The Journey: Before We Start

In college, some students came up with a fundraising concept: the “suitcase party.” The idea was that everyone paid a cover charge to get into the party, and once you were there, they gave out some prizes, the biggest of which was a fantastic trip. The only rub was that you had to come to the party with a packed suitcase, ready to leave immediately if you won.

Preparation for a journey is sometimes harder than the trip itself. What do you bring? What do you leave at home? But before you can pack, you have to know where you’re going and where you’re coming from.

Today we are starting a new series on United Methodist Theology. We will be looking at the Way of Salvation, and we’re calling this series: The Journey.

To know where we’re coming from, we have to look back to the beginning. In Genesis 1, we read: Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness.” (Genesis 1:26a) So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:27). God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. (Genesis 1:31a)

Unfortunately things didn’t stay this way. Adam and Eve sinned, and they were banished from the Garden of Eden and their sin separated them from God, and, as Paul put it in 1 Corinthians 15:22, in Adam all die. In other words, sin entered the world through Adam, and it tainted everyone. The result of sin is that the image of God in humanity was ruined. The theological term for this state is “total depravity.” Because of our total depravity, we are not inclined or even able to love God.  In Romans 3:10-11, Paul writes: As it is written: There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”

In other words, we are in bondage and we don’t recognize the chains that bind us. We’re sitting in our own filth, not even recognizing that it is filthy. We are in darkness, and we don’t even know what light is.

We have to realize that this is our starting place before we can even begin our journey. Why does this matter? It matters because the state we are in will not allow us to leave. However you want to describe it, on our own, we are unable to even want to leave.

It was into this world that Jesus came, the Light of the world. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. (John 1:5) Because of original sin, and because of our actual sins (which everyone has – all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God), we are eternally separated from God. Because of who God is, God cannot allow sin in his presence. So we are separated from him. We’ve got a journey we need to go on, and we can’t go!

Before we even start, we need help! This is where God’s grace comes in. 1 John 4:19 affirms that We love because he first loved us. Without God’s grace, we are unable to even love him. So the beginning of our journey does not come from us, but, rather, from the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has been preparing the way for us, calling us, drawing us toward Him.

We call this Prevenient Grace. “Prevenient” coming from the root “prevent” which, in John Wesley’s time, carried the meaning “going before.” This is the grace that goes before us, that calls to us while we remain in our sin. God speaks of this love through the prophet Jeremiah: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.” (Jeremiah 31:3)

The United Methodist Book of Discipline makes this affirmation about prevenient grace:

We acknowledge God’s prevenient grace, the divine love that surrounds all humanity and precedes any and all of our conscious impulses. This grace prompts our first wish to please God, our first glimmer of understanding concerning God’s will, and our “first slight transient conviction” of having sinned against God. God’s grace also awakens in us an earnest longing for deliverance from sin and death and moves us toward repentance and faith. (UM Book of Discipline ¶101)

God’s grace goes before us, prompting us to please God, giving us our first understanding of God’s will, and helps us even know we are sinning. In John 16:7-11, Jesus is telling his disciples that he is going to leave them. Listen to his words: But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.

It is the Holy Spirit’s role to convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment. We don’t even know we’re sinning without the Holy Spirit. Even our very conscience is evidence of the Holy Spirit at work.

Starting with the Holy Spirit is important, because it is an acknowledgement that we on our own cannot approach God. So God, in the Person of the Holy Spirit, approaches us. It is important to understand, however, that God does not force us, for that would not be love. In a philosophy class, our professor asked us, “If you had a true love potion, would you use it?” If you had a potion that would force someone to love you, would you give it? The problem with a love potion is that it would cause someone (who doesn’t necessarily even like you) to love you – but is that really love? So if God forces us to love Him, is that love? If we do not have the choice not to love, can we really say we love? Philosophically, we cannot. So unless God gives us the choice to love or not to love, then we do not actually have the ability to love.

The Church has long affirmed that God’s will is not resistible. If God wants something to happen, it happens. But since the Second Council of Orange in 529, Christians have, as a body, affirmed that the Holy Spirit is resistible. This is why you hear phrases like “the nudging” or “the leading” of the Spirit.” The Holy Spirit never forces us to do anything. This is why the Holy Spirit approaches us in love. To give us the chance to love in return.

It’s also important that we start our journey with the Holy Spirit because for too long, the church has ignored the Spirit. We don’t even have an adequate pronoun for the Spirit – it doesn’t seem right to call the Holy Spirit “Him” or “Her” but it’s certainly not right to call the Spirit “it” because the Holy Spirit is personal and is the third Person of the Trinity. When we start with the Holy Spirit, we acknowledge our dependence upon the Spirit for everything, even our desire for God. And if we ignore the Spirit when we begin, why would we suddenly start listening to the Spirit later? How would we even recognize the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking to us? How would we hear the Spirit convicting us of sin, encouraging our repentance, guiding us in prayer, and directing our steps?

In his sermon “The Great Privilege of Those Who are Born of God,” John Wesley affirms the necessity of our response to the Holy Spirit.

For it plainly appears God does not continue to act upon the soul unless the soul re-acts upon God. He prevents [goes before] us indeed with the blessings of his goodness. He first loves us, and manifests himself unto us. While we are yet afar off he calls us to himself, and shines upon our hearts. But if we do not then love him who first loved us; if we will not hearken to his voice; if we turn our eye away from him, and will not attend to the light which he pours upon us: his Spirit will not always strive; he will gradually withdraw, and leave us to the darkness of our own hearts. He will not continue to breathe into our soul unless our soul breathes toward him again; unless our love, and prayer, and thanksgiving return to him, a sacrifice wherewith he is well pleased.

“Prevenient grace partially restores our human faculties so that we might be able to accept or reject saving grace.” (Responsible Grace: John Wesley’s Practical Theology, Randy Maddox) This means we still have a responsibility to accept God’s grace and love. If we do not, we risk the same punishment as Paul describes in Romans 1. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. (Romans 1:24)

Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. Romans 1:28

In other words, God said, “You want to ignore the Holy Spirit? OK, fine. Live the way you want to. If you want to do things your way, I’ll let you, but you also have to face the consequences.” If you don’t want me, I won’t interfere. This is why Jesus calls blasphemy of the Holy Spirit “unforgiveable” – because without the Spirit, we cannot even turn toward God to receive forgiveness.

OK, this has all been pretty theoretical and philosophical, so what does it mean for us practically?

First of all, it means we have to start listening to the Holy Spirit. We have left little room in our lives to hear the Spirit’s still, small voice. We have a duty to listen to the Spirit. Carve out time in your already busy schedule to hear the Spirit’s voice. When you read your Bible, ask the Spirit to speak to you. When you go about your day, ask the Spirit to bring to mind people to pray for or to contact personally. Ask the Spirit to guide you in everything you do, in every thought you have.

Secondly, and this is for those who have already accepted God’s salvation, we have a job to do. If the Holy Spirit lives in us, we should act like it. I read a comment this week from someone in a friend’s church who met a 97 year old man, who said he doesn’t believe in our “myth” of the Gospel (his words). But listen to what else he said to the Christian woman who met him, “I wish I had your peace.” Friends, we who have the Holy Spirit need to look like it. What do we look like? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23). We know these as the Fruit of the Spirit, because they are what grows from the Holy Spirit. If you don’t look like that, if those words don’t describe you, it’s time for you to ask the Holy Spirit to transform you.

Then others, like the woman in my friend’s church, will see the Spirit in action and will also have a chance to respond. And now we’re ready to take the first step in our journey.