"Jesus Died For Me"
Sermon Transcript for February 29, 2004
Scripture Reading: II Corinthians 5:18-21
By Rev. Mike Beck
I Peter, Chapter 3:15 says this, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have in Christ.” Before the service this morning I had a chance to talk to a couple that had seen the movie this week, The Passion of the Christ. As believers it had raised questions in their mind. And I said, listen carefully to the passage today because the goal in this message is to help all of us better be able to give some answers to fundamental issues and questions of our Christian faith. These are some of the questions I would like to look at in this morning’s message:
What do we mean when we say: “Jesus died for me?”
Why was it necessary for Jesus to die on the cross?
What was it that this act in history accomplished?
What is my role in participating in “the passion of Jesus Christ”?
Today’s message is not filled with a lot of clever stories. We’re simply going to examine numerous scriptures in seeking to answer these questions. We are going to wrestle with some theological truths that don’t always make sense from a human perspective. But the Bible tells us “God’s ways are not necessarily our ways”. But for those who believe in the Word of God and who come to Him in faith, what we are talking about this morning leads to life abundant in this life and to life eternal.
Perhaps you can recall from taking Geometry class that there were
certain “postulates” that you learned first from which you began the work of
exploring the dimensions of geometrical design. The same thing is true as we
seek to understand the passion of Christ. So I want us to begin this morning
with looking at five revealed truths from Scripture that are foundational to
what we are going to talk about in this message.
1. The Bible clearly teaches that all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
2. Scripture teaches that that sin separates us from a holy God. We see that all the way back in the story of Adam and Eve.
3. The Scripture teaches that as a result of our sin we need to be “reconciled” or put right with God.
4. And here’s the problem, Scripture teaches that we do not in ourselves have the ability to accomplish that reconciliation.
5. The Scripture teaches that Christ was both fully human and also fully divine--fully human yet without sin.
Before we begin to examine our text for today, I think it’s helpful to see how Christianity differs from other religions of the world. Most of the other religions of the world operate on the premise that God is an angry, hateful, indifferent deity who could care less about the prosperity of beings who grub around underneath Him in this world. So the goal of men in most other religions is to “do something”—to perform religious ceremonies, to offer prayers at specific times during the day, to perform good works—all of this in an attempt to appease God and to earn His favor.
Or an analogy that we could use, in almost all of the other religions of the world, men are left to erect a ladder that begins on earth and leads to Heaven. In other words, we climb up to God through our own efforts. Hold that image firmly in your mind as we examine this Scripture today from II Corinthians 5. For these verses, verses 18-21, contain the very heart of what we call the Gospel. Verse 18 begins with these words. It says, “All this is from God…” Well, all of this refers to the truths that Paul has just set forth in verses 14-17. We didn’t read those verses, but I want us to read them together now in a paraphrased version. “Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that One died for all and then was raised from the dead. Therefore, we no longer live for ourselves, but for Christ. If anyone is in Christ, the old has gone…the new is taking its place!” Think about those verses as you view the film, The Passion of the Christ.
This brings us to the first of four points I want to make from our text today.
God initiates the reconciliation. All of this is from God. That’s different from the other religions of the world that say we have to, by our own efforts, make our way up to God. Christianity says God is the one reaching down to us. I want to look for a moment at some of God’s attributes. Two of which are that God is holy and that God is just. Now when you get in touch with those two attributes, you realize why God cannot simply choose to ignore our sin. If God chooses just to ignore our sin, God is no longer holy or just. Thus our dilemma! We have no power in ourselves to meet the demands of God’s justice or to attain His standard of righteousness.
But here comes the good news. God is not only holy and just, but God is also loving and merciful. So God takes the initiative to satisfy the demands of His holy justice and make what we call atonement for us. Romans 5:8 says, “God demonstrates His love for us in this: While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
Christ’s main purpose in coming to earth was to do for us something that we did not have the power to do for ourselves. And before we move to our second point, I want to notice the tenth verse of Romans, Chapter 5 which says, “If when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son,” (then note this), “how much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved through His life!”
I’m so thankful for a professor in seminary that said “yes” we the church often talk about the atoning death of Jesus Christ. But he reminded us constantly that we are saved not only by the death of Christ, we are also saved by the life, the death and the resurrection of Christ. It’s a complete package. And, therefore, Paul says to the church in Rome, “If we have been reconciled by His death, how much more will we be saved through His life and the marvelous example that He gave to us?”
God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ. Friends, get ready for some really good news! Listen carefully; God does not merely admit sinners in to the circle of His blessing while leaving us guilty and sin-stained. No, the reconciliation that Paul is talking about here has legal implications. We call it justification. And what that means is because of what Christ has done for us on the cross, God looks down upon us, despite our sin, and declares us “not guilty”! We’ve got an attorney here this morning. As he represents his clients, the words they want to hear from the judge are those two words “not guilty”. That’s what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. He looks down upon us. If we have exercised faith in Christ and despite our sin he says, “Not Guilty”. And therefore we can stand in the presence of a Holy God wearing a spotless robe of perfect righteousness. It’s not our robe. The image that has always been very helpful to me is that God is inviting me to His banquet. And I look at the clothes in my closet and I’ve got nothing fit to wear. But Jesus Christ comes along side and says, “Take my robe. Put it on. Put it on over your filthy garments of sin.” So that when you went to that banquet hall, God sees you as perfectly righteous because of the garment of Christ that you are wearing.
And, friends, it is important that we understand that this is not just a process, this is a reality. We know that we are going to continue to sin until the moment of glorification which comes with death. But the moment that we trust what Jesus has done for us, in Christ we are forgiven of every sin we have committed—past, present and future! That’s why God’s grace is so amazing!
