If we were to look at the world and our lives, I would suspect we all
have some issues or problems. Can you think of at least 10?
Do you have problems with your attitude, temper, nerves, pride,
bitterness, kids, in-laws, marriage, God, friends, health, income, job, what
about fear of war or terrorism, ice storms, tornados, poverty, child abuse, and
even health care. I am sure each of us can relate with some of these and I am
sure there are others.
Claude Harmon said one problem with the swing causes the others, how
about in our lives and the world. Does one problem cause the others? The Bible
gives us a resounding, Yes! Jesus dealt with the particular problem, the
fountainhead of all others, on the cross. When the problem was addressed, Jesus
declared, “It is finished.”
What was finished? What happened on the cross that makes the cross such
a big deal?
Open your Bibles to Matthew 27:39-42
“39 Those who passed by were yelling
insults at Him, shaking their heads 40 and saying, “The One who
would demolish the sanctuary and rebuild it in three days, save Yourself! If
You are the Son of God, come down from the cross!” 41 In the
same way the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked Him and said, 42 “He
saved others, but He cannot save Himself! He is the King of Israel! Let Him
come down now from the cross, and we will believe in Him.”
Remember the phrase ‘He cannot save Himself!’ All these people were
mocking and making fun of Jesus while He was dying on that cross and in doing
so said something that is 100% true.
Jesus could not save Himself …and us! He could save Himself by
abandoning us and coming down from the cross like the chief priests and scribes
wanted Him to do. OR He could stay on that cross and die to save us. No matter
what, Jesus could not save both Himself and us. Our salvation is completely
dependent on Jesus giving of Himself.
Here we see the Upper Story, God’s Story, intersect with the Lower
Story, our story. Jesus could easily save Himself, He has the power to free
Himself float down from that cross and prove to everyone that He is God. He had
the power to wipeout everyone who was standing there mocking Him. He even has
the power to tell us our sins are forgiven. So, why did He need to die on that cross?
The Upper Story drove the need for it. The only way to restore life to
a dead world full of sinful people was through the death of God’s Son. Jesus
could not save Himself and us.
Why? The need for Jesus to die on that cross points to how Holy God is
and how sinful we are. I think one thing many people lack is the understanding
of how Holy God is because they do not realize how sinful we are.
The fact that God is Holy is foundational in scripture. From the very
beginning in the Book of Genesis to the end of times in the Book of Revelation,
God’s Holiness is proclaimed. God being Holy means that He is set apart, He is
unique, He is pure, God is totally and utterly different. His thoughts are not
our thoughts, and His ways are not our ways.
The Bible tells us that God cannot tolerate sin.
Habakkuk 1:13
“Your eyes are too pure to look on evil, and You
cannot tolerate wrongdoing. So why do You tolerate those who are treacherous? Why
are You silent while one who is wicked swallows up one who is more righteous
than himself?”
God is too pure to even look at evil! He cannot be around us in our
normal state, something needed to be done.
Revelations 3:16
“16 So,
because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I am going to vomit you out
of My mouth.”
Jesus cannot tolerate us as sinful beings. When God
said He was angry with the nation of Israel when they rebelled against Him, the
word for angry means to nauseate, to make sick. Their sinful actions, their
rebellion, and our sinful rebellion makes God sick. Sometimes I wish our sinful
actions would result in making us sick. Might help us to keep from sinning as
much and to learn from our mistakes a little more. I know I can be a slow
learner, but if something makes me sick I stay away from it. Thankfully God did
not stay away from us, instead He provided another solution.
When you watch the news or documentaries about the
calamities in the world they talk about poverty, hunger, drugs, war, etc… Have
you ever watched 20/20 or Dateline and they talk about what is causing these
issues? Do they point out that all these problems are the result of a sin
problem? No, they point out how the economy, lack of education, absentee
parents, governments, or just about anything else is the cause of all of our
problems. According to God, the heart of the problem is and has always been a
heart problem.
People refuse to acknowledge God and obey Him as our
Creator. Our planet is filled with godless people who live for today and don’t
think about eternity. Too many people have forgotten about God. Sin is
rejecting that God is King. Sin is thinking we sit on the throne, not our Lord.
There is only one King, and that is Jesus Christ our Messiah.
According to scripture if we could fix that one
problem, then the other nine would be corrected. If we could somehow fix our
sin problem, the rest of the problems would be fixed. The problem is we are
sinful creatures, we are stubborn, trapped in our ways, and we cannot fix the
sin problem on our own. We haven’t given God everything that He deserves, we
haven’t submitted our complete will to His. How does our Holy God respond?
