The Purpose of His
Coming
Hebrews 2:14-18
©Copyright
December 12, 2010 by Rev. Bruce Goettsche
www.unionchurch.com
It is a
struggle sometimes during the season of Christmas to remind people that
Christmas is not about a man in a red suit. It is about God reaching out to men
through Jesus. It is even more difficult to draw attention to WHY God became
man in the first place.
If we
look at what the Bible tells us we see that Jesus came to rescue us. However,
what He came to rescue us from may surprise you. The author to the Hebrews
writes in Hebrews 2:17,
For this reason he
had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a
merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make
atonement for the sins of the people.
There
are two reasons listed here for the coming of Christ: 1) He came to be a
merciful and faithful High Priest in service to God and 2) to make atonement for
the sins of the people. One of the functions of a High Priest was to make
sacrifices. Jesus came to make a sacrifice that would serve as atonement for
our sin.
That
phrase “make atonement for” is a rich Biblical word that has been largely
forgotten today. It is a word that is best translated: “propitiation”. Propitiation
means to “turn away anger” or to “appease”. Jesus came and offered a sacrifice
which satisfied the demands of God’s justice. In other words, when Jesus died
on the cross He bore the wrath of God (mind boggling as that is) so that God’s
anger would turn away from us and we could once again have a relationship with
God. It is an important and central doctrine that people often do not
understand.
The Problem
God is Holy. The Bible frequently
reminds us that God is holy. He is perfect. He not only does not sin, He does
not tolerate sin in others. The two go together. We would not call a judge
“good” if they did not satisfy the demands of justice. Judges that do not
promote justice are usually removed from the bench. God cannot be just and not
address the issue of sin. A “Holy” or “righteous” person loves and pursues the
good while seeking to eliminate and destroy what is wrong or detrimental to
what is good.
Offering
a sacrifice was like paying your debt to society by serving time in jail. The
problem is that sin is a capital offense (even though we shrug it off as if it
were a minor misdemeanor). Any and every sin is considered cosmic treason
against a Holy God. Whenever we ignore the clear command of God, whenever we do
what we know is wrong, we are practically seeking to overthrow or undermine
God’s authority.
People
are often offended at the notion of the wrath of God. They say they believe in
a God of love rather than a God of wrath. Yet the Bible uses more than 20
different words in the Old Testament to convey the thought of the wrath of God,
with more than 580 occurrences of those words. God is not passive when it comes
to evil. He is vigorously opposed to evil.[1]
If the God you believe in does not show wrath or anger at sin, He is not the
God of the Bible.
It is
important to understand a couple of things. First, the opposite of love is not
wrath, it is hate or indifference. The more we love someone, the angrier we become
toward anything that stands in the way of our love. God’s wrath is an
expression of His love! God is angry toward anything that cuts us off from His
love.
Think
of a time when someone attacked (either verbally or physically) your spouse or
child. How did you react? Did you shrug it off and say, “No big deal?” No, you
most likely felt some wrath swell up inside of you. You took the offense
personally, it fact, you took it even more personally than if the offense had
been committed against you.
We
recoil at the idea of God’s wrath because we equate God’s wrath with the anger
we have, often out of control and abusive. The wrath of God however, is a just,
reasoned, and holy response to the offense of sin and rebellion. We applaud the
Judge who sentences a terrorist to jail or execution for their acts of terror. The
problem is that we don’t see our sin as being the same (or worse) as that of a
terrorist. It is.
We Are Not Holy. God is holy but we
are not. Romans 3:23 tells us: “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of
God.” As a result we are on the wrong side of the wrath of God. Sin has
consequences.
Let’s
say you committed an armed robbery. The police catch you and you are arrested.
Because of your offense you must stand before a judge who will declare the
consequence of your crime. If your crime was simply shrugged off, injustice
would be done to the one who was robbed and to the system of law in general. If
wrong is not punished a society degenerates into anarchy where everyone does
whatever they want to do. Sin must be punished. Consequently, we, as sinners,
deserve God’s wrath.
