Commitment One Way Or The Other
Sermon
Where Gratitude Abounds
Gospel Sermons For Sundays After Pentecost (Last Third)
In this passage of John, claimed centuries later as a key passage for students of the Reformation, we see commitment lodged in two different ways: by holding to and continuing in the ways and teachings of Jesus (vv. 31-32) or by choosing to sin and meeting pleasures and passions over the pursuit of truth.
Not long ago, Jodie Foster starred in the movie Contact, based on a book written years earlier by Carl Sagan. Much of the movie witnesses a sparring between science and theology. But by movie's end, when the scientist Jodie is unable to convince fellow scientists of the credibility of her recent genuine spiritual experience, her peers view her in disbelief. A significant relationship she had in the movie with the only spiritually credible person, a man, reaches a complementary crescendo at movie's end. Reporters surround them, and the man is asked if he believes her recent sharing about her experience with her deceased father in another world. His response, "I'm bound by a different covenant than she, a scientist, is. We each seek the truth as his/her field and discipline understand it. And yes, I do believe her." Then, the classic event: The scientist's hand reaches for the theologian's hand, and the movie ends with them traveling off together, each distinct, but more complementary than sparring. It's a movie with a profoundly important theme, and I recommend it to you, if you haven't yet seen it. What I want to lift up before you is the theologian's remark: "I'm bound by a different covenant than she." This John passage speaks of two very different covenant ways of living life: 1) the covenant of faith and trust in God and the commitment to know and to put into practice His truth, as it's revealed in His Word and through His Son Jesus' presence in our lives; and 2) the covenant of self writ larger than God and the commitment to trust and to live one's life out of one's own hands and ways, rather than God's.
Let's move to the passage and spiritually ground ourselves in Him and commit to the right covenant.
The reason this passage is often cited for churches who celebrate the Reformation is that the reformers woke up to and were driven by the truth of God's Word to initiate steps for significant change in the sixteenth century. The changes involved understanding and practicing spiritual principles which had been replaced by human practices which were sort of religious but not faithful to God's Word. The changes began in matters spiritual, but also wrought political and social changes throughout much of Europe. Reformation history is interesting and helpful to read, for it reveals how God addresses a forgetful people who need to reenter a covenant relationship with Him and how that has implications for every level of life.
In verse 31, Jesus addresses the Jews who have come to believe in him, but also have more spiritual miles to travel. Their discipleship was a covenant to stay with and continue in learning and practicing God's truth. This would serve to free them more and more from the legalism and superstition of their traditions. It would fashion them into Christian disciples. Over the course of their lives, they would come to be good and faithful listeners to His Word, to cherish the privilege of continued learning of God's truth and its meaning for their lives, and to put into action their learning of Christ.
In verse 32, Jesus makes truth far more than an intellectual matter by personalizing it through and synonymously with himself. The Gospel writer John uses the word "truth" multiple times, so it must be a significant term for him. Truth is not just informative to the mind, but transforming to one's heart and instructive and directing of one's conscience. It's more personal than abstract and involves far more than mere acknowledgement; it calls for surrender and for a different kind of living and loving than one would have otherwise. Commerce can teach us so much about industry, profit, mechanization, and technology. But God's truth through Jesus helps us with life direction and life purpose on a deeper level, and it cultivates values within and between us. We become better able to distinguish between matters that are important and matters that are less important.
"The truth will set you free" is a precious insight, to say the least. Ironically, a right understanding of freedom has less to do with doing what pleases and serves your selfish purpose and more to do with what furthers God's purposes through you.
How will you and I gain a greater freedom from fear, if not by adopting a genuine belief that, because of Jesus' abiding presence, we will never walk alone again?1 I'm so encouraged by a recent reading of 2 Chronicles 14:11: "O Lord, no one but you can help the powerless against the mighty ... for we trust in you alone."
How will you and I gain a greater freedom from self, arguably our greatest personal handicap, if we don't come to believe genuinely that with Christ central to our lives re-creation of personhood is inevitable?2
How will you and I gain a greater freedom from others and their adverse influence upon us at times, if not by our maturing to the extent that we value God's counsel over others' influence?
And how can we gain greater freedom from that most constant culprit and misleader of our lives, sin, if not by the Holy Spirit growing so richly within us that we choose to grow into God's version of personhood over Satan's? I'm coming to believe so deeply 2 Chronicles 16:9: "The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him."
