"Opened Minds"

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Third Sunday of Easter, 4-26-09

Gospel: Luke 24:36b – 48

Verses 45-47 are quoted from The Interlinear Greek – English New Testament. The Nestle Greek Text with a Literal English Translation by Alfred Marshall. London: Samuel Bagster and Sons Limited, 1960.

“Then he “(Christ) “opened up of them the mind to understand the scriptures;” (the Old Testament. New Testament was not yet written.) “and said to them[,] Thus it has been written (3)to suffer (1)the (2)Christ and to rise again out of [the ] dead on the third day, and to be proclaimed on(in) the name of him repentance unto forgiveness of sins to all the nations, - beginning from Jerusalem.”

This occurred in the upper room on the evening of the day of resurrection. Jesus is speaking to the eleven plus others.

The message of the Old Testament like the later New Testament is CHRIST. A person never knows this until, like the disciples, their minds are opened by God. (Unless and until the Holy Spirit opens a person’s mind the Scriptures are seen as rules, moral principles, things we are to do; all things the Devil uses to divert attention away from CHRIST. It is only the Holy Spirit who uses all these rules, commandments, etc. to drive us to CHRIST.) Jesus says that repentance unto forgiveness is to be proclaimed in his name. This is the commission that has been placed on the baptized: proclamation. The rest is left to the Holy Spirit who works and where and when he wills in those who hear this proclamation. For repentance unto forgiveness of sins is NOT the work of an individual but the work of God in an individual. In other words we do not repent. Rather we are repented by God through the Holy Spirit. Forgiveness of sins is not appropriated by an individual. Rather they are given to an individual by Christ himself who brings the forgiveness when He comes into an individual.

God works in us in two ways: through his ALIEN WORK and through his PROPER WORK. His ALIEN WORK is to prepare us for his PROPER WORK, which is CHRIST. It is the 10 commandments, all the rules, all the moral principles so hammered at us, condemning us at every turn that, by the work of the Holy Spirit, acknowledgment is produced within us that sin hopelessly ensnares and dominates us.

Because there is no escape, there is nothing left. And so we are put to death. “Sin, finding opportunity in the commandment, deceived me and by IT KILLED ME” (Romans 7:11).

God’s PROPER WORK follows his ALIEN WORK. Out of death God creates NEW LIFE. In the face of being killed by the commandments God then gives us CHRIST. In the proclamation that your sins are forgiven for Jesus sake, there is already before the forgiveness the presence of CHRIST himself in you as a redeeming reality. Where forgiveness is, Christ is.

Why do some believe and some don’t? That is not in our jurisdiction. That is in the hands of God alone. The Holy Spirit mediates the presence of Christ in the individual. Where Christ is in the person as the new life, conforming the person to his image, there is the Holy Spirit. Where Christ is seen by the person as outside of them, as one who is a role model to be imitated by the person’s best efforts, there is no Holy Spirit. One cannot look at their life to “see” if God is working. One cannot “look” inwardly to their feelings to “see” if God is working. For one walks by the Spirit; not by sight or by feelings. Rather one looks to their baptism, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on CHRIST” (Galatians 3:27).

Because CHRIST IS OUR LIFE, PROCLAMATION is what it is about. That’s what we live for. This may sound strange to you because you may have never thought about your whole life, which is IN CHRIST, as proclaiming CHRIST. But just listen to these words of our brother Paul from his second letter to the Corinthians:

“Thanks be to God, who in CHRIST ALWAYS LEADS US IN TRIUMPH, and THROUGH US SPREADS THE FRAGRANCE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF HIM EVERYWHERE. For WE ARE THE AROMA OF CHRIST to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? For we not like so many, corrupters of God’s Word; but as men (and women) of sincerity, as COMMISSIONED by God, in the sight of God we speak IN CHRIST” (II Cor. 2:14-17).

Did you ever think that whenever you talk you talk IN CHRIST? Did you ever think that you emit the aroma of CHRIST all the time? Did you ever think that you have been on a mission every moment of your life since baptism? Well, you do; you are; and you have been.

THANKS BE TO GOD!

© Richard J. Smith