Who Are You? - March 30, 2011

Who are You? This morning I had a question about who we are in Christ. There is a gang of motorcycle hoodlums in our town that call themselves the Whoevers, probably so that no one knows their real names. Members of this roving gang of thugs will answer officials queries with the standard, "whoever!" when stopped. Town official: "We have reports of someone handing out this literature at the fair; do you know who did it?" Local Motorcycle Goon: "Whoever!" Bigger town official: "I don't think you understand the question, son. Someone was spreading the Good News here in this secular town; now who did you see doing this!" Goon's buddy: "Whoever!" Town mayor: "I can see we're not going to get anywhere with this one. Lock the whole gang up!" Actually, we know quite a few of their names, but the Whoevers tend to point to the name of Jesus. The gang name comes from one of the translations of John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." (emphasis added) This morning, I wondered what or who else we could be. All of us can be whoevers, even if we don't ride anything stouter than a bike with pedals. In Romans, we can also be a 'one who' as in Romans 3:26 "It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus." Whether we want to be a 'whoever' or a 'one who' we have only to believe and Jesus justifies and saves us. The work seems to be all on Jesus. As Paul explains further in Romans, we cannot save ourselves and our works will not justify us in God's sight. Each of us is already a one who has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, so we might as well be a one who believes in Jesus to be justified by His sacrifice on the cross. Not one of us can have eternal life without believing in Jesus. Any of us can have eternal death by simply doing nothing. I think that I'll add the action word to my name. I'll be a whoever believes and a one who believes in Jesus, the Son of the Living God. Love and joy to you from the One who died for your sins and rose again on the third day, Jesus our Lord! Bucky