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Sermon Notes of Rev.Dr.I.J.W.Oakley (17-5-1998 Guisborough Evangelical Church)
This chapter speaks of the power
of the Holy Spirit in the Christian’s life. Paul has already touched on the
theme, but here he speaks of the very foundational work of changing and
transforming sinners, recreating, renewing, liberating and transforming. And how
they needed it in Corinth. We all need that transforming work, but it was
especially obvious in Corinth, the centre of vice and idolatry. C.f. the
expression korinqiazesqai ”to live
like a Corinthian” meaning to live a life with drunken and immoral debauchery.
The term actually penetrated the English language in Regency times, when a
wealthy young man living recklessly and with moral abandon would be known as a
“Corinthian”.
In 1 Corinthian 6 there is a
list of those not entering the kingdom, and this list includes the immoral,
idolaters, sexual perverts, thieves, drunkards and swindlers, and Paul makes it
clear, And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were
sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the
Spirit of our God (1 Corinthians 6:11). In 2 Corinthians he develops the
theme of the Holy Spirit and shows that it is not just at the beginning of the
Christian’s life, but throughout life, that the Holy Spirit’s transforming
ministry is essential.
The relevance of the Gospel to our present day situation is nowhere so clear and obvious as here. Many will agree the state of our nation today is because our society is rotten, but few know where to find the remedy.
The background is important and crucial. These statements
in 3:1-6 are addressed to the troublemakers who were giving Paul a hard time in
the Corinthian church. They had come to the church with letters of commendation,
exalting their virtues, and then having won the ears of the Corinthians began
teaching things in opposition to Paul, and stating that Paul was not a true
apostle of Christ. They were corrupters of the word.
Paul has to speak up. Normally
when accused, it is best to say nothing because the truth will out in the end.
It is humiliating to be condemned, painful to have to be silent, and degrading
to have to defend one’s self. But on this occasion Paul has to speak out, not
for his own sake but for the good of the church.
Letters of commendation were
often sent – e.g. Paul wrote to commend Phoebe (Romans 16:1), and Paul was
commended by Barnabas (Acts 9:27). But as the apostle who had founded the church
at Corinth, he states he does not need a letter of commendation. You
yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody (2
Corinthians 3:2). Their changed lives were proof that Paul was a genuine apostle
empowered by Christ. Christ wrote the letter, Paul was the instrument, the ink
was the Holy Spirit, and the Corinthians hearts and lives was the resulting
letter.
Here are two important things
about being a Christian and Christian service. Being a Christian involves being
wrought on by the Holy Spirit. He implants the very life and nature of God into
the innermost citadel of personality. He gives new birth from above (John 3:5).
We are new creations in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:17). We do not just become
nice, pleasant church-going people, but we are subject to a mighty
transformation. We are new people. Christ is at the heart, and the evidence is
that we love God, we love His word, prayer is a reality, and we have confidence
in Christ above. Our life is touched by God in power.
Then true Christian service has
its source not in human influence, or learning or manipulation, but in the power
of God’s Holy Spirit. The worker is merely a pen, an instrument or tool used
by the Lord through the Holy Spirit. The pen through which the ink of the Holy
Spirit flows. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for
ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as
ministers of a new covenant (2 Corinthians 3:5,6).
The Spirit’s strategy is to
take weak, cowardly, incompetent men, take possession of their faculties and
being, and fill and possess and use them. When the missionary Robert Morrison
was sailing to China, the captain of the ship scornfully said to him, “Well,
Mr Morrison, you expect to make an impression on the great dark land of China,
do you?” Morrison replied, “No, sir, but I expect God will.”
If a minister stays any length of time in a church, the proof will be in the lives of the people to whom he ministers. Every congregation is a reflection of the man and those in leadership. No congregation rises higher than its leaders spiritually.
The era we live in is pre-eminently the era of the Holy
Spirit, the age of the New Covenant. The Old Covenant (found in the Old
Testament) had God’s Laws, revealed God, and was an important period. But it
was only a preliminary and temporary revelation. Now we are in the days of
God’s final revelation – the New Covenant – when the Spirit is poured out
in fullness.
In the Old Testament we have
God’s laws and especially the Ten Commandments. He set high standards. If we
hoped to be saved by keeping them, it would end in condemnation and death, for
God requires perfection. God’s law could make demands but did not have the
power to enable us to keep it or change our hearts that we would even want to
keep it. The result – the law on its own leads to frustration, despair and
death.
