We Believe: In the Forgiveness of Sin

Introduction

Today we continue our We Believe series on the Apostles’ Creed as we talk about the forgiveness of sin. Repeat this after me: We believe in the forgiveness of sin. This is one of the foundational truths of the Gospel, that Christ came to attain forgiveness for all those who belong to Him. There are three things that I want us to leave with today as we look at what the Scriptures say about forgiveness: 1) Clarity on how to receive forgiveness (2) Confidence in the completeness of our forgiveness in Christ. (3) Conviction to live in light of our forgiveness in Christ. The main point today is that Forgiveness is available and complete in Christ Jesus, and those who have received it must live like it.

We are going to be in several different passages of Scripture today, but the main texts we will be looking at is , , and . We have a lot of ground to cover in a short amount of time, so lets dive in and look first at .

(NKJV)

Christ Witnesses to Nicodemus

3 There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”

3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

4 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”

5 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

9 Nicodemus answered and said to Him, “How can these things be?”

10 Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things? 11 Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness. 12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. 21 But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”

Clarity

There is so much that we could unpack in this passage, but for the purpose of today’s message we will be focusing on verse 14. But I want to set the stage by summarizing the verses leading up to it.

So Nicodemus comes to Jesus because he believed Jesus had the answers he was looking for, and he was right. Jesus didn’t even let the man ask his question, He just answered it. Jesus knew exactly why Nicodemus had come to Him. Nicodemus wanted to know how he could be a part of the kingdom of God, how he could inherit eternal life. Jesus answered Him and said He must be born again. This baffled Nicodemus so he asked a follow up question: How can this happen? Can a man enter a second time into His mother’s womb? Then Jesus said listen you have to be born of the water and Spirit, what is born of flesh is flesh and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. In saying this Jesus is alluding to where the Lord says that He will sprinkle clean water on His people and put His Spirit in them. Jesus is summing up scripture to him which is why He is a little frustrated that Nicodemus did not know these things. Jesus has told Him earthly things, simple things and Nicodemus still did not receive it, did not understand. So in verse 13 Jesus tries to make it clearer for Nicodemus. He says, listen no one has ascended to heaven but the Son of Man, Jesus Himself. Jesus is telling Nicodemus that no one has climbed their way to heaven, no one has scaled that mountain. Why? Because no one can! Humanity has a problem so deep that they must be born again, the problem with humanity is sin and sin has killed our soul, we are spiritually dead so the only way to inherit eternal life is to be born again, to be made alive in Christ. So Jesus is pointing Nicodemus to the fact that the only person who could ascend to heaven based on His merit alone is God Himself in the flesh, Jesus.

Then in verse 14 and 15 He moves on to the remedy for the problem. Jesus said look the only one who has ascended to heaven is the Son of Man, who has descended from heaven, who has come to the earth for this purpose: to be lifted up. Look at what He says: “14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” To get the full picture of what this means we are going to have to go back and look at the this story from the Old Testament. But before we do lets make sure we are clear on what Jesus is saying here. He is telling Nicodemus, and us, that in order to receive eternal life we must be born again because we cannot ascend to heaven based on our own merit, we are dead in our sins, tainted and unworthy. We have to be made new, with a new life. And the only way for this to occur, is for the Son of Man, Jesus, to be lifted up as the serpent was lifted up and for us to believe in Him.

So the question is how was the serpent lifted up? To answer this we must go back to the story Jesus is talking about. That passage is found in .

Nicodemus

(NKJV)

The Bronze Serpent

4 Then they journeyed from Mount Hor by the Way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the soul of the people became very discouraged on the way. 5 And the people spoke against God and against Moses: “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread.” 6 So the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many of the people of Israel died.

7 Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord that He take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.

8 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.” 9 So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.

