PEARLS OF PAUL
TRANSFORMATION OF CHRISTIANS
COMMUNION SUNDAY
DR. JIM DIXON
OCTOBER 24, 1999
II CORINTHAINS 3:17-18
In the year 1792, Princeton University gave three honorary degrees. The first honorary degree they gave to Thomas Jefferson, who in 1792 was nine years away from the presidency. At that time, he was the Secretary of State under George Washington, and he was of course the author of the Declaration of Independence.
The second honorary degree was given to Alexander Hamilton, and Alexander Hamilton was the Secretary of the Treasury under George Washington and the political rival of Thomas Jefferson. But people understood why Princeton University would want to honor both Jefferson and Hamilton. People, however, were stunned by the third honorary degree, which was given to a man named John Newton. John Newton was a Baptist minister. He was from England. It was John Newton who wrote the great hymn, “Amazing Grace.” Princeton University decided to honor him because he had been a former slave traitor and in recent years he had fought valiantly to overthrow the institution of slavery in the British Empire.
But it wasn’t John Newton who cast down the institution of slavery and brought about the abolition of slavery in the British Empire. It was another Christian, another Christian named William Wilberforce. He was the prime mover in the abolition of slavery.
William Wilberforce was born in Hull, England, in the year 1759. He was born into a wealthy family and educated at Cambridge. A few days after his 21st birthday, he was elected to the British House of Commons, and he served in the British Parliament for more than 40 years. And today, a growing number of historians are beginning to acknowledge that Wilberforce was the one person most responsible for shaping the social fabric of the British Empire in the first half of the 19th century.
Now, the year was 1785 when William Wilberforce became a Christian. He’d always attended church. He’d always been a nominal Christian, but he became a true believer in 1785 when he asked Jesus into his heart and he asked Jesus to be his Savior from sin and he accepted Christ as the Lord of his life. And he resolved that he would serve Christ on this earth as long as he drew breath.
He resolved that he would be salt and light in the culture in which God had placed him. In the course of his life, William Wilberforce served in 69 different benevolent societies, and he headed up many of those societies. It was William Wilberforce who fought for educational reform in Great Britain; William Wilberforce who fought for prison reform in Great Britain; William Wilberforce who initiated public health initiatives, who fought to shorten the hours and better the work conditions in factories throughout Great Britain. William Wilberforce founded the British and Foreign Bible Society. He founded the Ecclesiastical Missionary Society. It was William Wilberforce who led the British government to endorse Christian missions in India. But most of all, it was William Wilberforce who fought against the institution of slavery. And on February 23rd, 1807, the British House of Commons met and a bill was brought before them that would make slavery on English soil illegal.
Wilberforce sponsored that bill, and indeed this was the 20th such bill he had sponsored to the House of Commons. And this time it was passed 283 to 16 votes. William Wilberforce sat there, head down, tears flowing down his face. And then the bill passed the House of Lords. And so it was that in 1807, slavery was condemned and could no longer be practiced on English soil. But the slave trade continued unabated throughout other parts of the British empire. And so, William Wilberforce continued to fight. He died in 1833 at the age of 74. One month later, the slave trade was banned and abolished throughout the British Empire. Everybody knew it was the result of the loving labor of William Wilberforce, but it really wasn’t William Wilberforce. It was Jesus Christ. It was Jesus Christ that brought about the abolition of slavery in the British Empire because it was the spirit of Christ that prompted William Wilberforce.
It was the Spirit of Christ that prompted John Newton. It was the Spirit of Christ at work in them. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. The Spirit of Christ always comes against oppression. And this has been true throughout history. Most of the great movements in history for freedom and liberty have been led by Christians, women and men of Christ, and empowered by the Spirit of Christ. It is true there have been rare instances where misguided Christians have actually led groups of people into oppression. But far more frequently it has been Christians empowered by the Spirit of the Lord who have sought liberty and freedom on this earth.
Christ comes against oppression wherever it is found. In Luke’s Gospel, the fourth chapter, we see how Jesus came into the synagogue in the little village of Nazareth and He opened the scroll of Isaiah and He read to the people, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me and has appointed me to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives, to give sight to the blind, and to give freedom to the oppressed and to proclaim the year of God’s favor.”
Jesus Christ is still doing all of these things today. The good news, the gospel, still goes forth and He still leads His people in the work of freedom. There is one type of freedom, one type of liberty, more important to God than any other. There’s one type of freedom that is supreme in the sight of God—one type of freedom that Christ offers that is more precious than any other freedom. It is what the Bible calls freedom from sin. Our Lord Jesus Christ said if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. And when you look at that passage contextually, He’s speaking of sin. He says whoever commits sin is a slave to sin, but if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. He offers freedom from sin.
