A Theological Breakthrough

Sunday, 19th April 2009

Yesterday, I discovered that my pastors were all away on retreat. As long as Ps Reuben is not preaching, it would mean that my wife and I would go to NewCre.

Last night, I checked NewCre's website and discovered that Ps Lian would be preaching.

And so, I told my wife that maybe I would take a break from attending church today.

Well, praise be to God that I listened to my dear wife to attend Paya Lebar Methodist this morning. Because the pastors were away, lay persons took over the pulpit. And the one who was preaching at the adult service was Mr Allan Fong, one of the full-time church workers who is in-charge of youth ministry.

His sermon was truly a breath of fresh air and was on the topic of RIGHTEOUSNESS! Entitled "I Have An Identity (Righteousness)", I have made it available for download here.

The powerpoint slides that Allan did to accompany his sermon can also be downloaded here.

This may not be a big deal for your folks from NewCre, but it is for us Methodists. It represents a theological breakthrough for us because this is the first time I have heard this topic being preached in a Methodist church in my 30 years here!!! Seriously.

Speaking of righteousness, I recall when I was an undergraduate at Nanyang Technological University. For the year-end examinations, my roommate and I (who were both in the NTU Christian Fellowship) would make our way to the Sports and Recreation Centre ("SRC"). Before walking into the exam hall, we would gather outside for a short time of prayer to commit our exams to the LORD. I recall us feeling slightly better and less panicky as a result.

Well, there was one particular occasion when a fellow sister happen to see us about to embark in prayer and decided to join us. She was a member of the NTUCF Executive Committee ("Exco"). After that particular round of prayer, my roommate and I felt very much better and had a heightened sense of peace. We thanked this sister of ours, and as she walked off, I remarked to my roommate, "Wow, Exco member's prayer is so different, hor?", to which he replied, "Ya lor. The prayer of a righteous woman availeth much."

And I believe that is how many Christians feel as well. We see passages like Js 5:16 and feel discouraged rather than encouraged because we do not qualify. That is why we rely on the priest, or the pastor, or the cluster leader, or the cell leader to pray for us. We have this impression that because these persons are in full-time ministry or are actively serving the Lord, they are closer to God and hence considered to be more holy and "righteous". Consequently, their prayers would be more effective than if we prayed to God ourselves.

But what exactly is righteousness, or right standing with God? Is the full-time minister more righteous than the average believer sitting in the pew?

The apostle Paul tells us in 2 Cor 5:21 that God made Jesus who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Meditate on this verse for a moment. How did Jesus become sin? Did He do bad things in order to be made sinful? Nope. He knew no sin and was sinless and hence could qualify to be our sin offering.

It was God who imputed our sin onto Him.

By the same token. How do we become righteous? By doing good works? By praying 8 hours or reading 10 chapters of the Bible each day? By serving God in this committee or that ministry? Nope. We become righteous because it is God who imputes His righteousness to us.

We are righteous not because of what we do or try to do, but because of what He has done.

Paul also tells us in Rom 5:17 that righteousness is a gift from God. A gift is something that is given; we cannot earn it by our own works and self-efforts.

And when we get the revelation that we are made righteous because of Christ, then those verses in the Bible referring to the righteous man and the blessings he is entitled to which used to discourage us because we felt disqualified now become sources of encouragement because we realise that we actually qualify for them. Hallelujah!

And so coming back to today's sermon. I was very encouraged by brother Allan's sharing and my wife and I took the effort to tell him so after the service. May our God continue to use him mightily to impart the truths of His Son onto the youth such as my daughter and son (yep, I've got vested interest there).

God has no favourites. As long as Jesus His Son is being exalted, unveiled and glorified, there is no reason why Paya Lebar Methodist cannot also be blessed with phenomenal growth. My intended sabbatical may be over sooner than I expected :-D