I have kept the faith

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing. Do your best to come to me soon. For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. Luke alone is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry. Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus. When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments. Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm; the Lord will repay him according to his deeds. Beware of him yourself, for he strongly opposed our message. At my first defense no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. May it not be charged against them! But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion's mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen. - 2 Timothy 4:1‭-‬18 ESV

Rev. Dan Whang

The Bible charges us to finish well. Not only that, but we are given promises to empower us. We are not Paul and we are not like him, but we can strive to be like him in spirit.

Remember what our finish line is

Jesus is coming back to judge the living and the dead. There is two judgements coming. One in the ultimate judgement given to those who do not have faith in Jesus. Another is for the believers who will have to give an account of how they lived their lives. Paul considers his life to be poured out as a sacrifice to God. Not to waste his time on things that have no impact.

When Jesus comes back, those who yearn for Him will be rewarded with a crown of righteousness. What does this mean? It means that we are to desire Jesus' return rather than anything of this world. We want Him more than whatever we have in this life.

What should we focus on?

Preach the word, in season or out. We are to share the word in word and deed. This is more than just reading and knowing the word. It is to make His word known. We can set aside hours for quiet time, study, and learning. But above that, we are to live out the word in our lives. We are to prepare to share the word with our friends and neighbors.

Stay away from becoming intoxicated by worldly desires. We need to focus on what God desires. Not to say that we need to avoid all worldly pleasure, but that we keep in mind God's mission for us.

Remember that Jesus stands by our side

Paul spoke about how some believers deserted him during his trials. Trial and desertion is normal. When you want to serve, you will often find that people will check out or not support you. Paul isn't just saying Jesus is trustworthy. Paul was strengthened by Jesus. He knows our needs and intimately understands temptation.

Living out the law by dying to the law

Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress. Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, "You shall not covet." But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. - Romans 7:1‭-‬12 ESV

Rev. Charles Han

The topic in our passage is the law or commandments of God. What is our relationship with God's law? We need to die to it in order to live it

Dead under the law

The law of God cannot save us. The Jews loved the commandments given through Moses. It was their life. The commandments of God are holy and just. If a man is sent to man to life in prison, is the law wrong? No, it is the man's sin, his breaking of the law that is the problem

The law exposes our sinfulness. Paul brings up the tenth commandment. Why? Because it is a sin that everyone commits. It shows how sinful we all are. Everyone covets. The law exposes us for who we are.

The law doesn't just reveal sin. It provokes us to sin more. When we are told not to do something, we are incited to do it. If we are told to do something, we wish to rebel even more. We find pleasure in the illicit, the illegal. It is our very nature to be defiant.

The law condemns our sin. It does not bring life to us but rather sentences us to death. The law gives nothing to the sinner but death.

Dead to the law, married to Christ

Those who are believers have died to the law. They have died through the body of Christ. How? We are in union to Christ. We find life and salvation through our union with Jesus. So we are free from self-reliant law-keeping. This is futile. Change is not true, not lasting. This change will be outward conformity. Trying to change based on our own willpower is unsustainable and insufficient.

It is only through reliance on Jesus that we can truly change. Change from the inside out. Not behavioral modification, but true lasting change.

Married to Christ, obeying the law

Our union with Christ is like marriage. But what kind of husband is he? We can figure this out by contrasting Jesus with the law.

We were married to Mr. Law.  He was a good man, in his way, but he did not understand our weakness.  He came home every evening and asked, “So, how was your day?  Did you do what I told you to?  Did you make the kids behave?  Did you waste any time?  Did you complete everything I put on your To Do list?”  So many demands and expectations.  And hard as we tried, we couldn’t be perfect.  We could never satisfy him.  We forgot things that were important to him.  We let the children misbehave.  We failed in other ways.  It was a miserable marriage, because Mr. Law always pointed out our failings.  And the worst of it was, he was always right!  But his remedy was always the same: Do better tomorrow.  We didn’t, because we couldn’t.

