Tear Down the Spite House: Baptism, Forgiveness, Grace

There at the font and the water and the word, God doesn't give you advice. He gave you a death. A death to your old self, to your bitterness, to your resentment, to your spite was drowned, not symbolically, but actually. Saint Paul writes earlier in Romans chapter six, do you not know that you have been baptized into Christ Jesus, were baptized into his death, that you were buried with Christ in order that you might be raised with him? And later in Romans eight, as we heard earlier as well, that this spirit who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you. [00:38:42] (39 seconds)  #BaptizedIntoNewLife

We carry the guilt on our back, and we do that because we think, if I can just punish myself enough, I can make this right, despite house I built of my own doing in which I dwell. But listen to what Paul says in the epistle to the Romans chapter eight verse one. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. No condemnation. Not less condemnation, not delayed condemnation. No. Paul's Paul's clear. None. None. Because Jesus carried it all. [00:37:03] (57 seconds)  #NoCondemnation

He sets a table too, and that table isn't 18 inches wide. No. It's a table big enough for sinners. It's a table wide enough for enemies. It's a table where forgiveness is not only spoken but given. Here in the Lord's Supper, Jesus doesn't say try harder. He says, take and eat. This is my body given for you. Take and drink. This is my blood shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. The very people who have built spite houses are invited to the feast. [00:41:06] (36 seconds)  #TableOfGrace

The chief priests and scribes, they plot and plan his death. The pharisees scheme. The Sanhedrin bring false witnesses to the trial. Pontius Pilate knows Jesus is innocent, but still condemns him to death. Roman soldiers whip him, divide his clothes amongst them, mock him, spit on him, nail him to the cross. It wasn't just them. It was you and me too. Our pride, our sin, our rebellion, we help drive the nails. [00:34:59] (37 seconds)  #OurSinDroveTheNails

Not because forgiveness is easy, it isn't. It's hard. Not because it's quick, it seldom is, but because the spirit, the same spirit who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, you're not doing this alone. It's not about your strength. It's about his strength. And he is stronger than your bitterness. He leads you out of the cramped narrow hallways of spite into the wide open house of grace. And friends, as someone who has visited both places, I can promise you this. The house of grace has much more room to live in and to live life to the full. [00:44:12] (58 seconds)  #GraceOverBitterness

The verdict has already been spoken, and the verdict is not guilty. And that verdict had an incredible cross, an incredible cost, an incredible price that Jesus was willing to pay, carrying the condemnation that you and I deserve upon himself. And that same spirit who raised Jesus from the dead is now that spirit who lives inside of you, and that spirit that lives inside of you doesn't build houses of bitterness or spite. That spirit brings life. So where does this happen? Where does this become yours? Well, it becomes yours in your baptism. [00:38:00] (42 seconds)  #CrossPaidItAll

So that that spirit who raised Lazarus from the dead, the spirit who raises Jesus from the dead is the same spirit who now lives in you, given to you in your baptism, sustained in you through his supper, which means that the spite house doesn't get the final word. Death does not get the final word. Resentment doesn't get the final word. Jesus does. So the challenge is this, tear it down. Tear it down. Today might be that day, the day that the spite house starts to come down, brick by brick, grudge by grudge. [00:43:19] (53 seconds)  #TearDownSpiteHouse

We come forward with resentment, but God instead changes that resentment and invites us to leave with forgiveness. We come forward cramped and narrowed trying to survive, and we're left with room to breathe because it's not our burden to carry. It is Christ. Because at his table, Jesus is not just tearing down the spite house. He's building something new, A house of grace. And in that house of grace, there is room, more than enough room for you, dear friends. [00:41:42] (36 seconds)  #FeastOfForgiveness

And God says to Eliphaz, he says, go to my servant Job and offer a burnt offering for yourselves, then my servant Job will pray for you. I will surely accept his prayer and not deal with you as your folly deserves, for you have not spoken the truth about me as my servant Job has. Isn't that amazing? He tells these friends, my servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer. And Job does, and God does too as well. [00:33:49] (40 seconds)  #MercyThroughIntercession