Does He pretend our sin is a simple slip in judgment?
Can He condone our sin as simple stubbornness? Does He say ‘boys will be boys’ or
‘girls will be girls’? Does turn a blind eye? No as a Holy God he cannot
condone sin or let it slide. A Holy God must hate sin. A Holy God cannot
compromise His holiness by indulging our sinful behavior. God must hate sin and
He must punish sin. So, where does that leave us? God could wipe us all out,
but chances are if that was the approach He was going to take Adam and Eve
would have never left the Garden of Eden or Noah and his family would not have
been spared during the flood.
If God was only Holy, He might have taken the extreme
measure of ridding the world of human kind, but as we have seen over the last
26 chapters in The Story there is something else driving God. God created and
is doing everything He can to bring us back to Him because He Loves us! God
Loves His children, whether we deserve it or not. God Loves You!
Psalms 85:10
“Faithful love and truth will join together;
righteousness and peace will embrace.”
He is at once a righteous God and a Savior. He is
full of grace and truth. God is the just one, who justifies those who have
faith in Jesus.
God’s stern holiness operates from God’s infinite
love. God does everything He does out of His fiery holiness AND His tender love. These two opposing
emotions actually work together. If God were only Holy, He would probably have
used His great smite button and wiped us out. If God were only love, we would
be allowed to do whatever we want without any discipline or correction. Now
what happens to children with no discipline, they become impossible. Without
God being holy and disciplining and correcting us we would probably destroy
ourselves.
A Holy God cannot disregard the rebellion and a
loving God cannot disregard His children. God’s holiness and His love combine
to do something that no one ever imagined in their wildest dreams. God become a
man!
God became a man and lead a sinless life. God became
a man and died a sinner’s death in our place. That is the story of the cross.
Matthew 27:45-54
“45 From noon until
three in the afternoon darkness came over the whole land. 46 About
three in the afternoon Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Elí, Elí, lemá sabachtháni?” that is, “My God,
My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
47 When some of
those standing there heard this, they said, “He’s calling for Elijah!”
48 Immediately one
of them ran and got a sponge, filled it with sour wine, fixed it on a reed, and
offered Him a drink. 49 But the rest said, “Let’s see if Elijah
comes to save Him!”
50 Jesus shouted
again with a loud voice and gave up His spirit. 51 Suddenly,
the curtain of the sanctuary was split in two from top to bottom; the earth
quaked and the rocks were split. 52 The tombs were also opened
and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. 53 And
they came out of the tombs after His resurrection, entered the holy city, and
appeared to many.
54 When the
centurion and those with him, who were guarding Jesus, saw the earthquake and
the things that had happened, they were terrified and said, “This man really
was God’s Son!”
Might seem like
the end of the world is at hand with the sky darkening, the earth quaking, and
the rocks splitting. Yet, it’s the words of Jesus that grabs us when He cried
out. “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
Jesus was forsaken so that we might be forgiven.
Jesus was forsaken so that we would be received by a Holy God. That is the
beauty of the cross!
God placed all of our sins on His Son. When that
happened, God could no longer be with His Son. Jesus was left all alone,
completely disconnected from God, on that cross with all of our sins. Jesus
accepted our punishment on the cross so God could pour His soul saving love on
us.
Pastor and Theologian John Stott said:
“God Himself, gave Himself, to save us from Himself.”
2 Corinthians 5:21
“21 He made the One
who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the
righteousness of God in Him.”
God is the great God who at once, loves His children
and punishes their sin. He did so by putting that sin on the sinless one so
that God’s love and God’s justice could meet and we could be saved.
Do you see why the cross is such a big deal? It is
through what happened on the cross that the sinless righteousness of Jesus
Christ can now be ours.
This is the ultimate sacrifice that God did just for
you. Think about what this says about how much God loves you! Since Adam and
Eve first sinned God has been building up to this point. He paid for your sin
with the precious blood of Jesus.
God loves you so much that He went through all of
this to spend eternity with you. The question we need to answer as believers
is, how are we repaying Him? I am not suggesting we can earn this gift. I am
reminding each of us this morning that Jesus is King. He is King over every
aspect of our lives. What I want you to think about is are you letting the King
Reign over your life or are you trying to minimize how much of your life He is
involved in?
Thanks for reading and may the Lord bless you abundantly!
Robert
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