So, in this passage, we see that the Israelites are traveling along in the desert. They have been delivered from Egypt, they had received the ten commandments, God had been sustaining them with water from rocks and from manna from heaven, and God had just given them a victory in battle. But the Israelites became discouraged and then angry. They spoke out against God and Moses, His servant. “5“Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread.” They spoke out against the very Lord who had delivered them, who had saved them from slavery, who was continuously providing for them in the wilderness, they said that their soul loathed the bread the Lord had given them. In their anger they sinned against the Lord. They turned on their God.

So, as an expression of His anger and wrath, God sent fiery serpents into their camp. The serpents bit them and many died. Israelites were suffering and dying from the venom of the snakes so they came to Moses, God’s chosen mediator to the people and said“We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord that He take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.” They came to the mediator between God and man admitted their sin and asked that He pray to God on their behalf. So God told Moses to fashion a fiery serpent out of bronze and lift it up on a pole so, vs 8“everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.” So Moses did as God said and all who looked on the bronze serpent lived.

The Israelites were in dire trouble, they had sinned and they were desperate. They knew that they were wrong, that they deserved what they were getting, and that the only way to get out of their dire situation was for God to intervene. Brothers and sisters that is the state of every human ever to live! We are sinners who are enemies of God under His wrath and the only way for us to escape our just punishment is for the Lord to intervene. Do we understand how serious sin is? It is killing us! There is no way out for us unless God does something. We are in a desperate situation. We are all the woman caught in adultery. We are sinners who deserve the stoning, the stones are in the air about to fall and the only way out is if God does something. Brothers and sisters the good news of the Gospel is that God has done something! Christ has come! But instead of a pole, He was lifted on a cross. Instead of making a statue, He sacrificed Himself. So that if we realize our desperate situation, repent of our sin, and look on Him we will live!

Charles Spurgeon

"The first link between my soul and Christ is not my goodness, but my badness! It is not my merit, but my misery! It is not my standing, but my falling! It is not my riches, but my need. He comes to visit His people, yet not to admire their beauties, but to remove their deformities! He comes not to reward their virtues, but to forgive their sins!"

Have you realized your desperate situation and looked on and believed in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sin? Before the Israelites could be saved they had to recognize their desperate situation, repent of their sin, and look and believe. It is the same for us! We have to recognize our situation before the Lord, that we are sinners under His wrath. We have to repent, to turn from those sins and look to the crucified Christ for the forgiveness of our sin. This is how we receive forgiveness. This is how we are born again. Its the same for everyone in this room! Look to Christ and live!

Confidence

Now that we have Clarity on how to receive forgiveness, lets move on to talking about the completeness of our forgiveness in Christ. And to do that I want to look closer at the similarities of the serpent and the Christ and then connect it to .

The serpent really represents two things: 1) sin and (2)wrath.

The serpents

1) Sin

We have already

We see that when the serpents came into the camp, they bit the people and everyone it bit was dying of the poison. This is an outward display of the inward reality in us all. Every person ever born has indwelling sin that is leading to death, because the wages of sin is death. Everyone has a sin problem, everyone is dying of the same thing. So what was the remedy for the Israelites? Moses had to fashion a bronze serpent and lift it up. The thing that was killing them had to be lifted up. It is the same way with us, in order for us to be healed, to be forgiven the thing that is killing us, sin, had to be lifted up.

(NKJV)

21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Moses made an image of what was killing the Israelites, Jesus became the thing that was killing us. Jesus became sin for us! So that we might become the righteousness of God.

Listen to what the puritan John Bunyan said about this

"Our sins, when laid upon the Christ, were yet personally ours, not his; so His righteousness, when put on us is yet personally His, not ours."

Jesus became sin for us and gave us His righteousness, cloaked us in His righteousness, so now we can come before our righteous Father. Just as the thing that was killing the Israelites, the serpent, had to be lifted up, the thing that was killing us had to be lifted up. Jesus became sin for us.

