Word of Salvation – Vol. 46 No. 44 – November 2001
What’s in it for Me?
Sermon by Rev. M. P. Geluk on Lord’s Day 23 (Q&A 59-61 Heid Cat)
Scripture Reading: Romans 4:1-8; 5:1-11
Suggested Hymns: BoW 92; 445; 464; 426
Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Christ says, “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world and yet lose or forfeit his very self?” (Lk.9:25) Christ gives a warning here. He talks about each person having to face God some day and God is not going to be interested in your material assets, or in your personal development, nor in your achievements. God will want to know what you have done with Christ, His only begotten Son, the Saviour. And not along the lines of – have you chosen for Christ? God is not giving us the option to follow or not follow Christ. No, He commands all people everywhere to repent (Acts 17:30). Unless you repent and believe, you will perish, He said (Lk.13:5).
The title of this sermon is – WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME? Perhaps not the kind of title you would expect when we have just reminded ourselves of God’s command that all people everywhere repent and believe. However, the first question in Lord’s Day 23 asks this: What good does it do you to believe all this? Yes, what’s in it for you when you believe in the teachings of the Christian faith? What good does it do you when you believe in God, who has made Himself known to you in His Word and who is the Father of Jesus Christ? What value does it all have for you? What are the benefits? Let’s ask these kinds of questions with regard to spiritual things.
1. What are we talking about?
We have been following the Catechism’s exposition of the Apostles’ Creed. Back in Lord’s Day 7 it began with the question: What is true faith and what must a Christian believe? We believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth. That landed us in Genesis and we came face to face with God the Creator. From there we moved on to God the Provider. God looks after what He has made. He cares for the earth and us and rules over everything in order to fulfil His plan of salvation. We call that God’s providence. Then we looked at God’s Son, Jesus Christ. And there were a whole range of things that all dealt with salvation and its many blessings. Then we looked at the Person of the Holy Spirit and saw how the Spirit works in the church and in the communion of saints. We dealt with that beautiful article about forgiveness of sins. We also looked ahead to the resurrection of the body and life everlasting.
By themselves those twelve articles of the Apostles’ Creed, these twelve statements of what we believe, are fairly general. But when you examine their Scriptural support and apply that to the believer, as the Heidelberg Catechism does, then you are looking at wonderfully rich doctrines that bring much comfort to you.
The goal of preaching about these Scriptural teachings is always to have you believe the salvation that God provides in Jesus Christ. When you believe it, then that salvation gives you peace of mind; a calm assurance that God is your heavenly Father, always; that He always loves you and looks after you, even when you are in the midst of terrible difficulties.
It’s all these things that we are talking about. But let’s spell that out a bit further in our second point.
2. In Christ I am right with God and have eternal life
So what’s in it for you and for me when we believe all this? This! That in Christ I am right with God and an heir to life everlasting.
Now I can say that to a catechism class of young people and not a flicker of excitement may cross their faces. They have heard it before. If I were to suggest that we’ll finish the class early and go to McDonalds then they’ll come alive with interest. But adults don’t need to think that this is typical of some church kids. Every Sunday we can come to church to meet with almighty God and hear about His salvation plan in Christ but you may be one of those for whom going to church to hear about God is nothing exciting. I am not interested, someone might say. There is nothing in it for me. But do you know what you are saying? We read God’s Word and the sermon applies it to you personally, and you’re not interested? God, who has the right and the power to stop or continue your life, to give you heaven or hell, and you’re not interested?
An interest in being right with God and being an heir to everlasting life only develops when the alternative dawns on you. Which is having to face God as the Judge without Christ appearing there with you on your behalf. But even that does not seem to bother some people who do not think there is a God or a hell. Or if there is a God, then He will let them into heaven because they feel that basically they are good people. And the trouble with some witnessing programmes is that they try to make people feel good for Christ without telling them about God the Judge… and hell. But when you have become convinced by the biblical message that all people are sinners and lost forever unless God saves them through Christ, then how can you not be interested in the salvation that God offers in Christ?
Initially it may have been the fear of being forever cut off from God and the prospect of being thrown into everlasting darkness and ruin that drove you to the cross of Christ. But once saved then your interest in the Gospel grows, not because you are driven by fear of the alternative, but you are beginning to see the beauty and wonder of God’s grace who sacrificed His own Son so you could live forever. What makes you want to be near God is His love for you and all the riches of Christ. You want to walk with Christ, be near Him, and serve Him because having Christ is a treasure all on its own. The Christian lifestyle, as God wants it, has become far more attractive to you than a worldly way of living. Yes, the more the Christian sees and understands Christ’s church and the kingdom of God, the lonelier the emptiness of the world becomes.
