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We all know we're saved by grace but the truth is we are also changed by grace. Knowing ourselves as God knows us, as loved and welcomed and forgiven is the only thing that can actually transform us.
Sermons from Commons Church. Intellectually honest. Spiritually passionate. Jesus at the centre. Since 2014.
I want to pick up on one of the ideas from Sunday and talk about it a little bit more. This idea that what we often call sin are really just symptoms or byproducts of not knowing ourselves the way that God knows us. The example I used from the story that we looked at on Sunday was the idea of being greedy, gathering more to yourself than you really need. This is something that oftentimes we would point to and say, Well, that's a sin. But the thing is, really it's just a symptom.
Speaker 1:It's a symptom of the fact that we don't know ourselves as loved, we don't know ourselves as welcomed, we don't trust that God really has us and that God is going to look out for us, and we believe really at the root of the universe that we are on our own. We have to look out for ourselves. We have to protect ourselves. And so the greed that we look at and we point to, we tell people you need to change that about yourself, is really just a symptom of the fact that we don't know ourselves well. When we know ourselves the way that God knows us, when we really believe and we trust that God loves us, that God has us, that God is looking out for us, then all of a sudden that kind of unhealthy toxic greed begins to fade away.
Speaker 1:And that is really true with all of our sins that we point out. This is what I want to get to: this idea that there is a virtuous cycle and there is a toxic cycle in our concept of ourselves. The toxic cycle is this: that you believe that religion is there to point out everything that is wrong with you. It's there to tell you what you need to change. It's there to point out your sins.
Speaker 1:It's there to badger you into being a better person. But the truth is all of that does is create more shame in us. That shame feels us like we're not loved. The fact that we're not loved drives us to act out in all kinds of insecure ways in the world. Those insecurities simply betray the fact that we don't know ourselves as loved.
Speaker 1:And then the church comes along, looks at those insecurities and tells us we're wrong. That fills us with more shame, which drives us back into those insecurities and those ethnicity patterns. That's a toxic cycle that happens over and over again with religion. The Gospel, on the other hand, is meant to be this virtuous cycle that leads you the other way. It's Jesus coming along and telling you, actually, you are already perfectly loved.
Speaker 1:You are profoundly welcomed, and God already deeply has you. When that takes root in us, when the Spirit is able to speak to the deepest parts of our soul and tell us you are already deeply loved as you are, what happens is we come to know ourselves in new ways, more true ways, the ways that God knows us. This allows us to think differently about ourselves. It roots itself in what we trust most deeply about the world. And all of a sudden, all of the symptoms and the sins that we have pointed out and seen around us, those begin to be less necessary for us.
Speaker 1:We don't act out of our insecurity anymore. We act out of our essential groundedness and belovedness. And then all of the things that we point to around ourselves become less and less necessary. It's not that we become perfect, it's that all of those things, those symptoms, those sins, those insecurities that we have acted out of in the past are less definitional for us. They don't matter to us anymore, and slowly we begin to let them fade.
Speaker 1:Classically, this is what we would call sanctification, that we step more and more into the life God offers us, but it's only ever through the grace that tells us who we really are. All of our life is about shame and mistrust and changing bad habits, things that we already know are toxic and tearing at us from the inside out. All that we are ever going to do is lean into more and more insecurity, which leads us to more and more sin. When grace floods in, and when we begin to see ourselves as Jesus loves us, what happens is that we begin this virtual cycle up and out of all of our worst tendencies. There's a story in the Gospels where Jesus meets a woman who has been caught in the act of adultery, and he comes to her and he confronts the crowd.
Speaker 1:He says, He who is without sin casts the first stone, and obviously no one does. Then he turns to the woman and he says, Go and sin no more. And people want to use this story and they go back and they're like, Yeah, but he says go and sin no more. And my response is, Of course he does. Because that's what Jesus always says to us.
Speaker 1:God always says to us, you are perfectly loved, you are forgiven, you are welcome, now go and sin no more. And the more that story takes root in us, the more we begin to believe that story that we are forgiven, we are loved, we are welcomed, the more we can actually go and sin no more. Jesus never comes back the next day and says, Okay, now this time you're out. This time you're not forgiven. This time you're not loved.
Speaker 1:Jesus comes back a thousand times every day for the rest of your life and tells you, you are forgiven, you are loved, you are welcome, go and sin no more. That's what grace is about. That's what the Gospel is about. And that story, Knowing that we are loved, we are forgiven, we are welcome. This is what enables us to actually go and live a life that is less dependent on sin.
Speaker 1:When our sin is pointed out to us, when our shame is compounded by the communities around us, then really we have no choice but to live out of our insecurity. And that insecurity is the root of all sin. Our greed is a function of the fact that we don't feel safe. Our tendency to lie and prop ourselves up as something more than we are is a symptom of the fact that we don't believe we're worthy of love. Our tendency to short circuit intimacy and vulnerability and use things like pornography or relationships that aren't really well grounded in intimacies because we are scared to be vulnerable.
Speaker 1:But when we know ourselves as loved, when we trust that Jesus tells us exactly what he means to tell us, that we are loved and forgiven and welcome, all of the things that we think of as sin begin to fade away. And all of the best, most generous, most loving, most Christ like parts of who you are, those begin to come to the surface. So my advice to you is simply this: know that you are loved. Allow that message of grace to sink somewhere deep inside of you. Allow spirit to speak to the most deep parts of your spirit.
Speaker 1:And that will change everything about you, I promise.