Good Morning!
Today we are going to get into some meat and potatoes of salvation. Talking about our redemption and God’s bringing us out of darkness and into the marvelous light of His gospel peace should be the A.1. interest of the Christian man and woman. Literally nothing is more important and nothing else should excite us more. If we place our faith and trust in Christ Jesus that means we will not go to Hell. Let’s say that again. Through God’s gracious gift of His only begotten Son we are given freedom from death. There is no question how beautiful this is. At least there shouldn’t be. If our hearts can’t get up and shout at reading this than there is something seriously wrong with us! The good news of what has taken place at the Cross and in the empty tomb is so sweet and rich that nothing else can capture our attention like it. That’s why the Psalms are so full of the ecstatic utterances of David and others about these truths.
Let’s look at a couple of examples:
“You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, to the end that my glory may sing praise to You and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to You forever.” – Psalm 30:11-12
“Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in His holy mountain. Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion on the sides of the north, the city of the great King. God is in her palaces; He is known as her refuge.” – Psalm 48:1-3
Is that how you react when you hear the Gospel preached? When you read about it in the Bible? Hear about others talk about their own experiences? Why or Why Not? Well as we look at our catechism question this week I want you to think through what the good news of Jesus Christ means to you. If it is just an “of course” or a “yeah I’m saved, so what?” then I want you to come speak with me. It should trouble you if you can’t get excited about the majesty of salvation.
Here’s our questions for this week:
Q. 29. How are we made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ?
A. We are made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ, by the effectual application of it to us by his Holy Spirit.
Q. 30. How doth the Spirit apply to us the redemption purchased by Christ?
A. The Spirit applies to us the redemption purchased by Christ, by working faith in us, and thereby uniting us to Christ in our effectual calling.
Sometimes the Holy Spirit can be a forgotten member of the Trinity. It’s not so much that we forget that He exists, but we kind of make Him a secondary god to the Father and the Son. He becomes just kind of the messenger and doer of the Trinity. But as the question makes clear our being made new is the work of the Holy Spirit. He is the one who changes out our heart of stone for a heart of flesh. He is the one who takes the righteousness purchased by Christ and pays the ransom we owe. (1 Cor. 6:20).
Some of y’all are old enough to remember when we could take bottles and redeem them for a refund of some kind. That’s a good way to think about how our salvation is applied by the Spirit. He takes the broken, shattered bottles of our bodies and carries them to Christ for the balm of His blood and work to exchange these shards of glass for a brand new filled container of pure Coca-Cola which never runs out. It’s just an amazing thing to consider and it is one of the reasons why we should SHOUT FOR JOY when we sing on the Lord’s Day morning. WE HAVE BEEN SAVED! HALLELUJAH! We who were dead in sin, with no hope, destined for destruction, have been taken out of the way leading to eternal damnation and are gifted and granted by the decree of the Father to be liberated by the Son, and grabbed by the Holy Spirit. PRAISE THE LORD! This is the real stuff.
Its richness is almost too much to bear. Yet we who are of God’s covenant family get to have this blessing! No one can take it away from you. It is yours forever. Again this should move your soul. It also ought to have a real effect on how we live. There is a reason why Jesus preaches so often about the fruit of faith. How many times in the Gospels do we see the very people who are healed by Christ run around like chickens with their heads cut off, even when He told them not to? Why do they do that? Because they were healed! Yet they also understand there was something even more going on with their joy. Whether it be corporate worship or corporate prayer time the opportunities that we have to gather together to be together in Jesus should take priority in our lives.
The Q/A’s above say develop the work of the Holy Spirit in our salvation in further detail. Notice in the second one how the Divines explain His labor of “working faith in us” and “uniting us to Christ”. Taking the second clause first this describes for the Christian what we see illustrated in Psalm 1:3. In that Psalm we hear:
“He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper.”
Why does the Believer rejoice whenever they read and hear of the Gospel? Because we are united to Christ by faith. Having this stream run by us constantly from the fountain of living waters means we are being replenished and we are growing regularly. As we grow there is a greater appreciation for the bounty of covenant life. Just like there is more joy when our team wins a championship versus when they gain victory in a regular season contest so to as we mature in faith our gratitude to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit likewise grows.
In closing, if you feel no compunction to worship, to fellowship, or pray something is wrong.
These are the rewards of our being united to Christ. They are signs of true faith. The branch which is grafted into the vine will produce the fruits of the plant. If we aren’t producing like testimonies we are in dire need of asking why, and being willing to examine ourselves.
That is one of the reasons why reading these Catechism questions is so vital for us. We need to learn what we believe about salvation and redemption so that we can properly understand why it is so awesome to be in Jesus.
Here is a bit more to read:
https://www.shortercatechism.com/resources/flavel/wsc_fl_030.html
Blessings in Christ,
Rev. Benjamin Glaser
Pastor, Bethany ARP Church