Easter 5 May
14, 2006
“In the Family Forever”
Galatians 3:26-29
26
You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, 27 for all of you who
were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor
free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are
Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Today is Mother’s Day, the
day when we remember our mothers and grandmothers and thank them for all they
have done for us over the years. Have
you ever realized that Mother’s Day is a very personal holiday? You celebrate that day with, at the most,
only four people on the planet, if you include grandmothers and in-laws. You bought a Mother’s Day card for your
mother, but you didn’t buy a Mother’s Day card for my mother. I am going to call my mother this afternoon and
tell her lots of nice things, but I’m not going to call your mother this
afternoon. Mother’s Day is a personal,
family day.
On this day, Mother’s Day, a
day that is an important family day, let’s take a few minutes to break away
from celebrating our earthly family and instead celebrate God’s family. Being in God’s family means we have a close
and intensely personal relationship with him.
Galatians 3:26-29 tells us how we became a part of God’s family. Listen to those verses now.
How did you get into God’s
family? You are all sons of God through
faith in Christ Jesus. You are
in God’s family because you have faith in Christ Jesus. For many of us, that faith was created on the
day we were baptized into the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy
Spirit. Baptism is the day God adopts
you into his holy family. Baptism is the
day God washes your sins completely away.
Baptism is the day God reaches out to you and trumpets, “You are
mine! And nobody else’s.” God did that three times this morning. He said, “Isabel Baldazo,
you are mine! Marissa Buege, you are mine!
Erin Smith, you are mine! You are
all in my family now.” There is no doubt
about it. We are all just a few minutes
removed from having witnessed three miracles.
So why should God want you in
his family? You know that you were born
with this wretched and selfish sinfulness and it has shown itself in many areas
of your life. Think of all the ways you
have misused your tongue. We use our
tongues to tear people down, and not build them up carefully and gently. We use our tongues to jump to terrible,
worst-case scenarios before knowing all the facts. It is so easy to use our tongue for evil
purposes and so hard to keep it tame.
When you are honest, you and I can each admit that if all things were
fair, you should be the very last person to be a part of God’s family.
And that is why being in
God’s family is based on faith and not works.
You don’t examine your life and say, “Yep, that right there is why I am
in God’s family. I have managed to keep
my tongue in check at all times.” We are
not in God’s family because of our works.
We are in God’s family because of our faith. You and I have faith that Jesus has wiped out
our wretched sins by his death on the cross.
You and I have faith that Jesus has risen from the grave and that means
we will rise from the grave too. As we
examine the evidence, we are not examining our lives; rather, we are examining
his life. We are leaning on Jesus as our
Savior; we are leaning on his perfect life as a substitute for our sinful life
and that means we have faith in him. And
because you have faith, you are in God’s family.
Being baptized and being in
God’s family carries with it some awesome blessings.
The first blessing is that in
Baptism, God gives us new, spiritual clothes to wear. You might say that by giving us these new spiritual
clothes, he gives us the family uniform.
Now, I know that none of our families walk around wearing a family
uniform, so the idea of everyone in the family wearing the same clothes may
seem a little strange at first. What
teenager wants to wear grandma clothes?
What grandma wants to wear teenage clothes? But please bear with me. Here’s an illustration that might help to
explain what I mean by a family uniform for all to wear.
This summer, my family and I
are driving to the north to have a Buege family
reunion. One idea we are throwing around
is getting T-shirts for the week. You’ve
seen T-shirts like that, haven’t you?
They are homemade and they usually say something like, “Jones family
reunion:
When we were baptized, God
gave us his very own, personal family uniform to wear. The uniform is described this way: “All
of you who have been baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” The family uniform God has given us
to wear is the clothes of Christ. It’s
really another way to describe the clothes of complete forgiveness. In baptism, God takes away our grimy, sinful
clothes and instead clothes us with Christ’s perfect life. And since we now have the bright, white,
perfect Christ as our family uniform covering us, God no longer sees our
sins. Instead he sees Christ.
Think of what that
means. Even though we have abused
alcohol at times in our life, God doesn’t see our sinful, grimy clothes of abuse. He sees our family uniform – Christ clothes -
and sees Jesus never abusing anything. Christ’s perfect life becomes our perfect life. Even though we have lost tempers and used our
tongues to tear others down, God doesn’t see our sinful, grimy clothes of
unleashing our tongues. He sees our
family uniform – and sees Jesus always in control of himself, using his tongue only
to lovingly build others up. Christ’s
perfect life becomes our perfect life. All
of us who have been baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ.
The family uniform reminds us
who we belong to. It reminds us who we
are in Christ. When we feel guilty over
sins, God reminds us we are in his family and that he has given us the family
uniform of forgiveness. It’s no wonder
Martin Luther said that baptism is so full of comfort that heaven and earth
cannot even comprehend it.
2.
In Baptism, God includes us in the family inheritance.
Having the family uniform is
not just a blessing we enjoy for this life.
We will wear the family uniform forever!
Look at verse 29. 29 If
you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the
promise.
God tells us we are heirs to
his fortune. We will inherit all that
God is and all that God has. We will
live with him in eternal life. Many
people wander through life, speculating and hoping they are going to heaven but
not being very certain of it. Some
assume, “Heaven is not for me, there is no chance I will get in.” But in Baptism, God erases any
confusion. God takes away all
doubt. He says, “You are an heir
according to my promise.” Whoever
believes and is baptized WILL be saved!
There is no confusion. There is
no speculation. Only guarantees from
God.
Let’s close today with one
final illustration to you to show the deep and personal love God is giving you
in Baptism. This past week, many people
asked me, “How’s the baby doing?” And
most of the time I said, “Oh, she is doing great. All I want to do is go home and hold her.” I bet Kevin and Mark would say the exact same
thing when people asked them how their babies were doing. All we wanted to do was go home and hold our
little children – older ones too - because we love them, we long to be with
them and we can’t stop thinking about them.
In baptism, God tells you,
“All I want to do is hold you. All I
want to do is give you a generous inheritance.
All I want is for you to be in my family forever.” Don’t ever underestimate the comfort and joy
we have in baptism. That is the day God
adopted us into his very own family. And
the blessings God gives us in baptism are far, far better than anything any of
us could dream of giving to our kids. So
enjoy wearing the family uniform. And
enjoy the inheritance that is waiting for you.
You have been baptized and you are in the family forever. Amen.
Have you been baptized? Then all of these things are yours. You are clothed with Christ. You are an heir to everything God has. You are the apple of his eye and in his
family forever. Amen.