OPEN: Dick Van Dyke once told a story about a preacher who was showing his 4 year old son a picture of Jesus. But the man didn’t want his son to get the wrong idea and so he said: “But son… it’s not really Jesus. It’s just an artist’s impression of Jesus.” The boy looked closely at the picture and then he looked up at his dad and said “Well, it certainly looks like Him.”
There have been numerous paintings of Jesus down thru the ages. There is a European Jesus (we showed pictures of each Jesus painting), and a Black Jesus, and a Hispanic Jesus, and an Oriental Jesus, and of course… there’s the Jewish Jesus - which He actually was.
But no matter how Jesus is portrayed in art, we still have no idea EXACTLY what He looked like. Of course, that really doesn’t matter, because IF it mattered the early church would have painted His image on everything in sight, and the Bible would have given us a detailed description of what He looked like (which it doesn’t).
And that’s because - it’s not what Jesus looked like that matters. It’s what Jesus DID that matters.
John 3:16 says that “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son (Jesus), that whosoever should believe in Him might not perish but have everlasting life.” Or, as Romans 5:8 says it: “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
You see, that’s the picture that Scripture paints of Jesus = The Son of God, born to die on a cross for our sins.
Or, as Joe Scott put it in his video: “There was absolutely no reason for my 10 year old self to doubt that there was a God. That He loved me. And that He gave His Son’s life so that everything I’d ever do would be forgiven.” That’s the image that 10 yr. old Joe Scott had in his mind, and that’s how he saw Jesus. But as he grew older, things got more complex for him, and he eventually got to the point where he asked: WHY? Why did God have to kill His Son in order to forgive my sins? Why couldn’t He just forgive me?
And this became a real sticking point for Joe Scott - but whether it’s a sticking point for him or not, that is that the Bible teaches. That is the image of Christ painted across the scriptures: The Son of God, dying so that we could be forgiven.
Now, that said, Joe’s questions still have merit. Why DID God have to kill His Son to forgive my sins? Why COULDN’T He just forgive me?
So let’s try to answer those questions. 1st – Why Did God Have to Kill His Son to Forgive Our sins?
Well, it helps to realize that sacrifice for sin is taught throughout the Old Testament. As Hebrews 9:22 tells us “Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.”
Something had TO DIE to atone for sin. In fact, you see that back in Genesis when Adam and Eve sinned. They tried covering their nakedness with fig leaves, but that wasn’t getting the job done (they still were ashamed). But then in Genesis 3:21 - “The LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.”
Garments of skins? Where would God get garments of skins? From animals that had to die to cover Adam and Eve’s nakedness. Did those animals vollunteer their skins? No. They had to die. And that was a recurring theme throughout scripture. Something had to die, so that our sin could be covered.
When the Ark of the Covenant was constructed, the top of the Ark was called the “Mercy Seat.” And every year the High Priest would go into the Holy of Holies and carry with him the blood of an innocent sacrifice which was placed on the “Mercy seat”. But, WHY was the blood placed there? ANSWER: To cover the sins of the people. Literally, the blood of the sacrifice shielded their sins from God’s eyes.
Psalms 5:4 tells us “For you are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil may not dwell with you.”
And Habakkuk 1:13 described God as “You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong”
The blood covered the sins of the people so God didn’t have to look at it. As I was preparing the sermon, I remembered a phrase “Cover your eyes.” And I thought - what does that mean? Well, it means that something is so embarrassing or painful to see that you can’t bear to look upon it.
ILLUS: I searched the internet for this phrase “Cover your eyes” and I discovered the most intriguing thing: There are people ‘experts’ out there who study “body language,” and these experts say that there is a phenomena that they call “Eye-Blocking.” From a psychological point of view, it’s similar to closing your eyes and looking away when you see a truck on course to run over a pedestrian. You can’t instantly zap yourself away from what you believe will be, in a matter of nano-seconds, a horrifying scene. So, your brain quickly takes over, closes your eyes, and turns your face away from the action. You don’t realize it, but you’re executing eye blocking behavior. So, eye-blocking is when a person displays certain physical body clues that indicate that they are “looking away” because they are embarrassed or offended or pained by something they see. Some of those clues are rubbing eyes; squinting real hard; closing your eyes for a second or a few seconds too long; looking down or away, then looking back at the person who is speaking; putting your hand on their forehead and massage it a little OR covering your eyes with your hand. These experts note that even people who’ve been blind from birth will often exhibit eye blocking behavior when they get bad news or hear something that pains/offends them. This suggests eye blocking may be inherent in every person’s genetic make-up whether they can see or not. (http://www.scottrouse.com/do-you-recognize-eye-blocking/)
Now, granted, there’s nothing that God cannot see (with or without blood), but apparently, whenever God saw the blood, He would “avert His eyes”… look away.
But I think the covering of sins with blood may have been for the benefit of the offeror as well. In covering their sins with the blood of their sacrifice, they were acknowledging that their sins were offensive to God. It taught them to be embarrassed by what they’d done and to admit that they needed forgiveness. It would teach them to BLUSH!
In Jeremiah 6:15 God condemned Israel because “they were NOT AT ALL ASHAMED; they did NOT KNOW HOW TO BLUSH. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; at the time that I punish them, they shall be overthrown."
So, God wanted to teach His people to be ashamed of their sins - to learn how to blush.
Now, of course that’s nice, but why would God require a BLOOD sacrifice to cover sins? Why didn’t God ask people to offer up… some asparagus or carrots or lima beans? Why did something have to die? Why did something have to shed BLOOD to bring forgiveness?
