The Class of 2017 and the Meaning of Words

1st Corinthians 6 offers us some insight into who we are in Christ - we have been justified by faith, meaning that we have been delivered from the power of sin and we have been given the free gift of God's grace and righteousness.    
9Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? 
He goes on to give a list of sinful behaviors, which unfortunately determine the identity of those who do not know Christ.  He underscores that these are behaviors in which God is not pleased.
He then writes:11And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.

Words have meaning, and Bible words are used by God to illustrate His truths.   This passage helps us to see some powerful attributes of our new life in Christ:  We have been washed clean by the blood of Jesus and are recipients of His forgiveness.   We have been sanctified, or set apart, called out of the power of sin and made new creatures in Christ.   We have been justified:  not only declared to be "not guilty" for past sins, but declared to be a partaker of the righteousness of God in Christ.   And, the realization of the meaning of this can transform the way we think and the way we live!

Romans 3:23 is a familiar verse, and I want to combine it with verse 24 as we think together about the power of words:
23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,24being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus...

It's that time of year - for the release of the Beloit College Mindset List, which has been a cultural fixture since 1998, indicating the cultural touchstones of the lives of students attending this fall.   I can identify with quite a few of these, since we do have a member of that class who is now entering her third week of classes at college...and so far, so good, I might add!

The first 5 items on the list are quite telling:
1. Eminem and LL Cool J could show up at parents’ weekend.
No, I did not say "M&M's", although those could show up at any time in a college dorm room.   That would be the rapper Eminem.

2. They are the sharing generation, having shown tendencies to share everything, including possessions, no matter how personal.

3. GM means food that is Genetically Modified.

4. As they started to crawl, so did the news across the bottom of the television screen.

5. “Dude” has never had a negative tone.

Notice that 2 out of those first 5, not necessarily a "top 5", have to do with the meaning of words.   And, that's a recurring theme in this extensive list, that has a grand total of 60 items on it.

More of these "word shifts" include:

8. Having a chat has seldom involved talking.

16. A tablet is no longer something you take in the morning.

19. Plasma has never been just a bodily fluid.

29. Java has never been just a cup of coffee.

50. A Wiki has always been a cooperative web application rather than a shuttle bus in Hawaii.

If you're going to communicate with the culture, you have to know the meaning of the words.   And, we have always had those types of shifts.   For instance, the use of "bad" in years past really meant "good".

When we read the Bible and really seek to apply it, we need to know the meaning of the words and think about their meaning for us personally.   When we read in Romans 3 and see the word, "justified", do we really think about how that applies to us?   When we hear the word "redemption", what does that mean to me?   How about supplication or sanctification?    This are big words which have even bigger meaning, and by understanding the significance of Biblical teams, we unlock some of the keys to living out the principles.

For example, think with me about "justification".  Chuck Swindoll offers some thoughts about what has been offered to us by God and what we received at the moment of salvation.  He writes: 

Justification really means this: Even though I still sin periodically and have found myself unable to stop sinning on a permanent basis---God declared me righteous when I believed. And because I will continue to sin from time to time, I find all the more reason to be grateful for grace.

He also writes that justification is..."the sovereign act of God whereby He declares righteous the believing sinner while still in his sinning state. It doesn't mean that the believing sinner stops sinning. It doesn't even mean that the believing sinner is made righteous in the sense of suddenly becoming perpetually perfect. The sinner is declared righteous."

Popular blogger Adrian Warnock offers this quote: "...our justification consists not just of a canceling of our debt, but also of an imputing to us of the righteousness of Christ. It is not only 'just as if I’d never sinned,' but also, 'just as if I’d already completed a perfect life.' Jesus doesn’t merely give us a clean slate and then sit back and watch whether we will mess it up again.

Words have meaning, and Biblical words contain a wealth of spiritual truth.   When we study the Scriptures, it's important that we meditate on the meaning and allow the Holy Spirit to teach us about the full effect of our accepting Christ as Savior and Lord.