Another particularly destructive fire season recently took its toll in my country. Tens of thousands of acres of forests, thousands of homes, and several lives have been lost as these massive fires burned out of control for weeks. I live more than 500 miles from the nearest forest fire. However, winds carried smoke and ash from those fires to my home.

I have never lived on a farm—never milked a cow, never plowed a field, never waited for the harvest. I am a city boy. This puts me at a disadvantage, at times, when I read the parables and illustrations of Jesus in the New Testament. Many of His images in preaching came from a context of farming—ancient Israel was an agrarian society. The people not only understood but lived their lives around the planting and harvesting seasons.

Every human is guilty before God because of his/her sin and cannot run away from this guilt and condemnation. Each of us is destined to death, but through our faith in the gracious intervention of the Son of God who took our sins on Him, we can be saved. On the cross, we were rescued and redeemed, freed from the slavery of sin.

The Articles of Faith of the Church of the Nazarene are statements of how we as Wesleyan-Holiness people understand God’s revelation to humanity through His Holy Word. Articles V to X describe the journey of humanity from sin to holiness.

The loud sobbing was coming from somewhere in the blackness of the sanctuary. In the darkness, I found a dear friend laying across the seats crying uncontrollably, pleading with the Lord for mercy.

How should we understand (and practice) the relationship of the sacraments with God’s work of saving grace? We should remember that “saving grace” is not a different kind of grace than “prevenient grace.” Both refer to God’s redemptive work in us but reference different stages in the journey of faith. They are not two different “things” but rather are different ways of speaking about the work of the Holy Spirit. So how do the sacraments connect with God’s gracious work when we come to faith in Christ?

Baptism

The doctrine of justification encompasses more nuances than just the word itself. The Greek word “δικαιοσύνη” used for “justification” extends to a range of meanings in English, including justification, justice, truthfulness, and righteousness. In order to explain the concept of justification, we must capture multiple links between these various words in the δικαιο-family.

Interwoven throughout the testimonies of the Old Testament is the conviction that the Lord graciously initiated and freely established a unique relationship with the community called Israel. Frequently described in terms of covenant, this relationship between God and people finds its most common expression in the Lord’s validating words, “I will be your God, and you will be my people” (Leviticus 26:12). As our biblical ancestors spoke of being “rightly related” with God and each other through this covenant, they used words derived from a single Hebrew root: ts-d-q.

For many of us, the word “justification” means much the same as the word “conversion.” It is that moment in the life of a Christian when he or she believes in Christ. Particularly, it is that moment when, after confession of sin, the new Christian accepts forgiveness and becomes a child of God. That is right as far as it goes. However, the truth of justification is so much greater than that!

Justification and Christ

Many collections of Bible stories for children that I have seen and used include the story of the short man of Jericho (Luke 19:1-9). We even sang a song that emphasized the man’s shortness. When I taught Sunday school children, their interest in Zacchaeus’ promptness to give back to others captured me.