Jesus died for you and me– True or False?
Well, today is Good Friday, the day that we remember Christ’s death on the cross. Have you ever stopped to wonder about this contradiction in terms. You would normally only associate celebration or happiness with the death of someone bad or evil. But here we associate it with the death of Jesus – a good man, a great man, the Son of God. And the reason why we say it is good is that we claim that He died for us.
This morning, I want to quickly consider Jesus’ death and ask the question – Jesus died for you and me – True or False? For many of you, what I am going to talk about this morning is very familiar. To you who are comfortable with this information, I want to challenge you about what you are doing about it. If you know that Jesus died for all people on the planet, when was the last time you shared this good news with others. Listen and be encouraged. Listen and get excited. Listen and learn how you can answer this question to your friends. Jesus died for you and me – True or False.
This is the last in a series of messages where we looked at 3 questions. If you would like a video of these previous messages, see me after the service and I can arrange them for you.
The first question was - Jesus is God’s Son – True or False? All the evidence we examined showed us that Jesus was no ordinary man and that He was who He said He was – God’s Son. If that is the case, He comes with some authority on the matter of God.
The second question that we looked at last Sunday night was – Jesus is the only way to God. We discovered that God chose to reveal himself to us through his Son. Therefore, the information we get about God and the way to God through Jesus is far superior to that obtained through any other means. Other religions rely on people’s perceptions about God, but Jesus is God’s revelation of himself. If you want to know about God and what God says, look at and listen to Jesus. And on the topic of finding God, Jesus says in John 14:6-7 … “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” Jesus claims to be the only way to get to God. Why? Because only he can deal with our sin problem.
We talked last Sunday night about the huge problem we have. God is perfect which means there is nothing wrong in his character, actions or thoughts. He is flawless. His home, heaven, is also perfect. Unfortunately we are not perfect. I don’t have to tell you that we all do things which are wrong. We all lie, cheat, lose our temper, say mean things about others. We all are jealous at some times and put ourselves before others. These things are what the Bible calls sin and sin stains us. Because we are stained and not perfect, God can’t have a relationship with us. He can’t accept us in our current state and can’t let us into heaven to live with Him because if He did, heaven would no longer be perfect. It is like this bag I’ve got here. Draw out the spotted handkerchief from inside the bag. God is like this bag, he is perfect. He is spotless. There is nothing wrong with Him. But we are not like that. We are like this handkerchief. We have spots all over us. We are sinful and the two can’t go together.
Our situation is like this great big chasm. We are on one side with all our sin and imperfection. God is on the other side standing in all his glory and perfection. There is only 2 ways to get across the chasm and be accepted by God. 1) live a perfect life. For us that is impossible, Rom 3:23 says “We all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God.” I like how the Living Bible puts it … “Yes, all have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious ideal”. You know this, I know this and God knows it. So because we all have sinned, we can not live a perfect life. Even if we were to live a perfect life from here on – all the remaining day’s of our life, the things that we have already done give us an imperfect record. All other religions at their heart are based on trying to do enough good things to impress God and make us acceptable to Him. But we can never be perfect and so this is doomed to failure. Any attempt to rely on good things done will end up in failure at the bottom of the chasm.
2) The second way to get across the chasm is to have our failures scrubbed out - or our sins forgiven. God has made a way for this to happen. Did you know that Sin pays a wage? It does. All sin has consequences. You do something wrong and you expect to suffer the consequences don’t you. God says that the consequences for sin is death … Rom 6:23 says “the wages of sin is death.” God is a just God who is serious about sin. He demands that sins be punished. Where a person has sinned, the punishment must be born. That punishment that we earn from sinning is death. It is an eternal death of separation from God who is the giver and sustainer of all life.
This is a fairly sad state of affairs, because the bottom line is that none of us would ever get to heaven – we would all suffer the same consequence – Death. But the situation isn’t as hopeless as it seems – there is a loop hole. You see, God is a god who seeks justice. Justice demands the penalty be paid, but it doesn’t specify by whom. Imagine if you went to Brisbane and you got a parking ticket. Now I know that would never happen, but let’s just play a little game of imagine if. Imagine if you were to get a parking ticket. The penalty for that is a fine. Now just imagine if I was walking along and saw the parking ticket on your car and said, that’s a bit unfortunate, I think I’ll take that ticket and pay it on behalf of that poor unfortunate sod. I fed the meter too by the way. Now do you think that the Brisbane City Council would refuse my money based on the fact that it was not me that committed the offense. No of course not. They are only interested that the penalty be paid. They don’t care whether it is the guilty party or not who pays it.
