Revelation 3:1-6 (NASB)
David Bruce Linn, Pastor-Teacher
12 December, 1999
All Rights Reserved
Have you ever owned a perfectly white garment? When my wife, Barbara, and I
were married I purchased a pair of shockingly white trousers to wear along with
a powder blue suit jacket. Such garments do not keep their perfection for long.
One touch with a dirty shoe or car, or item of food, and the perfection is ruined.
A pastor friend of mine tells the story of buying a nice light-colored khaki
suit, and before he could wear it for the first time he spilled coffee on it.
So he took his brand new coat to the cleaners, who did a nice job of removing
the stain. When he left the cleaners, he placed the coat carefully in the trunk
and slammed the lid. But the lid would not catch, and when he lifted it he realized
he had caught the material in the trunk latch, and left a greasy tear in it.
From there it went straight to the garbage can!
This is God's perspective on the stains of sin. One stain ruins a whole person:
"For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become
guilty of all" (James 2:10). The church of Sardis, described in Revelation
3:1-6, did not seem to appreciate this reality. The perfectly holy God does
not, and indeed cannot, tolerate sin. This is the fallacy of the popular false
religious view that as long as your good deeds outweigh your bad deeds on some
imaginary spiritual balance scale that you will go to heaven. This is not so.
If there is even one bad deed on the one plate of the scale, God must reject
that person. This means every person is rejected because we were all born in
sin. As King David of Israel sang: "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
/And in sin my mother conceived me" (Psalm 51:5).
Because the church in Sardis failed to appreciate the seriousness of their sin,
Christ had to pastor them in this seemingly harsh way: "And to the angel
of the church in Sardis write: He who has the seven Spirits of God, and the
seven stars, says this: 'I know your deeds, that you have a name that you are
alive, but you are dead'" (Rev. 3:1). Religion was booming in Sardis, but
true Christianity was nearly dead. Programs, buildings, attendance, and budgets
were up, but humble dependence on God through Christ was substantially absent.
"Smells and bells" rituals were up, but holy living was extinguished for most.
Thus Christ, the "knower of hearts," pierces every veil to lay the truth of
our faith bare.
There was no reason for this sad condition! In Christ, these people had access
to total forgiveness and release from their sins. In fact, there were a few
who had not succumbed to the spiritual lassitude of the majority: "'But you
have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments; and they will
walk with Me in white; for they are worthy.'" (Rev. 3:4). These were those
who did not squander the most valuable opportunity anyone ever has: to walk
with Christ in white. Christ makes a promise to anyone who will listen: "Keep
your garments clean in this life, and you will walk by my side in perfect holiness
in the life to come." This is how to live a life worthy of the Christ, whose
very name means "the Anointed." "'He who has an ear, let him hear what the
Spirit says to the churches'" (Rev. 3:6).
The question of how to become worthy in the sight of God is the most important
question anyone could ever ask. Paul gave the answer succinctly in I Corinthians
5:10 (among many other places): "By the grace of God I am what I am..."
Or to paraphrase it, Paul says: "I received my worthiness before God as a gift."
That is what the word "grace" means! Once any attempt is made to pay for the
gift, it is no longer a gift.
Recently I came across a disturbing passage in a book by well-known Christian author, Philip Yancey. Yancey attempts to bring a fresh approach to understanding our faith in order to help us appreciate it better. But sometimes, taking a fresh approach can lead to trouble, as it does in the following passage: "The 'servants' who invest their lives among the poor and needy, ...the disciples of nonviolence, mothers of gay men and Marine pilots who reach out beyond their grief--all these are responding to pangs of hunger and thirst for righteousness. All of them have received a reward, not only in the life to come, but in this life as well." (The Jesus I Never Knew, p. 125). On the contrary, no one can receive a reward in heaven for deeds done on the earth unless he gets to heaven, and the only way to get to heaven is by receiving the righteousness of Christ as a gift by faith.
When I read these words, I remembered a statement Mr. Yancey wrote in one of
his editorial columns: "I do not know how people become saved." He is an extremely
bright intellect, and I am confidant that he knows full well that he is relinquishing
a cardinal doctrine of orthodoxy. The logic of the entire chapter from which
the above quote was taken is this: "Purify yourself and you will get to know
God and gain eternal life." But what does Scripture say about the project of
self-purification? "All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all
our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and
like the wind our sins sweep us away" (Isaiah 64:6 -- NIV). What hope does
the person who does good deeds have for eternal salvation? "Because by the
works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight..." (Rom. 3:20a).
