Forgiveness by the Cross

Col. 1:20-23

Summary: In this passage, Paul emphasizes the cosmic reconciliation achieved through Christ’s blood on the cross, demonstrating that through Jesus, both humanity and all creation are restored to a right relationship with God.

Application: This sermon can encourage Christians to recognize the depth of their reconciliation to God, inviting others who feel estranged or burdened by sin to embrace the peace and hope found in Christ. It highlights the importance of living out this reconciliation in their daily interactions and relationships.

Teaching: The sermon teaches that through Christ's sacrifice, believers are not only forgiven but also empowered to reflect His grace and forgiveness to others. It reinforces the idea of unity and belonging in the body of Christ.

How this passage could point to Christ: This passage points to Jesus as the central figure of God's redemptive plan, establishing Him as the mediator of reconciliation not just for individuals, but for all of creation. It reveals how the entire narrative of Scripture culminates in Christ, who restores what was lost in the Fall.

Big Idea: Through faith in Christ, we are reconciled to God, called to live out that reconciliation in our lives, bringing peace to our relationships and reflecting God's love to the world.

Welcome to Mountain View Baptist Church. As we gather on this beautiful day here in the high desert, we are grateful to everyone being here. If you are a first time guest, we are extremely grateful to have you in our service today.

Our theme for this year is Engage in the cause and the cause we are focusing this spring is the cause of the cross. Spring started this past Thursday. The message today is the Forgiveness by the Cross.

An internet search reveals the effects of a guilty conscience. It can lead to anxious obsessions, depressive tendencies, and physical symptoms if it's not addressed. While most guilt is internal, it is often conditioned by external factors — which means with the right habits, it can be unlearned. To unlearn excessive guilt, you must know the signs.Sep 15, 2024

God will convict us to remind us of the guilt for wrongdoing. It is the guilt of sin that brings shame and conviction for sin and our spiritual condition.

There is a conscience fund which is maintained by the US Dept of Treasury. This is money voluntarily paid to restore amounts that the donor considers to have been wrongfully acquired or withheld from the government. For one American it meant returning $.09 to US treasury. For another it meant sending the government $155,502. This is because the conscience for wrongdoing can be overwhelming. People will voluntarily give to the conscience fund for money they have either taken or did not pay back.

God shows us through His Word that we have broken His law and we need forgiveness. The conviction from God give us this uneasy, guilty feeling. Forgiveness brings peace, calmness and a security that we are right with God. Forgiveness is intended to relieve the guilty conscience.

If you are here today and have never received Jesus as your Savior, today God wants to show you three truths that will change all that for you. The decision to receive Christ as your Savior is a personal choice. It is not automatic, it is a decision you make to call upon Jesus.

The first truth…

1. Forgiveness through His Blood

Colossians 1:20

A. The price

1. Spiritual forgiveness is paid for by His blood. Religion and good works cannot pay for it.

2. The price of the blood is found in

Leviticus 17:11 “For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.”

3. God has chosen this price as the only acceptable payment for sin.

4. This payment was taken care of on the cross when it was like a legal transaction-justification-a legal term pointed to being made righteous on the cross.

Song writer says, “ what can wash away my sins, nothing but the blood of Jesus.”

The man who worships without Christ and without the blood of the Lamb and without forgiveness and without cleansing is assuming too much. He is mistaking error for truth, and spiritual tragedy is the result.17

A. W. Tozer

B. The Person

It is God’s reconciling man unto himself. God does not need to be reconciled to man because He has always loved man.

1. It is not any person’s blood but only the blood of Jesus because He is the substitutionary sacrifice for all our sins.

2. He is the only One qualified because He was born of a virgin, never one time sinned, died bearing our sins, and rose conquering our sins.

Because Christ was God, did he pass unscorched through the fires of Gethsemane and Calvary? Rather let us say, because Christ was God he underwent a suffering that was absolutely infinite.

Augustus Hopkins Strong (America’s Leading Baptist Theologian)

3. When you receive Jesus as your personal Savior your guilt of sin is gone because His payment for sin has been received by God the Father. Our record is clean with God, however, the consequences of sin will not be removed.

Forgiveness removes the guilt of sin but not its consequences.

Philip Graham Ryken; R. Kent Hughes

The answer to guilt is always forgiveness.

R. C. Sproul

4. This is why we must have Jesus-He is the only answer Johns 14:6.

5. All things means He restores order and peace to all creation when He returns.

6. Accepting Christ is a part of a larger divine plan-the cause of Christ.

Truth 2 . . .

