from 12/20/06
Instead of the standard interview, the catalyst crew played a sermon by Kevin Myers of Crossroads Church (now 12 Stone Church) in Lawrenceville. A passionate delivery with a few nuggets to think about...
Two Themes...
1. Reduce!
Very fitting for the Christmas season. The reference was actually to observing real-estate signs all over town with "reduced" plastered on them. That sparked in Myers' mind the idea to "reduce" this Christmas...to reduce this season down to its essentials. For him, that meant taking four Sundays to talk about Redemption, Justification, Regeneration, and Adoption. It's way too easy to forget that Jesus' birth was for the purpose of bringing these gifts to mankind...
2. Obligation vs Invitation OR Got to vs Get to
This was the big idea of the sermon as it related to redemption - that it is not an obligation but an invitation. The point was that too often the life of faith is seen as an obligation; but this was never the intention! He came that we may have life to the full. How will we respond then? Is this something we have "got to" do, or something that we have the great privilege to "get to".
He said this another way...that religion is what we do to get God to respond to us. It's a "got to." Instead, the true life of faith is a "get to"; an invitation to live a full life as a participant, through grace, in the story of redemption.
The most powerful illustration, however, came for me when Myers spoke of Justification. He told the heart wrenching story of a teenager in his church who was responsible for the accidental death of a young woman in a traffic accident. In court were two weeping fathers: the father of the young man pleading for mercy and the father of the young woman pleading for justice. I can understand both sides. The father of the young man knows that his son is deeply remorseful for the accident for which he was responsible...a guilty plea would leave his son in prison till mid-life, loosing many years of his life. On the other hand, the father of the young woman can only plead for justice...could you imagine being him watching the young man walk free?! I couldn't bear it! Justice must be upheld. And this is when I first realized the need for us to be justified. If forgiveness only is offered, justice is not served. The penalty must be paid. And this is what is so incredible about Jesus. He meets both of these fathers in their tears. He fulfills the need for justice to the one, and in doing so provides mercy for the other. Now, this doesn't mean that the son doesn't have consequences in this life, but in a spiritual sense the metaphor is powerful. The divine need for justice is satisfied in Jesus, and mercy is granted to our souls, even the worst of sinners. Why Jesus would do this is the beautiful mystery of the incarnation.
final notes...he gives three definitions of certain terms:
Justification - deals with guilt
Regeneration - New Life
Adoption - New Stance
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