This is a freedom many people in the world do not seek. But in the sight of God, it is supreme. And this morning, on this communion Sunday, as we come to the Lord’s table and we approach the cross, I want us as Christians to examine this freedom from sin that has been given to us. It means two things. First of all, it means that we have been freed from the dominion of sin. Now in the Bible, the word for sin is the word “hamartia.” And the word hamartia literally means “to miss the mark.” In the Bible, it is used in the sense of missing the mark of God’s perfection, missing the mark of God’s righteousness, God’s holiness. The Bible says we’ve all sinned, we’ve all missed the mark. There is none righteous, no, not one.
Now, sometimes in the Bible, this word “hamartia” is in the present continuous tense in the Greek. That indicates chronic sin, addictive sin, sin which dominates, sin which controls. And the Bible is clear that Christians need not and should not be dominated or controlled by sin. We all have sinned, but we need not and should not be under the control of addictive sin.
Now I have here the October 11th issue of Newsweek, and featured on the cover of Newsweek is the Governor of Minnesota, Jesse Ventura. Jesse Ventura is something of an enigma to many of us. And sometimes, because he is kind of unshackled with regard to political correctness, he says things that are refreshing. Other times, he says things that are extremely puzzling. He recently gave an interview to Playboy magazine, something which in my opinion a governor should not do. That interview is summarized in this Newsweek magazine. And according to Newsweek, Governor Ventura talked about prostitutes. He talked about wearing no underwear, talked about women’s bodies, talked about what he called the “warrior male” and the sexual behavior of warrior males. He said that his greatest desire was to be reincarnated as a 38 double-D bra. Some people think that it has already happened.
Now, he also went on to attack organized religion. And he went on to attack those who attend church. And he said that organized religion is a sham. And he said that people who attend church are weak and they seek strength in numbers. Certainly, there are problems in the organized church. There are problems in the visible church; there always have been. But the church of Jesus Christ is His chosen instrument in this world. And He has said, “I’ll build My church and the powers of hell will not prevail against it.” And the reality is that some of the greatest people in history were part of organized religion, from Martin Luther to Martin Luther King. And some of the greatest leaders of history were regular churchgoers, from George Washington to Abraham Lincoln. So in recent weeks, the governor of Minnesota has tried to backpedal a little bit, trying to qualify his statements. But I think there are many people who think like Jesse Ventura. They think Christians are weak.
Napoleon Bonaparte once said Christians are weak. Adolf Hitler proclaimed to the world that Christians were weak. The empire of Napoleon long ago faded from this earth. The empire of Adolf Hitler was cast down in the world applauded. The church of Jesus Christ remains. And the strange thing is the Bible tells us that the one group of people in this world who are not weak are Christians. The Bible tells us that Christians are the strongest group of people in the world—not because of who they are, but because of who Christ is in them. The Bible tells us that Christ has all power in heaven and on earth, and that He who is in us is greater than he who is in the world. And there’s nobody stronger than a Christian when it comes to sin because Christians need not and should not be dominated by sin. The power of Christ is in them and with them.
Most of you have heard of John Daly. He just played in a golf tournament in Belgium this weekend. He’s been in the news a great deal of late. He lost his corporate sponsorship recently, lost millions of dollars. He struggles with alcoholism and with gambling addiction. And just recently he came out and he said he’s not going to struggle any longer. He’s tried everything. He’s just going to go ahead and drink. He’s just going to go ahead and gamble. He’s not even going to try to resist it anymore. He now realizes this is just part of who he is. He’s a gambler, he’s a drinker, and he lost his corporate sponsorship. A tragedy that surely will result in some kind of ruin.
We live in a world like that. I mean, we live in a world where sometimes people just with regard to their chronic sins and with regard to their addictions. Sometimes people just say, “I give up. I give up. It’s just part of who I am. I’m not going to fight it anymore. Let it dominate me.” But if you’re a Christian, you can’t do that. Christ is in you and His power is in you. And there’s power there to give you freedom, liberty from that addictive sin. And this morning, on this communion Sunday, as you take the bread and the cup and as you come to the cross, God wants you to ask His Son for freedom.
Jesus wants you to come to Him and say, “Lord, set me free.” It doesn’t matter what the sin is. It might be pride, it might be prejudice, it might be lust, it might be laziness, it might be alcoholism. It might be a chronic gambling addiction, it might be gossip, it might be slander. Whatever the sin is, Christ wants you to come to Him this morning. This can be a new day when you say, “Give me liberty, give me freedom.”
