I believe in the Forgiveness of Sins

I watched TikTok earlier this week and saw one of the funniest videos. There was a mother, a very young daughter, and a teenage daughter. They were all gathered around a mixing bowl; each had an egg in their hands. The mother started counting down, and they all started to move their hands to crack the egg. One – Two… Right before she reached three, the mother and older sister cracked the egg on the youngest sister's forehead and then dropped the egg in the bowl. With this utterly hurt look on the little girl's face, she looked at the mother and said, “That wasn’t very nice, that wasn’t very nice!” The mother and older daughter started laughing as the little girl started to get madder and madder. The little girl then looked at the mother and said, “Would you like it if someone did that to you?” To which the mother and older daughter started laughing even harder.

Now, I must admit I started to laugh at this point; it was very cute.

Then, in utter frustration, the little girl, seeing everyone laughing and still holding her egg, smacked it right in her mother’s face.

Today, we are going to be going over “We believe in the forgiveness of sins.” And as the little girl in the video proved. Every sin carries a cost that must be paid. Last week, Pastor Daniel explained how the second half of the creed is about the horizontal relationships we have. So this section of the creed is not we believe God forgives our sins, but rather, I believe in personally forgiving sins against me. But in order to get there, we have to look at what God had to do in order to forgive our sins.

Today our main text is going to be Ephesians 1:4-7 and I want to put a special emphasis on verse 7.

4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,[1]

Let’s look at verse 7 again.

7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,

Redemption in Greek is “Apolutron,” which means ransom.

What does Ransom mean? 2 things: 1: parties being paid for are in some sort of bondage. 2: exchange for the life of the person in bondage.

When the Bible says Jesus redeemed us, that means?

Forgiveness: the forgiveness of our trespasses; the ransom is paid because we are in bondage to guilt.

Guilt is a problem. How do I deal with my guilt?

Time heals many things, but has little effect on guilt.

– NIV, Manua

Guilt is the worst enemy of true happiness and selfesteem. It is indeed the worst thing you can ever do to your soul.

– Pamela Baron Waldbauer, Revealing You

Guilt can’t be erased and we can’t escape from it with any strategy. Within the laws of this planet, it has to be paid. One way or another, that guilty soul must pay its karma feeding it.

– Robin Sacredfire, The Complete Works of Robin Sacredfire

In order to divest ourselves of guilt, we need to figure out who it is that is judging us.

– Aurora Dawn, The Mind of an Ea

Have you ever read Macbeth or seen the play/movie? There is a scene where Macbeth sees his wife, Lady Macbeth, who has just gone crazy (literally) with guilt, and he turns to the doctor. He said, “Canst thou not … pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow … and with some sweet, oblivious antidote cleanse the … bosom of that perilous stuff which weighs [down] the heart?” Now the perilous stuff that weighs down the heart is guilt. Macbeth says to his doctor, “Can’t you mix up some sweet, oblivious antidote to cleanse the guilt?” What does the doctor say? “The patient must minister to himself.”

No human can give another human forgiveness.

How does the world say to deal with guilt?

PsychCentral says these are some tips for dealing with guilt.

● What happened to cause this guilty feeling?

● What specific aspect of this do I feel guilty about?

● Did I really do something wrong, or am I just perceiving I did something wrong?

● Is someone else making me feel guilty?

● Is it in my control to fix the situation?

● Could fixing the situation help?

It is the same thing if you were to go to a help group.

“Hey, lower your standards. Don’t feel so guilty. We’ve all done the same thing.” Listen. You feel better because of the empathy. You feel better because you’re not unusual, but ultimately, can that deal with the guilt?

Macbeth’s doctor was right: no man can give forgiveness. No therapy or group can give you forgiveness for guilt.

Jesus went around saying Your sins are forgiven

Why did the religious leaders get upset? Why didn’t they say new therapy?

Only God can forgive. Blasphemy

No therapy can forgive. It can help you understand the roots of your guilt. It can help you understand a lot of things, but it can’t get rid of your guilt. It’s the problem. It’s a big problem.

The reason forgiveness is such a problem is that sins are debts.

A forgetful story where I said I would do something and I didn’t show up. I ask for forgiveness. Of course, forget it—out two hours because of me. Sin has a cost. It has a debt. I owe you, you lost something.

It’s a cold day, and you lend me a coat because it is a cold day, then I lose it. I owe you a coat. Or the cost to replace it. A debt.

What if I slander you? Now it gets more complex because you can’t monetize the harm I did to you. Expand on slander… You are out reputation. How to measure that.

When people say, “I forgive you,” what they mean is, “I’m not going to actively hurt you.” They mean “I forgive but don’t forget,” which means “I’m not going to actively hurt you; I’m going to passively hurt you.”

