I’m Forgiven Because You Were Forsaken...

Jesus earlier had said that He and the Father were one. The sense of abandonment He went through must have been immeasurable.

Can any of you who are parents imagine abandoning your child to be beaten, mocked, scorned, and killed by your enemies – because their crimes needed to be punished?

But that’s what the Father did. For you.

Sin deserves punishment and rejection. Jesus took all of that on Himself.

You and I will never be able to comprehend the heartache and anger and love that moved Jesus to go through with this on our behalf.

And His reasoning was because He loves the person you see when you look in the mirror.

You: Folks, there is absolutely no way to stress this enough.

Jesus paid for your sins so you wouldn’t have to. He took the wrath that you deserve so you could know forgiveness and entrance into the Kingdom of God.

I can think of three responses that are appropriate in light of what we’ve looked at today:

1. Grateful reception of what His death bought you: forgiveness of sins, eternal life in heaven, His presence for the here and now.

Have you really put your faith in Jesus and what He did for you on the cross?

Can you say that your trust is in Jesus alone to cleanse you of your sin and give you heaven?

You can’t trust your baptism, your church membership, your charity, your good deeds, or your grandma’s religion to do this for you.

Only Jesus and what He did for you.

In a couple minutes I’m going to give you an opportunity to tell Christ that you’re putting your faith in Him and His work on the cross if you haven’t done that before.

But the first response is that if you haven’t done it before, to receive what He bought for you.

Let’s go back to 2 Corinthians 5 for a minute, because that forms the basis of these last two responses to Christ and what He did for us:

2. Grateful submission to the Savior who paid such a great price for you.

Verse 15 –

And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

If you call yourself a Christian, then you are no longer your own. You belong to Jesus. He owns you, and He has the right to be the master and boss of your life.

So many people think that’s a negative. I don’t. Why?

Because He not only owns you if you’re a believer, the Bible says He created you.

He knows you inside and out, and He knows what’s best for you.

He loves you beyond measure and wants only the best for you.

Therefore all He requires of you will be for your benefit, so that you can take part in the full and abundant life He says that He wants for you.

It’s not a negative to let Jesus run the show. It’s freedom to be all that God created you to be in Him.

And here’s the third appropriate response to what Jesus has done for you:

3. Grateful acceptance of the mission He has given us.

Verses 18-19 –

18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.