This
morning we are looking at forgiveness. We are focusing on the forgiveness we
receive through Jesus, after Easter we will reflect on our call to forgive. The
Apostles’ Creed says, “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic
Church, the forgiveness of sin.” in the forgiveness of sin. The Heidelberg
Catechism teaches us, “I believe that God, because of Christ’s
satisfaction, will no longer remember any of my sins or my sinful nature which
I need to struggle against all my life. Rather, by grace God grants me the
righteousness of Christ to free me forever from judgment.” At the heart
of the Christian faith is the belief that God forgives us for our sins because
of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross where he took on himself all the sin and
brokenness of the world so that we can receive forgiveness and healing. In and
through Jesus we receive grace and freedom. Forgiveness is serious stuff,
without forgiveness, there is no reconciliation, no healing in relationships,
especially with God.
This
is so central to our relationship with God our Father that it can never
be overstated. David gets that in Psalm 51. David sinned badly, taking Bathsheba,
who is not his wife, and then protecting himself from her husband Uriah and the
consequences of his actions by arranging for Uriah to die on the battlefield by
abandoning him. It’s important that we have names to David’s confession in
Psalm 51 because it reminds us that sin is always personal, always hurts
someone, even if the only person we hurt is ourselves. But ultimately sin hurts
God by betraying God as we put our desires and wants ahead of who God has
created us to be, who Jesus calls us to be.
David
cries out for mercy, basing his plea on God’s unfailing love, on God’s ‘hesed.’ Hesed is a
Hebrew word meaning love based on a prior
relationship, covenantal loyalty, unfailing kindness. David’s counting
on a God who doesn’t give up on his people, a God who is willing to take
unfathomable amounts of abuse and still stay in relationship with us. David
admits that any punishment God decides to give is justified. He goes on to plea
for God to cleanse his heart, to create in him a clean
heart and renew a steadfast, a strong solid committed to God spirit within him.
He knows that on his own without God’s help, he can’t stay true to God. David
knows what the Catechism teaches us, that it’s by grace that God grants us
the righteousness of Jesus to free us forever from judgment.
Jesus
is the only one able to achieve our forgiveness from God since he
is both God and human. Q&A 14 teaches us, “That the eternal Son of
God, who is and remains true and eternal God took to himself, through the
working of the Holy Spirit, from the flesh and blood of the virgin Mary, a
truly human nature so that he might become David’s true descendant, like his
brothers in every way except for sin.” As God, Jesus is able to take
all our sin on himself and as fully human, he’s able to take our place. It
takes a descendant of David to bring the cleansing that David so desires.
As
God, Jesus is able to forgive our sin. In the story in Mark, we see a group of
friends bringing a paralyzed man to Jesus for healing. When they’re prevented
from getting close to Jesus, they go to the roof of the house Jesus is in, and
dig a hole through it, big enough to lower the paralyzed man in front of Jesus.
Then Mark says something that surprises me each time, “When
Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are
forgiven.” Matthew and Luke both say the same thing, that Jesus turns to
the paralyzed man and forgives his sin when Jesus sees his friends’ faith! Jesus
responds to their act of faith and offers a greater healing than they had ever
anticipated, Jesus offers healing for the paralytic’s soul, healing in the
relationship between God and the man, by granting the man forgiveness for his
sins. As you read through the Gospels and the stories of Jesus’ life, you begin
to see a pattern; Jesus is always on the lookout for strong faith in the people
around him, and when he sees it, Jesus acknowledges it with encouragement, and
in this situation, with healing.
Forgiveness
is a big thing;
it brings healing and hope for the person being forgiven. Forgiveness brings
healing for the person doing the forgiving. The teachers of the law think to
themselves, “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s
blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” If our sins are truly
against God alone, as David confesses, then the only one who can forgive sin is
God; Jesus is claiming here to be God! The teachers of the law get that, but
the people get it too. This is dangerous ground for Jesus to walk because the penalty
for blasphemy is death. In the end, Jesus is convicted for blasphemy in Mark 14
for claiming to be God, “The high
priest asked him, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?” “I
am,” said Jesus. “And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of
the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.” The high priest tore his
clothes. “Why do we need any more witnesses?” he asked. “You have heard the
blasphemy. What do you think?” They all condemned him as worthy of death.”
Our
forgiveness comes at the cost of Jesus’ life, but it also impacts Jesus’
relationship with God the Father and the Holy Spirit. Jesus is led to the
cross, a death that shows he’s cursed by God, Deuteronomy says, “you must not leave the body hanging on the pole
overnight. Be sure to bury it that same day, because anyone who is hung on a
pole is under God’s curse.” Paul reminds us
in Galatians
3:13, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by
becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is
hung on a pole." Listen to this a moment, Jesus is cursed by his
Father because of our sin. Jesus is cursed for us so that we can be forgiven by
God. Jesus knows this when he tells the man, “Son, your
sins are forgiven,” knowing the cost that his forgiveness is costing
him.
Dietrick
Bonhoeffer talks about cheap grace. David doesn’t know about cheap grace; he
knows just how messed up sin has made him and how he cannot make things right
between him and God; that he has no chance of making things right on his own,
he needs God to do the hard work of reconciliation and forgiveness. Bonhoeffer
talks about how we feel it’s God’s job and responsibility to forgive us. So
many of us, because our asking for forgiveness from God seldom goes much deeper
than, “Father forgive me for I’m a sinner,” we leave our prayer and
continue on doing everything just like we’ve been doing, confident that we’ve
done our part and now Jesus needs to do his, which he already did on the cross.
We don’t understand just how much our sin has cost Jesus and God, and so our
hearts and lives never really change.
Jesus
took all the sin of the world on himself, all the brokenness and wrong, all
the hurt, and it was so heavy that God blocked the light of the sun in the
middle of the day so that we wouldn’t witness the anguish of Jesus as he
experiences his Father’s curse on our behalf. Jesus, God the Father, and the
Holy Spirit have never been separated from each other. They’ve been together
for eternity. Now think of the pain that you see in someone whose spouse has
died after 40 or 50 years together, of the huge loss in their life. Think of
how great the loss that God and the Holy Spirit is when our sin separates Jesus
from them for the first time in eternity. It helps us understand what Jesus
means on the cross when he cries out, “My God, my God,
why have you forsaken me,” just how hard it is for Jesus to take the
punishment our sin, how hard it is for the Father to curse his only begotten
son; all because of us, all for us.
This
is not cheap grace, this is costly grace, as Dietrick Bonhoeffer calls it, and
it’s precious. “Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the
sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of
great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly
rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to
stumble; it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets
and follows him.”
Are
you content with cheap grace that accomplishes nothing except giving you
permission to never change or be changed by the Holy Spirit, or is Jesus’ costly
grace finally enough to move you to leave your old life and values behind and
embrace Jesus as your only Lord and Saviour?
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