CHRIST CHURCH NYC Sermon (From 18th of May 2008)John 3:1-21
Here is the Second Conclusion -- a New Birth ceases to trivialize the deep reality of sin that is at the core of every human heart.
Comedian Dennis Miller was asked if he was 'Born again'. He said:
No, I'm not. Excuse me for getting it right the first time.The Bible said that no one gets it right the first time. Everyone born is part of the problem. We all know pain. We have experienced pain. We have inflicted pain. It always hurts.
See, we tend to think of sin at best as a flu that needs a little treatment. Or at worst, that sin is a cancer presently eating away at the body.
But Sin is like a cancer having already claimed a life. Even as we live, we are already 'dead in our sins', the Bible says. And the only way out of it is a whole new birth: a Resurrection with Jesus.
Sin, therefore, is treated with the seriousness that it 'deserves'.
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Pic by Word Freak. Only a few St Ives people will 'get' why I chose a bent fork as the pic! :)
2 comments:
spoon boy says: "Do not try and bend the spoon (or fork). That's impossible. Instead only try to realize the truth."
Neo: What truth?
Spoon boy: There is no spoon (or fork).
Neo: There is no spoon (or fork)?
Spoon boy: Then you'll see that it is not the spoon (or fork) that bends, it is only yourself.
Isn't the whole "dead in sins" thing a bit ... macabre/dark?
I mean birth doesn't take place because the pre-born one was dead, does it? I mean must the relatively positive "born again" be thought of as necessary because of sins/death? Does one get that impression from the conversation under discussion--the one between Nic and Jesus? Or is that an extrapolation?
Brilliant. Sin is not the flu or Cancer. It has already claimed a life.
Oh my. Great insight. Powerful stuff.
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