So What?

I remember one time witnessing to some young girls from the USA in Central Park of Antigua who were not believers in Christ and were in fact quite hostile toward Christians. When they were told that Christ died for them, one girl said “So what, a lot of people die for other people.” To her the death of Christ was not anything more special than the death of someone who perhaps gave their life to protect freedom or some other cause. She did not understand what the death of Christ accomplished because she did not understand her need for a Savior. When we understand our status before God without Christ we should tremble. The prophet Isaiah had this experience when he was in the presence of God.

(Isa 6:1-7) In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost (undone); for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”

When Isaiah stood in the presence of God, he saw himself for who he was and his comment was “Woe is me for I am undone.” The word undone can be translated disintegrated, or coming apart. He felt shattered in the presence of a holy God because he knew he was a man of unclean lips. He saw himself as he truly was and how unworthy he was to be in the presence of a holy God because of his sin. The holiness of God, his utter separation from sin and hatred of sin, is a concept foreign to many people today. We tend to downplay sin and make it a trivial thing that everyone does so get used to it kind of thing rather than see it for what it is in the eyes of God and what he had to do to take care of the problem of sin. The world tries its best to make us insensitive to sin until we reach the point where we accept behaviors identified as sin in the Bible, as normal.

When Peter met Christ and saw his miraculous power at work, he saw himself for who he was.

(Luk 5:1-8) On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.”And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”

When we have a revelation of the holiness of God, we see ourselves as we truly are and we are made aware of our sinful state. We live in a time when people do not want to see God for who he is, they want to see him in the way they have created him so they can continue living a lifestyle that is not in agreement with his standards. I read of a couple in England who were rejected as potential foster parents because they said that homosexual behavior was wrong and because of this they were deemed unfit to be foster parents because they would teach this belief to others which in the eyes of the authorities were wrong. Your Christian beliefs may disqualify you from work with a government that has accepted values that are not in alignment with the Scriptures. The separation of true believers in Christ and the truth of the Bible is becoming more defined each day. God’s holiness is not understood and it is being trampled under the feet of those who have no revelation of this aspect of God’s character and nature. It is the responsibility of the Holy Spirit to convict the world of sin. He has to reveal to the heart of man his sinful condition before a Holy God so that he will feel undone. If we do not have this revelation, we will never grasp the significance of the death of Christ and what he has accomplished for us.

Sin has infected the entire world, no one is exempt from its influence. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). Sin brought death to mankind, physical death and eternal separation was what Adam and Eve received when they disobeyed God. Adam was not created to die but to live with God eternally, sin cut his life short as well as the lives of all who would be born after him. Physical death meant separation from God and the possibility of living eternally with God no longer existed. God did not want to be eternally separated from his creation that he created to have an eternal relationship with him. The only way the death penalty could be taken away was to deal with the problem of sin that brought death. The solution was found in Christ who was slain before the foundation of the world. God’s plan was to send His Son who would live a sinless life and give his life as a sacrifice to meet the just demand of God for payment for sin.

In preparation for Christ’s death on the cross for mankind’s sin, God introduced the sacrificial system in the Passover feast celebrated by the Jews at this time of year. The symbolism and the significance of this event would be fulfilled and explained in the death of Christ. The lamb that chosen by each family and was slain symbolized the Lamb of God who would one day come to take away the sins of the world. This lamb was unblemished and was a mature lamb just as Christ was sinless and at a mature age. When the blood of the lamb was spread on the door posts of each home, the death angel passed over it and the lives of all inside the home were spared. Death of the first born whether animal or male was required. Those who did not offer the lamb lost their first born son. Christ was God’s first born and he had to die, he had to shed his blood, in order for God’s justice to be served and the death penalty to be met. His blood represented his life and through his blood we received forgiveness for our sins so that we would not be eternally separated from God. The problem of sin and its penalty were taken care of on the cross where Jesus willingly laid down his life and shed his blood for us. His blood cleanses us from all our sin, it wiped out the record of all our wrong doings past present and future. Without the shedding of blood there can be no forgiveness of sin and the penalty of death and separation would still be upon us.

Jesus experienced the wrath of God for sin when he took on our sins. We no longer have to experience the wrath of God because Jesus took our place. Those who have placed their faith in the finished work of Christ have been liberated from the wrath of God and the penalty of sin.

