Fourth Sunday after Trinity

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Have you ever stopped and asked yourself, ‘Why am I a Christian?’. I mean, why are you a Christian, still, which may be quite a different reason than why you became a Christian. You might, like me, say, I have always been a Christian; I mean I was baptized in a Christian mainline denomination as an infant, was part of a youth group, participated in an inter-denominational college fellowship, had an ordained pastor conduct my premarital counseling, with my then, fiancé, who then celebrated our wedding in a church with witnesses before GOD, etc., etc., etc. – But the question remains: Why are you still a Christian? — I think this question is very important and relevant.  — In America, a high percentage of young people, married and single, are finding the Christian Faith for the first time. They are learning that JESUS is very different from how popular culture spoke about Him when they were young. Many of them report they were tricked into believing that being a Christian was antiquated, backwards, lame, and uncool. — We Christians, we who are long in our teeth and who have storied Christian memories, we must stir ourselves up, for it is our calling to tell our newer Christian brothers and sisters (as well as those not so new, who are rekindling the Faith that they lost touch with, once upon a time), why we are ‘still’ Christians, and why we will remain as such. 

I understand, on the surface, our answers will be subjective. We each had different historical Christian experiences, diverse stations in life as we have grown in the Faith, and varied expectations about the future, thus placing our hope in JESUS in very different ways over the years. — Yet, the revelation of Holy Scripture is quite plain about what the GOD of Heaven is offering those who put their trust in JESUS Christ as Savior and LORD, both in the near-term and the long-term.   

Those immovable theological promises pertain to justification, sanctification, and glorification; all of which enable our receipt of the fullness of the Kingdom of GOD in this age, and in the age to come. Justification is that complex concept that we struggle with from time to time. It is a theological construct that conveys an idea contrary to our progressive humanistic tendencies. Difficult, because it must be free to us, lest it cost GOD nothing. In the Christian worldview, justification cannot be a work of our own, because it cost GOD everything. Theologically interpreted (as you might learn it in a seminary course), justification is a forensic or juridical concept. That is, JESUS Christ came before the divine bench of the ALMIGHTY Judge of Heaven, and He made the full payment owed to GOD for the debt of our sin by offering Himself for us. — In the Comfortable Words we hear each Sunday from the First Epistle of St. John: “If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, JESUS Christ the righteous, and He is the propitiation for our sin; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (2.2). This theological concept sees Christ as our Barrister, pleading humanity’s case in the Divine Court of Justice, and offering Himself as the victim for the punishment due every person for our own sins. It is JESUS and JESUS alone who liberates all believers from the divine condemnation we all deserve but cannot atone for or pay.  

The new as well as the seasoned Christian knows that Heaven’s condemnation is just, for the GOD of the Bible, the GOD of all Creation, has revealed Himself to humanity through His moral Law of good and evil. And through His Law (Ten Commandments/Decalogue) “is the knowledge of sin” (Romans 3.20). This “Law is good, because it forbids what ought to be forbidden, and requires what ought to be required.”¹ This is what Saints Paul and Augustine thought on the matter. — Further, we know from personal experience and the Bible’s witness, that “There is none righteous; no not one … For all have sinned (broken the Decalogue) and fallen short of the glory of [the Law] of GOD” (Romans 3.10,23). As such (returning to the juridical illustration), we owe GOD a debt because we have rebelled against His righteousness expressed in His Law. And considering that GOD is unsurpassable in holiness and righteousness, we cannot pay down any principal against our debt, not even one iota. For what shall we offer the ALMIGHTY, who was, and is, and ever shall be? Our righteousness, as the Scriptures say, is like filthy rags before GOD; “we all fade as a leaf. And our iniquities, like the wind, carry us away (Isaiah 64.6). And since it is in GOD that we live, move, and have our being, our existence, present and future, depends upon the payment of this debt. Thus, every man should call out alongside of Saint Paul saying: “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Romans 7.24). 

For the Christian (and this is the point), we thank GOD for the LORD JESUS Christ, who, while we were yet sinners, died, the just for the unjust. And now, being justified by the debt JESUS paid in His blood in the place for our debt, we shall be saved from the wrath to come. The Divine Court of Justice has declared us ‘innocent’ and free from the guilt and punishment that is reserved against all rebels of GOD, for Christ’s sake. (cf. Romans 5.8-9; 1 Peter 3.18). — Thus, we should tell our newer Christian brother or sister that we have maintained our confession and practice of the Christian Faith, firstly, because we have been made righteous by GOD through Christ JESUS our Savior; the ledger of our debt of sin has been wiped out and forgiven. Faith in our justification through Christ causes us to hold strongly to the hope that “There is therefore now, no condemnation to them which are in (the Faith) of Christ JESUS; who walk not after the flesh (of the old life), but after the Spirit (of the new life in Christ)” (Romans 8.1). 