So what’s in it for the Christian believer? Well, the blessing of being right with God. That you, a sinful creature by nature, are saved from God’s wrath on sin and declared right with Him. That is the most wonderful thing that can happen to you. God, who has your life in His hand. God, who is sovereign over all things and therefore determined when and where you were born, who is able to do anything with you He wishes. That this God has caused you to stand in a right relationship with Him by making Christ your Saviour, is the most incredible thing that could ever happen to you. Yes, that out of all the billions of people in the world He also chose to save you and therefore caused you to hear the Gospel, called on you to repent and believe, granted you faith to do so, and now has reconciled you to Himself.
You are declared right with God on Christ’s merits. Not on the basis of whatever good there might be in you or what good you have done. That does not work, seeing that even your best works are imperfect. It is not a matter of God looking at you and saying that you are basically a nice person, notwithstanding a few wrong things in you. It just does not work that way. God is altogether holy and just and cannot stand any wrong. There are only two ways to be right with God. The first is if you are completely innocent. But no one is. So the second way is God taking all your sins away and transferring them on Christ and He dying for you on the cross. When that has happened, then, and only then, do you have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (Rom.5:1).
Now that is the heart of the Christian faith. This is what the main message of the Bible is all about – being right with God and an heir to everlasting life. Those who have received this blessing know exactly what I am talking about. They are deeply thankful about it, rejoice in it and worship God for it. Those who wonder what all the fuss is about just have no idea and there is not a great deal that can be done for them, except to continue to teach them the gospel and pray that the Holy Spirit will open their eyes.
The word ‘heir’ is an interesting one in this connection. An heir has not worked for the inheritance he is receiving. It’s just given to him by the goodness of the one who willed it to him. So also with God. He was under no obligation to save you. Yet, He looked at you in His mercy and made you the object of His love. Then He went about to save you in Christ and so you were made just in His sight and given eternal life.
These salvation blessings are good for you any time and any place. Paul rejoiced in them in his prison cell. Stephen faced death without fear. Many a Christian accepted persecution and even death knowing that nothing and no one could separate him or her from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Yes, whether you are poor or rich, slave or free, young or old, healthy or sick, the comfort of being right with God and having eternal life is always there for you when you believe. And even in times when you feel so unworthy because you’ve done a stupid sin and dishonoured God.
3. Right with God by faith in Christ
What a wonderful thing faith is. It is nothing more than believing that God has made you right with Him through Christ, even though your conscience accuses you of terrible things done against God and your neighbour. Sometimes it happens that Christians remember some terrible thing they did in their youth or later on in life. They are deeply ashamed of it and from time to time the vividness of the deed is clearly back in their memory. Maybe it was some senseless cruelty to an animal or to some defenceless person. Maybe it was a relationship with someone that should not have gone as far as it did. Maybe it was the sin of not waiting till marriage. Maybe it was theft or drugs, or both. Maybe it was blasphemy and a lot of swearing. Yes, our conscience can accuse us of past sins and cause pain, remorse and regret. We say to God what the psalmist said: Lord, do not hold the sins of my youth against me. Or do not hold against me my more recent sins.
Now the wonderful thing is that God doesn’t hold our sins against us, provided we repent and believe what Christ came to do. What’s in it for me, this believing? This! My conscience may condemn me in all sorts of ways and make me feel terribly unworthy, but God is greater than my conscience and He does not condemn me any more, for I have been declared right with Him. My faith does not cancel out my conscience and my faith will not deny what happened. But faith will look to Christ and say, I am forgiven.
And then my thinking of what’s in it for me will also be overtaken by the thought: what’s actually is in it for God to save a wretch like me? What does God gain from saving sinners? And then I know that it’s not the saved sinners who make God great but it’s His own wonderful love and compassion that make Him great.
And even though I am still inclined toward all evil, God will continue this relationship I have with Him in Christ. Non-Christians often think that Christians see themselves as pure and holy. But it is often the other way round. Christians are forced to admit with shame that sometimes non-Christians are more decent than Christians. Here are you as a Christian wanting to be pure and holy but there is your ongoing struggle with lust. Here you are wanting to be calm and you find that your temper still gets the better of you. Here you are wanting to love your neighbour but you can’t stand some of your fellow church members. Here you are singing about the church as a wonderful thing of God and then you are so critical of the church. Yes, the struggles of the Christian, saved and loved by God and still inclined toward all kinds of evil.
So what’s the good of you believing the historic Christian faith? This! That in spite of the sin that still clings to you, you still are and remain a child of God. For He has declared you just through Christ. That act of God will not be undone. You did not make yourself a Christian, God did. You did not save yourself, Christ did.
So this is why you and I continue to believe. Without our deserving it at all, out of sheer grace, God grants and credits to us the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ. If you had earned all these things from Christ with your good works, then you are entitled to a reward and you don’t need to have a faith. Faith only enters in to the picture when we, before God, have nothing to say and nothing to claim.
Yes, out of sheer grace! Our sins and our sinful nature can time and again spoil things. We deserve God’s anger and to be put out of His sight. But no, out of His grace God grants and credits to you the perfect satisfaction, righteousness and holiness of Christ. Christ has satisfied God’s justice on your behalf. Christ’s perfect righteousness has been given to you and it’s like wearing a whole new set of clothes instead of those old rags, stained and smelly with sin. When God looks at you then He does so through Christ and He sees Christ’s holiness in you. All that is so wonderfully true, provided that you have done what God commands – repent and believe.
