Book: Romans

God’s forgiveness is offered freely to us in His Son – the free gift of Salvation. But you need two hands in order to reach out and grab the gift being given to us – and you won’t be able to open your hands and receive that gift if they’re both clenched, tightly holding on to some offense someone has made against us. “Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.”

We might say our love is genuine. We know what Paul means, and we know it sounds good. But our love is not free of pretense. Our “genuine love” is a lot more like “genuine leather” than the standard to which Paul exhorts us. We want to have the appearance and the benefits of authentic love without any of the responsibilities and discomforts it puts upon us.

Recently I watched the movie “The Truman Show” for the first time. For those unfamiliar, the “The Truman Show” is a movie from 1998 starring Jim Carrey. Going in, I was surprised to find out it was more of a psychological thriller than comedy. I was also surprised by how stunningly it criticized our present day, some 25 years later.

Let us thank God for keeping us safe in the midst of trouble and let us not forget how He comforted our waste places in the past. Perhaps today you still find yourself navigating the wilderness. Whether now or in the future, when we wander through those desolate places, we must never forsake to answer the question that matters most: “Who do you say that Jesus is?”

Keep justice. Do righteousness. Keep the Sabbath. Keep your hand from evil. We acknowledge our failures in all these things as we worship every Sunday, and once we are made clean, we all receive the same wafer – same size, same shape – and drink the same wine, receiving the same Grace from Christ Jesus. This is the source and summit of our Christian lives.

Think back to all of life’s storms you have endured in the past. How often, in the heat of the moment, when you are being tossed around by the waves, does it seem like there’s no way you will ever make it through? Yet every time, Jesus is there to catch you with his strong arm. So why do we refuse to step out in faith when he calls?

Our present reality makes the Church’s calling all the more urgent – the Church will not survive if she looks no different than the world around her. On the other hand, if the Church is faithful to God’s Word, then her people will persevere to the end.

Our hope – this sure and steadfast anchor – is also a guard against the cynicism and nihilism which now grips our political and cultural landscape. Confidence in the Resurrection cannot be separated from confidence in the Last Judgement, which Jesus teaches in the parable of the weeds.

Here is the key for us today: all of us have been commissioned in the priesthood of believers as planters for the kingdom of God. Not only does that mean the preaching of the Gospel, but it means the seed of our own faith as well – perhaps that more than anything else.