Forgiveness Beyond Measure

Hebrews 10:1-18

©April 2nd, 2021 by Rev. Rick Goettsche GOOD FRIDAY

Every year as Good Friday rolls around, we inevitably talk about the crucifixion of Jesus. And we should, because Good Friday commemorates the day on which Jesus was killed. Sometimes such conversations focus on the gruesome nature of crucifixion and the physical pain Jesus had to endure. Many popular depictions of the crucifixion give a pretty accurate picture of what Jesus went through in terms of the physical agony of being crucified. All these discussions about crucifixion are accurate and appropriate, but they can cause us to miss the point.

In the midst of these discussions each year, someone inevitably asks, “If this is the day Jesus was crucified, then why do we call it Good Friday?” I’ve had people of all ages and levels of biblical knowledge ask this question. It’s not a stupid question by any means; it’s an important one. But I think one of the reasons people ask this question is because we focus so much on the agony of the crucifixion, but not nearly as much on why the crucifixion happened and what it accomplished.

So tonight we’re going to talk about the why of the crucifixion and Good Friday. Why did Jesus have to die? What did it accomplish? What difference does it make for us? If we answer these questions appropriately, I believe we will understand what is so good about this day when something awful happened.

Why?

The first question we want to ask is why was this necessary? Why did Jesus have to die? Why was the cross part of God’s plan?

To understand this we have to talk about sin. Sin is something that is endemic to every human being on the planet. It started all the way back in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. In Genesis 2, we read about the paradise which God created for Adam and Eve to enjoy. We also read the one rule He gave to Adam.

15 The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. 16 But the Lord God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden—17 except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.” (Genesis 2:15-17, NLT)

God only prohibited one action for Adam. He said Adam must not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He told Adam that if he ate of that fruit, he would die. Unfortunately, we know how the rest of the story goes. The serpent came and told Eve that God was lying, and that in fact, God was holding out on them. Eve believed what the snake said and ate. She gave some to Adam, and he ate. And sin entered the human race.

Because of their sin, all of humanity and all of creation is tainted by sin. Sin became a curse we could not shake. We, who were created to live forever would now experience death. We would get sick, we would decay, and ultimately die. Natural disasters, cancer, and all the evil in the world were part of this curse. But that wasn’t the worst part. The worst part was that Adam and Eve’s sin caused them to be separated from God. They were banished from the garden of Eden, no longer had close fellowship with the Lord, and had to contend with the mess they had made. Their sin, and the fallout from it, has the same effect on us today. Because of sin, our relationship with God is broken.

But you may ask why the whole fruit fiasco was such a big deal. It doesn’t seem like eating a piece of fruit should have such long-reaching effects. So why was it such a big deal to God?

The issue was not really about the fruit. The fruit did not taint Adam and Eve. Their disobedience did. God told Adam and Eve not to eat of the fruit, and then they did so in opposition to him. They were usurping his authority and attempting to assert their dominance over Him.

Maybe you’ve experienced this with a child or an animal before. You tell them not to do something and the second you turn around, they try to do exactly what you said not to. What is your response to that? Is that a big deal? Is it something you can just overlook? Of course not! What is at stake is far too great to leave that kind of action unpunished. It doesn’t matter whether what you told them not to do was a big deal or not, the fact that they think they can ignore you with impunity is a big deal. They are trying to assert that they are in control, but they are not. I think many parents don’t understand this concept today, which is why we have so many problems with respect and authority in our society.

God knew that Adam and Eve’s actions were an act of defiance, of rebellion against Him. That was something He could not ignore. That act of defiance broke the relationship they had before, and now there was separation from God.

As time went on, that attitude of defiance just continued to grow and grow among humanity. We found more and more ways to rebel against God and to live in ways contrary to what He told us to do. Our sin created an obstacle between us and God that we simply can’t remove.

The Law

Around the time of Moses, God gave the people the law. In it, he laid out for the Israelites expectations for how to live. The law helped people understand God’s character and made God’s expectations very clear. Yet the people continued to rebel and to break God’s law. So part of the law was provisions for how the people were to deal with their sin. The answer was with blood sacrifices.

When the people realized they had sinned, they were supposed to come to the priest with a pure and unblemished animal and have the priest sacrifice it and pour out its blood. The people understood this to mean that if they did the right kinds of sacrifices, then it would repair their relationship with God. But that’s not entirely true. Look at what the writer of Hebrews says about these sacrifices.

