The path to life

Life in abun­dance comes from Jesus Christ. Sin sepa­ra­tes us from God. Here we must come true and con­fess our guilt and cla­im Christ’s for­gi­ve­ness. Then his grace, his favour, is appli­ed to us wit­hout pre­con­di­ti­ons and we find real life. In prac­ti­cal terms, this hap­pens through the Holy Spi­rit, who advi­ses and equips us in a «trai­ning pro­gram­me» in all ever­y­day matters.

The way to life is through Jesus Christ. «I have come that they may have life and have it to the full» (John 10:10; LUT). «Jesus says to her: I am the resur­rec­tion and the life. Whoe­ver belie­ves in me will live, even if he dies» (John 11:25 LUT).

Life in abun­dance – not mere exis­tence. Life as it was once meant to be – that is what Christ pro­mi­ses us in his disci­ple­ship. How do we gain access to this life? Here too, Jesus shows us the way via two steps: Truth and grace. We need both. «He, who is the Word, beca­me man and lived among us. He was full of grace and truth and we beca­me wit­nesses of his glo­ry […]» (John 1:14 NLB).

Part 1: What is the truth?

The world crea­ted by God was ori­en­ta­ted towards harm­o­ny and love. Then man came along and wan­ted to be hap­py wit­hout God. The result was death, sad­ness, mise­ry and ill­ness. In a har­mo­nious sys­tem, even the sligh­test irri­ta­ti­on is enough to dis­rupt the sys­tem. Sel­fi­sh­ness always dis­rupts – or des­troys – it is always at the expen­se of someone else. The effect of mis­be­ha­viour is guilt – the respon­si­bi­li­ty for the nega­ti­ve con­se­quen­ces of our actions. Tho­se who are guil­ty are not free.

In finan­cial terms, it is rela­tively easy to sett­le a debt by repay­ing the amount owed. In other respects, it is dif­fi­cult or even impos­si­ble to sett­le debts. A lar­ge part of our debt is irrever­si­ble – it can­not be can­cel­led. Every one of us is a sin­ner and has the­r­e­fo­re incur­red debt. 

This is the truththat Christ demons­tra­ted through his life in this world. He show­ed this by addres­sing mis­be­ha­viour, but he show­ed it most cle­ar­ly by taking all the guilt of the world upon hims­elf. The neces­si­ty of a sub­sti­tu­tio­na­ry human sacri­fice show­ed the ext­ent of our guilt. Being guil­ty means having to die. What does this have to do with life?

This truth has to do with our lives in two ways:

1. Basi­cal­ly, anyo­ne who is wit­hout for­gi­ve­ness remains sepa­ra­ted from God and thus from the life that comes from him.
2. But even when we are recon­ci­led with God, we repea­ted­ly resort to sin­ful beha­viour, we do not ful­ly trust in God, we do sel­fi­sh things. The­se things also sepa­ra­te us from life in ever­y­day life – from the full­ness and joy of Christ.

We live in a time that no lon­ger likes to talk about sin and guilt – alt­hough it affects us all – even as tho­se recon­ci­led with God. If we igno­re sin and guilt, we do not lose our recon­ci­lia­ti­on as the rede­e­med, but our rela­ti­onship with God cools down and life dis­ap­pears from our ever­y­day lives.

What are mecha­nisms for deal­ing with guilt in the wrong way?

• Self-righ­teous­ness
• Lega­li­ty
• Depres­si­on
• Cheap apo­lo­gy
• Deni­al
• Sca­l­e­l­ess­ness
• …

How did the bibli­cal David deal with the issue? «Bles­sed is he who­se trans­gres­si­ons are for­gi­ven, who­se sin is covered!Blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impu­te guilt, in who­se spi­rit the­re is no deceit!For when I tried to con­ce­al it, my bones lan­gu­is­hed becau­se of my dai­ly mourning.For your hand was hea­vy on me day and night, so that my sap dried up as it withers in sum­mer. The­r­e­fo­re I con­fes­sed my sin to you and did not hide my guilt. I said: I will con­fess my trans­gres­si­ons to the LORD. Then you for­ga­ve me the guilt of my sin» (Psalm 32:1–5 LUT).

He reco­g­ni­s­es that guilt robs life. For­gi­ve­ness, on the other hand, opens the door to life from God. David also con­fes­ses this in the same psalm: «Rejoice in the Lord and be glad, you righ­teous, and shout for joy, all you devout» (Psalm 32:11 LUT). The first step towards life is to relent­less­ly expo­se your own ina­bi­li­ty. But that is not yet life…

Part 2: How does the grace of Christ come to us?

Grace is a mys­tery that we can­not grasp. It is a favour in which we only recei­ve good things becau­se the giver wants it – one-sidedly. The cra­zy thing is that grace would be the­re for ever­yo­ne. The only con­di­ti­on for grace to reach us is that we enga­ge with the giver and want to live with him. Ever­yo­ne wants the good gifts, but not the giver…

An exam­p­le: the­re was a beggar on one side. Pen­ni­less and com­ple­te­ly filt­hy. On the other side was a king in a magni­fi­cent palace. The king saw the beggar and wan­ted to take him in – even make him a prin­ce. The­re was only one con­di­ti­on. You have to agree to beco­me a prin­ce. This beg­ins with clea­ning yours­elf and put­ting on new clothes.