In verse 33, we discover that for the Jews pedigree and privilege suffice for security which only God can truly give. Jesus challenges their definition of freedom which they attribute to their being "Abraham's descendants." Historically, the Jewish people had been ruled over by the Babylonians and in Jesus' day by the Romans. They attributed their being "free" to the deep conviction that, no matter who might occupy them politically and militarily, God was their only true king. In the midst of their being subjects of other nations, they demonstrated an independence of spirit. Hence they never considered themselves to be "slaves" in a spirit or soul sense, even while they might literally be slaves in body. That's the level upon which they responded to Jesus' statement about the truth setting one free: pedigree and privilege.
It's in verse 34 that Jesus blows away their smoke with his bringing to their attention a slavery their pedigree and privilege could not overcome: the slavery to sin as one commits it. They were not exempt from the danger that sin brings to everyone's life. When you think about it, to choose to sin is the equivalent of saying to God, "I trust my future more in my own hands than in yours." When one chooses to love God enough to choose to obey Him, one is saying, "I trust my future more in God's hands than in my own." Since we've all lived long enough to know that we are sinners and are enslaved to some habits we have allegiance to, rather than freedom from, we need the wisdom and insight of the next two verses.
In verses 35-36, the heart of this whole matter of the proper commitment and the truest freedom is summed up well by Merrill C. Tenney: "The hope for real freedom does not lie in the ancestry of Abraham but in the action of Christ."3 Put yet another way: "Jesus used the analogy of a slave in the household as opposed to the son, who is heir of the household. A natural slave can be set free by the heir. Jesus is the Son and heir of all power and authority (Matthew 28:18) of the Father. If the Son frees the slave then the slave is free."4
It takes the abiding presence of the Son, of Jesus, in one's life to thwart sin and spiritual destruction. Pedigree and privilege aren't powerful enough shields to protect against the worst of all slaveries: sin. Jesus is the Son who can never be ejected from God the Master's house. We are slaves to righteousness through Christ or we are slaves to unrighteousness through sin; either way, we are "committed." However, if we are committed to sin and not to Christ, we are no longer "free," regardless of any worldly trappings that would suggest otherwise.
As important as it is to choose to come to Christ, it's equally important to choose to abide in Christ, if one is ever to find genuine freedom, morally and spiritually speaking.
____________
1. William Barclay, John, Volume II, Westminster Press, p. 21.
2. Ibid.
3. Gaebelein, general editor, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Volume 9, p. 95.
4. Ralph W. Harris, executive editor, The Complete Biblical Library, New Testament Study Bible John, p. 241.
Not long ago, Jodie Foster starred in the movie Contact, based on a book written years earlier by Carl Sagan. Much of the movie witnesses a sparring between science and theology. But by movie's end, when the scientist Jodie is unable to convince fellow scientists of the credibility of her recent genuine spiritual experience, her peers view her in disbelief. A significant relationship she had in the movie with the only spiritually credible person, a man, reaches a complementary crescendo at movie's end. Reporters surround them, and the man is asked if he believes her recent sharing about her experience with her deceased father in another world. His response, "I'm bound by a different covenant than she, a scientist, is. We each seek the truth as his/her field and discipline understand it. And yes, I do believe her." Then, the classic event: The scientist's hand reaches for the theologian's hand, and the movie ends with them traveling off together, each distinct, but more complementary than sparring. It's a movie with a profoundly important theme, and I recommend it to you, if you haven't yet seen it. What I want to lift up before you is the theologian's remark: "I'm bound by a different covenant than she." This John passage speaks of two very different covenant ways of living life: 1) the covenant of faith and trust in God and the commitment to know and to put into practice His truth, as it's revealed in His Word and through His Son Jesus' presence in our lives; and 2) the covenant of self writ larger than God and the commitment to trust and to live one's life out of one's own hands and ways, rather than God's.
Let's move to the passage and spiritually ground ourselves in Him and commit to the right covenant.
The reason this passage is often cited for churches who celebrate the Reformation is that the reformers woke up to and were driven by the truth of God's Word to initiate steps for significant change in the sixteenth century. The changes involved understanding and practicing spiritual principles which had been replaced by human practices which were sort of religious but not faithful to God's Word. The changes began in matters spiritual, but also wrought political and social changes throughout much of Europe. Reformation history is interesting and helpful to read, for it reveals how God addresses a forgetful people who need to reenter a covenant relationship with Him and how that has implications for every level of life.