We Underestimate the Significance of Gospel Forgiveness

In Order to forgive, a payment must be paid

There is a divine law that must be followed

When we break God’s Law, we owe a debt, and it must be paid

The Only Hope for us is Jesus

We Have to Have a Transformed Life

What it means to forgive. A week later, you have an opportunity to tell somebody else what they did to you. You have an opportunity to do that, and you refrain. What are you doing? You’re paying the debt. You’re absorbing the cost.

You see the person several days later, and you really just want to walk away. You want to walk around the other side of the auditorium, but you go up, and you’re warm, and you say, “Hi. How are you? What’s going on?” You act warm when you don’t want to act warm. You hold your tongue when you want to say something. You say something nice about them when you really could undercut them. What are you doing? It hurts. It’s hard. It’s difficult. What you’re doing is you’re paying the debt yourself. Do you see that? You’re absorbing the cost.

In Order to forgive, a payment must be paid

There has never been a sin forgiven that wasn’t at the same moment paid for by the one forgiving. Most people say, “I forgive you” They mean, I am not going to punch you in the throat 3 or 4 times. I’m not going to bad mouth you. I’m not going to avoid you. Add some more. That is not forgiving. Every sin is a debt. That means somebody is out of something. Every sin has a cost. No one can forgive without absorbing the cost, or you really have not forgiven.

If I say, I forgive, but I continue to avoid… I am actually making that person pay a price. In small increments, just a tiny bit here and there, you are still making them pay. You have not forgiven them. Think about this for a second. Can’t you see this happening in your life?

What if while you are driving, your car goes out of control, and you run into someone's house? You end up doing more damage to the house than you could ever hope to repair. The debt you owe is greater than your net worth. What do you do? If we were to look into our past, we would have many, many, many sins that we have committed or have committed against you that are far greater than our net worth. There is no way we could pay it off even if we wanted to, absolutely no way. We have this debt weighing over us with no hope of making it right.

Now the Bible says there is not only a horizontal dimension to sin but also a vertical dimension to sin. Catch this because it is absolutely important for us to recognize. There is a divine law. Now, this is not a popular stance to take in today’s day culture. To say anything is right or wrong doesn’t play well, and to say, “God says,” really doesn’t mix well. Many people believe God doesn’t exist, so there is no right or wrong it is all a matter of perception and means nothing.

There is a divine law that must be followed

Now, most people in this room see the world this way. We deeply sense there is a real distinction between right and wrong. Why? Because the Bible says, there is a God. There is a law deeper than nature or the popular belief of the times.

We all know the golden rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do to you.” But what we know is that there are two golden rules. Jesus said there are two rules that sum up the law. “Love your neighbor as yourself,” and “Love the Lord God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind.” Both of these are golden rules, right? If we want to be treated a certain way, then we have to treat people that way, right? If God created you and you owe him everything, then you owe him everything. It just makes sense. No one has to really teach you these things they are divine laws.

We have an obligation to Go to follow these laws. And when we break these laws, when we break the ten commandments, when we don’t love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and when we fail to love our neighbor as ourselves, we are running up debts to God not just our neighbor. What do we expect God to do with all those debts? Speak these words, right? “Forget it.”

When we break God’s Law, we owe a debt, and it must be paid

If someone wrongs you and you say, “Forget it,” then you are atoning for that sin. If you refuse to seek retribution, if you refuse to take the pound of flesh, they owe you. Then, you are paying for the debt yourself. That is how it works here on Earth, and there is no such thing as forgiveness without paying the price, the ransom. So, how can we expect forgiveness between God and humans without payment? How can we expect God to forgive by just saying, “Forget it.” He can’t do it any more than you and I can do it. Sin doesn’t just disappear into thin air. There has to be a payment, God had to absorb the cost to himself. He had to make the ransom payment for our debts.

Listen, forgiving our sins was the greatest problem ever faced! I get that is a bold statement! How could anything be a problem to God? The answer falls on the nature of God; he is both Holy and loving. God is perfect in all ways. He is perfectly holy and perfectly loving. Those two things attributes of God cannot play against each other.

In Genesis, all God had to do was say, “Let there be light,” and there was light. “Let there be water,” and there was water. “Let there be animals,” boom animals. So why did it take thousands of years for the time to be right for Jesus to come? Why did there need to be this perfectly laid out plan for Jesus to be put to death for our sins? Why not “Let there be forgiveness?”

