Paying
Notes
Transcript
Today we are continuing our journey through the “Life in 6 Words” series. Here is a quick reminder of what we have covered so far...
God created us to be with Him.
Our sins separate us from God.
Sins cannot be removed by good deeds.
For the last two weeks we have been focusing on some bad news. Who’s ready for some good news?!
God, the Architect of the universe, created us for a personal relationship. Because of our sins, we are separated from our Creator (very bad news), because this means spiritual death, physical death, and eternal separation. If that wasn’t bad enough, it gets worse because the sins cannot be removed by good deeds.
This week it is GOOD NEWS! “Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again.”
We could not pay off our own sin debt. We were destined for hell, which is eternal separation from God, but God made a way! Today we are going to study the gospel of Jesus Christ, the good news!
Pray
“Paying the price for sin Jesus died and rose again.” The book of Isaiah paints a vivid picture of the pain Jesus endured to die in our place…
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
A question that often comes up when talking about the Gospel is “Why?” Maybe you have even wondered this yourself. Why did Jesus have to die? If God really is so good, so powerful, and so loving, why would His Son have to die for us to be forgiven? This is our driving thought for today so if you are taking notes, why did Jesus have to die for our forgiveness?…
A price had to be paid.
A price had to be paid.
God doesn’t just snap His fingers for our forgiveness. Blood must be shed. Why? Because God is a just God and He demands Justice be done. We are going to be reading quite a bit from chapter 9 of Hebrews so you might want to bookmark it to study later, but for now check out the last part of verse 22…
Hebrews 9:22 (ESV)
22 … without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
It’s similar to the way we long for justice. When you watch a movie like “Taken” you find yourself rooting for Liam Neeson to give the bad guy what he deserves. A few months ago, Amy and I were in OKC and we were driving up the Hefner parkway. We were actually in that area where I-44 splits and goes to the East and if you have driven through there you know that traffic is always crazy there.
In my mirror I noticed a guy coming up on us fast as he weaved through traffic, so I tried to leave him plenty of room. Sure enough he blasted past us, but just ahead of us the road curved hard to the left. We see his brake lights come on as he tries to make this curve, but ends up skidding across lanes of traffic and onto the shoulder. He almost wrecked!
At the end of the curve was a motorcycle cop giving someone else a ticket, and when he saw this guy he immediately ran to his bike and jumped on it. I don’t know if the guy that almost wrecked saw the cop or needed to change his shorts, but he instantly pulled to the shoulder and stopped. It was probably a combination of both.
When we saw the cop, both of us were like, “Oh yeah! That never happens! That guy is getting a ticket!”
Justice! We feel it in our bones. This innate sense is further proof that we were made in the image of God. He, too, requires justice be done, but on a much grander level! He requires blood to be shed. The price that had to be paid to cleanse us had to be paid in blood. Let’s back up a few verses to verse 11…
11 So Christ has now become the High Priest over all the good things that have come. He has entered that greater, more perfect Tabernacle in heaven, which was not made by human hands and is not part of this created world. 12 With his own blood—not the blood of goats and calves—he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever. 13 Under the old system, the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer could cleanse people’s bodies from ceremonial impurity. 14 Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our consciences from sinful deeds so that we can worship the living God. For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins.
In the Old Testament, every year the Israelites would sacrifice to make atonement for their sins in order to restore their relationship with God. The High Priest would enter the Holy Place to offer a blood sacrifice to cleanse the people from impurity. It is known as the Day of Atonement. Jesus’ sacrifice is the ultimate fulfillment of the Day of Atonement.
This passage in Hebrews is saying that Jesus entered the true tabernacle, not just one that had been created on earth, but God’s presence in heaven. Then He offered His own blood, not the blood of animals. The blood of God who became man. If the blood of animals could cleanse people, how much more would Jesus’ blood purify us?
Because of His sacrifice we don’t need to make more sacrifices every year. His sacrifice was once and for all because He was the perfect sacrifice. Once is enough. As a human He could die for other humans. As God His payment for sin was infinite! Let’s jump down to verse 24…
24 For Christ did not enter into a holy place made with human hands, which was only a copy of the true one in heaven. He entered into heaven itself to appear now before God on our behalf. 25 And he did not enter heaven to offer himself again and again, like the high priest here on earth who enters the Most Holy Place year after year with the blood of an animal. 26 If that had been necessary, Christ would have had to die again and again, ever since the world began. But now, once for all time, he has appeared at the end of the age to remove sin by his own death as a sacrifice. 27 And just as each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment, 28 so also Christ was offered once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people. He will come again, not to deal with our sins, but to bring salvation to all who are eagerly waiting for him.
Sometimes we forget that God is not just loving. He is just AND loving. Because He is a righteous judge, true and holy, he MUST punish sin. There is a price to pay for sin, which we have already discovered is DEATH. A physical and spiritual death, separated from God, BUT GOD loved us so much that He sent His Son to die in our place!
The price had to be paid in blood. The most amazing thing is that He didn’t pay the price out of obligation. It was a price that was paid out of love.
Jesus Himself shares the heart and mission of God the Father in His conversation with Nicodemus in the most popular Scripture ever memorized or quoted, John 3:16…
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
God’s love let to action. He loves us so much that He GAVE.
Have you ever considered the sacrifice that God made because of how much He loves you?
In 1967, Dennis E. Hensley published a story that is difficult to read and heart breaking to process called “To Sacrifice a Son: An Allegory.”