He lives in you. That means that spite house you keep trying to rebuild, god's already demolished. Every time you remember your baptism, you're not remembering something distant. You're remembering a present reality that still affects your life, A present reality that says, I'm not that person anymore. I belong to Christ. I am forgiven. Now now know this, the devil is there too, and he's there with the blueprints because he'd like you to get back to building that house again. [00:39:21] (36 seconds)  #BaptismBreaksSpite

and wanting to get that pound of flesh, wanting to get paybacks, knowing that the that that that that spite really doesn't solve anything. It just breaks us down. But the problem is we don't just have spite for other people. We have spite for ourselves. We turn inward and we resent ourselves, and we build a spite house for ourselves. We replay our failures on an endless loop. We accuse ourselves. How could you do this? Why did you do this? You knew better. [00:36:21] (42 seconds)  #ForgiveYourself

Job prays for the very men who wounded him. He intercedes for the ones who blamed him. And instead of building a house of spite, he builds an altar, and he prays for God's mercy for his friends. But Job is only pointing us to someone greater, isn't he? Because if there was anyone in history who had the reason to build the biggest spite house of all, it was Jesus. And look at the list. Judas betrays him with a kiss. [00:34:29] (30 seconds)  #PrayingForYourEnemies

And when we get to the end of the book of Job, God starts talking. He asked Job some 70 questions, and then Job responds as Caroline read for us here with a with a repentance towards god and a recognition he's he really still doesn't know why these things are happening to him, but he's going to trust God in the midst of it. And then God speaks again. This time not to Job, this time to his friends who had caused him so much agony. [00:33:13] (36 seconds)  #GodDefendsTheInnocent

And again and again, they circle back to the same conclusion, Job must deserve this. And if Job were like most of us, the construction of that spite house would begin immediately. We'd pour its foundation with the anger that we feel is righteous. We would put up the walls of resentment and make sure nothing and no one gets through. We top it off with a roof that is planning sweet revenge. But then we see what Job does. [00:32:36] (37 seconds)  #ResistTheSpiteBuild

And if anyone has the right to cry out for revenge, it is Jesus. But instead, what comes to his lips as he hangs on the cross was the words, father, forgive them. Not curse them, not destroy them, forgive them. Jesus refuses to live in the spite house. Instead, he chooses to tear it down with forgiveness. And this, friends, is where the gospel becomes even deeper for us because it is one thing for us to have spite for someone else because of what they have done to us, [00:35:36] (45 seconds)  #ForgiveLikeJesus

And I promise you, there's a place for you there too. In your baptism, it was confirmed of that invite. At his table, he brings you back home, and in his forgiveness, he invites you to dwell forever. [00:45:10] (19 seconds)  #WelcomeHomeInChrist

But the problem is we don't just have spite for other people. We have spite for ourselves. We turn inward and we resent ourselves, and we build a spite house for ourselves. We replay our failures on an endless loop. We accuse ourselves. How could you do this? Why did you do this? You knew better. We carry the guilt on our back, and we do that because we think, if I can just punish myself enough, I can make this right, the spite house I built of my own doing in which I dwell. But listen to what Paul says in the epistle to the Romans chapter eight verse one. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. No condemnation. Not less condemnation, not delayed condemnation. No. Paul's Paul's clear. None. None. Because Jesus carried it all. The verdict has already been spoken, and the verdict is not guilty. And that verdict had an incredible cross, an incredible cost, an incredible price that Jesus was willing to pay, carrying the condemnation that you and I deserve upon himself. [00:36:29] (107 seconds)

later in Romans eight, as we heard earlier as well, that this spirit who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you. He lives in you. That means that spite house you keep trying to rebuild, God's already demolished. Every time you remember your baptism, you're not remembering something distant. You're remembering a present reality that still affects your life, A present reality that says, I'm not that person anymore. I belong to Christ. I am forgiven. [00:39:12] (35 seconds)