what you're left with as the debris settles is the deathly stench of
despair. You thought you had to save yourself. You found out that you
can't. And your faith is torn to shreds.
The two razor edges of Pelagianism - works righteousness -
self justification - call it what you will - are arrogance and hopelessness.
Neither one is good. Neither one reflects the true nature of salvation.
But what does God say about your hopeless, sinful condition?
"This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares
the
Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,'
then he adds, 'I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more'"
(v. 16-17).
Notice who the actor is here. "This is the covenant that I
will make with them." "I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them
on their minds." "I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no
more."
God establishes the covenant. We see this as far back as Adam and Eve in
Genesis 3, where God says to the serpent: "I will put enmity between you and
the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise
your head, and you shall bruise his heel" (v. 15). This is known as the
protoevangelion - or the first gospel. Adam and Eve had messed up (and,
yes, they were real people, despite what evolutionists say about them in the
popular media). Adam and Eve had blown it and God stepped in to promise for
the first time that He would send a Savior. This promise is repeated
throughout Scripture and fulfilled in Jesus Christ, who certainly crushed
the kingdom of Satan by defeating him at the cross.
God established the covenant of redemption and showed us our
need for that redemption by writing His law on our hearts. People
inherently know when they've done wrong. There are certain rules that are
common across the globe and in every culture. It is universally understood
that murder is wrong. Even in cannibalistic societies there are rules about
who you can eat. But the law of God was never intended to be a how-to
manual of self-justification. Lex sempre accusat - the law always accuses.
It was always meant to show us our sin and our need for a savior. This is a
blessing - a blessing established by God - and not by us - a blessing for
our benefit.
God established the covenant of a savior, God inscribed our
hearts with our need for a savior, and because of that savior remembers our
sins and lawless deeds no more. "For by a single offering he has perfected
for all time those who are being sanctified" (v. 14). Beloved, you can't
make yourself good enough to be a Christian. You didn't become a Christian
because of any decision or commitment you made. You had as little to do
with your re-birth as you had to do with your first one. The Holy Spirit
called you by the gospel, enlightened you with His gifts, and has sanctified
and kept you in the one true faith. You didn't start it, and therefore you
can't mess it up. Jesus is the founder and perfecter of your faith, who for
the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and
is seated at the right hand of the throne of God [Heb. 12:2].
It's all Him, my friends. Stop thinking that you have to
earn His love, that you're somehow responsible for your salvation, that you
have to make Him like you or appease His wrath. He loves you. He gave His
life for you. What more do you want from your Savior? I can tell you this:
He has a higher opinion of you than you do of yourself and He wants more for
you than you can even imagine. He doesn't want you to earn your salvation.
You know what He wants? He wants you to rest. What did say? "Come to me,
all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my
yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and
you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is
light"
(Mat. 11:28-20).
Pelagianism is wrong. Works-righteousness is wrong. You
don't have to earn your way to heaven. You can't earn your way to heaven.
There's nothing you can or must contribute to your salvation, no amount of
perfection you can or need add to elevate your status before God. You have
been perfected for all time by the single offering of Jesus Christ on the
cross. He saved you then and is still your Savior today. So "draw near
with a true heart in full assurance of faith" . . . and "hold fast the
confession of hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful" [v.
22-23]. In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen
---
Rev. Steven S. Billings
Oshkosh, Wisconsin
<mailto:[email protected]> mailto:[email protected]
Facebook: <http://tinyurl.com/StevenSBillings>
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