Then Mr. Law died.  And we remarried, this time to Mr. Grace.  Our new husband, Jesus, comes home every evening and the house is a mess, the children are being naughty, dinner is burning on the stove, and we have even had other men in the house during the day.  Still, he sweeps us into his arms and says, “I love you, I chose you, I died for you, I will never leave you nor forsake you.”  And our hearts melt.  We don’t understand such love.  We expect him to despise us and reject us and humiliate us, but he treats us so well.  We are so glad to belong to him now and forever, and we long to be “fully pleasing to him”!

Being married to Mr. Law never changed us.  But being married to Mr. Grace is changing us deep within, and it shows.

Being married to the law is difficult and feels like condemnation. Being married to Jesus is encouraging, merciful, loving, and forgiving. What is the dominant voice in our life? Is it Jesus or the law? We listen not to tablets of stone from ages part, but the Holy Spirit speaks to us through our new hearts of flesh.

You grow in obedience to God's law not by impersonally following a list of rules but by intimately following a Person (Jesus), not by law keeping but by Christ loving. Sanctification happens not by the law, but by marriage, by grace.

Application

When we read Ephesians 4:32 and we see the command to be kind and forgiving, how do we approach it? Do we push ourselves harder? Do we ignore it? No, we look at what Christ has done. We soak in the forgiveness of God that we have through Christ. We are humbled and our hearts are softened towards our enemies and those around us. As we read though the Bible, make sure we focus on the indicative that powers the imperatives. What we have though Christ indirectly powers our internal change so that we can obey the commands. Never can we obey the law of God to such an extent so that we will be acceptable before God...

Slaves of Righteousness

What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.- Romans 6:15‭-‬23 ESV

Rev. Dan Whang

True spiritual freedom is found in slavery to Christ.

The inevitability of slavery

Paul comes at sin from another angle. Should grace be the cause of giving into sin? The answer is the same, not at all! The argument here is that there is no neutral ground. We will either serve Jesus or sin, but not both. We cannot choose to have no master. We can be enslaved by money, pleasure, or other sinful desires. Or we can submit to Jesus and God. For those who have been set free, they can choose. But for those who have not been set free, they are still under the dominion of sin. They have no choice to submit to God.

The impact of slavery

Lawlessness leads to more lawlessness. Righteousness leads to sanctification. Sinful behavior will only lead to a greater degree and severity of sinful behavior. It always gets worse.
It hurts the people around us. It will damage the testimony of the church. It hurts our integrity. We say one thing and do another. If we continue to dabble in sin, it leads to tastes of death. Bitterness, disappointment, brokenness of life..

But what if we submit to ourselves to God? It gets better and better! We will be progressively better and better in both character and will. We become more and more like Jesus over time. It ends in eternal life. As we continue down this path, we will instead receive tastes of life. Joy in service, love for others, rejoicing in salvation.

The intentionality of slavery

We need to live as those who are free. Daily surrender to God. It covers things big and small. Suppose we have two job offers. One is comfortable, well-paying, but makes it harder to serve at church and surrounds you with ungodly behavior. The other doesn't pay as well. It is in tough area, but gives you time to serve the church and use your spiritual gifts. The choice is yours.

True understanding of the gospel will lead to a change in heart. We will want to please God with all our heart. The ten commandments were given, but Israel became more sinful rather than more like God in character. We submit to God because of what he has done, not because we just seek to obey.

So the sin is brought to Jesus rather than trying to make it up to God somehow. We lay it down at his feet daily. That is how we submit to Jesus. We are gripped by Jesus... and it drives us to kill sin and to pursue God rather than selfish desire & gain.

Dead to sin, Alive to God

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus 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. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.- Romans 6:1‭-‬14 ESV

Rev. Charles Han

Why believers in Christ must change

People were questioning how grace works. If grace covers all of our sin, then what incentive does one have to change? Can we not just keep living as normal without changing? Paul says no, it cannot be. Not only can believers change, but they must change.

Believers are united with Christ. The term Christian only comes up three times in the Bible. Paul's favorite way of referring to believers is those who are "in Christ". The union of marriage points to our intimate union with Christ. So when we get married, we join a new family. We share burdens and joy. It is not longer me, but now us.

So for the believer, we go with Christ through Easter. We are dead in sin. We are raised to life. And we are joined to the heavenly family of God. Jesus is the head and we are the body. Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. There is nothing a body can do without a head. There is nothing branches can do without a vine. So, this is how Christ works with those who are joined to Christ. A grafted branch cannot help but grow! Those who keep embracing sin likely are NOT joined to Christ.