God could not overlook sin; it was too serious an offense and a violation of his nature to brush it off lightly. Payment had to be made to maintain the character of God. He could not be a holy or loving God if he allowed sin to remain and not go unpunished. True love is demonstrated in hatred of sin. Every parent hates to see things happen to their children that will destroy them. Their love for their child is demonstrated in their hatred of things that will destroy or harm them. God has a holy hatred of sin because of the death and destruction it has brought into the world. He cannot tolerate it and remain holy or say that he loves us. Sin stirs up the wrath of God and Jesus became the object of God’s wrath when he took upon himself the sins of the world. The most violent display of God’s wrath was demonstrated in the crucifixion of Christ. God’s full wrath against sin was placed on Jesus. As Jesus hung on the cross and neared his time of death, darkness came upon the physical earth which is symbolic of the darkness of sin that would enter Jesus. When the full brunt of sin was placed upon Jesus he cried out, “It is finished!” In the Old Testament sacrificial system when the priest offered the lamb to be slain he would state, “It is finished.” Jesus used those same words when he offered himself as the sacrifice for our sins.

Immediately after this the heavy curtain that separated the Holy of Holies from the Holy place was torn from top to bottom signifying that access to God was not completely restored. When a Jewish father learned of the death of a son, he would rip his clothing from top to bottom.

The debt of sin has been paid in full and the death of Christ was the full payment God required. Paul used this analogy .

Colossians 2:13-15; 13And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made youalive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses, 14erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross. 15He disarmedthe rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it.

In the days of Paul it was customary for the debt of a person to be written by the debtor on a piece of paper and placed on the door of their home as a reminder of what they owed. When the debt was paid the person who the debt was owed would write that the debt had been paid in full and fold the paper over so that no one would see the debt. Another way that was used to eliminate the debt record was to wipe the ink from the vellum that was used to record the debt. The ink did not penetrate the vellum so a person could use a wet cloth and wipe completely clean the ink record of the debt. Christ’s death wiped clean the record against us which was the Law that we could not keep. Christ paid a debt he did not owe and I owed a debt I could not pay! How can we say “So what?” when we understand what Christ has done for us in our helpless condition! We should be doing cartwheels, handstands, loud shouting and whatever expressions that reflect the gift we have received. Christ has done for us what we could never do for ourselves. The weight of debt has been lifted off of us and we are free!

Christ’s death satisfied God’s just requirement. It is the only solution for the problem of sin in the world today. Nothing but the blood of Jesus could satisfy God’s justice. Thank you Jesus for your blood!!!

Christ’s resurrection was the capstone of the work of Christ. His resurrection makes possible our resurrection.

(1Co 15:12-17) Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead. But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.

Had Christ not been raised we would not have the hope of eternal life. If there is no resurrection Paul stated that we have been fools because we are destined to the grave and that is all there is. If Christ was not raised from the dead it would mean that falsehood and lies are stronger than the truth. If the enemies of Christ has succeeded in destroying him, their lies would have been stronger than the truth he proclaimed. John 8:40 “ but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did.”

It would have also meant that evil and hatred were stronger than goodness and love. If Christ was not raised from the dead then these forces that were unleashed in the crucifixion were stronger than goodness and love. We would have no hope that evil and hatred would ever be overcome.

If Christ was not raised from the dead it would mean that death is stronger than life. We would have no hope of being resurrected from the dead, the grave would be our final destination.

Our resurrection means we will be transformed with a new body just as Christ was transformed. The physical limitations we have experienced will be eliminated. We will receive a glorified body that will not perish but live for eternity with God. The apostle John said, 1Jn 3:2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. It will be an instantaneous transformation that takes place, we shall be changed. Doctors can do a lot today to transform our bodies. We can receive artificial limbs, someone else’s organs and now they are able to take someone else’s face and put it on you. But all of these things are temporal, death will come to all of us but through the resurrection of Christ we too will be resurrected to a new body and life that will be beyond any human description. God has something special prepared for us and we will have to have a new mind and body to be able to enjoy it. I can’t wait for that to happen, in fact I have asked God in 2011 to give me a visit to heaven. Now I don’t know if I will get my request and I am not asking for an early death, I just want to get a little glimpse of what is waiting for us. If you are interested in joining me let me know so that when the journey happens I can ask if you can come with us!

We want to remember Christ tonight as we take the communion elements. Jesus had a great desire to celebrate the Passover with his disciples. He made special arrangement to be with them in a private room where he would have his final meal with them. When he took the bread and the wine he gave them new meaning. The bread would from now on symbolize his body that would be beaten to shreds and placed on the cross. The wine represented his blood that would symbolize the new covenant that would never need to have a high priest make sacrifices of animals nor all the ceremonies that accompanied the sacrificial system.

(Heb 9:11-23) 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) 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. 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, 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. Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. Therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood. For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, “This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you.” And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship. Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

Mat 26:26-29 Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”

As we prepare to celebrate the Resurrection Day, let us always be mindful of all Christ has done for us through his death that has enable us to have access to God and the hope of life eternal.