Christ has paid the pri­ce for our mista­kes. The pri­ce for our debts is a human life – death. Christ hims­elf paid this pri­ce with his life. Through his blood we are cle­an­sed of our «filth». If we cla­im this per­so­nal­ly. Why? Becau­se God and his Son love us. Becau­se we are so gre­at? No, becau­se they have deci­ded to do so.

Part 3: How does life come to us?

How a for­mer beggar lear­ns to be a prin­ce. Even after an initi­al cle­an­sing and put­ting on new clo­thes, this is a two-way pro­cess: Learn to do the good, learn to lea­ve the bad behind. In this pro­cess is every per­son who has given their life to God and who has accept­ed Christ as their Lord. We are in the prin­ce and prin­cess trai­ning pro­gram­me. Who is our tea­cher? The Holy Spi­rit. «It is the Spi­rit who gives life; the fle­sh is of no use. The words that I have spo­ken to you are spi­rit and are life» (John 6:63 LUT). 

How does the Spi­rit bring life to ever­y­day life? He works on and in us every day on behalf of Jesus Christ. «The old, sin­ful natu­re loves to do evil – exact­ly the oppo­si­te of what the Holy Spi­rit wants. The Spi­rit awa­kens desi­res in us that con­tra­dict the incli­na­ti­ons of our sin­ful natu­re. The­se two forces are in con­stant con­flict with each other so that you can­not do what you want. But if you are led by the Holy Spi­rit, you are not sub­ject to the law.If you fol­low the incli­na­ti­ons of your sin­ful natu­re, your life will show the cor­re­spon­ding con­se­quen­ces: For­ni­ca­ti­on, impu­re thoughts, plea­su­re-see­king, ido­la­try, sorcery, enmities, stri­fe, jea­lou­sy, anger, sel­fi­sh ambi­ti­on, divi­si­ons, self-righ­teous sepa­ra­ti­on from other groups, envy, drun­ken­ness, dis­so­lu­te life­styl­es and the like. I repeat what I have alre­a­dy said, that no one who leads such a life will inhe­rit the king­dom of God.If, on the other hand, the Holy Spi­rit con­trols our lives, he will cau­se com­ple­te­ly dif­fe­rent fruit to grow in usLove, joy, peace, pati­ence, kind­ness, good­ness, faithful­ness, gent­le­ness and self-con­trol. None of this con­tra­dicts the law.Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nai­led the pas­si­ons and desi­res of their sin­ful natu­re to his cross.If we now live by the Holy Spi­rit, then we should also let him rule all are­as of our lives» (Gala­ti­ans 5:17–25 NLB).

Important: We only have to make the right decis­i­ons, the fruit grows in us through the Spi­rit. More on this next Sun­day. We make many decis­i­ons every day. With every decis­i­on, we choo­se bet­ween what we have reco­g­nis­ed as God’s will and self-rea­li­sa­ti­on (wan­ting to be hap­py over sel­fi­sh­ness). The let­ter to the Gala­ti­ans pro­mi­ses us that the Spi­rit actively speaks to us – as child­ren of God. This hap­pens in many ways, but in such a way that we know it (if we lis­ten to it).

It can hap­pen that we don’t know which way to go. Here, too, God gives us the ans­wer: «But if any of you lacks wis­dom, let him ask God, who gives to ever­yo­ne glad­ly and wit­hout reproach, and it will be given to him» (James 1:5 LUT). 

Summary

If we lack joy and peace, we must first beco­me honest with our­sel­ves, like David. Put off what is wrong. God then always offers us puri­fi­ca­ti­on in Christ. Then we can take up our desti­ny again: To learn to live as prin­ces and prin­ces­ses of the King. A prin­ce lear­ns most in the pro­xi­mi­ty of the King, who sets him an exam­p­le, and through his per­so­nal tea­cher – in our case, the Holy Spi­rit. If we live in this clo­se rela­ti­onship with king and tea­cher in our ever­y­day lives, we gain wis­dom about what to do and, by fol­lo­wing the ins­truc­tions, free­dom for good and thus access to life, which Christ in turn gives us through his Spirit.

Possible questions for the small group

Bible text: Psalm 32:1–5; Gala­ti­ans 5:17–25

1. Do you have life in abun­dance – and if not, what are you spe­ci­fi­cal­ly lacking?
2. How honest are you in deal­ing with your own mis­be­ha­viour? Do you regu­lar­ly con­fess your mista­kes to God?
3. Have you unders­tood «grace» – this uncon­di­tio­nal favour of God? How do you make use of it in your ever­y­day life?
4. How do you expe­ri­ence the Holy Spi­rit spea­king to you in ever­y­day life and giving you advice for decis­i­ons? How do you expe­ri­ence the strugg­le bet­ween self-rea­li­sa­ti­on and lis­tening to the Spirit?
5. How do you expe­ri­ence that you find access to real life by lis­tening to God?