This
passion for justice was pictured in the Old Testament. The act of sacrificing
an animal was designed to show us the drastic consequences of sin. The one who
brought the sacrifice placed his hands on the head of the sacrifice as a
picture of the transfer of guilt. The book of Hebrews tells us that the animal
sacrifices were a “temporary” measure (like being out on bail) until true
justice took place through a more suitable substitute (Christ).
The Solution
The
death of Christ was a miscarriage of justice in terms of the conviction of an
innocent man. However, His death was designed to achieve the ultimate justice
in the court of God. When Jesus died on the cross He did something that
stretches the imagination of men: Jesus took upon Himself the wrath of God that
we deserved.
God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement,
through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in
his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26 he
did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the
one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. [Romans 3:25-26]
Paul
tells us that the death of Christ did two things: first it dealt with
the just wrath of God. The death of Christ allowed God to act in justice toward
sin. The demands of the law were satisfied. Justice was done. This is why
Christ had to be sinless. A sin-filled substitute would need to die for His own
sin and would not qualify to be our substitute. It would be like a person in
prison serving a life sentence saying, “Hey, As long as I’m here, I’ll serve
the other guys’ sentence.” He could not do so because he had his own sentence
to serve.
This
sacrifice had to be made by the Son of God because it required one who had
sufficient value to cover the sin of all who would have faith in Him. Think about this in a negative sense. In our
modern system of justice immunity will sometimes be granted to someone who will
testify against someone who is deemed a greater criminal. A drug dealer may
have charges dropped if he will testify against the drug supplier. The District
Attorney believes it is better to trade the conviction of lesser criminals in
order to get the Kingpin off the street. The drug dealer is set free because of
the conviction of the Kingpin.
In a
positive sense, the sacrifice of Jesus, as the Son of God is seen as being of
such great value that we can be set free. We are forgiven because Christ was
executed in our place!
Second, as a result of the
propitiation of God’s wrath, the guilt has been removed from our account and we
can now be declared right with God. In our system of justice there is a law
called the law of double jeopardy. In other words, once a person has been
declared “not guilty” or once a person has been sentenced for a crime and the
sentence has been carried out, the person cannot be tried for that same offense
again. Once the demands of justice and law are met, the issue is resolved.
In the
death of Christ the penalty for our sin is paid. Justice is satisfied.
Consequently, we now stand before God as those who are without sin. The word
“justification” is sometimes defined as “just-as-if-I-never-sinned”. We are
justified not because God has shrugged and said, “Ah, I forgive you” and
overlooked the offense. God forgives us because the penalty has been paid!
1 Peter
3:18 says,
For Christ died for
sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.
Hebrews
9:27-28 says
27 Just as man is
destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, 28 so Christ
was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a
second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting
for him.
Now the
thing that makes this all so staggering is the fact that Jesus was a willing
volunteer. Though he was arrested and was unjustly condemned for crimes He did
not commit, He chose the cross. As God He chose to take on the limits of human
flesh. He chose to suffer the indignity He was subjected to by His own
creation. He chose to give His life so that we might be forgiven. Isaiah 53
paints the picture,
But he was pierced
for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that
brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of
us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us
all. [Isa. 53:5-6]
Because
of Jesus, we are able to be healed. His suffering made our forgiveness
possible.
The Result
Why is
this important? Let me give you some reasons:
First, there is good news about
our sin: we can be forgiven. In 1 John 2:2 we read
He is the atoning
sacrifice (or propitiation) for our sins, and not only for ours but also for
the sins of the whole world. [1 John 2:2]
The
Bible tells us that anyone who turns to Jesus as their Savior can and will be
forgiven. Imagine someone who is sick. The doctor enters the room and says
there is a cure for your illness. To take advantage of the cure you have to
take certain medicines every day. If you will do this the disease will be
abated and you will be able to live a normal life.
You, as
the patient have faith in what the Doctor says. But faith has many levels.
It is this
last kind of faith that can bring a cure.
Having
faith in Christ is very similar. A person can have faith in Christ in the sense
that
It is only
the last kind of faith that is “saving faith”. Those who will recognize they
are heading in the wrong direction and turn, trust, rely on and cling to Christ
are those who are forgiven. Merely believing the facts of Christ or Christmas
is not enough . . . faith is not simply intellectual, it is very practical.
