Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
Psalm 51:3-4 3For I
admit my rebellious acts. My sin is
always in front of me. 4Against
you, you only, have I sinned, and I have done this evil in your eyes. So you are justified when you sentence
me. You are blameless when you judge. (EHV)
Recognizing against
whom we sin.
Dear friends in Christ,
The season
of Lent is a time of preparation, but we might ask, preparation for what? For many people, it is a time to prepare
oneself to celebrate Easter. Many others
challenge themselves fast from some food or activity, assuming that depriving themselves
of something they like is beneficial to understanding what Jesus gave up for
us. Or perhaps, some understand it to
mean a preparation to meet the Lord.
Certainly, our whole lives should be lived in preparation to meet the
God who created us and the Savior who has redeemed us, and that must include Recognizing
against whom we sin.
Maybe we should begin by clarifying what sin
is. Most of us likely assume it to be
breaking any of the Ten Commandments. Clearly,
breaking a commandment is sin. In fact,
anything we do that causes someone else any kind of harm or loss is a sin,
because God intends His commands to protect all people from harm. Thus, anything about us that isn’t pleasing
to God is sin. Anything we do that is
not God’s will is rebellion against Him, and even the nature we inherit from
our parents is in active rebellion against God.
We have heard about King David’s great sin, how
he desired another man’s wife, seduced her, bedded her, then when she became
pregnant, David first tried to deceive her husband, then had that poor man
killed in a contract killing in the process of waging war. There is no end to the list of people David
hurt by his actions. Bathsheba was
debauched, though perhaps with her consent.
Uriah was deprived of not only his wife, but also his life. The nation was harmed by David’s leadership
failure. Furthermore, David’s
reputation was ruined. No, not with the
people, for he managed to hide his great guilt from the public for a time. Yet, David’s reputation with the Lord was
damaged, and David’s own life was upended as a consequence of his wicked
deeds. His life was never again the same,
for David’s family was afflicted with trouble from that day forward.
All of that considered, every action David made
was a sin against His creator, a rebellion against what God considers good, and
truly a slap against the face of the loving God who so willingly and graciously
had blessed David, lifting him up from a lowly shepherd boy to make him a great
king.
After the prophet, Nathan, was sent to deliver the
Lord’s judgment upon David, King David wrote Psalm 51 which centers our
meditations this Lenten season. It is a
penitential psalm, a song of lament for sin.
It seems that it took that special intervention from God for David to acknowledge
what great shame he had committed.
Thankfully, for David, and us as well, his repentance was heartfelt and
real. Therefore, the Lord has taken away
David’s sin, and He has taken away your sins, as well.
Dear friends, too much like David, I fear, we
often overlook, or try to hide, our guilt.
There is a mantra from pickup basketball games that perhaps pictures our
thoughts on our sin—“no harm, no foul.”
We like to think that as long as no one is visibly hurt by our thoughts,
words, or actions, then we get off scot-free.
Furthermore, it is very easy for all of us to imagine that we are always
right. That inherent flaw, however,
causes a lot of the hurt feelings, arguments, disputes, anger, hatred, war, and
political fighting so common in our world.
Still, what a hard pill to swallow that can be. Who among us ever really wants to admit the
complete corruption of our being? There
must be something good about us, right? In
reality, though, every thought, emotion, action, and idea is corrupted with
sin. Ever since Adam’s fall in the
Garden of Eden, there is nothing about us that isn’t corrupted with sin. Everything we do by nature is offensive to
our God. Our flesh is corrupted leading
to illness, injury, and death. Our minds
became bankrupt of any good on our own.
Our emotions have become steaming piles of garbage not fit for the home
God has prepared for those who love Him.
Therefore, if we truly examine ourselves right down to the core of our
being, we have no alternative but to admit with David, “I admit my
rebellious acts. My sin is always in
front of me.” How David must have
suffered in silent terror of judgment before the prophet confronted him.
Of course, there are always those defiant
individuals who claim that we are born with some good still in us, but why then
is there so much guilt, stress, heartache, and pain in our world? Why so much fear of judgment? If everyone is born with some good, wouldn’t
that come out more? Oh sure, we can find
things we think look good, but we still are forced to admit that guilt troubles
us loud and long.
It is true that we can look around and find
lots of people acting worse than we do.
