Abba!

(3-13-05)

Romans 8:10-15

 

“And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you. Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation-..” (11-12a)

 

          Don’t you just love those ‘ifs’, ‘wills’, and ‘therefores’? We can learn so much from them. I would like to say these times we now live in are different or more challenging than other generations have faced, but that would be wrong. Worse than wrong it would be an excuse to accept failure. Every generation has had to face its own problems. Some are in the church and some are outside the church.

          The churches in the United States have had serious struggles ever since the Sixties. I am not sure the right answers were ever spoken of, believed in, and repented of. Because of that I think the church still labors under the residual effects brought on by the lack of resolving those foundational elements.

          So what was the problem? Going to church and being a Christian was in part a social statement. It was socially expected if not demanded to belong to and go to the right kinds of churches. If you were going to make it in business and in politics you had to belong to the right ones. If you didn’t belong to some church you were likely communist. This social structuring is the root cause, or a least a large contributing cause.

          People of prominence belonged to all the right churches but the open-eyed youth rebelled against the statement of their lives. Why? One word answers that burning question – hypocrisy!  The sincerity of their convictions showed forth in their homes, in their work places, in their lives, and in their choices. Their lives cried out – Liar!

          The modern day questions confronting the church are still the same – what is true. Truth is viewed as circumstantial rather than absolute. The church cries out – ‘Believe the truth!’ and the world looks back in bewilderment and asks – ‘Which truth?’ ‘Your truth?’ ‘What makes your truth better than mine or those people’s?’    

          The solution starts at the very core of the problem. The solution starts at the level of the individual person – are you a real Christian? What proof can you render that adequately demonstrates that to be true? This is a serious question and its answer is paramount to our own future as a viable, living, healthy and growing church.

          Paul writes to the believers in Rome and speaks about realness, not their realness and the realness of everyone else. The realness is not subjectional, or circumstantial if it is to be real. To be real it must be universal! Real Christians have the answer to Paul’s ‘ifs’. Romans 8:10 “…If Christ is in you…” When the ‘Ifs’ are right the ‘wills’ become absolute. (8:11) “…he who raised Christ from the dead will also…”  When the ‘ifs’ and the ‘wills’ are in place then the ‘therefores’ also become real and true. (8:12) “Therefore brothers, we have an obligation…”

          What is the proof of your Christianity? Look to Paul for that answer (Romans 8:16-17)