FORGIVENESS – A “PROFOUND PROBLEM” FOR GOD.
KEY VERSE – It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. (Gal. 5:1) SECONDARY THEME VERSES: “A man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ” (Gal. 2:16); “If righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing” (Gal. 2:21).
THEME: Salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone releases us from the yoke of the law, freeing us to live a life of love through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Legal (Imputed) Righteousness: We are justified by faith in Christ (Gal. 2:16). Imparted Righteousness: Immediate Moral Change at conversion (Gal. 6:15); Gradual Moral Change through the fruit-growing work of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22) which requires our cooperation (Gal 5:16-17, 25, 6:8). We cooperate by using CCRC (Concentration, Choice, Reflection, Confession/Thanksgiving. Foundational verse, “By one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.” (Heb. 10:14)
Good Teachers: (1) Constantly re-evaluate what they are doing; (2) Set large goals; (3) Ask – “Does everything I do contribute to learning?”; (4) Prepare well; (5) Check for understanding; (6) Like teaching; (7) Get results from their teaching; (8) Have perseverance. Don’t give up.
TEACHING GOAL: The show how profound was the problem to God of providing a way of forgiving people for their sins.
TEXT FOR THE DAY:
“We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.
“But if, in seeking to be justified in Christ, we Jews find ourselves also among the sinners, doesn’t that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! If I rebuild what I destroyed, then I really would be a lawbreaker.
“For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!” (Gal. 2:15-21)
FORGIVENESS, “A PROFOUND PROBLEM” FOR GOD
1. Transition to Galatians 2:15-16
2. The Bible’s Focus on Forgiveness
3. Forgiveness – A Problem
4. God Need for Satisfaction
5. God Satisfying Himself, His Nature
6. Bible Language Showing God Acting According to His Nature
7. A Loving God Provides Salvation from His Inevitable Wrath
FORGIVENESS,
“A PROFOUND PROBLEM”
FOR GOD
REVIEW:
Paul’s thesis: My apostleship, like the twelve, is by divine appointment; the Gospel I preach was received by divine revelation. (Galatians 1:11-12)
From 1:13-4:31 Paul defends his position as an apostle and the divine authenticity of the Gospel he preaches. Paul shows his independence from: (1) Human Teaching (1:13-17); (2) Judean churches (1:18-24); (3) Jerusalem “pillars” (2:1-10); (4) Apostle Peter (2:11-21).
Paul confronted Peter in front of the church membership in Antioch.
The issue was that Peter had started to separate himself from common fellowship with Gentile converts because of Jewish food laws. He did this out of fear of the Christian Judaizers that came from Jerusalem. Peter’s action was so impactful that the other Jewish members of the church, including even Barnabas, separated themselves from table fellowship with Christian Gentile converts. Paul charged Peter publicly that he was clearly in the wrong and was not acting in line with the Gospel.
Paul says that the false teachers that were teaching “a different gospel” which was really not the Gospel, should be eternally condemned! In fact, even if an angel preached a gospel other than what they heard, that angel should be eternally condemned. (Gal. 1:6-9).
Some commentators say that Peter was not only in the wrong but Paul was accusing him of perverting the Gospel. This is the same charge brought against the false teachers in Galatians. (Gal. 1:6-9)
Paul is saying that if Peter is correct than Christ died for nothing. “I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing.” (Gal. 2:21)
So “Paul is determined to defend and uphold the gospel [of free grace] at all costs, even at the expense of publicly humiliating a brother apostle.” (Stott, 54)
I. TRANSITION TO GALATIANS 2:15-16
Galatians 2:15-16 – Are these two verses and the rest of chapter 2 a summary of what Paul said to Peter? Or has Paul left the story of the rebuke of Peter and just explaining to the Galatians the reason for the rebuke. In other words, did Paul’s explanation of his experience in Antioch stop with verse 14? It is not clear.
Gal. 2:16 is one of the clearest verses in the Bible on justification by faith. Note three statements about justification:
(1) General Statement – A man is not justified by observing the law but by faith in Jesus Christ.
(2) Personal Statement – So we, too, have put our faith in Christ that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law.
(3) Universal Statement – By observing the law no one will be justified.
II. THE BIBLE’S FOCUS ON FORGIVENESS / SALVATION
Last week Pastor Rich listed a host of Biblical words that deal with salvation and forgiveness: redemption, ransom, saved, atonement, pardon, cleansing, justification, healing, reconciliation, forgiveness and no condemnation.
The Bible sets forth four specific metaphors for salvation:
Redemption – a metaphor from the market place.
Reconciliation – a metaphor from the home, social life
Propitiation – a metaphor from religion
Justification – a metaphor from the law court
Our verse talks about justification. But the Bible’s overwhelming emphasis on forgiveness of sin begs a problem. Why is forgiveness so difficult? Why such a problem?
III. FORGIVENESS – WHY SUCH A PROBLEM
Some have questioned, “Why doesn’t God practice what he preaches? He tells us to forgive others, why doesn’t He just forgive mankind?
TABLE ACTIVITY: Why is forgiveness such a ‘profound problem’ for God?
“Forgiveness to man is the plainest of duties; to God it is the profoundest of problems.” (Carnegie Simpson as quoted in The Cross of Christ by John Stott, pg. 88)
IV. GOD’S NEED FOR SATISFACTION
We speak of “satisfaction” and “substitution” when talking about Biblical forgiveness.
Legal “Satisfaction” is defined as ‘atonement.” A person atones for his wrongs to satisfy the aggrieved. It is really compensation for a wrong. We will say, “I was unable to get satisfaction from the local store.” .