The story was about a switchman who operated the controls to turn a large bridge. This bridge spanned a large river. During most of the day the bridge sat with its length running up and down the river paralleled with the banks, allowing ships to pass through freely on both sides of the bridge. At certain times each day, a train would come along and the bridge would be turned sideways across the river, allowing the train to cross it.
One evening as the switchman was waiting for the last train of the day to come, he looked off into the distance through the dimming twilight and caught sight of the train lights. He stepped onto the control and waited until the train was within a prescribed distance. Then he was to turn the bridge.
He turned the bridge into position, but to his horror, he found the locking control did not work. If the bridge was not securely in position, it would cause the train to jump the track and go crashing into the river. This would be a passenger train with MANY people aboard.
He left the bridge turned across the river and hurried across the bridge to the other side of the river, where there was a lever switch he could hold to operate the lock manually.
He would have to hold the lever back firmly as the train crossed. He could hear the rumble of the train now, and he took hold of the lever and leaned backward to apply his weight to it, locking the bridge. He kept applying the pressure to keep the mechanism locked. Many lives depended on this man’s strength.
Then, coming across the bridge from the direction of his control shack, he heard a sound that made his blood run cold. His four year old son was crossing the bridge to look for him. His first impulse was to cry out to the child, “Run! Run!” But the train was too close; the tiny legs would never make it across the bridge in time.
The man almost left his lever to snatch up his son and carry him to safety, but he realized that he could not get back to the lever in time if he saved his son.
He took but a moment to make his decision. The train sped safely and swiftly on its way, and no one aboard was even aware of the sacrifice that had just been made. Nor were they aware of the pitiful figure of the sobbing man, still clinging to the locking lever long after the train had passed.
Now, if you comprehend the emotions that went through this man’s heart, you can begin to understand the feelings of our Father in Heaven when He sacrificed His Son to bridge the gap between us and eternal life.
Can there be any wonder that He caused the earth to tremble and the skies to darken. I think He was holding back. I can’t even begin to imagine having to give so much. How must He feel when we speed through life without giving a thought to what was done for us through Jesus Christ?
Why did Jesus have to die? A price had to be paid. Our second thought, if you are taking notes…
An exchange had to be made.
An exchange had to be made.
Yesterday I was browsing the modern marvel that is the internet and I found a few interesting things for sale. I found a vintage 1987 KFC refresher towel, or in other words, a wet wipe that nobody had the courtesy to throw in the trash. The seller only wanted $300.
Another guy wanted $1200 for a rock that he found that looked like an apple. To sweeten the deal he told potential buyers that they could say it was the petrified remains of the apple that Adam and Eve enjoyed.
I found another priceless artifact for sale. An unopened bottle of Aunt Jemima’s pancake syrup. They only wanted $12,000.
A woman was selling what she deemed, the “worlds biggest ruffle” for $5000. It looked to be about 5 inches in diameter at it’s longest point.
And one of the most expensive items I found, clocking in at about $340,000, was a VHS home-recorded tape of Nickelodeon’s 1995 Christmas cartoons.
It seems crazy to think that people might actually pay serious money for trash, but check this out…
21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.
In other words, God has such crazy love for us, that through the cross, he offers His righteousness in exchange for our sin!
As we discussed before, we could never get to heaven on our own. Our righteousness is as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). But when we trust Christ as our Savior, this beautiful exchange is made, and he takes away our sin and clothes us in His righteousness!
8 Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. 9 Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.’ 10 And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests. 11 “But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. 12 And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. 13 Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ 14 For many are called, but few are chosen.”
It’s not just enough to be invited to the banquet, you must have the right clothes on… the robe of righteousness…
10 I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
Why did Jesus have to die? A price had to be paid. An exchange had to be made. And finally…
A victory had to be displayed.
A victory had to be displayed.
A couple of victories, actually. First, we have the victory of the Cross. The cross meant victory for us and defeat for the Adversary. Colossians 2 says…
13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.
Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross meant victory for us in that we were made alive! God brought us from death to life. It is victory for us because we were forgiven. The debt has been paid!
The cross means defeat for the enemy, Satan. He was disarmed. As the accuser, he often uses the law to beat us down, but Jesus knocked that weapon out of his hand! Then Satan was disgraced. He was put to shame. Our enemy lost an embarrassing loss!
Jesus displayed victory on the cross, and victory in the resurrection. Luke says that Jesus…
3 He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.
We have clear evidence of the resurrection. Our entire belief system hinges on the event. Many try to disprove that Jesus rose. Right away, people were trying to say that it didn’t happen. Paul even had to address it and he said that “if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.”
Jesus was SEEN over the course of 40 days, 12 different times, by over 500 witnesses! Jesus IS ALIVE!
Paul describes the death, burial, and resurrection as of “first importance” (1 Cor 15:3). His resurrection shows that His sacrifice was sufficient, and our salvation in Christ alone is assured, because the payment was complete. “At the resurrection we all cheered because that meant the check cleared!” Without the resurrection, Jesus’ death would have no power to apply the payment required for our forgiveness.
17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.
Thank God He DID come back to life, so that we may have eternal life in Him. Paul describes the gospel as the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. The word “Gospel” literally means “Good News.” Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again. He paid for it, and He offers it freely to anyone who calls upon His name.
Even though we still fight battles against the powers of this dark world, the ultimate victory has been won!
Pray