2. Reconciliation through His cross

Colossians 1:21

A. Past alienation

1. Before we met Christ we were totally alienated from life in Christ-neither knowing or understanding this life. We were unfamiliar and uncomfortable in the Christian world.

1 Corinthians 2:14 “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

2. This left us lost in our sin. Sin will be pleasurable for a season.

Hebrews 11:25 KJV 1900

Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;

3. When a person feels alienated, you have a tendency to create your own world by grabbing at the pleasures of the world which leads to emptiness and despair.

4. Our past was stained with sin and the emptiness of life being isolated from true life.

B. Present transformation

1. God came to us by His grace to offer a satisfying, true life worth living.

2. It’s a call to humility and gratitude recognizing that reconciliation is a free gift which comes through salvation.

There is a legal reconciliation between two people in the courts. A legal reconciliation is the renewal of amicable relations between two persons who had been at enmity or variance; usually imply forgiveness of injuries on one or both sides. It is the efforts of the court to reconcile lost relationships between two parties.

A common problem is this is external solution which both parties come to an agreement but internally there are hurt feelings and resentments. However, when you know Jesus Christ as your Savior, God has transformed you from the inside out. Your heart has been changed and your desires are brand new.

3. Let this transformation by the gospel rekindle your relationships and extend grace to them like you received in Christ.

David Gibbs tells the story of a young girl who was physically abused by her father. He hit her and cut her face with a knife that left a permanent scar on her face. She was bitter and angry at him and the world because this scar on her face was humiliating and embarrassing. A friend invited her to church and she accepted Jesus as her Savior. For the first time in her life, she learned of the love and forgiveness that comes through a personal relationship with Christ. She was growing in her walk with the Lord by being faithful in church. Eventually God’s grace worked in her life and she forgave her abusive father. At this point, she was living on her own but was burdened for her father’s relationship with God.

She invited him to attend their church revival meeting. He told her no but she continued to pray for him. One night he came to the meeting and sat in the back. At the end of the service, her abusive father walked the aisle to receive Christ as his Savior. When she saw him, it was as if everything stopped in silence. Their eyes locked and they ran to embrace in the grace of Jesus. Not only had they both been reconciled to God, they both have been reconciled to each other.

Several years ago, we invited the local law enforcement to police appreciation day. Many came including city council members and one of police chiefs. Fairfield had been going through a difficult stint of crime and murders. I began to preach through this passage and told them if the people in our community would receive Christ as their Savior, you would have an easier job. If people would be right with God, they can’t help but be right with others. This resonated with some that day and others it seemed foreign to them.

The last truth is.

3. Perfected by His grace

Colossians 1:22-23

A. Jesus died to make us free

1. When you receive what Christ did for you, His work of grace will begin in your life. The biblical term is sanctification which means to be set apart. Positional sanctification begins at salvation and progressive sanctification is the daily work of God’s grace in our lives.

2. The forgiveness God gives to us through His grace operates in our lives on daily basis.

Romans 8:5 KJV 1900

For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.

3. The truth of the matter is we are being made free from ourselves, our selfishness, our bitterness, our anger, our lust, our envy, all of the things which the Bible calls the works of the flesh.

B. Jesus died to make us holy

Sanctification is not an experience to be received, it is the working out of the life of God in the soul, and it starts from the moment of re-birth. God’s Ultimate Purpose, 285

David Martyn Lloyd-Jones (Welsh Preacher and Writer)

1. God is shaping us into new creatures meaning our lives will be new because of God’s amazing grace.

2. In the body of his flesh v.22a-He did what we could not do. All by His grace this work is presenting us before Him: holy, unblameable, and unreproveable in His sight.

3. We are not to move away from the hope of the gospel-gospel is a work of God’s grace-not religion or man’s effort.

If regeneration is a work of new creation, sanctification is a work of new formation. If regeneration is a new birth, sanctification is a new growth.

J. I. Packer

Jesus is the ultimate peace maker. He made every effort possible for you and I to be at peace with God. He died on the cross by suffering the anguish and ugliness of sin. He died in our place. Have you accepted Jesus as your personal Savior? You cannot have peace with God without knowing Jesus as your Savior. Will you accept Him today? We have people who have already accepted Christ here in the front to help you or in the back with a red lanyard.

Christian have you moved away from the hope of the gospel? When move away from the hope of the gospel, there will be an absence of the peace He offers. Sometimes Christians will say I don’t feel saved, that is because you have moved away from the gospel. It is time to move towards the gospel. We will have people here in the front to help you. You may need to ask forgiveness from God. You may just need to make a decision to start today getting closer to God. Will you come here to the front and get alone if you need to with God?