True faith is shown in the way we live our lives.
Of all
the things you can do this Christmas it is most important that you are trusting
(it is an ongoing thing) the One who came to set you free from the Judgment of
God. Too many people know the story, have heard the information, but for some
reason decline the treatment. You may
think you do not need the forgiveness that Christ offers, but you are wrong.
The sin disease must be treated or it will destroy you.
Second,
we see the importance of sharing Christ
with others. We know from
experience that someone who has had a life-changing surgery is eager to tell
others about their experience (sometimes they are even quick to show you their
scars!) Someone who has just had a child can’t wait to share pictures with
others. When you receive an award or get a promotion you find a way to bring
this up in conversation. It’s human nature. When something wonderful happens in
our lives we want to share the joy with others.
If we recognize this reality
we must ask ourselves a question: why then are we so reluctant or hesitant to
share the transforming work of Jesus Christ? It must be that we have not fully
grasped how incredible and life-changing the work of Christ truly is. We say we
keep our mouth shut because we are afraid people don’t want to hear. That
doesn’t stop us from sharing all kinds of other things from our life! Others
say they don’t talk about the grace and mercy of Christ because they are afraid
they don’t know enough. Tell me, does the fact that you don’t fully understand
the how and why of a surgery keep you from telling people how it changed your
life? Of course not! You share what you know and have become convinced of.
Something deadly is happening
in our society: We have moved from the founding principle that each person has
the right of “freedom of speech” to the ridiculous notion that every person’s
ideas are equally valid. As a result we are told every religion is equally
true. “You have your faith, I have mine”.
What I hope you have seen this
morning however is that there is only One who can satisfy the demands of
justice before a Holy God. Not every belief system is valid. It doesn’t matter
how sincere a person is . . . if they are pursuing a way of salvation apart
from Christ they are turning away from the only true Savior.
Please understand that it
doesn’t matter how much money you spend on your kids and family members this
Christmas to try to express you love . . . if you do not tell them (and continue
to tell them) about Jesus, you don’t really love them at all! You are remaining
silent as they head toward the Judgment of God completely unprepared.
Let’s pray that God would make
us at least as passionate about our faith as we are about our sports or our
appearance. Let’s pray that we are at least as diligent about sharing the
gospel as we are about finding the perfect gift. Let us take at least as much
interest in our children’s spiritual life as we do their social life. We must
look for ways to share the good news of how a life can be made right with
God. We may not be able to answer all
the questions, but we can – we must -- get the conversation started.
Finally, when we understand what Christ has
done on our behalf we will live life differently. The birth, life and
death of Christ, shows us that God is not our enemy. God does not give us His
commands because He is trying to inhibit our lives; He wants us to know life.
He wants us to avoid heartache. He wants us to know what it is to walk with Him
rather than to fight against Him. He has shown us through the cradle and the
cross that He has our best interest at heart.
Since
this is true do you ever wonder why it is so hard to follow Him? Old habits
continue and Satan continues to dog our every step. I know from experience that
one minute I can be expressing love to Him and suddenly I find myself desiring
things that I know are offensive to Him. It is a battle to follow Him. The
point however is this: it is a battle worth fighting.
Students
go to school every day. They labor through tough classes. They do it because
they see the goal. They know it is a battle worth fighting. The athlete endures
tough training, works on technique over and over. They often take a beating.
Why? Because they believe the battle is worth fighting. Soldiers endure
rigorous basic training. They sometimes feel overwhelmed in battle but they
don’t give up. Throughout the history of our country we read the record of
soldiers who kept fighting even though the odds seemed stacked against them.
They kept fighting because they believed freedom was worth fighting for. Those
of us who now enjoy that freedom are grateful.
The
battle to walk with God is also a battle worth fighting. We are pursuing
ultimate treasures. If we will pursue Christ with devotion, if we will get back
up when we drift or stumble, if we will dare to go His way even when all our
friends go a different direction . . . if we will do these things - we will
enjoy the benefits gained by Christ when He gave His life on our behalf. And
then, and only then, will we truly appreciate the real meaning of Christmas.
©Copyright
December 12, 2010 by Rev. Bruce Goettsche
www.unionchurch.com