I have a confession
One of my interests is reading and watching crime stories.
And that interest has been well fed over the last couple of years
with the gangland wars that occurred in Melbourne.
Some of this story was portrayed in the series, the Undebelly.
Now when I think of the underworld and ganglands.
I normally think of the mafia.
Characters in black suits, well groomed and ready to kill.
However one of the main leaders in this gangland wars was a character named Carl Williams.
Now Carl Williams loves tracksuits and jeans.
Has a bit of belly.
And was commonly referred to as baby face.
On the surface he didn’t look much like a big time criminal.
However for years the police and the media often called him one of the crime leaders of Melbourne.
But he constantly denied being a criminal.
He constantly denied being behind some of the thirty murders in Melbourne.
He would always says he was not guilty.
That was until one day after a court appearance
and he was on his way back to gaol.
When he asked for the van to turn around and go back to court so he could plead guilty.
This is one thing that fascinates me
people who initially plead not guilty,
then change their mind and plead guilty.
Sometimes I wonder why?
At times we can be just like many criminals.
We can say I am alright.
There is not much wrong with me.
I haven’t done much wrong.
Like I’ve only gone a few kilometres over the speed limit.
Or we say compared to them I am ok.
I‘ve never murdered anyone like Carl Williams.
I am not guilty.
I haven’t sinned recently.
This type of thinking actually causes us problems.
If we don’t see ourselves as sinners,
then we don’t see how much we need God.
We are actually denying that Jesus needed to come to earth.
In John 3:17 Jesus says I came to save the world not condemn it.
And if we don’t see ourselves as sinners then we don’t see that we need to confess sin.
We are actually avoiding having our sins dealt with.
And this they will continue to affect us,
particularly in our relationships with God and others.
We are also not allowing God’s perspective of us and life to influence us.
We are not asked to compare ourselves to others but to God and his way of life.
The truth is we are sinners
and we always need Jesus and what He has done for us.
A friend of mine who became a Christian later in life highlighted how beneficial it is when we recognise that we are sinners.
For much of the early years of his life.
He said he felt his life was ok,
He felt he had no need for God.
Sure there were problems in his life,
But they were never his fault.
It was the government’s, his client’s, his neighbour’s, his wife’s fault.
He had some hidden sins and these sins affected how he related to his family, friends and clients.
Most of his life was focussed on himself, making money and having the most enjoyable time ever.
And this ended up in his first wife leaving him.
Then he said it happened he met a girl.
She said before they could get serious he had to agree to come to church.
His first response was what time does that mean we have to get up?
So he went along because he was in love.
And so when he heard that early line in the liturgy,
“I a poor miserable sinner”
To himself he said I am not miserable I am in love.
But after a few weeks of attending church some things started to make sense.
He started to understand why he and others had problems.
That many of the problems he experienced were his fault.
And even worse he couldn’t fix them.
But he discovered Jesus could.
And Jesus would give him peace
and help to start dealing with his problems.
Recognising that Jesus is the solution to sin was what the reformation of the church that Martin Luther started was on about.
It was about taking the focus off ourselves and what we could do as the solution to our problems.
And putting it on God as the solution to our problems.
And all our problems are the result of sin.
Sin we have committed and sin committed against us.
And the biggest problem is that sin separates us from God and other people.
Think about all the sins in your life.
How have they affected your relationships?
And when you feel like you don’t want to love God
or love others, that is sin at work.
And when you feel like loving God and loving others, that is God at work.
Now putting the focus on God as the solution to sin
is not a new teaching,
but it is teaching that Martin Luther discovered in the bible
Listen to John 8:34-36
34 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
You can only obtain freedom from sin by having faith in Jesus.
The reformation was about restoring this teaching as the main teaching of the church.
God can do many other things.
However the most important thing he does is deals with your sin, by forgiving it.
And In Romans 3, Paul uses three big words to emphasis what God has done for you.
The first is justified, or justification.
Now if a judge declared you “not guilty”
you would be said to be justified in the face of the law.
And being justified means you are free this is why Paul can say of us in Romans 8 that “there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
We have been justified, declared “not guilty,” by the best judge of all, God.
But it is not that we haven’t sinned.
It is because Jesus has dealt with our sin.
That is where the second big word helps us
That word is redemption
While the word justified is from a legal background
the word redemption comes from an economic situation.
It means to buy something back.
When I was a little kid I would often collect soft drink cans and take them in not just to be recycled,
but so someone would buy them back from me.
I loved visiting South Australia because they would buy each one back for 5c.
Now in Paul’s time the word redemption was most commonly used in slave markets of Paul’s day.
How many of you have debts
Well in Paul’s time if you had difficult paying debts you could sell yourself as a slave to clear the debt.
If someone loved you they could redeem you…
they could buy you out of slavery and into freedom,
Now the Bible tells us that we are born as slaves to sin, ie. sin will dictate to us how we live and we have no hope of freeing ourselves.
On our own we will sin, and be affected by sin.
However Jesus has paid the price for your sin.
And this is not because you are good but because God is good.
And when God buys our freedom instead of having to deal with sin, we have the opportunity to live for God.
To live a life of loving God and loving others.
And that leads us to the third big word that Paul uses
At times what Jesus has done for us on the cross is referred to as atonement.
Atonement is a religious term.
It comes from the Old Testament system of animal sacrifice that God established for the Israelites.
Once a year every Jew was to come to temple with their sins and a sacrifice of either a bull, goat or lamb.
God allowed an animal to assume the guilt of the people and to die in their place,
Unfortunately this system never changed the people’s hearts and sacrifices needed to be made year after year.
The high priest would sprinkle the blood of your sacrifice on God’s mercy seat .
Now maybe we could introduce this again.
We could have a special day each year where you bring all your sins to me,
along with your credit card and we deal with your sins.
But it wouldn’t work
Because no matter what you offer wouldn’t be enough.
Instead God provides the perfect sacrifice for all the sins, Jesus Christ.
At times Jesus is referred to as the Lamb of God.
And this is what that means.
That Jesus sacrifice on the cross was enough to pay for everyone’s sins.
There is no sin that Jesus doesn’t pay for.
Jesus willingly took on our sin, along with the guilt and shame and died in our place.
No other sacrifice is needed to deal with your sins.
God didn’t do this because you were good and had been falsely accused
Or because you lead an exemplary life, and had one little slip up.
He did this because He is good and He loves us.
So much that through the cross He heals our relationship with Him.
So this week as you live.
Remember you don’t need to be weighed down by sin,
because God has done something about your sins.
Instead live your life focused on Him.
Relying on His forgiveness.
And sharing His forgiveness.
Because Jesus suffered, died and rose for you
Isn’t that something to constantly appreciate? Amen
