The Bethany Bullet Sermon Message - Week of March 17, 2019

Sermon: “Jesus Doesn’t Give Out Clean Slates”

Text: Romans 1:16-17

St. Paul begins his letter to the Romans with the bold proclamation that the Gospel is not a second chance opportunity but the very gift of salvation itself. 

We all can recall a time when we saw names (ours or classmates) on a chalk or white board in school filled with tally marks behind them.  These were not, usually, to note noble actions but rather to count "naughty" transgressions.  Our tally marks in eternity would be plenty!  Yet, Jesus comes and turns each mark into a cross +.

Our transgressions become His own; "Father count these against me!" is essentially what our Lord says. 

This is the Good News!

We’ve become recipients of such Good News, our response (Paul says elsewhere in the letter to the Romans) is not to see how many tally marks we can amass, "Shall we let sin increase so that grave can increase - never!"  Rather, in response to a "clean slate" the apostle will unashamedly share the Good News, unselfishly seek to live a life of service to God and others, and unabashedly forgive as he's been forgiven.

 -Pr. Kevin Kritzer