2) Wrath

The Israelites had sinned against God, gravely. They had profaned His name and the name of His servant Moses. They despised the works and grace of the Lord. So God sent the serpents as a display of His wrath toward their sin. One thing that we must realize is that because of our sin, we are under the wrath of God. Our sins are against a Holy and Righteous God. We have offended the the Almighty, we have committed treason of the highest order against the Holy King, and our sins must be punished. He is Just, therefore they must be punished. By our very nature we sin against the Lord, so by our very nature we are children of wrath.

(NKJV)

3 we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.

We are not good by nature. We are not friends of God by nature. By nature we are enemies deserving of nothing but the wrath of the Holy Holy Holy God. This is our state before Christ. The Israelites sinned and God sent the serpents as a visible expression of His wrath, and it wasn’t until the Israelites looked on the bronze serpent, that He relented of His wrath. When they repented of their sins, God provided a way for His wrath to be appeased in that moment. When the Israelites looked upon the bronze serpent they saw the image of God’s wrath. And when we look to the Cross, we see the visible and real outpouring of God’s wrath toward our sin.

(NKJV)

24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, 26 to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

A propitiation is a sacrifice of atonement. In the Old Testament that same word was used to mean mercy seat, the place where God showed mercy on sin in the holy of holies. Jesus was the propitiation for our sin! God showed His mercy toward us by pouring all of His wrath toward the sins of those who put their faith in Him, on the cross. God extinguished His wrath towards His children on the cross. See what’s happened here. Christ became sin, He became our sin and God poured out all of His wrath toward our sin on the cross. Christ became the thing that was killing us, and then God killed the thing that was killing us. In Christ our sin is dead and gone. So when we look to the Cross we see the wrath of God toward sin. And when we trust and believe in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus, we see the wrath of God toward our sin extinguished on the cross. The bronze serpent only temporarily appeased the wrath of God toward their sin, Christ’s sacrifice appeases it forever. He is the perfect sacrifice.

So the serpent represented sin and wrath, and Jesus became sin and bore all the wrath of God.

Before we move on to I want to point out one more similarity, but this is a similarity between Moses and Jesus. Moses was the mediator between God and man. He received the law, led the people and interceded on their behalf. But when the Israelites came to Moses, God instructed him to fashion an image of a serpent.

(NKJV)

15 And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

Jesus is the mediator of the new covenant. The great and holy mediator. The only one we need. And when we were in need of saving, God didn’t tell Him to fashion an image, He told Him to lay down His own life.

All of these pointers to Jesus should put us in awe of our God. He was working out the plan for our salvation since the beginning. Everything in the Old Testament points to Jesus.

Lets jump to we will be looking at the verses 1-23 but we will be skipping a few verses.

In this chapter Paul gives a beautiful and clear summary of what we have been talking about.

(NKJV)

3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7 For he who has died has been freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

How beautiful is the Gospel? Jesus became our sin in such a way that when we place our faith in Him we are buried with Him. Our old self has died, and with it all of the condemnation, with it all of the wrath toward our sin. Look at verses 5 and 6. We have been united in His death and His resurrection. Our old self is crucified with Him! So we are no longer slaves to sin. So we are dead indeed to sin but alive indeed in Christ.

He continues in verse 17 to say:

(NKJV)

17 But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. 18 And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.

And in verse 22 he says:

(NKJV)

22 But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.

We were slaves to sin, and now we have been set free of that cruel master and come under the care of a good Lord and Master our God. There are only two ways to be free of a Master who is unwilling to let you go. You either have to die, or be bought. Brothers and Sisters, the Gospel declares that both have happened! We have been crucified with Christ and, as says we have been bought at a price. God covered all of His bases. He has set us free completely and totally! His forgiveness is complete! There is nothing lacking. In Christ we are totally and completely without a doubt free and forgiven! As far as the east is from the west. As far as a slave is to a free man. As far as the dead are from the living. We are FREE! So brothers and sisters have confidence in the completeness of the forgiveness you have in Christ! You are His and He is yours. Preach this Gospel to yourself daily! And when your fear, or insecurites, or the enemy himself tries to tell you otherwise. Tries to tell you that God doesn’t love you. That God didn’t do what He said, with these scriptures in your heart you call him out for who he is, a liar! You are forgiven.