The old system under the law of Moses was only a shadow, a dim preview of the good things to come, not the good things themselves. The sacrifices under that system were repeated again and again, year after year, but they were never able to provide perfect cleansing for those who came to worship. 2 If they could have provided perfect cleansing, the sacrifices would have stopped, for the worshipers would have been purified once for all time, and their feelings of guilt would have disappeared. 3 But instead, those sacrifices actually reminded them of their sins year after year. 4 For it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. (Hebrews 10:1-4, NLT)

The writer of Hebrews gives us some important insight into the sacrificial system. The sacrifices never really dealt with the people’s sin. Instead, they served as a preview of what was to come. They never provided true cleansing (which is why they had to keep being repeated). He says the blood of bulls and goats could not possibly take away our sins. The sacrifices didn’t solve the problem of sin.

So why did God tell the Israelites to offer these sacrifices if they didn’t pay for the people’s sins? The writer of Hebrews helps us understand that as well. He says the sacrifices reminded the people of their sins year after year.

Why is it necessary to remind people of their sins? Doesn’t everyone know they are sinful? In one sense, I think the answer is yes. Most people would admit they are not perfect. But if you would ask the average person today, they would say that though they mess up sometimes, they certainly aren’t that bad. More and more in our society we are redefining what God says is sin. To say that any given behavior is sinful in our current climate is tantamount to hate speech (which ironically, our society condemns categorically.)

My point is this: without a reminder of the fact that we are sinful, we have a tremendous capacity to redefine sin to make it so it’s not a big deal. The sacrificial system was designed to prevent this. It was a reminder to the people that they were sinful, and of the seriousness of sin. It pointed them to the fact that because of their sin, they would die. Sin always causes death. The only way for us to have a restored relationship with God is for us to have someone sinless sacrificed in our place. That was the message of the sacrificial system. And this is where Jesus comes in.

The Solution

The sacrificial system pointed toward our need for a savior. It pointed people to the fact that something needed to happen in order to deal with their sin. Unfortunately, even this image became mangled by humanity. Instead of serving as a grim reminder of the dangers of sin, rigorously keeping the sacrificial laws now became a badge of pride. Offering sacrifices made people feel like they had taken care of their sin, so they could look down on others, because they had been made holy.

The truth is, we do much the same thing today. I’m amazed at how often I talk to people who say that they hope they have done enough good things in order to go to heaven. We have this notion that when we do what God has commanded, we are somehow balancing out or erasing our sin. But that’s not how it works at all!

Think of it this way. Suppose a student has a class with a teacher who gives an assignment every day. For a long time, the student goofs off during class and doesn’t take the assignments seriously. Instead, they turn in doodles, scribbles, or nothing at all. As a result, they start accumulating zeroes on all their assignments. But then, one day something happens. They start taking things more seriously. They begin turning in their assignments each day. They still miss problems, but they are finally doing what the teacher said. One day the student looks at their grade and is furious to discover they are failing the class! They argue that while they didn’t do their assignments before, the fact that they are now should make up for that. That ought to count for something! Of course it does! It means their grade isn’t getting any lower…but it doesn’t erase the zeroes they had already accumulated in the gradebook.

This is the problem with the mentality that we can do enough good things to overcome our sin. Obeying God is not like earning extra credit! Doing what God has said is simply turning in the assignments he had given us all along! The problem is that there is no way for us to fix the failures we’ve made in the past, nor the failures we continue to accumulate each day.

This is where Jesus comes in. Listen to what the writer of Hebrews says,

10 For God’s will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all time. 11 Under the old covenant, the priest stands and ministers before the altar day after day, offering the same sacrifices again and again, which can never take away sins. 12 But our High Priest offered himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then he sat down in the place of honor at God’s right hand. 13 There he waits until his enemies are humbled and made a footstool under his feet. 14 For by that one offering he forever made perfect those who are being made holy.

15 And the Holy Spirit also testifies that this is so. For he says, 16 “This is the new covenant I will make with my people on that day, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.” 17 Then he says, “I will never again remember their sins and lawless deeds.” 18 And when sins have been forgiven, there is no need to offer any more sacrifices. (Hebrews 10:10-18, NLT)

Jesus offers himself as the ultimate sacrifice. Jesus provides the extra credit needed to pay for all the times we have messed up in the past. Unlike the blood of bulls and goats, Jesus’ sacrifice is actually able to deal with our sin problem once and for all.