In verse 31, Jesus addresses the Jews who have come to believe in him, but also have more spiritual miles to travel. Their discipleship was a covenant to stay with and continue in learning and practicing God's truth. This would serve to free them more and more from the legalism and superstition of their traditions. It would fashion them into Christian disciples. Over the course of their lives, they would come to be good and faithful listeners to His Word, to cherish the privilege of continued learning of God's truth and its meaning for their lives, and to put into action their learning of Christ.
In verse 32, Jesus makes truth far more than an intellectual matter by personalizing it through and synonymously with himself. The Gospel writer John uses the word "truth" multiple times, so it must be a significant term for him. Truth is not just informative to the mind, but transforming to one's heart and instructive and directing of one's conscience. It's more personal than abstract and involves far more than mere acknowledgement; it calls for surrender and for a different kind of living and loving than one would have otherwise. Commerce can teach us so much about industry, profit, mechanization, and technology. But God's truth through Jesus helps us with life direction and life purpose on a deeper level, and it cultivates values within and between us. We become better able to distinguish between matters that are important and matters that are less important.
"The truth will set you free" is a precious insight, to say the least. Ironically, a right understanding of freedom has less to do with doing what pleases and serves your selfish purpose and more to do with what furthers God's purposes through you.
How will you and I gain a greater freedom from fear, if not by adopting a genuine belief that, because of Jesus' abiding presence, we will never walk alone again?1 I'm so encouraged by a recent reading of 2 Chronicles 14:11: "O Lord, no one but you can help the powerless against the mighty ... for we trust in you alone."
How will you and I gain a greater freedom from self, arguably our greatest personal handicap, if we don't come to believe genuinely that with Christ central to our lives re-creation of personhood is inevitable?2
How will you and I gain a greater freedom from others and their adverse influence upon us at times, if not by our maturing to the extent that we value God's counsel over others' influence?
And how can we gain greater freedom from that most constant culprit and misleader of our lives, sin, if not by the Holy Spirit growing so richly within us that we choose to grow into God's version of personhood over Satan's? I'm coming to believe so deeply 2 Chronicles 16:9: "The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him."
In verse 33, we discover that for the Jews pedigree and privilege suffice for security which only God can truly give. Jesus challenges their definition of freedom which they attribute to their being "Abraham's descendants." Historically, the Jewish people had been ruled over by the Babylonians and in Jesus' day by the Romans. They attributed their being "free" to the deep conviction that, no matter who might occupy them politically and militarily, God was their only true king. In the midst of their being subjects of other nations, they demonstrated an independence of spirit. Hence they never considered themselves to be "slaves" in a spirit or soul sense, even while they might literally be slaves in body. That's the level upon which they responded to Jesus' statement about the truth setting one free: pedigree and privilege.
It's in verse 34 that Jesus blows away their smoke with his bringing to their attention a slavery their pedigree and privilege could not overcome: the slavery to sin as one commits it. They were not exempt from the danger that sin brings to everyone's life. When you think about it, to choose to sin is the equivalent of saying to God, "I trust my future more in my own hands than in yours." When one chooses to love God enough to choose to obey Him, one is saying, "I trust my future more in God's hands than in my own." Since we've all lived long enough to know that we are sinners and are enslaved to some habits we have allegiance to, rather than freedom from, we need the wisdom and insight of the next two verses.
In verses 35-36, the heart of this whole matter of the proper commitment and the truest freedom is summed up well by Merrill C. Tenney: "The hope for real freedom does not lie in the ancestry of Abraham but in the action of Christ."3 Put yet another way: "Jesus used the analogy of a slave in the household as opposed to the son, who is heir of the household. A natural slave can be set free by the heir. Jesus is the Son and heir of all power and authority (Matthew 28:18) of the Father. If the Son frees the slave then the slave is free."4
It takes the abiding presence of the Son, of Jesus, in one's life to thwart sin and spiritual destruction. Pedigree and privilege aren't powerful enough shields to protect against the worst of all slaveries: sin. Jesus is the Son who can never be ejected from God the Master's house. We are slaves to righteousness through Christ or we are slaves to unrighteousness through sin; either way, we are "committed." However, if we are committed to sin and not to Christ, we are no longer "free," regardless of any worldly trappings that would suggest otherwise.
As important as it is to choose to come to Christ, it's equally important to choose to abide in Christ, if one is ever to find genuine freedom, morally and spiritually speaking.
____________
1. William Barclay, John, Volume II, Westminster Press, p. 21.
2. Ibid.
3. Gaebelein, general editor, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Volume 9, p. 95.
4. Ralph W. Harris, executive editor, The Complete Biblical Library, New Testament Study Bible John, p. 241.
