{"id":8114,"date":"2022-07-05T09:10:29","date_gmt":"2022-07-05T16:10:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=8114"},"modified":"2022-07-05T09:10:34","modified_gmt":"2022-07-05T16:10:34","slug":"the-best-deal-there-ever-was","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=8114","title":{"rendered":"
The best deal there ever was<\/div>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Click here for a pdf version.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2 Cor 5:21<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A sermon for the Fifth Sunday after Pentecost<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2 Cor 5:21 is a key verse: \u201cFor our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We use this verse over and over again. It\u2019s a key verse in the whole of 2 Corinthians. It was one of Luther\u2019s favorites. It is the best business deal ever. God took our sin; we take his holiness. He took our death; he gives us life forever with him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why this verse? This isn\u2019t the only place that says something like this. Romans 8:3 says that he was made \u201cin the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin.\u201d This is not some sudden twist of thought. It\u2019s basic. It has something basic to say to us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We should study and memorize this verse. The problem is that after we do that, the conversation would turn to: \u201cWhat do you think the weather is going to be like tomorrow?\u201d \u201cDid you see what happened to the price of gas?\u201d We get sidetracked by something else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The way this goes is someone says: \u201cPastor, your hobby is to look at such verses, but my hobby is to support the causes that I want to champion. There are many organizations who do good things. If that\u2019s what you like, fine. What else is new?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s useful to take this verse and ask: What does it mean? \u201cFor our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are three necessary consequences from this verse that show why it\u2019s a key verse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, it says: \u201cIn him.\u201d Not in someone else or somewhere else. It is speaking against other religions. \u201cIn him\u201d we become the righteousness of God. There are other verses like this, but we don\u2019t remember them. People know John 3:16: \u201cGod so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him<\/strong> should not perish but have eternal life.\u201d Again, we sort of pass over \u201cin him.\u201d The same is true in John 14:6: \u201cI am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What happens in the common way of thinking? One famous Catholic thinker in the last century, Karl Rahner, said: \u201cThe truth is in Jesus Christ.\u201d But then he added that there are \u201canonymous\u201d Christians, which is to say that they would be Christians if they knew enough, but they don\u2019t have it figured out in the words we use. Therefore there are Christians and \u201canonymous\u201d Christians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shortly after Rahner said this, a leader from the Buddhist religion remarked: \u201cHa! Then everyone is an \u2018anonymous\u2019 Buddhist. After all, if you really got into it, you would realize that the only thing possible is to be a Buddhist.\u201d This is one of the ways that trouble sneaks in. (There are about a half billion Buddhists today.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remember it says: \u201cIn him\u201d is the righteousness. The other way to go astray that is even sneakier is that we reduce this all to an idea. We say: \u201cWell, yes, there\u2019s truth. Or there\u2019s love. Or there\u2019s Jesus Christ. And there\u2019s the idea about him. And the truth about him.\u201d It\u2019s not about him; it\u2019s that he does it. When we see it that way, it\u2019s not an abstraction. He does it. He is the one in whom is the righteousness of God. That\u2019s the first of the necessary consequences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second of the necessary consequences is that it is \u201cin him\u201d and not in the canon (that is, the Bible or the Book), not in the creed, the clergy, or in the church, but in the cross. Note these all begin with the letter \u201cc.\u201d We can work this out with the letter \u201cc.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But we do have the distraction of saying: \u201cIt\u2019s this verse.\u201d Why do you elevate this verse? Why not another verse? We can play the game of Bible verses. It\u2019s not just that there is John 3:16 or 2 Cor 5:21. Why this verse? Is it some kind of canon within the canon? Don\u2019t you have to take all of the Bible? Which, of course, nobody does, and nobody is able to do, but that is what people say in order to avoid this central point. It isn\u2019t a truth or an abstraction, but rather Jesus Christ is the Truth. Truth is a person. He is the middle, the canon for all of Scripture. And the second of these distractions is that it is not the creed. We use the Apostles\u2019 Creed and the Nicene Creed, and we could look at the earliest and shortest of all the creeds. We find it in 1 Cor 12:3: \u201cJesus is Lord.\u201d We could say that verse is it. But it so easily becomes again an abstraction. What the Bible is really saying is not Jesus is Lord but he \u201clords\u201d it. He does it. He is the One who \u201dlords\u201d it over all of creation and all of salvation. It\u2019s the doing of it. Not some idea that is at stake. When the Word is proclaimed, it<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Cor 5:21<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A sermon for the Fifth Sunday after Pentecost<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

2 Cor 5:21 is a key verse: \u201cFor our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

We use this verse over and over again. It\u2019s a key verse in the whole of 2 Corinthians. It was one of Luther\u2019s favorites. It is the best business deal ever. God took our sin; we take his holiness. He took our death; he gives us life forever with him.<\/p>\n


\nSelect here<\/a> to read more or here <\/a>for a pdf document.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8114"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8120,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8114\/revisions\/8120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}