Some time ago a man named Bill Bright wrote a little tract called The Four Spiritual Laws. Maybe you are familiar with it. It was a common evangelism tool that he developed for the Campus Crusade for Christ and Young Life. It became a popular tract that was used by many other groups of people who wanted to know how to share the Good News about Jesus to other people. Now I admit that some people can be downright obnoxious about this kind of stuff, and I am sure that there are those who have been turned off by the use of the tract. But that doesn’t mean that it is a bad tract. It only means that like most everything good in life it can be misused or abused.
When I was praying over these scriptures for this week, my thoughts kept coming back to that tract. The Four Spiritual Laws are reflected in the texts that we have heard today. I though I might share a little on that this morning.
Bill Bright says that just as there are physical laws that you ignore at your own peril – like gravity – so are there some basic spiritual laws that shouldn’t be ignored. Now, I am not going to phrase this exactly like Bill Bright, but I wanted to give credit where it was due.
Bright says that the First Spiritual Law is...
God Loves You and Has a Wonderful Plan for You
It is something those of us attending Vacation Bible School as children learned when we had to memorize John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, He gave his only begotten Son.” God not only loves you, but he wants you to know it. In human form he is able to express that love in ways we can see and comprehend.
“... God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8, NASB)
“This saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus come into the world to save sinners.” (1 Timothy 1:15)
Yes, it is God’s nature to be loving. In a letter to the early church, a disciple named John wrote the words, “God is love” (1 John 4:8). To be godly, then, means we must be loving, “let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God” (1 John 4:7, ESV). Jesus said that people would recognize his disciples by the way they loved each other.
As for the wonderful plan that God has for you, we will talk about that a little later.
Now that is wonderful news. God loves us. He didn’t design us to live lives without purpose or meaning. But if that is the case, why aren’t we all living peacefully and in harmony with each other and in God’s plan and design? Well that brings us to the Second Spiritual Law which is...
We are Separated from God because of Our Sin
Now, just what is sin? Sin is basically self-centeredness. Sin is putting ourselves before God. Some people might ask, “Why shouldn’t we consider ourselves first.” Because God is our Maker. Of course, if you do not believe in God, then the notion of sin is meaningless, but I am assuming that all of us here today have some belief in the existence of God. If God is our Maker, then clearly he made us for his purposes, and on the matter of sin, or placing ourselves before God, the Bible says this...
“...all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23, NASB)
The Prophet Isaiah, who lived a long time before Jesus said that the Word of God came to him as this...
“‘My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ says the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.’” Isaiah 55:8-9
It is God’s nature to be just. Even as it is God’s nature to be loving, it is also God’s nature to be just. Love requires justice. Have you ever felt unjustly treated? Have you ever felt dumped upon by an impersonal system that is as incapable of justice as it is of love?
This is where many people have problems with God. We want God to act on our terms. We want God to step in and give us justice. We want God to keep us free from the harmful acts of others, or accidents, or sickness, or even the consequences of our own behavior.
Freedom requires responsibility. We want to be free, but, we don’t want to always accept the responsibility that comes with that freedom. If God chose to make creatures without freedom there could not be joy or love. Joy and love are both directly related to our ability to make decisions and to be in relationships. To be controlled is not freedom. To be controlled doesn’t allow for love. To be controlled doesn’t allow for joy.
But, the freedom we have in sin is too often an illusion, because we are controlled. We are controlled by sin. We are controlled by our appetites, our passions, our baser desires. No wonder an early follower of Jesus named Paul expresses the situation this way...
14For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 15 I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
Romans 7:14-24, ESV
Freedom requires accountability. The author of a letter to the Hebrews wrote a long time ago...
“My child, don’t ignore it when the Lord disciplines you, and don’t be discouraged when he corrects you. 6 For the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes those he accepts as his children.” 7 As you endure this divine discipline, remember that God is treating you as his own children. Whoever heard of a child who was never disciplined? 8 If God doesn’t discipline you as he does all of his children, it means that you are illegitimate and are not really his children after all.
Hebrews 12:5-8, NLT
Now on our own the situation is hopeless. There is nothing we can do to repair the rift between us and God. We create the rift but we cannot heal it. God did not create the rift, but only he can heal it. The Good News is this: that God has done exactly that. God has repaired the rift for us. That brings us to the Third Spiritual Law...
Jesus Christ Has Made it Possible for Us to Be Reconciled to God
A long time ago, that early follower of Jesus named Paul wrote a letter to Christians at a place called Ephesus. People who lived there were called Ephesians and we call that letter, the Letter to the Ephesians. It that letter he wrote: “for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8, WEB).
We are being given a tremendous gift by God. It is not a cheap gift – it cost the blood of Jesus Christ.
“[Jesus Christ] gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father” (Galatians 1:4, ESV).
“For in [Jesus] all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross” (Colossians 1:19b-20, ESV).
Out of curiosity I went looking online to see what it would cost to go to the Final Four. I looked at a number of packages from different travel and sports sites. I tried to imagine what a dream package would look like, so I put one together. Four nights stay at a nice hotel – not the most expensive – but far from the cheapest. A VIP pass to attend certain pre-game activities. Seating at center court. Now I decided against First-Class airfare and opted for coach. And you are on your own for meals, except for the food that is provided at the VIP activities. Breakfast is included at the hotel. Well, the package comes to $7500.00. That’s for one person for a four day trip.