When we were in Nashville the day before my recent surgery, I’d gone over to the Upper Room. Anticipating our trip to England this summer, I picked up a book entitled, Pilgrims in the Kingdom, which talks about some of the significant sites from a religious standpoint in England. One of the places we will visit is the Olney Parish Church where John Newton served as a pastor for a number of years. John Newton is the one that wrote the words of “Amazing Grace”. But I didn’t realize fully the story of John Newton. We will see his tombstone on which are written these words: “John Newton, Clerk. Once an infidel and a libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa who was by the rich mercy of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, preserved, restored and pardoned and appointed to preach the faith that he had long labored to destroy for nearly sixteen years.” And then reading just a few of the words about John Newton, it says, “He had trafficked both in slaves and in the sins of the flesh. Like a doctor self-diagnosing a tumor, Newton then pointed the source of his behavior as rebellion against God. On the eve of what would be his most eventful voyage, carrying slaves between Africa and England, Newton wrote, “My whole life went away. It was a course of the most horrid, impiety and profaness. I know not that I have never since met so daring a blasphemer as me. Not content with imprecations, I daily invented new ones.” See, we often don’t know the story behind them. A slave trader, a totally profane, violent man that on a voyage when a storm hit and they were marooned at sea for four weeks cried out to God. And then this same profane John Newton would write, later in his life, “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now I’m found, was blind but now I see.”
We are reconciled to God through the obedience of faith: If we ask the question, what is my role in salvation? How do I participate in the passion of Christ? The New Testament repeatedly answers that question in the same way, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.” Acts 16:31
Follow me carefully, for this is a subtle but critically important point. Faith, by itself, does not save us. God is the one who saves. Faith is rather the instrument by which we lay hold of what God has already done for us. Why is this subtle truth so important? --Because otherwise, we have the tendency to reduce salvation to something that we have done. We will say, “I chose Jesus as my Savior”, and then give some date. And, friends, that’s a good and an important thing to do. But what I came to realize just a few years ago was this. The only reason that I could receive Christ the Savior is because of the gift of faith that God has given to me. Jesus put it this way in the Upper Room in John 15:16 when he said, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit.”
Faith itself is a gift of God--a gift that God wants to give to all. He is constantly reaching out offering us the gift. What we are commanded to do is the words, for those of you who were here on Ash Wednesday that were shared with you as the ashes were placed on your forehead, “Repent and believe the Gospel.” Faith has “objective content”. We must believe that Christ died for our sins. We must believe that God raised Him from the dead. We must acknowledge, “Jesus is Lord”. But the ultimate object of faith, friends, is not merely a doctrinal statement. It is a person, Jesus Christ, with whom we are drawn into a relationship.
And, therefore, faith has not only an objective side; it also has a subjective side. As we grow in our relationship with Jesus Christ, realizing all that He has done for us, we want in response to live for Him, to bring honor to Christ through our words and deeds. You’ve heard me use this quote before. It’s one you ought to have put to memory. “We don’t do good deeds in order to be saved, we do good deeds because we are saved.” And part of what God wants us to do is to share this good news with others.
Verse 19 of our text this morning said, “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us!” That’s a pretty awesome responsibility! But God wants to make this awesome gift of reconciliation available to others through us.
We are reconciled to God because “Jesus died for me”: Verse 21 sets forth this powerful Biblical truth in unmistakable terms. And when we ask, why? What was going on there on the cross? “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” The prophet Isaiah had spoken centuries before of what Jesus would do for us on the cross. I have not yet seen the film. I’m going to see it this coming Sunday afternoon. But it is my understanding at the beginning of the film, some of these words of the prophet Isaiah written hundreds of years before Christ appear on the screen. “He was despised and rejected by men. A man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering: like one from whom men hide their faces; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took our infirmities and carried our sorrows: and yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities: the punishment that brought us peace was among him; and by his wounds we are healed. We all like sheep have gone astray; each one of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
In the Old Testament, God in an elementary way was teaching that sin is deadly serious in the eyes of a holy God. He was teaching that sin results in death. In the sacrificial system, he was giving an object lesson that a sacrifice would be necessary to atone for sin and to restore the relationship between man and God. And then Paul says this in Galatians, Chapter 4, “But when the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive the full rights of God’s children”.
Friends, there is an awesome gift that has been given to each of us. To use an analogy that maybe can help us understand, that gift comes to us by registered mail. We simply have to be willing to sign for it. The benefactor of that gift is God. The beneficiaries of that gift are you and me. The benefits of that gift are salvation and eternal life. And the bearer of that gift is Jesus, who died for you and who died for me.
There is so much more that could be said about this awesome gift. But maybe Charles Wesley, in that great hymn said it best, and we close with it:
And can it be that I should
gain
an interest
in the Savior's blood!
Died he for me? who caused
his pain!
For me? who
him to death pursued?
Amazing love! How can it be
that thou, my
God, shouldst die for me?
Amazing love! How can it be
that thou, my
God, shouldst die for me?
'Tis mystery
all: th' Immortal dies!
Who can
explore his strange design?
In vain the firstborn seraph
tries
to sound the
depths of love divine.
'Tis mercy all! Let earth
adore;
let angel
minds inquire no more.
'Tis mercy all! Let earth
adore;
let angel
minds inquire no more.
He left his Father's throne
above
(so free, so
infinite his grace!),
emptied
himself of all but love,
and bled for
Adam's helpless race.
'Tis mercy all, immense and
free,
for O my God,
it found out me!
'Tis mercy all, immense and
free,
for O my God,
it found out me!
Jesus died for you and for me!
In response, let us stand and sing those final two versus.
E-mail Comments to: Reverend Dan Sinkhorn