Ancient Promises: Two Transforming Equations
The Rev. Dr. John Judson
June 19, 2011
Genesis 4:1-16
Now the man knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, ‘I have produced a man with the help of the Lord.’ Next she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a tiller of the ground. In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel for his part brought of the firstlings of his flock, their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering,but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. The Lord said to Cain, ‘Why are you angry, and why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is lurking at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.’
Cain said to his brother Abel, ‘Let us go out to the field.’ And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.Then the Lord said to Cain, ‘Where is your brother Abel?’ He said, ‘I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?’ And the Lord said, ‘What have you done? Listen; your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground!And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you till the ground, it will no longer yield to you its strength; you will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.’ Cain said to the Lord, ‘My punishment is greater than I can bear! Today you have driven me away from the soil, and I shall be hidden from your face; I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and anyone who meets me may kill me.’ Then the Lord said to him, ‘Not so! Whoever kills Cain will suffer a sevenfold vengeance.’ And theLord put a mark on Cain, so that no one who came upon him would kill him. Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord, and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
Romans 6:1-12
What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it?Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For whoever has died is freed from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Therefore, do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions.
As we begin I need each of you to write an equation on your bulletin. The equation is g > s (I have since been told this is not an equation but an inequality…so for the moment bear with me). As you look at this equation please know that it is one of the two greatest equations in Christianity. It is so because g stands for grace and s stands for sin. What this equation describes then is the reality that the grace of God is always greater than our sin. I understand that while many of us are comfortable associating this equation with the New Testament we may not be so comfortable associating with all of scripture. So in order to make my point that g > s I would like us to return to our Old Testament text this morning. In it we read the story of Cain and Able. Both make sacrifices to God. Able’s is accepted and Cain’s is not. We are not sure why…it simply is the way it is. Cain becomes angry and rather than having it out with God as did Job, Cain takes it out on his brother and kills him. Now, our expectation of the God of the Old Testament would be that Cain would get zapped by fire and vaporized. However God instead, while making him suffer the consequences of his actions by driving him out from his family, also shows amazing grace by protecting Cain with a distinguishing mark. Thus, even in the outset of the Old Testament, grace is greater than sin.
The second great equation (which is an equation) is g – s = nl. Since g stands for grace and s stands for sin, then grace minus sin yields nl, or new life. This equation is at the very heart of our morning’s message. It shows us that not only is grace greater than sin, but that grace overcomes sin and leads to new life. The grace of God in Jesus Christ brings us into new possibilities for being fully faithful followers of Jesus Christ. Listen again to Paul. “Therefore we have been buried with Jesus by baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in the newness of life.” And in verses 7 and 8 we read, “For whoever has died (meaning died to self and lived to Jesus) is freed from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.” The point of grace being greater than sin is that we are freed from the power of sin and thus made alive to new possibilities for being God’s people. This is amazingly good news. It means we are not stuck being the same old people year after year. It means we can become new and more faithful people with each passing day. The question becomes then, with these two great equations, what is Paul so upset about in this part of the letter?
The answer is that Paul is upset because people want to learn equation one and forget equation two. Why does this matter, you may wonder? The answer is that God’s desire for every human being is that we live into the full potential for loving God, loving neighbor and caring for creation for which we were created. If all we do is focus on the first equation, we will never fulfill this potential. Let’s let Paul explain. Paul opens this part of his letter with the following line. “What then should we say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound.” I know that this sounds odd, yet it makes sense if we do the math. If g is always great than s, the one way to insure that g increases is to increase s. So if want more grace around than all we have to do is sin more. Some people have argued that Paul is being facetious here in order to make a point; the point being that the Roman Christians have decided that since they are freed from sin and that grace is greater than sin then they can continue living as they always have. In other words they can become comfortably complacent with lives which are not aligned with the love and grace of God in Jesus Christ. As long as they are relatively nice people, they don’t have to work toward the new lives that Jesus has made possible for them.
At this point in my sermon I want to stop and ask a question of you. And the answer cannot be looks, great hair, talent, wealth, height, age, nationality or a 130 mph serve. So here is the question. What is the difference between me and French Open champion Raphael Nadal? Remember the answer cannot be looks, great hair, talent, wealth, height, age, nationality or a 130 mph serve. The answer is that Nadal refused to be comfortably complacent with his tennis game, I was more than happy to do so. The result? Well I play at about the lowest level of the tennis world and he is the number one player in the world. Granted, regardless of how much I tried I would never have been the number one player in the world yet I probably could have been much better than I was, or am. Nadal on the other hand not only believed he could be number one, but did everything he could to get there and so fulfilled his potential as a tennis player. Most of us can relate in one way or another. We know that we are born with great potential; some in sports, some in business, some in education, some in engineering, and some in human relationships. We also know though that unless we are willing to set aside comfortable complacency and work at toward our potential we will never live into it.
Paul was trying to make the same point about our ability to live into the fullness of life in Jesus Christ; with one difference. The difference is that unlike other areas in our lives where we may or may not have great potential; everyone who follows Jesus Christ has the ability to be great. There are no exceptions. Each of us is given the potential to become more and more Christ-like with each passing day. I am going to ask you to do something for me for a moment. I would like you to close your eyes, without falling asleep, and I want to you to imagine, to vision what it would like for you to be more Christ-like tomorrow than today. Where would your area of growth be? Would be in forgiving, reconciling, serving, listening, sharing or in something else? Would it be in more consistent worship, study or prayer? Where would it be? Now as you open your eyes, I want you to realize that whatever you envisioned is possible. It is possible because you have been set free from the power of sin and empowered to live a new life in Jesus Christ.
Here then is my challenge to you for the week ahead, that you ask yourselves this question, “How am I living into the new life I have been given in Jesus Christ?”
