Doctrine: Forgiveness of Sins

Here are the key points from last week’s episode of “Doctrine”: • Key Point: it is human nature, in every society and every age, that human beings want to be treated better and received better than is reciprocated. • Key Point: People don’t want to feel vulnerable in any relationship so they live vehemently offensive throughout it • Key Point: allow your relationships to re-envision the life God wants you to have Here’s the conclusion you should have made from those key points: no matter what we do, we’re offensive. But, when we allow God into relationship with us through trusting that our vulnerabilities will be uncovered through that trust, we in turn, have our relationships with people turn from offensive to mutually beneficial. Blows your mind, me too. Therefore, in our second week of “Doctrine.” If you don’t remember why we started in January talking about “doctrine” then let me refresh your memory; its because there are certain things that we believe as a church that we tend to forget because they get lost in the myriad of other things that we do here. However, if we take a deep look into what we do here at this church and through this church, we will find that these “doctrines” that we’re talking about are the foundational tenets of why and how we do things. Going back to last week’s point about people, by human nature, or natural law being vehemently offensive, which is true because we expect more than we want to give or deserve, causes people, in particular the people we have to interact with, a heartache. Let me give you an example of what I’m getting at here. The reason we want to kill our family members during the holidays, even though we love them is because we find them offensive. So we start dropping hints like cleaning up and we expect them, after we clean up after them, to hi-tail it out of your home after the holidays. You know what I’m saying, its like you love to hate them. They drive you crazy. Thus, we have week two of “doctrine”—forgiveness, in particular the importance of the forgiveness of sins. Forgiveness of sins is not simple. It sounds simple and looks simple, but it’s really not. In reality, it is a complicated thing that if you learn more about it, instead of brushing it off as something we grew up hearing from our folks to do to your younger siblings because they’re younger than you, then you’ll realize that “forgiveness” is not neat, it’s not obvious, and it’s absolutely not what you’d expect. In fact, the “forgiveness of sins” is something like how the solar system is arranged—there’s no rhyme or reason that we can see about the sizes of the planets or the number of moons that we can ascertain that has any value except the empirical evaluation that the solar system is what it is and that is what makes it beautiful, simple, yet complex. Better example: try to forgive somebody who burned your Barbie doll as a kid or if you’re a guy, forgive the person that dude that open hand slapped you across the face in public. The act of forgiveness and the reconciliation of that forgiveness is messy at best and complicated. This is what forgiveness is. What I’m saying is that “forgiveness” is not an outward action, but an internal change that progresses and evolves through love. We need to go to Colossians 1:15-23. 15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. I want to analyze that last paragraph because there was a lot of information there that needs to be dissected. The “Son” is Jesus—being in the image of the invisible God and firstborn means that Jesus was God incarnate in human form. In fact, verses 16 and 17 suggest that Jesus was at creation—John says Jesus is the “Word.” It says here that Jesus is the reason things perpetuate. The idea here is simple and even the Romans knew of this two millennia ago—there is something that moves that makes all other things move. This is the explanation of Newton’s law of physics—except that Paul is saying that the perpetuator is Jesus. I want to go on in a little tangent here that not that many people will want to share with you all, but since you’re at church, I may as well share it with you; especially those of you who think your English language skills are better than mine—look at verse 18—you have to question the inclusiveness or exclusiveness of the word “church.” That is—who is in it and belongs and who doesn’t, and why not. We’re getting ahead of ourselves, but I’m giving you this as an appetizer—to whet your appetite. Now, let’s go to verse 20. Paul writes that it was through Jesus Christ that the world is able to reconcile with God. He writes that it is through his blood shed on the cross, but what makes that significant and the death of Spartacus insignificant is verse 19 where it says, “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him.” That is to say that Jesus, who being God, was perfect, and therefore the pleasure or “pleasing” came because Jesus was intrinsically Good. This is heavily philosophical and theoretical so far I know. But bear with me for just a few moments. Let’s continue reading verse 21. 21 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. 