Secondly, when asked by a newer Christian why I, for over fifty-five years, have maintained my allegiance and devotion to GOD, the Church, and the Faith of the LORD JESUS, I would say it is because of the work GOD is doing in me. — A newer Christian in most cases, is going to be attracted to the life, teaching, and work of JESUS of Nazareth as detailed in the Gospels. This is good and right! Their heart and minds will be captivated by the relationships JESUS established and how He nurtured them. And as such, GOD willing, they will want to enter deeper communion with JESUS by experiencing Him through His Word and Sacraments, growing in relationship with Him themselves. — But, at some point, the hard teachings of the Epistles will need to be embraced by the new believer as well. It is in the Epistles where the Apostles and disciples teach JESUS’ followers, not only the ‘why’ of the Christian Faith, but also the ‘how’ of the Faith. Thus, in addressing the original question, I would tell the newer Christian that my Christianity holds fast to the hope of the Holy Spirit’s sanctifying work in me; viz., teaching, leading, and empowering me to the ‘how’ of the Faith. — This, the Bible says, is the true purpose of humanity and the reason we have been created.    

The reason we have been created is to reflect the image of GOD, but it is not in our power to achieve this; it must be the work of the Holy Spirit. Thus we pray, newer and seasoned Christians alike, “O GOD, the protector of all that trust in Thee … Increase and multiply upon us Thy mercy … that, we may so pass through things temporal, that we finally lose not things eternal.”² — It bears repeating here, an early confession we made: “There is therefore now, no condemnation to them which are in (the Faith) of Christ JESUS, who walk not after the flesh (of the old life), but after the Spirit (of the new life in Christ)” (Romans 8.1). — Yes, this seems to fly in the face of what we also stated earlier: “There is none righteous; no not one” (Romans 3.10). — If you are following with me, in this second point, I am speaking about sanctification, not justification. Justification pertains to being made blameless and debt-free before GOD from our sin through the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross. We cannot achieve this on our own; no, not one of us. Yet, when it comes to the better understood, yet deeply concerning, divine operation of the sanctification of a human soul (being made holy and set-apart for GOD’s purposes), we are to willingly and actively participate. Enjoining ourselves to the leading of the Holy Ghost in this work, we must walk through things temporal, to obtain things eternal. Willingly and desiring the increase and multiplication of His mercy and grace, we are to embrace that which the Holy Spirit is doing within us, so that we walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. This we can do under His Grace, through His power, by His leading, and according to His directions. 

I wonder if you heard how I initially described this operation of ‘sanctification’ by the Holy Spirit? I described it as deeply concerning, and yet this is to be a reason we give to a newer Christian to persevere in the Faith? — True, sanctification is the least enjoyable aspect of being a Christian, yet, to every honest and devoted follower of Christ, we know how vital sanctification is. “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ [dwelling and working in him], he is not His” (Romans 8.9). For “Whoso loveth instruction loveth knowledge: but he that hateth reproof [from the LORD] is brutish” (Proverbs 12.1); and “A wise son heareth His Father’s instruction: but a scorner heareth not rebuke” (Proverbs 13.1); and “For whom the LORD loveth He correcteth: even as a father the son in whom he delighteth” (Proverbs 3.12). JESUS, Himself, said: “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent” (Revelation 3.19). For in the LORD’s rebuke is His love, and if we receive His love, “Behold, He stands at the door and knocks. If anyone hears His voice and opens the door of his heart, JESUS will come in to him and dine with him, and he with JESUS” (Revelation 3.20). And what true Christian among us does not desire the Presence of JESUS in their heart, dining, reforming, speaking, moving, rebuking, liberating … loving? 

Perhaps the better way of framing sanctification and the reason for its weighty influence on our perseverance in the Faith to the new believer, would not be to express some strange delight of reproof and correction, but rather, as the joy of the life of Christ in us, the hope of glory. — C.S. Lewis, in his collection of sermons and addresses delivered during WWII and entitled, The Weight of Glory, wrestles with this idea of Christ in him; viz. the prospect and process of the Holy Spirit’s sanctifying work in his life. He says, “When in my private prayers on the Fourth Sunday after Trinity, I found that I had made a slip of the tongue. What I meant to pray was ‘that, I might so pass through things temporal, that I might not lose things eternal,’ I found instead, that I had prayed, ‘that, I might so pass through things eternal, that I might not lose things temporal’ … I thought this Freudian Slip was significant. I thought that what I had inadvertently said, I had rather really wished – very nearly … What I meant with some earnestness was, that I had wanted to pass through, without prejudice towards my things temporal, was those moments that I attend to the Eternal; that I expose myself to it. — I say my prayers; I read a book of devotion; I prepare for or receive the Holy Sacrament. And while I do these things, there is, so to speak, a voice inside my head urging caution. It tells me to be careful; not to go too far; not to lose my head; not to burn my bridges. — At these moments, I come into the presence of GOD with a great fear, that something will happen to me in that Holy Presence that will prove too intolerably inconvenient when I come out again in my ordinary life. I don’t want to be carried away into any resolutions which I will afterwards regret. For I know I shall be feeling quite different after breakfast. — I don’t want to do anything at the Altar that will run up too big a bill to pay. — It would be very disagreeable, for instance, to take the duty of Charity while I am at the Altar so seriously, that after breakfast, I have to tear up the really stunning reply I had written to an impudent correspondent yesterday and meant to post today.”³ 

