Transformation: What Blocks Up from Maturing in Christ? Romans 6: 1-2, 23

Sin. Not a popular topic to talk about today. Yet, we have to talk about it as a church because when we have sin in our lives, it can hinder our relationship with God and it acts as a road block to our transformation to maturity in Christ. 

We are now in the second week of our sermon series about what it looks like to be on the journey towards transformation in Christ. Last week we discussed how we need to set aside our own values and priorities in our hearts in order to embrace the radical love of Christ. This week we are going to focus on confessing the sin that can so easily trip us up.

Salvation is a hot topic in the church - how do you get saved. When were you saved. Do you need say certain things. Can you only be saved once. Has God chosen some people to be saved and others to perished. The list goes on and on.

Salvation is also confusing because we cannot address it apart from sin. God created humans to be in relationship with Him and with each other, but we screwed that up. Royally. We have strayed from the love of God in so many ways - and every possible way that we can sin is equally in the eyes of God; there are not some sins that are “worse” then others. Sin also always has consequences, both in the present and the eternal. And yet, we are also hesistant to admit or confess our sins, because we don’t want to acknowledge that we have screwed up. 

Thankfully, the story doesn’t end there. Enter Jesus. Who seeks to reconcile the lost world to God through his sacrafice on the cross and resurrection. Salvation is accepting this gift, this sacrafice, for one’s self. However, believing is not enough, for salvation should transform us into new people serving God in new way in community. 

We need to be communities of faith that remind us that our human story involves creation, sin, grace, and the law. To be reminded that we cannot save ourselves, no matter how hard we try.  In “Our Doctrinal Heritage” for United Methodist it states, “as sinful creatures we have broken covenant, become estranged from God, wounded ourselves and one another, and wreaked havoc throughout the natural order. We stand in need of redemption.” We need community to remind us that genuine salvation comes from God and that we have a responsibility to respond to that salvation. For John Wesley believed that humanity had a responsibility in being made in the image of God and a responsibility in responding to God’s grace. 

At its core that is what salvation is, responding to God’s grace. We cannot earn salvation. In fact, salvation belongs to God. It is by God’s power and grace alone that we can be redeemed. Christians believe that before we knew God that God has gone before us to prepare a path to the Divine. However, as the apostle Paul reminds us in this morning scripture lesson just because we have been given grace, and grace in abundance, it does not mean that we are free to continue sinning. Instead, we should repent and want to change our ways, by the help of God. 

This grace stirs in us the desire to repent, which in traditional evangelical doctrines means turning around or going a new direction. It should be noted that “because prevenient grace from God moves us to repent, this repentance is not our good works, but God’s gracious activity in us.” Repentance involves the realization that we cannot save ourselves as we experience sorrow for our sin. As a result of this realization repentance leads us to seek God’s help and restoration

Wesley preached a two-fold legal and evangelical repentance. Legal repentance was a conviction for sin, but evangelical repentance was a change of heart that led to a life of holiness. He believed that change in mind and behavior were inextricably linked, thus a change of heart and mind would be most noticeable by changed behaviors and actions. This change of heart and mind came from an “awakening of the sinner to one’s need for God, one’s own guilt, and one’s inability to solve it on one’s own.” 

United Methodists do not believe that repentance is a one-time event. Rather, repentance is ongoing as we become more self-aware and seek to grow in holiness of heart and life. One of my favorite quotes from John Wesley comes after his life transforming experience with God when someone asks him if he is saved. His response: “I am being saved”. Salvation, like repentance, is not a one time event, but rather a process where we grow more in love with God. The journey to salvation starts with repentance, and as God convicts us of our sins, we turn in the other direction, moving closer to the heart of God. 

The problem is that all too often, we don’t take time to recognize and confess the sin that is still present in our lives. The struggle with sin is real, friends. Sin often begins deep inside us with things like pride, greed, and lust that express themselves as outward actions. Sin is both inward and outward. And any sin, no matter how small we may qualify it to be, hurts our relationship with God and our relationship with other people. Sometimes we may try to cover up or justify our sin by saying that its not hurting anyone, but that simply isn’t true. 

Brothers and sisters, we need to ask God’s help to keep us from sinning. In the beginning of the 12th chapter of Hebrews there is a beautiful passage about being surrounded by a great cloud of witness, the Saints, cheering us on to run the race with endurance, but we often forget what comes next, “lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us. We don’t realize how easily we slip into sin. How many times we turn from being God centered to self-centered. How many times we fall short and miss the mark. How many times in the words of James, we know the good we ought to do and don’t. Sin has many forms - sometimes in the actions we commit, and sometimes in the things we fail to do that we know we should. 

Whatever the sin we are struggling with in our lives today, we know that God has given us victory over that sin. Yet, all too often we fail to even turn to God for help and confess the sin in our lives. And when we have unconfessed sin, we have thrown up road blocks to maturing in Christ. The truth is we cannot remain in sin and still be transformed to be alive in Christ - Christ has paid much to high a price for us to remain where we are today. We need to be able to identify and confess the sin in our lives. Does God know that there will be times that we sin? Yes. But God also wants so much more for us - a life free from the entanglements of sin, and freedom from continuing to dwell in the midst of sin. We need to be able to say with confidence, that yes, we are sinners, but by the grace of God we have been saved and we are moving on to being transformed into the image and heart of our savior. Thanks be to God. Amen.