Rancho Bernardo Community Presbyterian Church

Romans 3:23-24 and Romans 6:23

“In ten words or less, what’s the Christian message?” How would we answer this question? This is the question that P. D. East, an agnostic newspaper editor, asked Christian author Will Campbell years ago. Philip Yancey, in his book, What’s So Amazing About Grace?, spends an entire chapter discussing Will Campbell’s answer. How we answer this question reveals what we believe is the essence of the gospel.

Let’s be honest: most people think the ten words would include words and phrases such as “be a good person” and “go to heaven.” I suspect this is one of the most misunderstood parts of the Christian message. If we took a survey of non-church people across our community and asked them to summarize Christianity, most would say something about how God wants us to be good people so we can go to heaven. If we asked these same people how a person gets into heaven, the answer would be similar. Many people mistakenly think that we get into heaven by being good enough so that God will love us. If we prove ourselves worthy of God’s love by following the rules and obeying God’s commands, then God will let us into heaven. Whatever we would call this popular “religion” – “do-goodism” or “try-hardism” perhaps – it is clearly not Christianity.

It was a beautiful June graduation day from sky diving school. The final exam was an actual parachute jump. One by one the graduates jumped out of the plane. One man on his way down gave the proper count and then pulled the ripcord. Nothing happened. Feeling a surge of panic, he remembered the instructor had taught them about a back up cord. He reached into his parachute pack and pulled the back up cord. Still nothing happened. Now he was plunging faster and out of control toward the ground. As he wondered what to do next he suddenly saw a strange sight. Coming up off the ground toward him was another man. As they neared each other, and were about to pass in the air he called out to the man flying upward, “Do you know how to open a parachute?’ The man called back, “No. Do you know how to light a propane grill?’

When it comes to understanding Christianity, we occasionally need to review the basics. Perhaps the greatest confusion revolves around a common misunderstanding of the purpose of God’s laws. Many people confuse the laws of God with our human laws. Human laws are intended to keep people from hurting each other. We make a law and ask our government to enforce it so that neighbors will respect each other’s rights. We then set up a punishment system for those who break the laws in order to teach people that hurting others or their property is wrong. Thus, the hope is to keep people civil and reinforce doing what is right.

God’s laws do not work this way. God’s laws cannot make us be good people. They have a different primary purpose. If we do not understand the primary purpose of God’s laws, then we will likely think they are intended to teach us how to be good people. We might think that God’s laws clarify the boundaries between right and wrong. Like children coloring inside the lines, we are supposed to remain on the side of right and not overstep the boundaries. As long as we remain within the boundaries, God loves us and rewards us with heaven.

Paul says in his letter to the Romans that this is not the reason for God’s laws. The laws have never worked to make us good people. God did not set them up in order to teach us to remain within the boundaries. If we consider this to be the reason for God’s laws, we can fall into a dangerous way of living. We tend to live our lives by asking the question, “How far is too far?” In other words, we wonder, “When have I overstepped the boundaries?”

The young mother opens the door to let her three-year-old son play in the front yard. As he runs through the door, she says, “Stay in the yard. Don’t go onto the sidewalk; don’t go over into the neighbor’s yard; and don’t climb over the fence!” She sets the boundaries. Does he understand? Of course he understands. We know he understands because the first thing he does is run out to the edge of the yard and put his big toe on the sidewalk as he turns and looks back at his mother.

Thirty minutes later he calls, “Mom, look at me!” She looks out the window and sees his arm dangling over the fence as he shouts, “I’m still in the yard.” The next time he walks by the sidewalk, he puts an entire foot on the sidewalk and looks back at the house. His weight is still in the yard, but he wants his mom to notice that he has one foot on the sidewalk. Finally, in a moment of boldness he steps onto the sidewalk with one foot, keeping the other foot on the lawn. He balances his weight fifty-fifty so that half is on the sidewalk and half is in the yard and then calls for his mother to look.

How far is too far? Am I breaking the rules yet, or is this okay?

The man called and asked me to meet him at a local restaurant. I spotted him at a secluded booth. The waitress brought us both coffees. He looked down at his coffee as he spun the cup in his hand. Finally, he started the conversation with these words, “She is just a friend, but my wife says it’s the same thing as adultery.” He nervously played with the wedding ring on his finger. Without making eye contact he continued, “We haven’t done anything. It’s not really a sin to have feelings is it?” Making eye contact for the first time, he said a little too loudly, “My wife used to say I could look, but not touch. I haven’t touched.”

The little boy stands with one foot on the sidewalk and one foot in the yard. How far is too far? This is the kind of thinking that can develop when we interpret God’s laws as boundaries. Our natural tendency is to push the boundaries. We find ways to justify our behavior. We think we can play with sin and then wonder, “Is this still okay with God?”

Jesus clarified the intent of the commandments in his Sermon on the Mount. “You have heard it said, ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ but I say to you, if you even lust, you have committed adultery in your heart.” “You have the commandment, ‘You shall not murder,’ but I say that if you get angry enough to consider a person a fool, that is the same as murder.” Jesus showed us that the intent of the law allows no flexibility at the edges. God’s laws were never intended to keep us inside the boundaries so that we could consider ourselves good enough to deserve God’s love or righteous enough to get into heaven. The Apostle Paul realized that the laws had a different purpose than this.

