"Live a Shining Life"
Romans 5:8
But God has shown us how much he loves us - it was while we were still sinners that Christ died for us!
Several days ago, I watched a special program about juvenile delinquency on TV.
Adult men hunting, bike hunting, violence to strangers in a day, school girl prostitution and so on.
They have no sense of sin. They enjoy those things as game. When a policeman ask one of them why he did it, he said "I have no other thing to do".
When I saw them, tears came into my eyes.
I think they cannot find out any object and hope of their lives. And they cannot find out the worth of themselves.
What messages did their parents, teachers and the world around them send to them? What did they teach them and what didn't they teach them?
And then, what messages should we send to our children?
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Many people live without self confidence to their way to live.
They live with vague anxiety. "Where do I came from and where will I go to?"
How should we show our children the meaning or the worth of their lives.
Recently I am reading the letters of Paul, especially Romans.
I am learning a lot about the relation of salvation by faith and act.
A certain non-Christian says if we do good things we can go close to God.
And a certain Christian says no more act is not required to those who were saved by faith.
But the scripture says both opinions are not right.
The letter to Romans is summarized as follows.
God rewards us according to our acts.
He gives eternal life to those who does good things patiently.
And he shows his anger to those who follows what is wrong.
Jews believe that when we rely on the Law and obey it, we will be put right. And they teaches so to others.
But as scripture says : there is no one who is righteous,
Everyone has sinned and is far away from God's saving presence.
No one is put right in God's sight by doing what the Law requires. The Law makes us know that we have sinned.
But God's way of putting people right with himself has been revealed.
God puts people right through their faith in Jesus Christ.
Everyone has sinned and is far away from God's saving presence. But by the free gift of God's grace, all are put right with him through Christ Jesus, who sets them free.
God offered him, so that by his blood he should became the means by which people's sins are forgiven through their faith in him. God did this in order to demonstrate that he is righteous.
When we were baptized into union with Christ Jesus, we were buried with him and shared his death,in order that, just as Christ was raised from death by the glorious power of the Father, so also we might live a new life.
Our old being has been put to death with Christ on his cross, and our bodies ruled by sins were dead. Now we are living in fellowship with God through Jesus Christ.
We must not surrender our bodies to sin to be used for wicked purposes.
Instead, give ourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to live, and surrender our whole being to him to be used for righteous purposes.
Offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God.
Let God transform you inwardly by a complete change of your mind. Then you will be able to know the will of God - what is good and is pleasing to him and is perfect.
This is the summary of the letter to Romans.
When I read this letter, I thought that these words include the problems where we came from, where we will go to and what is the object and the worth of our lives.
We were created by God according to his plan. We weren't born accidentally.
In Genesis, when God created this world, he was pleased with what he saw. I'm sure that we also were created as good in his sight.
But contrary we tend to turn our back to him and live with sinning.
We often cut the relation between God and us.
I'm sure that the sins make us blind to his creation of us, its object, and the worth and the meaning of our being.
Today's scripture says when we were still helpless and while we were still sinners, Jesus Christ died for us. God has shown us how much he loves us.
If we are weak, sinners, those who can do nothing or those who can find out no worth of ourselves, God loves us.
When we don't know the meaning or the object of our lives, God loves us.
The death of Jesus on the cross is the vicarious death for us.
He fell tears and blood for us. He loaded our sins.
We should know how much God loves us.
"The object of life".
From when I began to go to church, I heard that those who doesn't believe in God doesn't know the object of life.
But I wasn't taught what is the object of life though it is the most important.
I felt I got the run-around.
When I read the Paul's letter, I noticed that it is the object of life to live with responding to love of God who loves with everlasting love.
The concrete object of life might be different for everyone.
But it is summarized into the word " Offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God."
I considered that the word tells us to put ourselves in the spiritual world away from this world.
But when I read the Paul's letter, I noticed that is not right.
Paul says "while God's Spirit is staying in you, you are not under rule of human nature but under that of spirit.
We usually think spirit as mysterious.
Though Paul says to follow Holy spirit and live a new life, He don't say about some mysterious thing away from this world.
Holy life that he says is the same.
As God and Jesus loves us, because we are given the love, we should respond to him and love each other.
It is the spiritual life or the holy life, isn't it?
And it is the God's wish and the God's will, isn't it?
I think it is to live a shining life.
God created us, saved us, make us live, and is going to use us to build the kingdom of God, that is the kingdom of love.
Let's think about the meaning that we ourselves were saved to new life.
And let's talk to our neighbor who loses himself or cannot find out the meaning of his life that God loves him, never leave him and you are given the shining life.
I'm sure that Church is standing in this world in order to tell that.
October, 26, 1997
Tsuyoshi Watatani