Our world is filled with horrific examples of evil and wicked men. Yet, I think we can all admit, seeing
wickedness in others doesn’t ease our own guilty feelings. The guilty conscience reminds us often that
even the best of us struggle with desires that are not God-pleasing, harsh words
spoken in haste, and failures to do the good we want to do. Therefore, we likely have fears about the day
we will stand in God’s courtroom.
The tax collector in the temple had the proper
response. Jesus reported, “However
the tax collector stood at a distance and would not even lift his eyes up to
heaven, but was beating his chest and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a
sinner!’” (Luke 18:13) King David
was brought to the same confession before God.
He lamented, “Against you, you only, have I sinned, and I have done
this evil in your eyes. So you are
justified when you sentence me. You are
blameless when you judge.” This
confession from David also summarizes our lives. We have sinned against God with every part of
our being. Therefore, every unholy
action of which we are guilty, and even every slight flaw, is offensive to God
and deserving of His just wrath.
Now, it is certain, that if God was the same
wicked, fallen creature that we find in ourselves, our future would be beyond
bleak. If God had the same unstoppable desire
for revenge that so often troubles us, we would have no hope. Indeed, God has said, “Vengeance is mine;
I will repay.” (Romans 12:19) Yet,
where does that leave us, if God will avenge our faults, mistakes, and bad
ideas?
The answer, in connection with Jesus, is we are
safe and secure. In essence, God has
judged us guilty and without hope. At
the same time, God in His great mercy, decided to do something about our guilt. The proper sentence in His perfectly just
courtroom is death for every sinner—death and eternal separation from God in
the hell prepared for the devil and his wicked angels. That is the just judgment for you and
me. It is a sentence that had to be
carried out to satisfy the law. God’s
justice would accept nothing less.
However, God in His great love prepared to be merciful by providing a
Substitute to take our guilt.
The Old Testament sacrifices pointed forward to
the plans God made for our rescue.
Because we could do nothing to save ourselves, “God shows his own
love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans
5:8) God sent His Son into the world to
be the One Man who could undo the damage Adam had brought upon humanity. Because Jesus is true God as well as true
Man, Jesus could, and did, live in perfect harmony with our Creator. With every thought, word, action, and
emotion, Jesus was living exactly as His Father in heaven would have all of us
live, for He declared, “You therefore shall be holy, for I am holy.” (Leviticus
11:45)
With every ounce of His being, and every moment
of His time on earth, Jesus was living exactly according to what He explained
to a Pharisee who asked about the greatest commandment; Jesus told him, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your
soul, and with all your mind.’ This is
the first and greatest commandment. The
second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets depend on these
two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-40)
Having lived in perfect accord with the law and
in harmony and peace with God above, Jesus did what He came to do, He put
Himself in our place to bear the punishment of death and the exile from God we
deserved. Thus, “God made him, who
did not know sin, to become sin for us, so that we might become the
righteousness of God in him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)
Throughout Israel’s history, thousands of
lambs, bulls, goats, doves, and pigeons had been sacrificed in ceremonial payment
for the sins of the people. At times,
the temple had to flow with shed blood.
All of that blood, though, only foreshadowed the precious blood of Jesus
flowing from His body to cover the sins of the world—Christ’s holy, precious
blood spilled for our guilt and shame—His holy, precious blood buying our
freedom from eternal death and everlasting doom.
This too is what Lent is about. Yes, it is a time to prepare ourselves to
hear the message of forgiveness and salvation culminating in Jesus’ Easter
morning victory. It is reminder of our
need to be cleansed of all our guilt and a reminder of God’s love
for even sinners like you and me. That
even though our sins, like King David’s were as glaring as scarlet, God has
counted our lives, because of Jesus, as if all our thoughts, words, desires,
and deeds are as white and clean as new fallen snow. (Isaiah 1:18) Because God demonstrated such love for us, it
is easy to recognize against whom we sin. We have sinned against God. He in turn has shown us His amazing love in
His Son. Your guilt is covered by the
blood of the Lamb. Your sins have been
paid for by the sacrifice of God’s own dear Son. Go out Recognizing against whom we sin
and live in thankful trust that Jesus has purchased your freedom from all sin
and guilt. Jesus gave His life in
exchange for your guilt, so that you may truly live. All glory to His holy name. Amen.
How
blessed is everyone who fears the LORD, everyone who is walking in his ways. Amen.
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