(1) Christians say that Christ died to satisfy the devil, liberate us from his power (C.S. Lewis and the sacrifice of Aslan order to free Narnia from the power of the white witch). (2) Christ died to satisfy the demands of the law; (3) Christ had to satisfy the moral order of the world, e.g. nothing is free, wrong must be punished.
“The limitation they (these three explanations) share is that, unless they are very carefully stated, they represent God as being subordinate to something outside and above himself which controls his actions, to which he is accountable, and from which he cannot free himself.” (John Stott, The Cross of Christ, pg. 123.
John Stott again, “Satisfaction is an appropriate word, providing we realize that it is he himself in his inner being who needs to be satisfied., and not something external to himself.
God, the aggrieved, needs “satisfaction” for the injury due to His person because of our sins. This injury needs compensated. God cannot just wave it off as if nothing happened.
V. GOD SATISFYING HIMSELF
If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself. (II Tim. 2:13)
Various translation of “disown himself.” – deny who he is, deny himself, cannot change, be untrue to himself, prove false to himself, act contrary to his very nature, act entirely unlike himself.
We can and do act contrary to our nature. We make statements like, “I expected more of you.” Or, “You are so out of character today.” Or, “It is so uncharacteristic of him.” Or, “That is no like you.” In other words we change but God never changes. He is always morally perfect.
“ . . . nor will I ever betray my faithfulness” (Ps. 89:33) “I will not be false to my faithfulness (RSV). “. . . a faithful God who does no wrong.”
Augustine in “The Creed” 1:1 wrote that there were three things that God could not do: Die, Lie or Be Deceived.
“The law to which God must satisfy is the law of His own being.” (John Stott, The Cross of Christ, Pg. 124)
God cannot act contrary to His own nature. He must act in harmony with who He is, with holy nature. God does not try to do right. He does not work at making right decisions.
VI. BIBLE LANGUAGE SHOWING GOD ACTING ACCORDING TO HIS INHERENT NATURE
QUESTION: What provokes us? In what situations might you use the word ‘provoke’?
A sound in the night provokes fear. It is an automatic response. The same would be the sound of a gun, an explosion. The smell of smoke. A near miss with another car on the road. Some things provoke disgust: Eating something rotten, seeing something filthy (Dirty Jobs). Some things provoke anger: Abuse of a child, treachery, disloyalty.
THE LANGUAGE OF PROVOCATION
“They provoked the Lord to anger.” (Judges 2:12)
“They sacrificed their sons and daughters in the fire. They practiced divination and sorcery and sold themselves to do evil in the eyes of the Lord, provoking him to anger.” (II Kings 17:17)
See also: Deut. 32:16, 21; I Kings 21:22; Psalms 78:58; Hos. 12:14; Jeremiah 32:30-32; Ezekiel 8:17.
God is as naturally provoked by sin as we are by fear. Being provoked to anger is the inevitable reaction of God to evil.
THE LANGUAGE OF BURNING
“In the fire of His jealously the whole world will be consumed, for He will make a sudden end of all who live in the earth.” (Zeph. 1:18b)
“The whole world will be consumed by the fire of my jealous anger.” (Zeph. 3:8)
“For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.” (Deut. 4:24 & Heb. 12:29)
We sometimes can be said to ‘burn with anger.” God does not try to burn with anger. He naturally burns with anger when confronted with evil.
ILL: If a fire did not consume could it be considered a fire? The nature of fire is to consume. When we say, “The fire is exhausted” we mean that it has consumed everything available. One sure way to put a fire out is to take away what it is consuming.
“There is something in God’s essential moral being which is ‘provoked’ by evil and which is ‘ignited’ by it, proceeding to ‘burn’ until the evil is consumed.” (John Stott, The Cross of Christ, pg. 126)
THE LANGUAGE OF THE NAME
“It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am going to do all these things, but for the sake of my holy name.” (Ezek. 36:22)
“Name” means person. God is saying “I am going to do all these things because of who I am.”
QUESTION: We say to a child, “Would you do this for my sake?” What do we mean? “Will you go to the picnic for my sake?”
For the sake of His name – the self-consistency of God, in a manner consistent with his revealed nature, in a way that would be consistent with his steadfast character and nature.
God can say, “I am who I am. I can’t change. I always act in harmony with my eternal nature.” We can never say that because we are sinful and we can change.
It is important to remember that God never tries to be holy and never tries to be loving. He is naturally, perfectly both – loving and holy.
VII. A LOVING GOD PROVIDES SALVATION FROM HIS INEVITABLE ANGER DUE TO OUR SIN
Beneath the cross of Jesus
I fain would take my stand,
The shadow of a mighty Rock
Within a weary land;
A home within the wilderness
A rest upon the way
From the burning of the noonday heat
And burden of the day.
O safe and happy shelter,
O refuge tried and sweet,
O trysting-place where heaven’s love
And heaven’s justice meet.
As to the holy patriarch
That wondrous dream was given
So seems my Savior’s cross to me
A ladder up to heaven.
‘Tis there beside His sacred cross,
Yes, on the nearer side,
A place of perfect safety
Wherein I do abide.
This cross is my protection,
My place of safe abode
From the fury of the holy wrath
Of my offended God.
SO WHAT?
1. Providing a way of forgiveness for mankind was a profound undertaking for the God of the universe.
2. God’s inherent nature makes it impossible to wave off sin as a minor mistake of weak humans.
3. Sin and unrighteousness provoke God to wrath, a burning anger against sin just as naturally as we are provoked to fear when facing danger.
4. The old sure place of protection for the fallen human race from that natural wrath of God against sin is the cross of Christ.