Now, I’m not a big sports fan, but I have a son who is a sportswriter and I imagine this would be a dream trip for him. I imagine some of you would love a gift like that as well!
Let’s suppose that I found the means to get this package together and it is all paid for. The VIP pass, the tickets to the games, the airline tickets and hotel reservation have all been paid for and what’s more – they are in your name – in your name!
It is a gift. It is completely paid for. Everything is in your name – nobody else can use it. All you have to do is accept the package. All the tickets, passes, and reservation confirmations are in a manila envelope sitting on Sarah’s desk down in the church office. Your name is written on the outside of the envelope in big, bold, black Magic Marker letters! I’ve even included $500.00 in cash so you can cover the cost of food. That brings the value of this gift to eight thousand dollars. Now nobody can accept this gift for you. Sarah has been instructed to give the package to the one whose name is on the envelope.
Now that illustrates the Fourth Spiritual Law which says...
We Must Individually Accept this Gift for Ourselves
...if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame. 13 For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
Romans 10:9-11,13, ESV
15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Hebrews 4:16, ESV
Let’s get back to that sports package for a trip to the Final Four.
What would you do? Would you just let the package sit in church office? Would you call your friends and tell them about the wonderful gift that has been offered you?
What about the gift God is offering you?
This precious gift is not about four days of basketball. This is the gift of meeting your Creator and being invited to spend, not only a lifetime with him, but eternity. This gift has been paid for by Christ – nothing more is owed. It is a reservation to a home that has not been made with hands, but is eternal in the heavens. It is not for game day food of hot wings, nachos, and hotdogs – but it is for an eternal place at the banquet table of God.
How do we accept the gift God has for us?
We Must Accept Jesus as Our Savior
To accept this precious gift is to accept Jesus Christ as your Savior.
“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23, ESV).
“For freedom Christ has set us free” -- here is the joy in freedom! -- “stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1, ESV). “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (James 1:22, ESV).
Our lives show the evidence of Christ’s work in us by the fruit of the Spirit. But to walk in the Spirit requires more than accepting Jesus as our Savior...
We Must Make Him Lord of Our Life
Okay, you have come by the office and you have picked up this package containing everything you need for this dream trip. That’s great. You now have claimed this wonderful gift. It is in your hands. You have opened it up. There you see your name all over the place: on the passes, the tickets, the reservations. Now, you could decide you want to go to Michael’s and have it all framed. A real nice set of double-matted and framed pieces of paper with your name on them. (Except for the 5 hundred dollar bills that have other names on them). You can hang them on your den wall – right next to your recliner where you can gaze at them while you watch the Final Four on your TV.
Well, that sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? Why would you accept a precious gift like this without actually using it?
Yet this is what people do all the time with the wonderful gift God has for them: they accept it, but don’t use it. We claim the name of Christian, but choose not to follow Jesus day by day.
Jesus doesn’t only ask to be our Savior. He asks to be our Lord. They are two different things.
Using church-talk, we call the first Justification. That is a fancy word that means that you have been made right in your standing with God. It is not due to anything you have done. It is made possible by a very expensive gift, purchased by the blood of the cross.
The second part of this involves what we call Sanctification. Again, it is a rather fancy term, but it means that we have been set apart for God. It means that we have heard the call of Jesus on the lakeside, “Come, and follow me.” It means that we desire to be followers of Jesus and by God’s help we can get a little better at it each day.
The church-talk fancy word for our effort in this is called Discipleship. Sanctification is what God does to and for us.
Remember what Paul wrote to the Ephesians, about being saved by faith and not by works? Well there is more to it, he wrote...
...for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, that no one would boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before that we would walk in them. (Ephesians 2:8-10, WEB)
You see. There it is. Remember the first Spiritual Law: that God loves you and has a plan for you? Here is the expression of that plan. God wants you to be a reflection of the divine glory in all that you do. We reflect that glory in living Godlike lives. This is how Jesus puts it.
12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.”
John 15:12-17, ESV
Did you see in the news this past week that Billy Crystal got to play one day with the Yankees. Imagine what that would be like: to go from being a spectator and a fan to being a player in the game! How many spectators and fans would love to have a chance to spend a day playing for the team? Well, Christianity isn’t a spectator sport. Jesus doesn’t call anybody to be spectators. He never tells anybody, “I have plenty of disciples, why don’t you sit on the sidelines and watch.” He isn’t calling you to be a player for a day, or a week, or a year. He is extending to you a lifelong contract, not worth millions, but worth eternity.
He says, “Come, and follow me...” So, this is what a Christian is: to be a follower of Jesus; to go wherever he leads us.
So what are we going to do about it? Well how about we go about making...
Easter Resolutions
First, if you haven’t already done so, resolve to accept the free gift God is offering to you. A precious gift that has been paid in full with you in mind. To accept this gift all you need to do is accept Jesus as your Savior.
Second – don’t just frame this gift and hang it on a wall. Use the gift. Enjoy the gift. Live the live God desires for you. Truly fulfill your destiny as Christ calls you to follow him. Make Jesus Lord of your life. Pledge to submit to him to lead you. The Navy used to offer you a chance to see the world. Christ offers you a chance to see eternity.
Third. Recognize that we need help in our discipleship. Form small groups with others that we may help each other stay on the path before us. Use these groups to learn, to grow, and to nurture and care for each other as followers of Jesus.