Sunday, August 9, 2009
9th Sunday after PentecostFrom an old sinner for whom Christ Died.
Gospel: John 6:35, 41-5
“Jesus said to them; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst” (verse 35)…”No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day” (verse 44).
There is NO FREEDOM OF CHOICE here; NO FREE WILL. The Father will draw the person otherwise it won’t happen. All the invitations in the world by preachers to come to Jesus fall flat and accomplish NOTHING because Jesus says it simply can’t happen that way.
God does the choosing. It is out of our hands. It is in his hands ONLY.
SO where does that put you and me? Are we excluded or included?
The answer is found only in an outside Word that comes to us. “FAITH comes by hearing and hearing by the preaching of CHRIST” (Romans 10). Paul therefore writes, “As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach good news’” (Romans 10:15). They come, not on their own free will, (because there is no free will), but because they have been sent.
They are sent to speak the Word: “YOUR SINS ARE FORGIVEN FOR JESUS’ SAKE!” And where there is forgiveness there is already before the forgiveness the real presence of CHRIST in you as a redeeming reality. He is now your LIFE, “for you are dead and your life is now hid with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3-4)! That Word is proclaimed here: “you are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” It is proclaimed here: “Take and eat. This is my body given for YOU…This is the cup of the New Testament which is shed for YOU…”
Oral Word, water Baptism, Holy Communion, all three; declare God’s action for you and NO ACTION on your part AT ALL.
As Salvation is TOTALLY an act of God in Christ for you so also those who are to declare this WORD are totally chosen by God. There is no FREE WILL here either. Baptism (yours and all others) is the authority to declare this WORD to the world. All baptized are “the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and those who are perishing; to one a fragrance from death to death to the other a fragrance from life to life” (II Cor. 2:15-16).
As Jesus said to his disciples so he says to YOU and ME: “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… (John 15:16). “I am the vine, YOU are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, FOR APART FROM ME YOU CAN DO NOTHING” (John 15:5)!
SOLA DEO GLORIA!
©Dick Smith
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