Well, back in Genesis God told Adam that he should not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil “… for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Genesis 2:17
The punishment FOR SIN was death. And that’s what Romans 6:23 tells us “For the wages of sin is DEATH.” Leviticus 17:11 said it this way: “For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement (a covering) for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.”
The Old Testament taught that the price for our sin is either OUR death, or the death of a substitute - something that dies in our place. Thus – all the sheep and goats and cattle that were offered every year, and their blood was shed to cover sins. Someone once observed that Bible is a bloody book. They said: “Cut the Bible anywhere and it bleeds.”
The problem was, the sheep and cattle and goats didn’t really VOLUNTEER for this. They didn’t WILLINGLY give their blood to cover the sins. Their sacrifice was like a “stop-gap” measure until a better sacrifice could be made. And– of course – that BETTER SACRIFICE is where Jesus came in.
You see, one of the inherent fallacies in Joe Scott’s comment was the implication that Jesus was a VICTIM rather than a VOLUNTEER. Joe asked: “Why did God have to kill His Son in order to forgive my sins?” But Hebrews 12:2 tells “… Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” Jesus VOLUNTEERED for this task.
As Philippians 2:6-8 tells us “though Jesus was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
Essentially, God became flesh in Jesus and came down to suffer and die for our sins. As God made the first sacrifice to COVER the nakedness of man’s sin, so also God made the last sacrifice so His blood could cover our sin. There was no other way to accomplish that.
But, wait a minute (Joe would ask) – “Why couldn’t He just forgive me?” Why go through all the trouble of sacrifices and blood, and … Jesus dying? And that’s an excellent question.
And the answer? God couldn’t just forgive me, because our God is a righteous God. He not only decreed the Law, He was also subject to the Law as well. We’ve all heard politicians who are criticized for passing laws that they don’t have to obey. It rankles us to see the hypocrisy of people in power, to see them decreeing that we follow rules and regulations that will NEVER apply to them.
But the God of Scripture is different than that. The rules that apply us… also apply to Him.
CLOSE: To help you visualize the truth of this, I want to tell a story. It’s called the story of King Arthur and Camelot and while there are several different versions of the story this version is particularly interesting.
In this version Arthur is pictured as a righteous king was determined to make his land a nation of laws where all people could be protected from ruthless and powerful men. And as He does this, his law is enforced by the knights of the round table.
But the story takes a sad twist. His wife Guinevere has an affair with Lancelot, Arthur’s most trusted knight. They are discovered in their sin. But while Lancelot escapes, Guinevere is not so fortunate—she faces trial. The jury finds her guilty and sentences her to the flame.
As the day of execution nears, people come from miles around with one question in their minds: Would the king let her die?
Guinevere enters the courtyard. She walks to the unlit stake. The executioner stands with waiting torch. And Arthur turns away, emotion brimming in his eyes. A herald cries: “The Queen is at the stake, Your Majesty. Shall I signal the torch?” But Arthur is devastated. He cries: “I can’t! I can’t! I can’t let her die!”
Standing next to Arthur is Mordred (Arthur’s evil illegitimate son). Mordred despises Arthur and everything he stands for, and helped create the problems Arthur now faces. And MORDRED almost laughs. “Arthur! What a magnificent dilemma! Let her die, your life is over; Let her live, your life’s a fraud. Which will it be, Arthur? Do you kill the queen or kill the law? You’re human after all, aren’t you Arthur? Human and helpless.”
Mordred rightly noted that if Arthur carries out the sentence, he upholds the law and proves himself to be a just and impartial king. But, in doing so, he must execute the woman he loved. As Mordred pointed out… Arthur was helpless, because he was only human he couldn’t save the one he loved (Copyright © 1996 by Ken Gire, Jr. Zondervan publishing houses.)
Thousands of years ago, God was faced with the same dilemma. Psalm 7:11 declares “God is a righteous judge…” and the Law decreed the wages of sin is death. If God were to uphold the law He would have to destroy us. But He would prove himself to be a just and impartial king. And yet… He loved us. We were made in His image.
John 3:16 declared: “God so LOVED the world…” And He so loved us that He found a way to fulfill the Law and rescue us from the verdict of death. As the rest of John 3:16 tells us "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” In other words, God became flesh so that He could BE the sacrifice for our sins. So that the blood of God would cover our shame and guilt.
INVITATION.
FOOTNOTE: A short transcript of Joe Scott's monologue: "IS THERE A SCIENTIFIC EXPLANATION FOR GOD?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3_0O-gpeYo
(Joe grew up in a very religious family and it never occurred to him that there wasn’t a God who loved him and cared what happened to him).
"The older I got, the more complex the issue of religion became to me. I saw people from church acting very unChristian. You know, wearing a cross necklace and then judging other people, and being rude. I worked in a restaurants where I saw first-hand that the church crowd are the worst tippers in the whole world.
And a lot of the just little idiosyncrasies of the dogma, just didn’t add up for me anymore. Like, if God is all-powerful and all-knowing, then why does He need my help? And my money? Why did God have to kill His Son in order to forgive my sins? Why couldn’t He just forgive me? For that matter, why did He make sin in the first place?
If God is all love then why would He send me to hell for eternity because I didn’t honor my father and mother correctly? For that matter, why did He make hell in the first place?
It just became harder and harder for me to just believe… I mean, couldn’t it be possible that all religion is just a way for us to deal with the fact that we are mortal – that we have an end date? Is it just our way of dealing with the seemingly pointless nature of it all? I didn’t want that to be true. (He views himself as a seeker… constantly seeking for an answer)."
