The Great Miracle

John 5:6c NIV

"Do you want to get well?"

Do You Want God to Fix Your Life?

In the national news there was a story that was sickening to read.  It demonstrated just how wrecked our world is and how ruined it is by sin.  A man was convicted recently of raping his sister at least once a week over a four year period.  He was nine years older than her and it began when she was only nine.  The girl’s parents were often away at work and entrusted the care of their daughter to their son who was a young adult living at home.  What kind of horrible inclinations led to this perversion we cannot say but it must be stated clearly that it had a devastating effect upon the girl.  Now an adult, she tells of her longstanding anger toward her parents for letting her stay with her brother, her anxiety attacks, the loneliness she feels constantly as a young woman alone in her pain and the psychological numbness that she endures which keeps her from being able to experience closeness and make attachments with those who try to get close to her.

In a world that is warped by sin and its consequences, there is a sort of universal feeling that a new pill, a good counselor or a government program can put all the hurting and troubled people back together and make them good as new. Yet we have not seen any real success in our efforts to place bandages on a wounded social order that universally struggles to find peace and joy.  If it were just one or two people in our city who were struggling with anxiety, depression, loneliness, burn-out, bitter feelings, deep-seated anger and addictions, we could just ignore it and say, “well at least it isn’t me or someone in my family”” but it is us and it is our family affected by the damage caused by sin.  Your heart and my heart and the hearts of those close to us are damaged by Sin and that damage causes us pain and all sorts of sorrows.

The problem we face is universally experienced and it is felt in every corner of the earth.  Sin damaged hearts are everywhere and we cannot begin to express how much pain these wounds cause.  At the very center of all the wreckage brought on by Sin is Jesus Christ and Him crucified.  It was Sin that brought such hatred against Him that the cries to crucify Him rung out in the court of the Roman governor, that the laughter of the Jewish priests and soldiers as his body was bloodied and His face pummeled by punches spilled out onto the hill where Christ was nailed to the cross and hung there awaiting death.  More than that though, the Bible tells us that Jesus died purposefully, to do away with Sin completely, to take it out of us and eventually take it out of the world.  He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. (1 Peter 2:24 NIV)  What does die to sins mean?  This is of course why Christ gave up His life on the Cross!  It is the total and complete reason why Jesus let Himself be crucified with His blood poured out at every wound He suffered.  It was to take the Sin out of us and make us thoroughly free from every part of Sin, its poison and its damage, its curse and its sorrow.  To die to Sin means that Sin no longer impacts us, no longer has a hold upon us.  What Sin works in us and how it works itself out of us, it all is dead to us through the crucifixion death of Christ.

Yet we still feel the lingering effects of Sin.  We may continue to suffer psychological and physical pain caused by Sin and we still commit sins often and regularly!  Pay careful attention to this single statement we find in the Bible because it is critical to your happiness.  Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed — not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence — continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. (Philippians 2:12-13 NIV)

When we are talking about God working in you, what do we mean by that?  We mean the Holy Spirit joined with you, a part of you.  You could never experience God as a part of your personality, in union with you if Christ were not raised from the dead.  Jesus talked about this great miracle again and again, that once He finished His work dying for the sins of the world, He would give them through the Father the Holy Spirit to be joined to them, bringing comfort, insight and direction.  By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified. (John 7:39 NIV)  And later the Lord told the disciples, And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.  I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.  Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.  On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. (John 14:16-20 NIV)

How does the resurrection of Jesus Christ impact you directly?  It was only after He came up out of the dead that Jesus gave the Holy Spirit to His people.  He started with the Disciples the first Easter Sunday.  Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you."   And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. (John 20:21-22 NIV)  Then on Pentecost the Holy Spirit continued to come upon God’s people and as they believed in Christ as the one who took away Sin, the Holy Spirit became  part of them.  All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.(Acts 2:4 NIV)   While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message.  The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. (Acts 10:44-45 NIV) This great miracle of having God become joined to you is perhaps the most important news you will ever hear in conjunction to Easter.  God, who takes away Sin joins Himself to you as soon as you put your faith in Him to give you eternal life.

Now let us return to the matter of the change God wants to work in you.  For it to happen, you must work out your salvation yourself.  Pay careful attention to our verse.   …continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.  Consider this crucial discovery we have in Scripture.  You will find again and again the great miracles God worked for people did not take place until obedience occurred.  Naaman was not cleansed of his leprosy until he washed in the Jordan River.  The ten lepers were not healed until they left Jesus to meet with the priest.  Jesus did not raise Lazarus from the dead until the stone was removed from the front of the grave.  The lame man was not healed until he went ahead and picked up his mat.  If so many others could not be healed and their problems solved until they did what God told them to do, why should you think it would be any different for you?

Work out your salvation is not you making yourself saved.   It is not you taking away your sin.  It is you receiving from God the changes His death on the Cross provides for you.  There are hidden places in you, deep and dark places in you that take away your joy and peace as a result of sins committed against you and sins you have committed and the Holy Spirit, a part of you will get at them and heal them and take away the power they have over you.  But you must do something.  You must do what God tells you to do.  If it means loving someone you dislike, you must do it.  If it means acting kindly towards someone who does not deserve it, you must do it.  If it means putting down your phone and praying, you must do it.  If it means cutting off a relationship because it is turning you away from Christ, you must do it.  If it means reading the Bible when it seems boring, you must do it.  If it means stop criticizing others and judging them, you must do it.  If it means giving up a career that is making you greedy and discontented with God, you must do it.  If it means starting a kids club to help illiterate children learn how to read, you must do it.  If it means talking to someone about God and sharing the goodness of Jesus Christ, you must do it

With the Holy Spirit within you, Christ resurrected can heal any broken part of you and make that your strongest part but you must work out your salvation by doing what God tells you to do.  Perhaps the problem with your finances is that you are too afraid to trust God by giving Him a tenth of all you earn.  It might be that your depression is connected to your unwillingness to thank God for what He gives you when He gives it to you.  Your anxiety might be due to bitterness you hold in your heart toward someone you have never forgiven.  The peace of God is waiting for you to trust Him with your actions.  The Holy Spirit in you can heal even the deepest wound and give joy to you when you think happiness is impossible given your circumstances.

Our Lord admits that doing what He tells you to do may involve fear and trembling on your part.  You might be even ashamed to do what He tells you to do.  But if you just obey God, the miracle of Christ in you will make you happier and more peaceful and contented than you are.  Today I watched a crow peck at a bag near the fence.  Clearly he thought there was something in it he wanted.  Like those who do not work out their salvation, he tugged at the bag, flipped it over, pulled it out into the parking lot and pecked at it.  He put his foot on it and tried to tear at the bag with his beak but it was a worthless endeavor.  Finally, the crow quit, without any satisfaction for all his effort fighting with the empty bag.  At the same time, a hummingbird, like those who work out their salvation, when from lavender bloom to lavender bloom, getting nectar from the flowers and left satisfied.  What a worthless endeavor it is to go through life without trusting the Holy Spirit to work out of you all the damage Sin has done to your heart!  But, what gladness we have when we have given God all He wants of us and as a consequence He builds within us all the strength and joy and encouragement and contentment He has to give us as we trust Him with our lives.