Word of Salvation – Vol. 37 No. 26 – July 1992

 

Belonging To Jesus Christ

 

Sermon by Rev. W. Wiersma on Lord's Day 1

Reading: 1Corinthians 6:18-21, Romans 8:1-17

 

The Catechism introduces its teaching on the Christian faith with a very personal question.

'WHAT IS YOUR ONLY COMFORT IN LIFE AND DEATH?'

It is like asking: What is your handle on life?

How do you cope?  Because life has all kinds of problems and questions, doesn't it?  So the question is: What do you know that helps you keep your sanity?  What truth gives your life meaning?

That's a pretty important question.

A question with which most people struggle somehow or other, sooner or later.

A question to which many people have not found a satisfactory answer.  What is your only comfort in life and death?  Many people have not found an answer to that question.

How else do you explain all the drug taking, the suicides, the marriage breakups, the abortions, the mass murders?

Many people have no real comfort at all.  They live in despair.  They can't handle life.

Many can't even handle religion.  They find religion an oppressive burden and a terrible threat.

The thought of God frightens them and makes them irritable.

There are, of course, people who pretend to be coping very well.  Everything is going smoothly for them.  They have never experienced any real hardship or crisis in their life.  Their comfort is in the smooth running of their life, and they expect that to go on for ever and ever.  But don't talk to them about things that could go wrong.  Don't mention death.  It scares the daylights out of them.

But enough!

What is your comfort in life?  What is it that enables you to cope with life and death?  Because that is something we all have to cope with.

They say there are two certainties in life, taxes and death.

What comfort do you have that helps you cope with death, as well as life?

The Catechism talks about the Christian answer to that question.  Some of you may not be able to give this answer, yet.  And the idea of the Catechism is that it will give such teaching as will bring you to the enjoyment of that comfort, that certainty in life, that security in life, that will help you to cope.  And that gives you joy under all circumstances.  That's why later on it talks about three things that you need to know in order to live and die in this comfort.  You might say the Catechism gives us three spiritual laws.  Three things that we must know.  And that's true for each one of us, whether we are Christians or not.

So the Catechism gives a Christian answer to the question: What is your only comfort in life and death?

You might say that Lord's Day 1 gives us a very practical, as well as very personal, summary of the Christian faith.

You could also say that L.D.1 gives us a summary of the Reformed faith.  It expresses the heart of the Reformed faith.  A faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Let's have a closer look at Answer 1.

The Catechism starts with a rather unusual statement, doesn't it?  Have you ever thought about that?

It says that my only comfort in life and death is, "That I am not my own but belong, body and soul, both in life and in death to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ...!'  And here it is suggested that the Christian is happy that he is not his own, that he doesn't belong to himself, but that he belongs to somebody else, he belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now I say that that is a strange answer in a world in which all the emphasis is on self-determination.

Here the Christian says: I am not my own, and I am glad about it.  Now that is actually a biblical concept.  The little number 1 next to this part of the answer refers (down below) to 1Cor.6:19,20 where the apostle Paul writes to Christians, 'Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you received from God?  You are not your own: you were bought with a price.'

The apostle is obviously thinking about the price of Christ's blood with which he set his people free.

In other words, Jesus saves you for himself.  He buys you for himself.  By saving you, you become his, and you lose all self-rights.

Now the believer doesn't mind this at all.  He doesn't mind not being his own, because the believer enjoys belonging to the Lord Jesus Christ, and having somebody as wise as Jesus to rule his life.  The believer knows how ignorant and foolish he is by nature.  He is a sinner by nature.  And he has an amazing capacity to ruin his own life.

Therefore the believer is quite happy to have a Saviour and a Lord who is wise and good.

Now there are two thoughts that come to mind here.

First, the idea of belonging is very very comforting, isn't it?

There is possibly nothing worse than to feel that you are all on your ow; that you don't belong.

I think a lot of young people have trouble with that, don't they?

Do I belong?

Am I accepted?

Does anybody care for me, really care about me?

O what peace you will find when you go to Jesus – when you look to him for salvation and love.

He's never turned away anyone who came to him sincerely.

You want to belong?  Turn to Jesus and before long you'll know you are his.

Now that desire to belong is not only found among young people.  There is probably no greater cause of trouble in the church than people thinking that they don't belong, that they are not accepted.

Is it not true that many people in the church are looking for and demanding attention?

They are looking to their fellow church members for this attention, for this assurance that they belong.  They should be looking, in the first place, to Jesus to get assurance of belonging.

If only you could rejoice in the love and care of Christ, you would be freed from your anxiety of whether you belong or not and you would be freed to reach out in care and love to those who are lonely and in need.

I say, we are often too much looking to other people for assurance instead of looking to the Lord himself.  And we are waiting for other people to do something for us, instead of being free to do something for them in love in that security that I belong.

The second thought that comes to mind is: what a blessing it is to belong to the faithful Saviour Jesus Christ.

What a privilege to know that He who has bought us with his blood is looking after us.  He attends to every detail of our life.

Listen to how the Catechism puts it:

'He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood, and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil.  He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven; in fact all things must work together for my salvation.'

Jesus takes care of my sin and misery.

He paid for all my sins so that through him I may believe in forgiveness; I may experience peace with God.

