Altar Call –
Opelika-Auburn News
Walter
Albritton
November 1,
2015
A poor sinner saved by grace
Some
Christians have an identity problem. The image they have of themselves as
followers of Jesus bears little resemblance to New Testament Christians.
Asked
if they are Christians, some will reply, “I am trying to be a Christian but you
know I am only human.” Others may answer, “I am only a poor sinner saved by
grace.”
Such
answers probably spring from a desire to be humble. But this is an unfortunate
understanding of humility. The problem lies in the idea of “trying.” A Jew does
not “try” to be a Jew. He is either a Jew or he is not.
The
Christians who thinks of themselves as “poor sinners saved by grace” believe
that this explains why they are not perfect as Jesus was. The problem with this
way of thinking is that it leaves no room for the life-changing power of the
Holy Spirit.
God
raised Jesus from the dead so that Christians could receive from his indwelling
Spirit the power to live as his disciples. God does not expect us to “try” to
live as his disciples. He knows that we cannot do so in our own strength. He
provides the power when we provide the willingness.
My
neighbor’s children gave him a new riding lawnmower on his 80th birthday.
Proudly my friend bragged about his mower having an 18.5 horsepower engine. We
chatted about how lawnmowers have changed from the old days when we supplied
the muscle power to operate our “push” mowers.
My
friend has never tried to cut his grass by pushing his lawnmower across the
yard. He cranks up that powerful engine and lets the engine do what it was
designed to do. He uses the power available to him. Instead of trying hard to
be Christians, we need to do the same thing – tap into the power available to
us, the power of the Holy Spirit. His power alone enables us to live as genuine
disciples of Jesus.
I
call on our friend Paul to verify this idea. For example, in the eighth chapter
of Romans Paul explains clearly our identity as Christians. God raised Jesus from
the dead so that he could send the Holy Spirit to us. The purpose of the
resurrection was not to get us all to heaven but to allow the Holy Spirit to
set us free from the power of sin and to put our lives under the control of the
Holy Spirit.
Get
your Bible and look at Romans, chapter eight, in the NLT, the New Living
Translation. You may want to use a highlighter to mark key phrases. Observe how
Paul describes Christians:
We “belong to Christ Jesus.”
The power of the Spirit has “freed” us
“from the power of sin.”
“God destroyed sin’s control over us.”
We “no longer follow our sinful nature
by instead follow the Spirit.”
We are “controlled by the Holy Spirit”
and “think about things that please the Spirit.”
We are “not controlled by our sinful
nature.”
The Spirit of Christ is “living within
us.”
“The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus
from the dead, lives in us.”
We are “led by the Spirit of God.”
We should “behave like God’s very own
children.”
These
phrases provide us a beautiful window into the true identity of Christians. In light of this how can any of us dare
describe ourselves as “only a poor sinner saved by grace”? Of course we are
sinners! All have sinned. And we cannot save ourselves. We are saved by grace,
not our own merit or anything we can do on our own. But the sinner who repents
and is saved becomes a child of God set free from the power of sin! Such a
person is so much more than “a poor sinner saved by grace.”
God
does expect sinners saved by grace to behave like Jesus. He expects us to live
under the control of the Holy Spirit so that we are no longer dogged daily by
our sinful nature. We are indeed sinners but by the power of God we are free
from the control of sin. We can choose not to sin.
As
God’s children we are controlled by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit’s influence
produces in us the character of Christ. Though imperfectly, we do begin to do
what Jesus did and treat people like Jesus treated people. Because the Spirit
lives within us, we are no longer slaves to sin. We have power, the Spirit’s
power, to stay out of the gutter and fix our minds on spiritual things.
We
are free to surrender our guilt, exchanging it for the sweet assurance that by
the grace of God we are forgiven, reconciled to God. We are no longer servants
of fleshly desires; we are now servants of Jesus Christ.
Repeatedly
Paul speaks of Christians living “in Christ.” It is a key New Testament
concept. The New Living Bible changes it slightly so that Romans 8:1 reads, “So
now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.” That is a
powerful idea – We belong to
Christ! As an unrepentant sinner I did
not belong to Christ. I belonged to Satan. I was a child of the devil. I was blind, lost in the darkness of my
self-will, consumed by the desire to have my own way.
Then
I met Christ. I was saved by grace. He set me free from my past, breaking the
chains that shackled me. Satan controls me no longer. I have a new Master
because I am a new person with new loves, new desires and new ambitions. Now
there is no constant struggle to be a Christian for the Spirit gives me the
blessed assurance of my salvation and affirms my new identity as a child of
God! This assurance frees me from ever again thinking of myself as “only a poor
sinner saved by Christ.”
Every
day I remind myself that I belong to Christ. I belong to Him by faith through
grace. Belonging to Christ means daily I surrender to his control. Yielded to
him, the Spirit gives me power to overcome the pull of my sinful nature and to
walk where the Spirit directs me.
It
all comes down to this: Does the Holy Spirit have the power to break the hold
of sin in our lives and set us free to live as redeemed children of God? I
believe He does. The key is our relationship to Christ. When we truly belong to
Christ, the Holy Spirit will give us all the power we need for holy
living. Until then the enormous power of
the Holy Spirit will remain available but unreleased in our lives. God forbid
that we should neglect the greatest resource available to us. + + +