Conviction

Before we wrap up, there is one more thing we need to talk about. Because I skipped over a lot of verses in , and I hope you noticed that those verses should not be skipped over, because they set the context for Paul’s argument. Look at verses 1 and 15

(NKJV)

Dead to Sin, Alive to God

6 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?

(NKJV)

From Slaves of Sin to Slaves of God

15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?

Before Paul goes into His impassioned argument for the completeness of our forgiveness he asks us these questions. Should we continue in sin to which he answers both times Certainly Not! Or in other translations By No Means! See the Romans had a problem that is still plaguing the church, especially the western church where it is much easier to say that you are a Christian. This problem is that they did not take sin very seriously. This problem is that they wanted to be buddied up to sin, to live in the way that they had always lived, because “God would forgive them.” They thought as so many people today think. They say, “Its ok for me to do this or that because God has forgiven me. Its not that bad. I’ll live this way and just ask for forgiveness. I’ll keep being an alcoholic, I’ll keep shacking up, I’ll keep looking at things on the internet that I shouldn’t, I’ll keep committing sexual sin, I’ll keep cursing, I’ll keep telling and laughing at those vulgar jokes, I’ll keep doing x,y,z because God forgives me.” And Paul was shocked and probably a little angry that this was even a thing. That people could take sin so lightly. Because, he says in verse 23, the wages of sin is death! So he says we should certainly not have this attitude, why? Because we aren’t slaves to sin any more. Because our old self has died with Christ. Because we are free from sin, so it would be insane to subject ourselves to that cruel master again. That cruel master who wants nothing but our death and destruction. Look at what He says in verses 12-14

(NKJV)

From Slaves of Sin to Slaves of God

12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. 13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.

15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not!

(NKJV)

16 Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?

He is telling us that sin is serious, and that God has set us free. And that if we think this way about sin. And listen we are not talking about someone who loves the Lord yet stumbles and falls. We are not talking about the person who is at war with their sin. Paul is talking to those who are buddied up with their sin, who are not at war with it. People who don’t hate their sin. He says if we present ourselves to sin as obedient, if we think this way about sin then it is our master and not God. Listen if your attitude is that I will keep doing x,y and z because God will forgive me and its not that bad there are only two options:

Either don’t really know the Lord and haven’t come to that understanding of your situation that we talked about earlier, or you are a Christian who is abusing the forgiveness of God. Sin is serious and our life in Christ is meant to reflect. We are to die to ourselves daily. We are to fight our sin to the death. We are to repent of sin, not buddy up with it.

John Owen "The Mortification of Sin"

16 Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?

"Do you mortify? Do you make it your daily work? Be always at it whilst you live; cease not a day from this work; be killing sin or it will be killing you."

Brothers and sisters, sin is serious. The wages of sin is death. Christ died for it. If you are not fighting your sin to the death in the power of the Holy Spirit then your sin will kill your relationship with God and it will eventually lead you to leave the faith.

Forgiveness is available and Complete in in Christ Jesus, and those who have received must live like it.

Conclusion

Maybe you’re in here today and you realize that you aren’t saved. You haven’t received this forgiveness and if you died today you would be under the wrath of God. If that’s you Look to the Cross and Live. Repent of your sin and trust in Christ to save you. Ask Him to save you even now and He will. Don’t leave here today without trusting Christ.

Maybe you’re in here today and you haven’t been fighting sin. Sin is running free in your life and you realize that it has been your master and not God. Listen, God has not run out of forgiveness and grace for you. Repent and come back to Him. He is still here and He still loves you.

For all of us this truth should cause us to worship and be in awe of our Savior. And it should cause us to be fired up to go tell others.

So in this time of invitation, do whatever it is you need to so with God. He is here. Let’s pray.