22 But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— 23 if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant. – Colossians 1:15-23 Let me break down a reality for you because I know you’re thinking that you and I are not really evil so that we would be condemned as enemies of God for any practical reason. Am I right? Yeah, I know, like what in the world that was so bad did you do that you deserved that label? I mean, you read the Bible and find a lot of people way worse than you—for example you got this guy who was after God’s own heart named “David” who was admittedly lazy according to God’s word, and decided he wasn’t going to go conquer more land through springtime warring and instead peep on one of his general’s wife and then have an affair, get her pregnant and then cover it up like a g-man and kill her husband. But you, the worst you ever did was download some music off of a torrent. Hardly any reason to be an enemy of God, right? Right. Here’s what made you alienated from God and an enemy of God by “evil behavior”: If you take the idea of right and wrong, and figured out that right and wrong is just a standard, whereby “right” is to be in good standing and to be “wrong” is to fail to conform to this good standing, then nothing is wrong except the method by which one is trying to conform to that standard. Here’s what I mean by that, I’m sorry if I’m being confusing, but this is truth: you can be good for the sake of being good, but it is impossible for you to be bad for the sake of being bad, you are bad because you found it useful to yourself to be bad – it is a way and a mean, not a disposition. Human nature is alienated from God because we are bad—that is we find it useful to be offensive to protect us from vulnerability. You see all the things that enable a bad person to be bad are inherently good things like resolution, cleverness, good looks etc and so forth. Therefore we are enemies of God because instead of trying to get to God straight by being good in following the laws given in the Bible, we’re sitting here trying to be gods in our own rights. We’re trying to control our universe and therefore are offensive when we are found in fault with ourselves. This is why we need forgiveness. This is why Christ has to redeem us—because his intentions and actions were both Good and of God through and through. This is the good news, the evangellion, the gospel that we at church share with people around us through the relationships and interactions we have in church and outside of church. You all understand what I’m saying? I know in your mind, you’re arguing why in the world did God allow people to do that, and that reason is simple: God thought it was worth the risk to give people the freedom to choose how to use the good within them – either for good or bad and that His creation, His people will only reach their full potential if they chose it and that in itself would bring true ecstasy and joy that God wishes on His people. God is good and wants what is good for us. He wants us to reach the full potential by which He created us. As a result, we need the forgiveness of sins. Hebrews 9, let’s go. Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness… 6 These preparations having thus been made, the priests go regularly into the first section, performing their ritual duties, 7 but into the second only the high priest goes, and he but once a year, and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people. 8 By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing 9 (which is symbolic for the present age). According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, 10 but deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation. 11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) 12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. I want to focus on verse 13. Forgiveness without Jesus Christ is only, at best, topical, it is only on the surface of things. That means that there’s nothing substantive about that type of forgiveness because it doesn’t treat the problem, it just bandages over it. Verse 14 however takes it a step further: when Christ is the sacrifice by which forgiveness is offered, then it treats the problem—our conscience. The only person that can wash away the guilt of our conscience is the person who had a clean conscience, a perfect person that is Jesus. What we see in Hebrews is a model. This is what it meant in Colossians when it said Jesus Christ as the “firstborn.” He dies a death he doesn’t deserve by forgiving. It cost Him something. But in doing so, it treated our consciences so that we were not enemies of God but redeemed to God. When we forgive, not superficially, but the way Jesus does, in the suffering and dying despite the fact that He had no reason to suffer and die, then it changes us. It changes us because we, in that act become willing to submit to God, a type of humiliation and a kind of death alters us to be like God—Good. Nobody can really explain what changes in us, except it is evident that something does change. Our motives change, our intentions change, and we’re put right with God, to have a fresh start to be with God and like God. We have this forgiveness of sins. Did we miss out on how Jesus’ love was wounded and broken with every sin? Now, what are we doing about it? What are we doing with it? How are we forgiving like we are forgiven? Or are we only forgiving like the old system of ritualistic religion?