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SERMON
Why did Jesus die? The Apostle John writes, "He is the atoning
sacrifice for our sins and not only for ours but also for the sins of
the whole world." Simply put, Jesus died to forgive sinners, among
whose number you and I are to be counted. But if we're going to
understand what this forgiveness means, we need to understand sin,
because it won't make sense without it. So today I want to talk with you
about sin: about the nature of sin, the denial of sin, the
owning of sin, the mutuality of sin, and the tenacity
of sin.
1. First, let's talk about the nature of sin.
John says that Jesus died to forgive the sin of the whole world. Most
Christians, I suspect, have little problem endorsing that as a general
truth. It's when we take it at a personal level that that statement can
cause us problems. Why is that? It's because when we're talking about
ourselves, it's a lot easier to talk about forgiveness than it is to
talk about sin.
Now, when I use the term "sin" I'm not talking about things like
smoking, drinking and kissing girls. All of us would have to admit to
doing any number of things we know we shouldn't do. Our problem with
"sin" is that the Bible insists that sin isn't just bad behavior. It is
a universal condition of the soul, a disease of the will that has
infected every last one of us. And no matter how hard we may try to live
a sinless life, none of us can shake the problem.
That's not to say there isn't great good in people. In fact, we could
cite countless examples of heroism and compassion. But according to the
Bible, every one of us is inclined to offset those times of goodness
with times of downright selfishness. We're ambivalent creatures. That is
the universal nature of sin. So while it's possible to forgive someone
their particular "sins," you wonder how, as a practical matter, one can
forgive a disease of the will? Is it possible to forgive a "condition?"
Yes, it is! Listen to what the Apostle says in 1 John 1:7. "If we
walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one
another, and the blood of Jesus purifies us from all sin." I
know that the doctrine of blood atonement is confusing to some people.
But I came across a piece of history that helped me; and it may help you
to understand it.
Louis Pasteur and Felix Ruh had been exiled by the Paris Medical
Association because of their so-called "germ theory." But they set up a
lab just outside of Paris where they continued their forbidden research.
Twenty horses were taken to the lab where a few scientists, doctors and
nurses came to watch the experiment. Dr. Ruh opened a steel vault and
took out a pail filled with black diphtheria germs that had been
carefully cultured. Dr. Ruh went to each horse and swabbed its nostrils,
tongue, throat and eyes with the deadly germs. Then they waited the
outcome.
Every horse developed a high fever, and all but one soon died. Most of
the observers wearied of the experiment and went home. But the last
horse didn't die. He lingered, lying pathetically on the ground. Pasteur
and the others waited. Then early one morning the horse's fever broke,
and by night it was back to normal. The horse could stand and eat and
drink.
Dr. Ruh took a sledgehammer and struck the horse a deathblow between the
eyes. They drew the blood from the veins of the diseased animal that had
overcome the disease. They rushed to the Paris hospital, forced their
way past the superintendent and guards, and into a ward where some three
hundred babies had been segregated to die from black diphtheria. They
inoculated every one of those babies with the horse's blood. All but
three of them lived and recovered fully. It was the blood of the
overcomer that healed them.
2. That's an admittedly imperfect but singularly graphic
picture of the effect that the shed life-blood of Jesus had on the
universal disease of the will that the Bible calls "sin." But like those
people in Paris who didn't believe in germs, we too must first recognize
that sin is a disease in our own lives before we can get on with the
cure. But forgiveness not only requires we recognize the nature of sin.
We also need to talk about the denial of sin. As I said,
it's easy to believe in the power of forgiveness. But when it comes to
sin in our own lives, our inclination is to deny it, to repress it. In 1
John 1:8 the Apostle says, "If we claim to be without sin, we
deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us." Reuben Welch
writes:
I know a dear family; and once in a while the father gets his
feelings hurt, or is disappointed, or misunderstood. When that happens
he just clams up. He handles this by total withdrawal from the flow of
family life. Oh, he said "good morning pass the potatoes thank you"
but he really wasn't there. Then everybody else would start walking
around softly, trying not to upset Father and trying to keep the peace.
Father was miffed, Mother got a migraine, and everyone was paying for
it. But one fine day Father was alright again and everything was okay.
He had some way of communicating this to the family. Some word, some
gesture, some small gift or conversation would signal the family that he
was alright again; and life would come back to "normal" with never a
word to indicate that anything had ever been other than perfectly
regular. The migraine faded, the tiptoeing ceased all as though
nothing had ever been different, and the incident was never mentioned
never.
You understand this, don't you? Here's this detour undiscussed,
unconfessed, unshared, unrecognized, and denied "It didn't happen." So
life is now supposed to go on, until by and by it would happen again.
And everybody was supposed to pretend nothing was changed, nothing was
different, everything just like it was. And God's word says, "No!" He is
light, he is truth. He doesn't play games with us, and we cannot play
games with him. John says that when we deny the reality of sin in our
lives, we're playing games not only with God, but with each other, and
with ourselves. And no one is helped no one is healed.
3. I'm here to tell you that there is hope for us
sinners. But first we need to talk about owning our sin.
That's why the Apostle goes on to say in verse 9, "If we confess
our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and
purify us from all unrighteousness." Now, that's a wonderful promise
but it's tied to a great big "if." It's one thing to concede the
possibility that humanity is fundamentally imperfect, flawed, "sinful."