Because this proves that God is Holy; without a perfectly holy God, a perfect judge, there is no hope for the universe because there is no solution for evil. There is a debt that you owe when you sin. So because God is a perfect judge, a holy God, there is no hope unless a payment is made. On the cross, both holiness and the love of God came together. In God’s perfect plan, they were perfectly joined together as our solution for sin and evil. Jesus paid the price for us. Do you get how forgiveness was a problem? A price has to be paid no matter who you are. God couldn’t say, “Let there be forgiveness” and be a perfect God. Unless you understand this, you don’t really understand Christianity.

The Only Hope for us is Jesus

The problem is that some people believe that faith in Christ is not the only way to Heaven. And if you believe that, then you don’t understand the problem of forgiveness. Why would God send his son to earth as a ransom payment if there was another way to be saved? If someone says a person in another religion, without believing in Christ, without relying on his blood as the payment of our debts, but by being a good person, can get to heaven, what they are saying is what Jesus did was not necessary.

Timothy Keller had an excellent example of this that he learned from one of his professors. “If I’m on a boat with a friend and we’re in a swift river, and my friend says to me, ‘You know, I just don’t know how to tell you how much I love you. I know what I’ll do. I’ll jump out of the boat and drown myself. Then you’ll know how much I love you.’ ”

If your friend jumps out of the boat, will you be moved? Would you say to yourself, “Wow, Johnny really loves me?” Or would you say, “I wished I had grabbed him so I could have taken him to the hospital to get some mental help?” The hospital, right? Because our life was in no danger. So, if there is no danger and a person voluntarily dies for you, it is not an act of love. It is an act of derangement! If he didn’t have to die, then his death is ridiculous. It is senseless. It is illogical. It’s perverted.

Now, on the other hand, if the boat is sinking and I don’t know how to swim, and he saves my life but dies in the process. There was no other way to save my life but to jump into the river and pull me to the side, but knew he would die in the process; then I knew that person loved me. He gave his life for me because I was really dead unless he got me out! That is love; that is paying the price.

We Have to Have a Transformed Life

A lot of us say, “I’m Christian, and I believe Jesus died on the cross,” but let’s be honest. Our lives aren’t transformed. If we go back to the text Eph 1:5 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, in Verse 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,[2]

What is the Bible saying here? It is saying that the greatest expression of the glory of what God did on the cross is the transformed lives of the people he has redeemed and ransomed. It is saying God has adopted us in our lowest moments for one reason. He has saved you for the purpose of receiving praise for his magnificent grace. That means you and I are the greatest evidence of the glory of God in the universe. Let’s look at Eph. 3:10 10 so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.[3]In other words, we are the display case, the trophy room, and the championship banners for the glory and grace of God. The angels long to look at the wisdom of God manifested in the church. In you and I.

When I was a kid, we went on a family vacation to Tennessee. One of the places we visited was The Lost Sea. It is the largest underground lake in America and 140 feet underground. So we had a tour guide who walked us down this weaving pathway down this cave, showing us all the rock formations along the way. He showed us what complete darkness really looks like. That was pretty scary. And once we reached the bottom, we got to see it. The Lost Sea! With the lights on, you could see these dark things swimming in the lake. They were a specific type of mountain trout, but you couldn’t see them clearly. While you are at the lake, they put you on these flat glass bottom boats, and they take you out into the lake. As we made our way out to the middle of the lake, they turned on some lights underneath the boat, and what was dark and blurry became crystal clear. You could see the rocks on the bottom of the lake that were 40 ft deep. You could see the trout clearly. You could see everything. I remember as a kid thinking how amazing it was to see the lake so clearly.

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We are the glass bottom boats on the surface of God’s heart. The universe, the angles, and the world around us long to look into it. They long to see into God’s heart, but the reflections off the surface make it hard to see clearly. But when you and I are transformed by God’s love and grace, we become the clear glass they can look through to see past the reflections on the surface. Have you been changed? Have you been revolutionized? A lot of us have not been. A lot of us say we are Christians. A lot of us recite this creed. A lot of us have said we are Christians for a long time now, but we know we are no trophies of God’s grace. We know there are no angles looking at us to see God’s heart. And if they do, they see mirrors, not clear glass.

Why would I say that? It’s because many of us don’t understand the doctrine, the truth, of the cross. Paul says in Gal 6:14 14 But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. So we understand forgiveness was impossible apart from the cross. The greatest problem in the history of the universe was how to forgive you and me…

What do you really boast about? What do you look at that you can be really proud of? For Christians, Paul says all we should boast of is the cross. In order to boast in the cross, in order for it to lift us up high, we first have to get low. The only way to be exalted, and loved, is to be humble and admit, “Yes, I deserve death for my sins. Yes, forgiveness was such a problem to a Holy God. I was so wicked, and I was so lost he had to bring his son as a payment, a ransom, as a sacrifice for my sins.”