Believers are dead to sin. We were dead in sin, but now we are dead to sin. This is in the past tense. What can this mean? We constantly feel the pull of temptation & the struggle to fight sin. Paul is speaking of the power of sin. We are no longer under the authority of sin. We are no longer in the death grip of sin. Jesus has died to sin, He is no longer subject to sin. Sin has been decapitated, but it is still struggling and fighting you. The body of sin at work in us still attacks us, but the head of sin is no more. The proof of salvation is the struggle for righteousness. To fight against sin in our lives at all is proof that sins authority is not over us. To be mournful over sin is what people alive in Christ do. Repentance is the proof that Christ is in us. If you are engaged in a holy struggle to give glory to God and are burdened by sin, then you are in Union with Christ.

How people change

Consider yourself dead to sin. That is how we change. When we sin, we are forgetting our true identity. We are already in Christ, so present ourselves to God as instruments for righteousness. We have already crossed from death to life, we do not need to go back to the vast chasm. We are legally no longer slaves to sin, but we still feel experincially the oppression of sin. We live under grace, not sin.

You feel your addictions own you. But is that true? No. If someone discovered you in your secret sin, you would stop. That is the fear of man. But believers have an even greater power at work, we have the Holy Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead. The victor if the way is sure, so let us battle in the light of our position.

Encounters with Jesus: Mary and the Gardener

Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him." So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb. Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples went back to their homes. But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. They said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him." Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?" Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away." Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned and said to him in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, "Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'"  Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord"—and that he had said these things to her. - John 20:1‭-‬18 ESV

Rev. Dwight Yoo

It's reliability (the resurrection)

All credible historians agree that a man Jesus lived and was crucified. But this is where the disagreement begins. Many believe that Jesus was dead and buried and that was it.

The Greeks believed in a resurrection of the spirit. The spirit left the body and that was it. There was no bodily resurrection.

Mary thought that the body was stolen. Grave robbery was commonplace. The disciples were confused about what happened. Until they met the resurrected Christ...

Women were the first to see the resurrected Christ. Consider this, women's testimony was inadmissible in court. No one would try to make up a credible story using women's testimony. How about grave robbers? Then what about the body wraps? They were left behind and not only that, but some was nearly wrapped. What robber leaves things neatly behind them?? It doesn't happen. The Jewish and Roman authorities wanted to put down this "cult" of Jesus followers. They would have left no stone unturned in trying to get the body. They would have paid good money for someone to produce the body. And nothing, no body.

It's result (the resurrection)

Mary was freed from demons by Jesus. She is so distraught that she does not recognize the angels or Jesus. She thinks this man is a gardener. So Jesus asks, "why are you crying"? What is the meaning of this? It is a gentle rebuke. Jesus has won.

Death had been defeated. Not only physical death, but spiritual death was defeated. Jesus has won for us the breaking of the spiritual death that is separation from God. He is victorious over hell. Mary was weeping as one without hope. But for those in Christ, there is hope, even in death. We weep at the separation, but we know this is temporary. We will meet again.

The disciples were hopeless. They had just watched Jesus die upon the cross. It all appeared meaningless. But there is a God and there was a reason for this pain. The suffering is not without meaning. In heaven, we will find more fulfillment and satisfaction in Jesus. The suffering and loss will make heaven the more sweeter. The suffering in this life will add to your joy rather than subtracting.

The right response

Jesus asks who Mary is looking for. She was looking for a kind caring teacher. Jesus is God. He is not simply a good moral teacher. He wants us to give Him control over our lives. He deserves to be Lord over our lives. But he is trustworthy and He did it first. He submitted to God, even to the cross, for us, his enemies. We can submit without concern. He had led by example.

So what is the right response? Jesus calls Mary to share with the rest of the disciples. So it is with us, we are called to proclaim. Tell others that Jesus has risen. Mary thought Jesus was the gardener and in a way she was right. Jesus is the cosmic gardener. He is clearing the thorns and thistles. He is planting seeds that will sprout and bring forth vibrant life and beauty. The entire world is His garden and it will be restored to it's former glory.