Now, it might be that Christ will ask you to go to a counselor, a Christian therapist, that His freeing power might be released in greater measure in you. It might be that Christ will ask you to share your sin with a few confidants who will hold you accountable and who will pray for you. But you see, He wants this to be a new beginning.
Today as you take the bread and cup and you seek His liberty, there’s a second kind of freedom. It is freedom from sin’s consequences. He offers us freedom from sin’s domination, and He also offers us freedom from sin’s consequences.
In the book of 2 Samuel, chapters 11 and 12, we’re told how David King of Israel was on the top of his house in Jerusalem in the late afternoon on a spring day. And he looked out and he saw a woman bathing on a lower rooftop. She was beautiful. David thought about her. He inquired, who is she? He was told, “Her name is Bathsheba. She is the wife of Uriah, the Hittite.” David, the king of Israel, called for her. He had sexual relations with her. He committed adultery. He then murdered Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, exposing him in battle. And the prophet of God, Nathan, came to the King of Israel and pronounced judgment. And David repented. He said, “I have sinned against God.” And he found forgiveness, but not without consequences. David married Bathsheba and their firstborn was taken by the Lord as a consequence for David’s sin. And when the temple was to be built, David was not allowed to build it. God proclaimed that he could not build His holy temple because he had shed too much blood—a reference primarily to his military past, but perhaps in part to his dealings with Uriah. Consequences for sin.
Now, is the Christian different than David. As Christians, are we different than David? I mean, do we have no consequences for sin? Can we murder and commit adultery without consequence? The answer is quite obviously no. There are always consequences for sin. There are consequences with regard to the civil government and civil law. When we violate the laws of the land, we may receive punishment or judgment in the eyes of the state. And there are even consequences for the Christian with regard to God. When we sin as Christians, He may choose to discipline us. He may choose to discipline us because He loves us. If you continue in sin without repentance, He may discipline you because He loves you. But that discipline is rooted in love and it reflects His desire to mold you and shape you, that you might be conformed to the image of His Son from one degree of glory to another.
The good news is that we’ve been set free from punishment. He does not punish the Christian in this life or the next. He may discipline us, but does not punish us. And there’s a great difference. They are two different Greek words, “kolasis” and “paideia.” Punishment is rooted in righteous indignation and wrath. Punishment reflects a desire to get even, and it seeks to serve justice and satisfy justice. But discipline is not like that. Discipline is rooted in love. It is not seeking justice. It’s simply seeking to improve, to mold, to shape, to make better. There is a tremendous difference. And the good news of scripture this morning is that when we come to Christ, he sets us free from punishment in this life and in the life to come.
You see, justice was satisfied on the cross where Jesus Christ died for you and Jesus Christ died for me. Christ has no desire to get even with us. He’s already died for us in substitutionary atonement. He has no desire to get even or satisfy justice. Justice was already satisfied when He shed His blood and His body was broken for you and for me. And so, we’ve been set freed from punishment. What a great promise that is.
This book is called The Last Sin Eater and it’s written by Francine Rivers. It’s a wonderful book. It’s a novel. It’s fiction, but it’s based on fact. And the fact is that in England, in the early part of the 19th century and in the lowlands of Scotland and in the border regions of Wales, there were people of druidic background who had a curious custom of hiring sin eaters.
This custom was carried over to the Americas in the middle of the 19th century and was practiced in certain regions of Appalachia. A sin eater was a person who was hired to bear the penalty for your sin. People would actually hire a sin eater who would take their sin upon himself and agree to serve whatever punishment would come to you—to take that punishment on themself in the life to come. Some of these sin eaters perhaps didn’t believe in the life to come. Some of them thought that they’d play now and pay later. Some perhaps were masochists, but they were sin eaters. And they were paid either in the form of money or in the form of food for rendering a service. And so people would go to the sin eater and they would give the sin eater their money and their food. And the sin eater lived well, but he agreed that in the life to come, he would pay the penalty for their sins.
A curious custom. Francine Rivers beautifully describes how these people came to understand that they didn’t need sin eaters anymore. They didn’t need to give money and food to the sin eater because their sins had already been atoned for by Christ and the cross. And now these people came to Christ, the true sin eater who alone has taken away the sin of the world through the shedding of His blood and set us free from the domination of sin and set us free from the punishment of sin. What a freedom. So as you come to communion this morning, and as you partake of the bread and the cup, let this be a time of renewed commitment when you bring your sin to Christ. And if there’s any sin that you need freedom from, any sin that is dominating you, come and ask the Lord to set you free. Let this be a new beginning as His power is released in you today. And as you come to communion this morning, come with a grateful heart that He has set you free from the punishment for sin, having taken that punishment upon Himself on Calvary’s cross. Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.