It's something else again to say that I have a problem with sin in my
life.
In the Sunday comic section of the paper the "Family Circus" cartoon has
a ghostly character who shows up occasionally. His name is "Not Me."
Mother asks, "Who made this mess?" and all the kids reply,
"Not me!" It's not just the kids who play that game, is it? Somebody
has an affair, and maybe the family splits up. Then someone asks what
happened? Back comes the reply: "Well, it's really nobody's fault. It
was just one of those things." Oh, really?
We're talking here about confession. And confession says, "I did it"
or "We did it." If you're going to deal with sin in a healthy
way, it begins with owning it. And note this: Only when you own the sin
can you then begin to own the forgiveness of it. John the Apostle says
that if we confess (own up), God is faithful; he forgives completely. He
wipes the ledger clean.
But there's one more thing I have to say about owning our sins. If we
own our sins and believe that God forgives them, common sense tells us
that the next step is to pick up the pieces, learn from our failures,
but keep moving on. Sad to say, some people don't seem to get it they
don't move on. Instead, they keep on owning the sin without owning the
forgiveness. And they do it over and over again.
I think I understand better now why, as a child, I gave up piano lessons
after only one short term. I'd begin working on a new piece of music.
About ten bars into the piece I'd make a mistake. Do you know what I
would then do? I'd go back and start over again only a little louder.
But then I'd make the same mistake at the same place; and rather than
deal with it, I'd start over again even louder!
Sad to say, many of us do the same thing with our Christian walk. As
we're going along, we make a mistake. We sin. And despite the fact that
we know everybody sins, we feel like such a failure as a Christian. So
what do we do? We go back to the starting point and begin again, only
this time we force it a little more.
I won't speak for you. But I, for one, don't need a new and louder
beginning to my commitment to Christ. I already know the first ten bars
of the Christian life by heart. (God knows I've played them enough!) God
wants us to make up our minds to finish the song! When God forgives us
it means that the past is forgiven. So when it comes to sin in your
life, face it own it confess it let God forgive it let go of it
and get on with it!
4. There's one more thing to note when we talk about
forgiveness. We need to recognize the mutuality of sin. I
can say, "I believe in the forgiveness of sins," and thereby
confess that sin is not only a universal human predicament, it's my
predicament as well. I can even determine to pick up the pieces of my
life and carry on. But unless I translate that belief in the forgiveness
of sin into my daily relationships, then my confession of faith is going
to have a hollow ring to it.
Jesus was talking about the mutuality of sin when he told us that when
we pray we should say, "Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who
sin against us." He also said that if you're setting things right
with God, and remember someone who has something against you, stop your
religious activity, and go and be reconciled to your brother/sister.
This is where your Christian faith in general, and your belief in the
forgiveness of sins in particular, is really put to the test. Do you
know why? It's because only in rare instances will you ever find a
"nice, clean sin" that is, one in which one person is a dirty rotten
scoundrel, and the other is a spotlessly pure injured party.
That sort of thing does happen, I suppose. Far more often than not,
however, I've found that relationships are so convoluted with mutual
hurt and mutual culpability, that we need more than just a good lawyer
to sort things out, or an exceptional counselor to get to the root of
the problems. When it comes to forgiving sin at the level of human
relationships we need super-human help.
5. Fortunately, that help is available. So we come to one
final lesson about forgiveness. Let's say that we confess our sins, and
make up our minds to carry on. The hard truth is that we are going to
sin again. So let's be realistic. We need to talk about the
tenacity of sin. Thank God, the Apostle John is equally
realistic. In 2:1 he writes: "I write this to you so that you will
not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father
in our defense (an Advocate) Jesus Christ the Righteous One."
The word translated into English here as "Advocate" is the Greek word
paraklhton.
The prefix para
means "alongside," and the root
kaleo means
"to walk." This Advocate, then, is the one who "walks alongside" us.
John says that the Spirit of Christ has come alongside you and will be
with you every step of your journey. So that, if you should sin again,
you need to remember that you have a friend who will never abandon you
ever.
This is essential theology. The "Advocate" of whom John writes here
isn't a defense attorney you have on retainer; so that, when you've
sinned you can call on him to go to bat for you with the judge. No, he's
your faithful friend who sticks close to you even when you fail. And at
those times when you feel that rush of self-pity over being such a
failure, he's the friend who says, "So you're a sinner. What's new?
Learn from your mistakes and let's get on with it." But he is also
that blessed intermediary between you and God who says to you, "Don't
ever forget that, as far as my Father is concerned, your sins are
covered. I've already seen to that."
Why did Jesus die? He died to heal our sin, and he lives to be our
Advocate the one who sticks with us in our relationships; who helps us
to face up to our failures (to confess), to pick up the pieces (to
forgive ourselves and each other), to sort out what needs to be salvaged
and what has to be discarded, and to get on with our lives.
Why did Jesus die? On a hill outside the city of Jerusalem a transaction
took place, the enormity of which none of us will ever be able to fully
comprehend. But in a way both mysterious and complete, Jesus carried to
his death the full responsibility for all my sin. And though I don't
understand how he did it, I accept it. And my dearest prayer is that you
will know that he did the same for you.
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