Though concerned about the sanctifying work of the Spirit in him, Lewis comes to his senses and realizes that such an attitude is not for the devoted follower of Christ. He continues: “For each of us, the Baptist’s words are true: He must increase, and I must decrease. JESUS will be infinitely merciful to our repeated failures. Yet, I know of no [scriptural] promise, wherein He will accept a deliberate compromise, for He has, in the last resort, nothing to give us but Himself. — And JESUS can give only that, in so far as our self-affirming will retires and makes room for Him to give. — Thomas Moore said: ‘If you have not chosen the Kingdom of GOD, in the end, it will not matter what you have chosen instead’ … We shall miss the end in which we were formed, and rejected the only thing that satisfies … Thus, I do not think any efforts of my own will, can end this craving for limited liabilities; this fatal reservation of the eternal over the temporal. — Only GOD can. — I have good faith and hope that He will. I do not mean then that I can, as they say, sit back. What GOD does for us; He does in us. The process of doing it will appear to me, and not falsely, to be the daily or hourly repeated spiritual exercises of my own will in renouncing this attitude of craving for limited liabilities.”⁴ 

And this is where we must be very transparent with the new Christian – there is a cost to being a Christian, which does not fly in the face of being saved by grace through faith. The first strong reason for perseverance is just this fact: we cannot save ourselves. Yet, once saved, our laborious and lifelong co-laboring with GOD begins. In no uncertain terms, JESUS lays out the cost of discipleship. He says: “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me” (St. Matthew 10.37). And if prizing no relationship above the relationship we enjoy with JESUS was enough, JESUS challenges even the love we have for ourselves, when He says: “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me” (St. Mark 8.34). As Lewis says: “If we are to be true followers of Christ, we must realize ‘What cannot be admitted, what must exist only as an undefeated, but daily enemy, is the idea that there is something of our own. Some areas of our lives in which GOD has no claim. But He claims all, for He is love, and He must bless; He cannot bless us unless He has us. When we try to keep an area in ourselves, we claim death. Yet, GOD, as love, claims all; there is no bargaining with Him.”⁵ 

This leads us to the last area of focus for remaining faithful in our pursuit of the Christian Faith. That is for glory. — For GOD promises those who run the race of the Faith glory. And the glory that we will receive, nay, have received already, is the Presence of GOD in us. As Saint Paul says, “Christ in you, the hope of glory!” (Colossians 1.27). And His glory is His majesty – His dignity – His splendor- His, well, gloriousness. — The Scriptures are very true and good altogether. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of GOD – we all like sheep have gone astray – all of our righteous deeds are as filthy rags. Yet, this life we live in Christ, and He in us by His Holy Spirit, brings us glory – brings us an inherent dignity and goodness we cannot acquire or achieve on our own. The justification of GOD leaves us speechless, for how could One so lovely and good take on our ugliness and blame and do so in conquering, relentless love? And after loving us to the uttermost, to promise to occupy every square inch of who we are with His blessed Presence, if we, being redeemed, would open the door of our hearts to His love. And if we do open ourselves to Him, He instills His sanctifying Presence in us, that we might become, as He is, glorious. Such is the reason that C.S. Lewis said, “Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your Christian neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses.”⁶ 

If asked, these would be the reasons we should tell a new or revived Christian, why we have, and why they should persevere in the Christian Faith. Thus, friends, on this Fourth Sunday after Trinity, let us not make the Freudian slip that Mr. Lewis made – though that temptation for limited liabilities will daily try our mettle. If you understand the analogy, then we must not, with the enemy, become like the Vichy French, but instead, we must ally with GOD and join in the Resistance of the Kingdom of GOD, looking to Him, so that He will increase and multiply upon us His mercy … that we may so pass through things temporal, that we finally lose not things eternal. Even our hope of glory. Amen.  

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1 Oden, Thomas C. and Bray, Gerald ed., Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: New Testament VI – Romans, (Downers Grove: Intervarsity Press, 1998), 93.  

2 1928 Book of Common Prayer, 194.  

3-6 InternetArchive.org. Lewis, C.S. The Weight of Glory. Accessed 26 June 26. https://archive.org/details/weightofglory0000unse/page/44/mode/2up.