"THE SOURCE OF FORGIVENESS”
First Sunday in Advent
November 29, 2015
Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church
Glenshaw, Pennsylvania
TEXT:
Remember not the sins of my youth and my transgressions; according to
Your steadfast love remember me, for the sake of Your goodness, O
Lord.
Psalm 25:7 (ESV)
Quite a number of years ago I was involved in a minor automobile
accident--a “fender-bender,” as they call it. No one was injured, for
which I am very grateful, but my car did suffer some damage and the
accident was clearly my fault. A couple of days later when I met with
my insurance adjuster, she asked me to describe the accident, so I
honestly told her: “I really wish that there was something I could
tell you that would make me look better, but in all honesty, I can’t.
The truth of the matter is that I glanced to the side of the road for
a second and when I looked back, the pickup truck in front me had
slowed to nearly a complete stop. I hit the brakes but I couldn’t
avoid hitting him. It was my fault--pure and simple.” The woman was
totally amazed by that. She said to me: “You wouldn’t believe how
many people can’t just come right out and say that. Instead, they
make all kinds of excuses in an attempt to avoid responsibility.” I
then told her that it came quite easily for me, for two reasons: (1)
because I am frequently at fault and (2) because I’m in the business
of exposing and forgiving sins.
Confession and forgiveness are the very essence of living as a
Christian in this world. Our entire Christian life is an endless
cycle of sin, repentance, and absolution. The world also talks about
forgiveness, but I’m afraid that it’s not working with the same
definition that we use. To the world, forgiveness is an “easy come,
easy go” proposition--so easy, in fact, that genuine repentance (which
includes contrition--sorrow for sin) isn’t even necessary. The world
responds to a heartfelt confession by simply shrugging and saying,
“Nobody’s perfect,” as if that statement somehow makes sin nonexistent
or irrelevant or trivial. In reality the world doesn’t forgive at
all. Instead it excuses, it tolerates, it condones, it covers up--all
on the basis of the fact that everybody sins. In order to guard
against such a shallow way of looking at it, let’s listen this morning
to what the Lord says to us through the psalmist about the real source
of forgiveness as we ask ourselves: “On what basis can we expect or
hope to be forgiven of our sins?”
We can hope for and even expect forgiveness when we truly repent of
our sin and seek forgiveness in the name of our Savior, first of all,
because of the Lord’s great love for us and for all people. You see,
God is able to do something that we human seem to have a difficult
time doing--or even understanding. He is able to hate sin and, at the
same time, love the sinner. He is able to deal with the offenders in
love and grace without accepting their sin and thereby compromising
His justice. We tend to treat this process of exposing and condemning
sin as an all-or-nothing proposition. So often we feel that if we’re
going to condemn an action, we have no choice but to write off the
person who has committed it. So we either do that or we deal
compassionately with the person and in the process soften our
opposition to the offense. God isn’t like that at all. He has no
problem saying to any and all of us: “I love you dearly with My whole
heart, but I hate and will not tolerate your sin in My presence.”
And God, unlike us, is not all talk. Because of the great love that
He has for His wayward children, the Lord is willing to do whatever it
takes in order save sinners from the destruction that they have
brought upon themselves and make forgiveness a reality for them. And
what it required was that He Himself become human like them--that’s
the only way that it could be done. And that’s what Advent and
Christmas and Epiphany--indeed the entire Christmas cycle--are all
about: the manifestation of God in the flesh--God becoming human in
order to gain forgiveness and salvation for those who had been
lovingly created in the image of God but tossed that divine image
aside because they wanted to be their own God. That includes you and
me. It is we who deserve condemnation but are nevertheless blessed
with forgiveness because our God came into our world and lived and
suffered and died and rose again among us as One of us for us. This
incarnate God was willing to go all the way to the cross and the grave
for us because that’s what it took to make forgiveness a reality for
us.
Another thing that makes our forgiveness possible is the goodness of
God. Our God is a God of perfect justice, who demands perfect
righteousness and will be satisfied with nothing less. He cannot and
will not tolerate sin in His presence and He demands that every sin be
punished. This perfect righteousness and justice of God cannot be
compromised in any way. God doesn’t operate the way worldly
authorities so often do. In the world when a standard is set and no
one is able to meet that standard, the conclusion is that the standard
is too high and the situation is remedied by lowering the standard.
Because God is perfectly righteous and just, His Law’s standard of
perfect righteousness cannot and will not be lowered in the least and
neither will His demand for justice ever go away. It has to be met,
because He is God and God deals in absolutes. He will not settle for
anything less.
Because of all this it is only God Himself who is able to satisfy His
own righteousness and justice. No mere man could do it, because mere
men always come up short. Their righteousness is always less than
perfect, and they could never be punished severely enough to pay for
their own offenses, let alone those of anyone else. But the God-Man
Jesus Christ was able to do all of this. That’s why He became
incarnate--so that He might offer to God the perfect life of
righteousness in the sinner’s place and also offer the perfect
sacrifice for human sin. When the Holy Spirit, working through the
Gospel of Christ, convinces sinners that Christ did all of this for
them, that righteousness and that sacrifice of Christ are credited to
them, so that they can stand before the perfect Judge as His perfectly
righteous children--those whose sin has already been atoned for in the
perfect life and innocent death of their Savior.
So on what basis can we or should we seek and expect forgiveness for
our sins? The world would have us believe that there’s no such thing
as sin, or that God will overlook our sin because we’re not quite as
bad as a lot of other people are, or that God won’t hold us personally
accountable for our sin because everybody else is doing the same
thing, or that we’re not really guilty if we didn’t realize how
serious our actions were, or that our faults are easily outweighed by
our virtues. All of that may sound really nice, but unfortunately,
it’s all a lie--every last bit of it. We are sinners who are
accountable before God and deserving of His condemnation and
punishment. But because God’s goodness is greater than our sin and
because His love for us is stronger than our rejection of His will, we
not only can be forgiven; we are forgiven. God has manifested both
His love and His goodness in the Person of His Son Jesus Christ, the
Incarnate One in whom we can have perfect confidence as often as we
have the need to seek God’s forgiveness and salvation.
Amen.
May the One who once came as an Infant in Bethlehem prepare you for
His coming again in glory by His Means of Grace, through which He
comes to you even now. May He equip you to be His witnesses so that
you, like the Baptist in the wilderness, may prepare the way of the
Lord. He who calls you is faithful, and He will do it. Amen.