What does the Scripture say is the sole and only hope of eternal salvation? I hesitate to quote such a large passage of Scripture, but I believe it is necessary to clearly refute this modern attack on the gospel:
"But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested,
being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through
faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction;
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a
gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God
displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to
demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over
the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness
at the present time, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who
has faith in Jesus. Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of
law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified
by faith apart from works of the Law." (Rom. 3:21-28)
This is how a person with soiled garments can receive clean ones, become worthy in God's sight, be righteous, and receive eternal life. This is the only plan of God to allow sinful people to walk in white, both in this life and the next. The logic is not: "Purify yourself and you will come to know God," but "Admit your total failure to purify yourself, receive the righteousness of Christ by faith, and then you will get to know God and receive eternal life."
The reason for taking such time to explain this distinction between what theologians
call infused and imputed grace is that Christ told the church in Sardis that
their works were not enough, literally, were not "full": "...for I have not
found your deeds completed in the sight of My God" (Rev. 3:2b). They had
works, but their works were empty of love for God and faith in God. Such so-called
Christians Christ labels dead. The eternal destiny of every one of us turns
on our need to understand the relationship of faith and works in the Christian
life. Christian works are the proper output of a true faith in God. We receive
all righteousness by a gift through faith in Christ. This is the gospel, and
the fact that modern theologians are bored with it places them in a long history
of religious people who have earthly reasons not to simply trust what God has
said. If the loss of grace--the finest jewel of the church--is the cost of "unity"
among professing Christians, then it is too high.
How does a professing Christian "soil his garments?" In this case of this church,
it was by sinful behaviors contradicting their words. Paul gives a large list
of sinful behaviors to help us identify our need for Christ's cleansing: "Now
the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality,
idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes,
dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these,
of which I forewarn you just as I have forewarned you that those who practice
such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." (Gal 5:19-21) The point
of this passage is to warn us that the regular practice of one or more of these
sins may be proof that we are not saved. This can be hard to accept when we
see it in the lives of very religious people. But when you meet professing Christians
who are perpetually alienated from other Christians, who gossip, and are judgmental;
who indulge their fleshliness in carefully justified ways; and whose "ministry"
is to create opposing factions in the church, then you need to know that you
are seeing people who will not be saved if they persist.
This is what Christ saw in the church of Sardis, and fulfilled the law of love
by telling them in no uncertain terms that they were spiritually dead. Then
comes the word of grace for any who would listen: "'Wake up, and strengthen
the things that remain, which were about to die; for I have not found your deeds
completed in the sight of My God. Remember therefore what you have received
and heard; and keep it, and repent.'" (Rev. 3:2-3a). Waking up means to
see the deplorable condition into which you have fallen. This is true enlightenment.
Christ calls them to remember the terms of the New Covenant: salvation by grace
alone, in Christ alone, through faith alone, and to God alone be the glory!
To repent is to change your mind in a real way which affects all your behaviors.
The behavior Christ seeks is simply that we keep the covenant of grace.
To those who keep the covenant Christ promises: "'He who overcomes shall
thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book
of life, and I will confess his name before My Father, and before His angels'"
(Rev. 3:5). Perhaps the main reason that simply having faith is described
as overcoming is that faith involves a fight. It is a perpetual battle within
our wills to choose the sublime and permanent pleasures of God over the fleshly
and fleeting pleasures of this life. The church in Sardis was losing the fight
of faith in a dramatic way, as are parts of the church today. Many people are
physically in church, but they are absent from the book of life.
The reference to someone having his name erased from the book of life is probably best explained by the Jewish custom of keeping a record book in the gate of the city with every inhabitant's name inscribed. When someone would die, his name would be erased from this record book. Rather than making a statement about the doctrine of election, this means simply that those who win the fight of the faith by trusting in Christ will not ultimately die.
But losing the fight of the faith brings a sobering warning from Christ: "If
therefore you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know
at what hour I will come upon you" (Rev. 3:3b). Observe that Christ comes
in judgment like a thief upon only those who are asleep. Genuine believers are
not asleep, and are anticipating Christ's return, even as Paul wrote to the
Thessalonians: "For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord
will come just like a thief in the night. While they are saying, 'Peace and
safety!' then destruction will come upon them suddenly like birth pangs upon
a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in
darkness, that the day should overtake you like a thief..." (1 Thess. 5:2-4).
Are you awake? Are you walking in white here on earth by living under the cleansing blood of Christ? Then you will be rewarded with the final perfection of your holiness in the life to come. No more battling with temptation and sin then! We shall walk with him in white!
If you are one who keeps hitting the snooze button every time God's alarm clock goes off, you will be overwhelmed by the judgment of God, sooner or later. To you Christ says: Wake up to your dangerous condition! Change your mind about how you are going to live! And get the life pattern of the New Covenant clear: Admit your total failure to live righteously, receive the gift of Christ's righteousness, and then do the deeds of a Christian out of love for God, with no expectation of any earthly reward.