Through Jesus I need no longer fear Almighty God as the holy Judge, but I may trust in Almighty God as my loving Father.

By taking your sins away, Jesus frees you from the hold of the devil.  The devil loses all claim on those whom Jesus cleanses from sin by his blood and Spirit.

Let me say a little bit about this.  People come under the power of the devil when they start believing him and obeying him.  That's what Adam and Eve did.  That started all the rot.  People come under the power of the devil when they start taking notice of him and obeying him.

Now, do you know what happens then?  Then the devil turns around and accuses them.

That means the devil tells God that He must punish these people who have obeyed the devil because they have broken God's rules.  They have disbelieved God and they have rebelled against God's commandments.  And the devil tells God: 'now you must punish them.'

Do you see the terrible game that the devil plays with people?

First he gets you to ignore God's Word and to turn against God.  He gets you to sin and then he tells God, and you, that you deserve punishment and death; that you're doomed because you are a sinner.  And that is what the devil keeps throwing in front of people time and again.  You can't be saved; you are too bad, your sins will find you out, in the sense that you are doomed for ever and there is no hope for you.' That's what the devil does.

And the devil thinks that's funny, that he has made you sin and then he tells on you and makes you feel absolutely hopeless and miserable by throwing your sins in front of you and in front of God.  I say, the devil thinks this is funny because he hates God and men.

Whatever the devil suggests to you in rebelling against God, he is not interested in you.  He is only interested in getting at God, and your life in the sense that he wants to destroy it because you are a creature of God.  That is all the devil is interested in.

And he laughs when you sin, and when you think you are smarter than God and all those Christians.  You will go your own way and you will have a good time.  The devil is laughing because sooner or later he will throw it in front of God and in front of you and say: 'Now you've done it, you're finished.  No hope for you.'

And there are many people who are in the grip of the devil because they can't see beyond what he is saying.

And now, the good news, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, is that when Jesus died on the cross for our sins he broke the devil's hold on us.  Whenever the devil tries to frighten Christians with their sins, the Christian may find comfort in Jesus who has taken the rap for our sins.  Jesus guarantees our sins are forgiven – never to be held against us by God.

So when the devil accuses us, we can say to him, 'You're absolutely right about my sins and my rottenness, and if there was no Saviour Jesus Christ, indeed I would be in a hopeless mess.  But praise God, He has sent a Saviour who has died for my sins.'

And I believe in him, so devil be gone!  And he has to go.  Because the Lord God will not hold their sins against those who trust in Jesus who has died for them.

It is not that those sins weren't bad.  Don't misunderstand me.  Don't think that I am saying, don't worry about your sins, you can sin to your heart's content and all you have to say is, 'I believe in Jesus', and all will be well.  If that is what you think it would show that you are not believing in Jesus because, as we will read later, when you belong to the Lord Jesus He gives you his Spirit to work in you to will and to work what is pleasing to him.

One who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, and who rejoices in his Saviour, wants to obey God as his heavenly Father.

He will never look for an excuse to sin because he knows how offensive sin and rebellion are to God.  So offensive that He had to crucify his own Son in order to forgive.

So, don't ever think that sins are minor little things.

What Jesus did on the cross to save us from sin and the devil was not something minor.  It was something terrific, something tremendous, unbelievable!

It is because of Jesus' sacrifice that God looks after believers and takes care of their needs; making all things work together for their salvation.  All things work together so that I am freed more and more from myself and brought into closer fellowship with God.

I turn to the last part of Answer 1.  'Because I belong to him, Christ, by his Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.'

Belonging to him we are enabled to live for him.

In other words, the Lord Jesus gives his Spirit to his people.  And through that Spirit Jesus assures the believer of eternal life; i.e. of peace with God.

The Spirit assures the believer of the love of God.  The Spirit makes us see God (through Jesus) in such a way that we cry, 'Abba, Father!'  But the Holy Spirit does more than that.

He not only gives us a sense of peace with God, of assurance of belonging.  He also works in the believer's heart and mind to make them more willing and able to live for the Lord.

I am reading from Philippians 2:12,13...

'Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose'.  The Lord himself ensures that we will live a godly life.

As Jesus said, 'Abide in me and you will bear much fruit.'

So the main thing is that we believe in God, that we stay close to Jesus, and that we serve him.  The Lord will enable us to do so by his Spirit.

The emphasis, therefore, is to be on belonging to Christ and on what he has done for us and will do in us and through us.

That is surely most comforting when Christians are struggling with the question: Am I really a child of God?

And I would like to suggest to you that most Christians struggle with that question some time or other.  Am I a child of God?

Am I really a Christian?  Am I saved?

I say most Christians struggle with that question some time or other, because they come face to face with their own sins and their own shortcomings.  And they say to themselves, and rightly so: 'If I am a Christian should I not be free from these sins and shortcomings?' We should.  But often as Christians were are not.

So, as Christians we can be uncertain about our salvation when we look at ourselves.

What a comfort, then to look to Christ and know that He will take care of all the details, including our need for renewal and growth.

'Because I belong to him, Christ by his Holy Spirit assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing from now on to live for him.'

Is that your comfort?

Is that your security?

Are you certain of a place in the kingdom of God and in heaven?  That you belong to Jesus and that belonging to him you will have everything you need for life and for godliness?

That is the Gospel.

AMEN