Born to Die
We are all born children of the serpent
It is Palm Sunday. We have just read the Passion. It is somber and sad. We will read it again on Good Friday.
It is also the literal crux of the Gospel, the cross at the center of the good news: that Jesus Christ died for our sins.
I don’t like to preach long on Palm Sunday. I don’t like to get in the way of these words. They speak for themselves. But it is worth summarizing that gospel so it is crystal clear why we’ve just read this story of betrayal and death, why we’ll read it again on Good Friday, and why you must believe it to enter God’s kingdom.
There are two lines, two branches of the human race. The children of the serpent and the Child of the woman.
We are all born children of the serpent. This means we are born to die. This is the result of Original Sin. Original Sin is not sex, as many wrongly think. Original Sin is rebellion against God’s law, against His word.
Anyone who denies Original Sin denies death.
Sadly, there are fools today who do just that, who are investing in schemes to extend human life unto immortality.
The Methuselah Foundation promises “to make 90 the new 50 by 2030.”1
What they are trying to extend is a kind of living death. This is a mockery of the Christian faith and of our faith in the resurrection. It is nothing but old-fashioned sorcery, a dark art, but now possessed of an MD and a PhD.
Paul tells us there is only one Child of the woman. One Seed. One Offspring.
Galatians 3:16:
“Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.”
That means there is only One man ever born who was born to life. The rest of us are born to death.
(I suppose you could say Adam was born to life, but he forfeited that life, and we inherited his loss.)
This is why Adam names his wife Eve because she was the mother of the living.2
But just as we inherited Adam’s loss, we stand to inherit Christ’s gain.
What did Christ gain?
He gained life. Resurrection life. Life eternal.
Eternal life can be yours too for the low, low price of confessing your sins and turning to Jesus Christ in faith. You have nothing to lose but your wickedness.
Because what Jesus did is take our sins and nail them to the cross.
He took our death and nailed it to the cross.
And because He destroyed death, death has no hold on Him. A week from today we will gather again to celebrate His victory over death.
You can share in His victory.
You can be translated from the dead branch of the human race to the living one.
You don’t need to wait for a scientific discovery.
You don’t have to pay anyone.
You can have eternal life for free.
But you have to understand first what you are.
You are a sinner, a lawbreaker, and a rebel.
You crucified Him.
You hated Him.
You mocked Him.
You scorned Him, you despised Him, you spat on Him.
I did too.
And because He let us do this to Him, we no longer have to do it to each other.
Nothing would please Him better than for us to stop abusing each other the way we abused Him.
I am no better than you and you are no better than me.
This is why we both need Him. The only difference between us both might be that I’ve confessed my sins and put my faith in Him, and you are still wondering if you could, or if you should, or even how you can.
But that’s okay. We’ll do it together, in just a few moments.
And then, by God’s grace, we’ll both have Him.
Or, perhaps it is better to say, He will have us. I wouldn’t want to think it was up to me to keep my hold on Christ, but I put my faith in His hold on me. It is the only sure thing I have.
As the old hymn goes:
“The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose
I will not, I will not desert to his foes.
That soul though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no never, no never forsake.”
Amen.
Preached on April 2, 2023 at St. Peter’s Lithgow, Millbrook, New York.
“Methuselah Foundation,” Methuselah Foundation, accessed March 29, 2023, https://www.mfoundation.org/.