I think many of us still think our sins are not as big as other people’s sins. Here is the problem. In a single acorn, there is enough power to fill the entire world with trees. If there were no trees on earth, a single acorn would be all it would take. It would take a while, but with a single tree would come many more acorns. Those acorns would become trees, and those trees would produce more acorns. The Bible tells us every one of your resentments is like an acorn. So inside of one of your acorns is murder. Your acorns killed Jesus.

They look so innocent, but on the inside is every possible thought and every possible sin. Because of that, we are worthy of death. The only way to be free of our debt and our guilt was for Jesus to shed his blood. If you believe that, then when you look at the cross and say, “For me?” You came and took my place? Why did you pay the price for my debt? I didn’t do anything except run up the debt that I owe you, and you paid the price for me?

God forbid that I should glory in anything except the cross of Christ. When we boast on the cross and say, “I matter to the only One who matters.” The only eyes that count see me as a beautiful son or daughter of the King of Kings because of what Jesus did for me on the cross. He took my damnation. Every time we look at the cross, our heart melts. Our sin is burned off when we look at the cross like that.

I love to watch videos of blacksmiths. They take these pieces of raw iron and get them very hot, and they start to hit them with a hammer. As the impacts happen, impurities start to come to the surface, and the more the iron gets heated and hammered, the more impurities come out of the iron. That is what happens to us, When we look at the cross with that lens in place, our lives are heated in the forge, and our sins leave us; our lives are forever changed.

We look at the cross and say, “Look at what he did. How in the world can I fail to be a forgiving person?” How is a Christian to boast in the cross, boast in the ultimate sacrifice, the forgiveness of our sins, and not forgive others around us? The only way is that either we have lost sight of how big of a problem our forgiveness really was, or we never knew. The reason I am beating this point across today is if you don’t understand how hard forgiveness is, you won’t do the work to forgive your brother and sister and your neighbor. God wants his Church to be something the angels want to come and study: a church of people who are radically forgiving all the time.

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I know forgiving the person who wronged you (your neighbor, friend, mother, father, brother, or sister) is going to be expensive. That is why we have to look at what Jesus did for us. What is holding you back from forgiving? Until you see the difficulty in God forgiving you, you’re never going to go through it yourself. As a pastor, I talk to people all the time and tell them you have to forgive. And the answer I get most of the time is I know, but it is too hard. Of course, it is hard! But if you think it is too hard, you're not looking at what it costs God to forgive you!

Do you believe that your sin carries a debt with it that you owe? That debt you owe carries a capital punishment. And the only way for that debt to be forgiven by God was for him to pay for it himself. So, he sent his son Jesus to take that capital punishment in your place. Can you boast in the cross? This is the acid test to see if you are a true believer or just a cultural Christian. You see, a Christian doesn’t just say I believe in the cross. A Christian boasts in it! Part of the boast is the same God that took that debt away from you also lives inside of you. And as forgiveness was complicated for God, that same strength he had to overcome it lives in, you know.

Growing up in church, we used to sing this old hymn, “When I survey the wondrous cross.” And that is what we, as Christians, should do. We should survey and study the wondrous cross. “When I survey the wondrous Cross. On which the Prince of Glory died. My richest gain I count but loss. And pour contempt on all my Pride.

Don’t just believe in the cross. Survey the cross. Let its truths melt you. Boast in the sacrifice God made for you by forgiving those who have wronged you. Boast on the cross by using the same strength that forgave you, which is living inside you, to forgive those who hurt you. Be the glass bottom boat on the surface of God’s heart that clearly shows his Holiness and Love to the universe around us.

Today, we are going to be taking communion. Communion is a sacrament that the church follows. Our opportunity is to survey the cross and what it means to us. One of the warnings we have in the Bible about this sacrament is not to take it lightly. One of the ways we do that is to look at our hearts to see if there is any unforgiveness. And if there is, we are to forgive before we partake in the elements.

In just a second, Rachel will play “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross,” and if you are ready, come and get your elements. But if you are not ready and need to forgive, work that out in your heart before you come. Maybe you need to find that person, and perhaps you need to come to the altar and leave the hurt, the pain at the foot of the throne. Maybe you need to talk and pray with one of our prayer team for support as you start to forgive. Whatever it is you need to do, do it. Let’s stop belittling the sacrifice of what God had to do on the cross in order to forgive us. Be the glass-bottom boat on God’s heart and show the world what love really is. Let’s believe in the forgiveness of sins by forgiving.

23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for[f] you. Do this in remembrance of me.”[g] 25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Eph 1:4–7.

[2] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Eph 1:7.

[3] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Eph 3:10.