Oh, what wonderful answers keep on coming to the question “what’s in it for me?” How can anyone not be a Christian with so many benefits and blessings that are there forever and always. Those of you who are sitting on the fence with your half-hearted repenting and believing, why don’t you run to God and plead for mercy?
What’s the result of God granting and crediting you the perfect satisfaction, righteousness and holiness of Christ? This! With you now being right over against God, through Christ, it is as if you have never sinned! Unbelievable! As if you have never sinned! Why, you and I have sinned heaps. But no, before God and through Christ our Saviour, your relationship with God is as if you had never sinned. Of course God knows you have sinned. But when you were pronounced righteous by God in Christ, then you were made holy in Christ. And that’s why God the heavenly Judge can look at you in His court as if you have never sinned. Christ has paid for you.
And not only as if you have never sinned but also as if you have never been a sinner! The Christian’s standing before God is not, “right with God but still a sinner”. No, we’re saints, not sinners. Look at the New Testament letters, they are addressed to the saints in the church of Ephesus, or whatever. Not the sinners of the church in Ephesus. Oh yes, the letters talk about the sins the saints do and they are called on to break with those sins. They must not live in them. Sin is not their master, Christ is. But in spite of these admonitions, God sees those who are right with Him through Christ, as if they have not been sinners.
What’s in it for me? Still more! It is as if I had been as perfectly obedient as Christ was obedient for me! Unbelievable, and yet so believable. Christ’s obedience to God’s will was perfect. Not ninety percent, or ninety nine point nine percent, but one hundred percent. Christ was the perfect man who lived the perfect life. He fully upheld all the commandments and brought out the full purpose God had with each one of them. Yet He suffered and died for sin. For your sin, if you have repented and believe. When that is so then no longer are there sins against your name. It is as if you have been perfectly obedient. What a marvellous gospel! What a Saviour! It is almost too good to be true. But true it is. Just keep on looking at Christ. All we need to do is to accept this gift of God with a believing heart.
4. Why do we say ‘by faith alone’?
Because even as Christians we have a natural tendency to think that God has given us all these blessings in Christ, all these wonderful things we have been talking about, because we have committed our life to Him. It’s so much easier for us to think of God as having a checklist and ticking off the Christian things we do and looking at us approvingly.
Let’s see now, yes, he’s got faith, she visits the elderly, he reads the Bible every day, she commits all things to me in prayer, and so on. It’s not that we rush up to God and wave our Christian deeds in front of Him and hope that He notices. We know that our salvation is by grace alone. And yet, if the last shall be first, and the converted drunkards and prostitutes are welcomed by God equally as much as we are, then we will be inclined to feel that we deserve a little more recognition. We are inclined to see ourselves as having more runs on the board.
But whenever feelings of self-righteousness creep into our souls, then we have to remember again that Christ has done everything for us in getting us to be right with God. Even our faith is nothing more than acknowledging that God has fixed up everything through Christ. We learn about it in God’s Word and faith trusts that it is so. God is not looking at us from heaven to say, what a wonderful faith that Jack has. And look at Sue over here. She, too, has a nice faith. They are so trusting of me. For that I will make them right with me and give them eternal life. You know God is not doing that because we know that our faith is often imperfect. No, faith itself is never the reason why God makes us right with Him. It’s always Christ only.
Faith is a gift from God anyway. Faith is just the means, the instrument, by which we accept God’s gift of salvation. A beggar is given a gift not because his outstretched arm is there to receive it but because the giver gives the gift. The beggar’s arm is only the means. And let’s not score a fine point by arguing that if the beggar didn’t lift his hand he would not have got the gift. The beggar was made aware of the giver having a gift for him and saying, here take it. And all he needed to do was just to extend his hand and receive it. The emphasis is on the gift, not on the hand that receives it.
And let’s also be careful that we do not add to faith. Remember, God has done everything through Christ. It’s Christ alone! Now faith affirms that. Not faith and also having to be circumcised, as some Jewish Christians mistakenly thought. Not faith and also having to accept Mary as a key player in salvation. Not faith and also having to speak in tongues. Not faith and also having to do this or that in order to be right with God. It’s faith alone. As soon as you start adding something extra to faith as a further requirement, then it is no longer Christ alone. That’s why we often simply say – by faith alone. We do say by faith and by turning away from sins and obeying God’s commandments. For the Bible teaches that. However, repentance and obedience are not so much additional requirements to faith but more the fruits of faith. What comes first is a faith in Christ and that makes us right with God and then we go about putting our life in order by turning away from sin and obeying God’s commands. For that will show if our faith is genuine. We have tried then to answer the question: What is there in the Christian faith that is worthwhile for me? When you know the answers, then you are already a Christian, and a thankful one at that.
Amen.