Christ Succeeding in Our Place

I happened upon this sermon by William Willimon who is Dean of the Chapel at Duke University. Aside from being referenced as one of the "12 best preachers in the English-speaking world" Willimon is also doing some amazing ministry on the Duke campus. As much as we like to talk about postmodernity and its various affects, he is someone who is effectively ministering to thoroughly "postmodern" people without making too much fuss about postmodernity itself. I think that this message given in the Duke Chapel is an example of just why his ministry is so fruitful. This is some of the best Law/Gospel preaching you will find, and ironically enough, it comes from a Methodist.

Willimon manages to communicate our inability to live up to the requirements of God's law in a way that is completely relatable. It seems that so often when a preacher attempts to convict his congregation of their sin and to illustrate their inability before God, he falls into simply brow-beating or chiding. I found that Willimon, was able to get right to the heart of what it means to be in despair over sin. He doesn't simply berate or chastise for our moral failing, but rather, he depicts perfectly a picture of failure that we have all experienced many times over. If we are honest, we will admit that our lives are marked by this sort of failure in all sorts of different areas. In bringing this out, Willimon shows us exactly what it means to "fall short of the glory of God."

However, once he has brought us to this point of despair, he does not leave us there. Instead, he does the only thing that can be or need be done: Willimon, very simply, points us to the success of Christ. He causes us to look the Cross once again and to be struck by the profound truth that victory for the human race came out of such apparent failure. He doesn't hype us up, doesn't tell us how we can do better the next time, doesn't try to give us six steps to success in the Christian life; he simply points to Christ.