Burning List

So where does that leave you and me? We want so desperately to do it our ownself; as my daughters would put it. Yet, Isaiah teaches that whatever we do, it won’t earn salvation because to God our deeds are like “a polluted garment.” Frankly, I like the way the NIV puts it…our righteous acts are like “filthy rags.” [My dad worked as a mechanic and I can still remember my mom scrubbing his clothes in a futile attempt to get them clean. ]

Let’s see if the epistle writer offers us any hope at all. We left off with verse 2 of Hebrews 12, but let me back up a little and pick up a few words in verse 1. “Let us run the race that is set before us;” now, verse 2: “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Do you see the solution to the do it my ownself dilemma? The solution isn’t you, it’s Jesus. He is the founder of your faith, you’re not. So, where did this founding happen? At your Baptism. Most likely, you won’t remember your Baptism very well. For most of you, this event took place when you were a baby. King David writes in the 51st Psalm, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” In other words, the sin Adam and Eve committed in the Garden of Eden still haunts us. We’re born with it, remember? On the day of your Baptism you were brought to the Baptismal font and the pastor recited your name and poured water over your head while pronouncing the words, “I Baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.”

A miracle happened in those words…you drowned and were brought to life again. In his letter to the church in Rome, in the sixth chapter, Paul says, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ [that’s you and me] were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”

With the application of water, accompanied by God’s word, He accomplished everything you couldn’t for your ownself. Now, God looks at you and doesn’t see your sin…He sees His Son. The race you and I run each day isn’t an easy one…that is, it isn’t easy when we rely on self for salvation. This race of endurance we run has already been won for us…and in spite of us…by Jesus, “the founder and perfecter of our faith.”

Lord, we ask You to send Your Holy Spirit to keep our eyes focused upon Jesus. Amen.