This is a bit like what happens with us. We have a penalty which is owed and Jesus comes along and chooses to pay it for us. The Bible says in Rom 5:6-8 … “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Christ loved us so much that he chose to come and pay the price of our sin. Christ came to die for us. You remember my handkerchief and bag? Christ was perfect. There were no blemishes on Him at all. But we were covered in spots. While we deserved to be punished, there was no punishment due to Jesus. Because we were sinful and were condemned to death, we couldn’t offer to take the punishment for anyone else. We only had one life available and that would be required to pay for our own sin. But Jesus, had a perfect life available and he offered to take our place. He offered to take on our guilt and sin. He offered to die on our behalf. When Jesus chose to do this, it was like this handkerchief. Replace the spotted handkerchief and draw out the clean one. Through Christ’s decision, our sins and guilt is transferred to Jesus Christ and he was condemned by God in our place. The price of our sins was paid and God was satisfied.
Just as the Brisbane City Council would be satisfied that the debt was paid if I paid your fine, So God is satisfied that a life has been given to pay for the sins of you and I. And the perfect sacrifice that Jesus gave was enough to satisfy Jesus for my Sins, your sins, your workmates sins. … In fact, Jesus’ payment is sufficient to cover the sins of every person who has ever lived, who is living now and who will live. Listen to this … Rom 5:18 - 19 (MSG) Here it is in a nutshell: Just as one person did it wrong and got us in all this trouble with sin and death, another person did it right and got us out of it. But more than just getting us out of trouble, he got us into life! One man said no to God and put many people in the wrong; one man said yes to God and put many in the right.
He has done all that is required to take on your sin and my sin so that it can be forgiven. In so doing, he has made a way – a bridge if you like across the chasm that separates us from God. The bridge enables us to cross the chasm safely, but it requires one thing to happen.
You see, the bridge is utterly useless unless we choose to use it. I can stand on the side of the chasm and completely ignore the bridge. I can try to get across the chasm by my own devices (like doing good things, like meditating, like looking within myself for answers) but they are doomed to fail because nothing we can do can get rid of our spots. The only way we can get rid of our spots is if we choose to give them over to Jesus. To trust what Jesus has achieved through his death on the cross and walk across the bridge. Only Jesus has done enough to pay the penalty that God required for them to be forgiven. Only Jesus offers us forgiveness for our sins – but we’ve got to choose to take up his offer.
Jesus isn’t going to force you to accept what he has done for you. He made you with a free will. He didn’t make you a robot. You can choose to try to find your own way across the chasm, or you can choose to accept what Jesus did for you. The choice is up to you.
Make no mistake, Jesus died for You and I. He died so that we could be forgiven. He died so that we could be in heaven. He’s already died so there is no need for us to die again.
Some of you may be doubting whether Jesus really died for you. Many people are filled with guilt about things they have done in the past and unfortunately many people convince themselves that God could never love them, let alone die for them. But remember Rom 5:6-8 … “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” In God’s eyes, we are all sinners. It doesn’t matter what you or I have done, none of us measure up. God doesn’t have a scale of good to bad. With God it is all or nothing. It is black or white – there is no grey. You are either perfect – all good. Or you are not – you are all bad. In God’s eyes, God hates a lie as much as he hates rape or murder, because both make you imperfect and require the same penalty – death. So you can never be too bad for Jesus. God sees all of us as bad, yet he loved us and died for us so never think you are too bad for God’s grace. So what now?
For those who have not made a conscious decision to accept Jesus’ sacrifice, what is your choice going to be today? Don’t be confused. Jesus is God’s Son and lived a perfect life. Jesus is the only way to God, because he is the only one that can get rid of our spots. Jesus died for you and me. But the fact that Jesus died is not enough to save you or I, because we have to choose to get on that bridge and use it. What is your choice going to be. To choose to use Jesus’ bridge, you simply have to admit that you have sinned and rebelled against Him and then turn away from your sins and ask him to come and forgive you.
I’m going to be down the front after the service and I’d ask that some of the other elders and board members be available if required also. If you want to know find out how to choose the bridge, we’d love to share more with you, or just pray with you.
For those who decided to use Jesus’ bridge long ago, I want to ask you when the last time was that you shared this good news with others. This is the greatest gift that we’ve ever been given, yet there are billions of people out there that don’t know that it is meant for them and haven’t yet unwrapped it. Why don’t you put your fears to one side this Easter and share this good news with someone you care about. Why not invite them along to the 40 Days of Purpose to find out more.
Jesus died for You and Me - That’s true. Now what are we going to do about it?