But all that has changed. God
sent His Son, and brought in the New Covenant. Foretold by Jeremiah. Fulfilled
when Jesus died on the Cross, and commemorated at the Lord’s Supper. This
great note brings liberty, freedom and release. The Holy Spirit has been poured
out. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom (2 Corinthians
3:17).
Freedom in two areas. Firstly,
forgiveness of sin by God’s grace because Christ has died for us. To attempt
to earn salvation by keeping the commandments will be a disappointment. A
classic case was Martin Luther, who was aware of sin and danger. Death and
judgement terrified him. He prayed and fasted, he had sleepless nights, he
punished himself – but then he found the Bible which condemned him also
brought him hope. He learnt that in Christ and His cross and sin-bearing death
he could find full and free salvation. By faith alone. Peace through Christ’s
death, and not through his own efforts.
“Could
my zeal no respite know,
Could
my tears forever flow,
All
for sin could not atone,
Thou
must save, and thou alone”
Toplady
And the second freedom that is
ours under the New Covenant is freedom from slavery to sin. By the Holy Spirit,
the law is written on our hearts, we love it and we want to keep it. We have
this new desire within us, and we grieve when we fail. The law of the Spirit
of life set me free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2). Liberated
from its bondage… brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God (Romans
8:21).
The New Covenant, with its
outpouring of the Spirit, brings an end to frustration, despair, habit,
pessimism, fear, bondage, condemnation. It sets us free, empowers us, gives
life, and deals with the deepest problem – our motives, and the “want to”.
We have new life, new heart, not a set of rules we don’t want to keep. We
delight to do His will, and we feel the liberty from condemnation and slavery.
This theme is celebrated in so many of our hymns.
“Blessings
abound where’er He reigns.
The
prisoner leaps to loose his chains”
Isaac Watts
“My
chains fell off, my heart was free,
I
rose, went forth, and followed thee”
Charles Wesley
“Free
from law, O happy condition,
Jesus
hath bled and there is remission.”
This liberating experience is very relevant today. The
problem of mankind is not lack of knowledge, but lack of will and desire. The
Gospel produces new lives, changed hearts, new desires, new men and women, with
new outlook and new power. He brings freedom. And yet the people of the world
think the Christian is the one in bondage – having to keep rules they don’t
want to keep. In fact it is the world that is in bondage to fear and
condemnation.
Billy Bray, the converted Cornish tin-miner, “The Lord pardoned all my sins in November 1823. But what day of the month I don’t know. But I know this – that everything looked new to me – people, fields, cattle, trees. I was like a man in a new world.. the Lord set my feet on a rock and he established my goings.”
Paul argues that the Christian has new life
and nature by the transformation of the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:17,18).
This is one of the blessings of the New Covenant and it means liberty and deliverance.
But though this work is begun, it is not yet complete. Salvation is a gift and
also a growth; a person and also a process. The believer is day by day being
changed and transformed more and more into Christ’s likeness. From one degree
of glory to another.
Paul uses the word metamorfow
from which we get our English word metamorphosis. This word was used in
Matthew 17:2 and Mark 9:2 about Jesus being transfigured. Also used in Romans
12:2, “Being transformed by the renewing of your mind.” The Christian’s
daily experience is being more and more changed and transfigured into maturity
and adulthood. When the veil is taken away… we with unveiled faces all
reflect the Lord’s glory (2 Corinthians 3:16,18). Our vision of God is
initially very imperfect, but as we keep looking, we are transformed more and
more into the same image. All done by the Holy Spirit who started the work in
the first place. As we gaze at Christ, His image and his reflection will be
increasingly seen. Eyes fastened on Christ, we reflect Him.
“Turn
you eyes upon Jesus,
Look
full in his wonderful face.”
The Puritans used to say, “For every look at self, take
ten looks at Jesus.” Here is the secret of growth and progress along the
Christian path. We can all plead, “Please be patient with me. God hasn’t
finished with me yet.” His work is continuing daily, and the more we look at
His Son, so we progress from one degree of glory to another.
“Changed
from glory into glory,
Till
in heaven we take our place,
Till
we cast our crowns before him,
Lost
in wonder, love and praise.”
The Christian life is a transformed life. It begins with the Holy Spirit poured out in fullness under the new covenant, implanting new life. Then there is a continuing work till we get to heaven. What is my relationship to the Holy Spirit? He has given we new life, but am I open to Him doing His daily and continuing work within me?
