Decision Time

2 Corinthians 5:16-21; 6:1-13

The German theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg once said, "The evidence for Jesus' resurrection is so strong that nobody would question it except for two things.  First, it is a very unusual event. And second, if you believe it happened, you have to change the way you live."[1]

That’s a huge challenge, obviously, but our faith in the resurrection should change our lives.  Paul talks about this very issue in our text this morning.

This past January, I started a series of sermons on Paul’s Second letter to the Corinthians.  Then we took a break from this series for Lent and Easter.  Today, we return to 2 Corinthians. 

The point at which we left off before Lent is the passage that Laura read for us in Ch. 5:  “If anything is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!  All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation…so we are ambassadors for Christ” (17-20).  There is something genuinely new offered by Paul - the newness of reconciliation, a new possibility of forgiveness, a new creation.  We are ambassadors of this ministry of reconciliation, and we get to share it with the world.

Paul then goes on in Ch. 6 to say, “We urge you also not to accept the grace of God in vain…now is the acceptable time…now is the day of salvation.”  Will we listen to Paul?

In other words, the big question is:  what am I going to do with such good news?  Why do some people hear this good news and then simply file it away as interesting information and continue living life as before?  Tony Campolo has said that it’s not enough to simply hear the good news.  It’s not even enough to believe in Jesus and to accept Christian doctrines. 

Instead, he notes, “If theologically agreeing with the Scriptures could get you into heaven, Satan would be saved.  The Scriptures say that even the demons believe - and shudder (James 2:19).”  Campolo is suggesting there is a way that you’re supposed to believe that is crucial.  To believe in Jesus is to say to him, “Jesus, I want to surrender to you, and I want you to come into my life and to fill me.”

Paul urges us to accept the grace of God and the ministry of reconciliation; he strongly makes the case that now is the acceptable time to surrender to God and accept his good gift of salvation.  Yet many choose not to accept this gift.  Why?

Let me make two reflections on why people may choose not to accept God’s gift.

First, there are some who may decide not to accept this gift because they’ve gone through difficult times when they’ve suffered.   Christians are certainly not exempt from the trials and tribulations of this world: Christians get cancer, Christians suffer financial distress, Christians get into accidents.  Paul himself talks about how much he’s suffered as an Apostle and how he was tormented by a thorn in the flesh.  And of course, Jesus endured incredible hardships, leading up to and including his crucifixion.  Christians are no strangers to suffering.

But the message of Easter is that we’re able to put our suffering in context.  Because of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, suffering no longer has the final word.  Evil can still cause great damage, but not ultimate damage.  The English theologian Alister McGrath wrote, “Now think of the cross and resurrection of Jesus as breaking the power of sin.  But if the power of sin, death and evil has been broken, how can we make sense of the fact that it continues to still plague us?...A helpful way of understanding this difficulty is to notice the parallels between the New Testament and the situation during the Second World War.  The victory won over sin through the death of Christ was like the liberation of an occupied country from Nazi rule (where life is lived under the shadow of an occupying power).  Part of the utter poignancy of the situation is its utter hopelessness.  Nothing can be done about it.  No one can defeat it.

Then comes the electrifying news.  There has been a far-off battle.  And somehow, it has turned the tide of the war.  A new phase has developed, and the occupying power is in disarray.  Its backbone has been broken.  In the course of time, the Nazis will be driven out of every corner of Europe.  But they are still present in the occupied country.

In one sense, the situation has not changed, but in another, more important sense, the situation has changed totally.  The scent of victory and liberation is in the air.”[2]

We in the church get glimpses of God’s victory, and it helps us to get through the valley of the shadow of death when we remember these glimpses.  Robert Boyd Munger once said, “Never doubt in the dark what you saw in the light.”  When times are tough, we can remember and hold on to what we saw in the light, and we can remember that “the situation has changed totally.  The scent of victory and liberation is in the air.”

A second reason people may choose not to accept God’s gift of salvation is not that things are going badly, but precisely because things are going well.  It’s the problem of affluence – the more rich and powerful we get, the more we’re tempted to think that we no longer need God in our lives.  I believe this is a major reason why the mainline churches in Europe and America are losing members – as a whole, we’ve become too affluent in those parts of the world, too preoccupied with stuff and status. 

The church has historically done better when it hasn’t wielded a lot of power.  Some of the greatest abuses in church history occurred when Christians have been in power:  the Crusades, the Inquisition, the witch trials.  And some of the greatest triumphs of the church have occurred when the church has been out of power, and in fact, been persecuted.  The fastest growing churches today are located in some of the poorest parts of the world:  Latin America, Africa, and Asia.

What’s the cure?  Let’s look at Robert Munger’s saying again: “Never doubt in the dark what you saw in the light.”  We can also reverse it: “Never doubt in the light what you saw in the dark.”  Often, when we go through the dark times of the soul, we sense and experience God’s presence in our lives, giving us encouragement and strength.  We should remember those times when we feel we no longer need God in our lives, when we slip into thinking we’ve got it all under control on our own.

Whether we’re going through challenging times or good times, Paul urges us to accept the gift of God’s salvation right now, today.  We can believe all the right things, but Paul says that’s not enough.  We also need to act, to change the way we live so that Christ’s resurrection transforms our lives. 

The world is a messed up place, and death and evil still cause a great deal of suffering and damage.  But open your eyes and look around you.  Catch the glimpses of God working in this world.  Because of the Easter promise, the scent of victory and liberation is in the air.  Everything has changed.   God offers us new life in Christ, and he invites us to accept this gift of salvation today.  Will this transformed life be easy?  No, not always.  But it will always be rewarding.  And the good news is that God promises to be with us every step of the way.  Amen.