The result of this is forgiveness. Our debt is paid for by Jesus. He has forgiven us and set us free. When we look at the crucifixion on Good Friday, we should not merely see the agony that Christ endured (though He endured tremendous agony that goes far beyond the physical), but we should also see the payment he made. What Jesus accomplished through the cross was the payment and forgiveness of sin for all who would believe in Him. This was the only way we could be forgiven, because we can’t erase sin ourselves. Jesus alone can do that. And that’s why we call the day of His sacrifice good.

Applications

As we look at the reality of our sin and the forgiveness offered through Jesus’ sacrifice, it should lead to some practical considerations in our own lives.

First, it should lead to worship. If we see what Jesus has done for us and understand the magnitude of the gift we have been given, then it should drive us to a deeper worship. That worship does not merely mean attending church and going through the motions, but it means actively seeking to honor the Lord in our daily lives. It means choosing to recognize Him as God, repenting of the ways in which we have sinned against Him and choosing to live in the way He tells us. We live this way not because we are trying to somehow earn the forgiveness that is only available through Jesus, but because we recognize God for who He is and want to honor Him with our lives. That is an appropriate response to the gift of forgiveness we receive on Good Friday.

Second, it should soften us. When we understand what a tremendous debt we have been forgiven, it should make us softer and kinder people as we deal with the rest of the world. Jesus told a parable in Matthew 18 about a man who had a tremendous debt forgiven by the king. It was a debt he could never have repaid in his lifetime, but the king showed him mercy and forgave his debt anyway. Later that man came across someone who owed him a significant sum of money (though nothing in comparison to what he had owed the king), and rather than extending to this man mercy similar to what the king had extended to him, he chose to prosecute him to the fullest extent of the law. Jesus condemned such behavior, showing this man didn’t truly appreciate the king’s gift. So we should appreciate the King’s gift to us. It should make us be soft, gentle, forgiving, and patient with others, because through Jesus God has treated us in much the same way.

Unfortunately, I fear that as Christians we fail to make this connection. We are unwilling to extend mercy to others. We don’t want to give them the benefit of the doubt. We become hard, angry, and judgmental. To be honest, I think part of what fuels this attitude is that we fail to see how bad our sin is. We imagine that our debt to God was not that big of a deal. When we view our sin in this way, we feel as though the debts others owe us are far greater than the debts we have been forgiven. That is a terrible mistake.

We need to take time to reflect on our own sin. We need to understand all the different ways we have rebelled against God. We need to examine our hearts and see the stubbornness and arrogance that underlies each one of those sins. And then we need to see how disrespectfully we have treated the Lord by acting in this way. The goal of this exercise is not to make you feel bad, but to help you understand just what a gift the forgiveness of Jesus Christ is. It is when we look at the mountain of sin in our lives and see how that mountain is taken away by Jesus that we will begin to see the way we treat others change. As long as we minimize our sin, we also minimize the forgiveness of Jesus. If we see what Jesus did properly, we will deal with others with a similar mercy, patience, and gentleness that he extends to us.

Third, it should convince us of His love. When we look at the cross, we should not only see an instrument of torture. We should also see an example of love. A love that is greater than we can fathom. A love that sets us free from the penalty we justly deserve for our sin.

As you look at the cross, I hope you see that Jesus loves you. When Jesus offered himself as a sacrifice for our sin, He did so because He wanted to restore your relationship with God. This means several things:

· You are never alone. God has promised He will always be with you.

· You cannot mess up so badly that God stops loving you. So when you fail again, run to Him rather than trying to hide from Him.

· He cares about you. He is interested in what’s going on in your life, He cares about what hurts you and about the struggles you face.

· He wants to change you for the better. God loves you too much to let you continue in some of the sinful patterns you’ve developed. So as you hear Him whisper to you the things you need to change, hear them as words of love that are trying to help you.

The cross is the ultimate picture of God’s love for you and me. That’s why it’s important each year to remind ourselves of what Jesus accomplished at the cross of Calvary.

I hope tonight you look at the cross with fresh eyes. I hope as we prepare for communion you will take time to reflect on the mountain of sin you have accumulated in your life, and then reflect on the fact that through Jesus that sin can be removed forever. That’s the good news of Good Friday—and it’s wonderful news indeed!

©April 2nd, 2021 by Rev. Rick Goettsche GOOD FRIDAY