In an autobiographical section of the letter to the Romans, Paul reviewed his own life. He was a faithful Jew. He attended synagogue, studied the scriptures, and memorized the Commandments. He thought he was doing well. He had not committed adultery. He had never stolen. He was virtuously honest and had never cheated. Then he came to the tenth Commandment, “You shall not covet.” When Paul read that Commandment, he realized he had already broken it many times. In fact, he discovered that the more he tried to keep it, the more he became aware of his own discontentment. This discovery led to Paul’s understanding of the primary purpose of God’s laws. God’s laws were given so that we would be honest about our sinfulness. God’s laws force us to face our tendency to justify ourselves.

A few years ago there was a TV commercial that aired during the basketball season. It showed a little boy dribbling his basketball on an outdoor court. He is alone. As the camera zoomed in on his face, he described his fantasy ball game. “Five seconds to go in the championship game.” In his mind, he has the ball and the chance to win the ballgame with a final shot. He begins his countdown, “Four, three, two….” He aims the basketball and shoots. The ball arches in the air, hits the rim, bounces against the backboard, hits the rim again, falls away from the basket. The camera then zooms in on the boy as he registers the fact that he missed. The boy pauses for a moment and then shouts, “He was fouled!”

Like that boy, we have a tendency to justify ourselves by blaming others. It was the situation or the other person who made us miss the mark. We compare ourselves to others and try to persuade ourselves that if God graded on the curve we would be good enough to get into heaven. We assume that God will take sincerity into account. Sure, we might have fallen a time or two, but since we sincerely wanted to be good people, God will overlook such things.

It is this kind of thinking and self-justification that the laws address. Why did God give us the laws? God wants us to admit that we all fail to live our lives perfectly. Every one of us is guilty of breaking some part of God’s laws. Only when we recognize that none of us are good enough will we genuinely cast ourselves on God’s grace for our entire acceptance. Grace, then, is unearned favor, undeserved credit. We charged up the credit card, and Jesus paid it off. We were hopelessly in debt; Jesus paid it all for us. Grace is a gift.

In Romans, the Apostle Paul summarized the gospel in one sentence: “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:23) This sentence is the essence of the gospel. The stark contrasts in the sentence show us our need to make a choice. Death or Life? Sin or God? Wages or gift?

I picture heaven as having two entrances or gates. Over each entrance is a sign that identifies the qualifications needed to enter heaven through that gate. The sign over one entrance reads, “Gift.” The sign over the other entrance reads, “Wages.” Which line will you and I join?

Here is how the two lines work. If we think we deserve to get into heaven based on our sincerity, hard work, and religious acts, we line up at the gate marked “Wages.” If we think we are not worthy to be with God, we line up at the gate marked “Gift.” If you had to choose which line you would stand in for entrance to heaven, which would you choose?

I picture people making their choices and forming two lines. Once people are in the respective lines God comes out and addresses those in the “Wages” line. God explains how this line works. God says, “You will be going through a series of cuts in order to eliminate those who do not deserve to be in heaven through their own accomplishments. Please listen carefully. I need you to organize yourselves according to how sinful you were in your life on earth. The worst sinners will be eliminated first.”

People begin to jostle and push for a place near the front of the line. They are comparing notes on how insignificant their sins were. Some are pointing fingers at others and telling them their sins were worse. Very few are willing to openly admit they do not deserve to remain in the line. After hours of debate the last half of the line is eliminated from consideration. Most of us would still be standing in this line because we were not as bad as Hitler or Stalin, right?

God then steps out and continues the process by making another announcement. “The next cut asks you to line yourselves according to who was most holy and good on earth. Only the top ten percent will be allowed to remain in the line.” Now the pushing and shoving gets down right nasty. People who were pacifists on earth begin name-calling. Fist fights break out in the line and Jerry Springer suddenly appears to interview the combatants. It takes some time, but the line is finally pared down to the most holy and religious people left.

God announces the final stage of determining who gets in through the “Wages” gate. God speaks as the crowd comes to a hush. “You people have proven yourselves to be the most righteous people on earth. You have taken much pride in your religious activities and devotions. Now for the final cut. Only one person is allowed to walk through this gate. Oh, by the way, Jesus is going to come and stand in line with you.”

Meanwhile, the people in the other line are passing through the gate marked “Gift.” They face God and humbly admit their unworthiness to enter heaven. They honestly confess their failings. The only basis they claim for getting into heaven is that Jesus has

paid the price for their entrance. Their only hope is that God loves them and they have received that love as a gift.

In ten words or less, what is the Christian message? Will Campbell answered the question in eight words. As crude as it may sound, I think he hit the nail on the head when he said, “We’re all bastards, but God loves us anyway.” Unknown to Will Campbell,

P. D. East, the man asking the question, had been an illegitimate child. He had experienced the scorn and prejudice of feeling unwanted and unworthy all his life. That day he learned that we are all in the same condition. We are all sinful and unworthy of God’s love, but God adopts us anyway.

How about it? Are you unworthy of God? Welcome to the club. We are all sinners saved by grace, so let’s line up at the gate marked “Gift.”