Forgiven. All of it. Forgiven

The theme of Scripture, from the first chapters of Genesis through the last chapter of Revelation is one of sin, righteousness, and judgment. It is the theme of sin because what happened in the Garden of Eden has infected and followed every man, woman, and child since Eve ate of the forbidden fruit. It is also a theme of righteousness, because Almighty God has imputed righteousness to all who come to Him through faith in the substitutionary sacrifice of God the Son – Jesus – on Calvary’s cross. And it is a theme of judgement, because the one who seduced Eve and brought sin into our world has been judged and WILL be further judged, along with all those who have followed him in this life – either wittingly or unwittingly.

I’m leaving Genesis for a moment this week to jump into the New Testament where St. Paul writes of sin, righteousness and judgment in his letter to the Christians at Corinth. We’re coming here today because his message is as applicable to us in the 21st century as it was to those living in the first century.

Applicable, how? Well, when we take time to realty think about our sins and God's incomprehensible righteousness, it is all quite inconceivable that He would extend to sinners such as you and me such mercy and undiluted forgiveness. When we’re brutally honest with ourselves, and when the Holy Spirit exposes to us the sins we’ve hidden even from ourselves – the honest person cannot help but cry out like the prophet Isaiah when he saw himself in the light of his Holy God: (Isaiah 6:5) “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”

But please hear this, because this point is important: God's mercy and forgiveness applies only to those who KNOW they desperately need His mercy and grace and forgiveness. As the Lord Jesus said: (Mark 2:17) “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Which brings us to my primary text for today. Paul writes in his first letter to the Christians at Corinth: “Don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God’s kingdom? Do not be deceived: No sexually immoral people, idolaters, adulterers, or anyone practicing homosexuality, no thieves, greedy people, drunkards, verbally abusive people, or swindlers will inherit God’s kingdom.” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10, HCSB)

At first blush, that sounds pretty ominous, doesn’t it? And it should, because God is a God of utter holiness. But the Holy Spirit did not let Paul stop at verse 10. He moved the apostle to continue with these words of pure promise and hope: “And some of you used to be like this. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God

Before we move on, let’s understand the context of Corinthian society. Corinth during the days of Paul was economically prosperous and culturally diverse. But like many large cities of the time, it was a hotbed of idolatry, sexual perversion and immorality. The temple worship of Aphrodite included a thousand ‘priestesses’ whose role in the temple amounted to what we would call common prostitution. So debauched was Corinth’s culture, the phrase ‘to Corinthianize’ was known throughout Asia to mean living in sexual depravity. 

It was within that cultural context that Paul wrote his two letters, and the important take-home point of the text I just read is that many in the Corinthian church USED TO BE guilty before a holy God of all kinds of sins, which included idolatry, drunkenness, adultery, homosexuality, and so on.

The operative phrase, of course, is: “Used to be.” And why the past tense? Because they God imputed to them His righteousness because of their now obedient faith in Jesus. And so they were WASHED. They were SANCTIFIED. They were JUSTIFIED.  And they needed to be told – as often as necessary – they needed to be told, just as WE need to be told as often as necessary that their pasts would now never determine their destiny.

Just as God created a new creature when He created Adam from the dust of the earth, in like manner God created new creatures in Corinth when each former pagan turned in faith to Christ Jesus for new birth and new life. As Paul told them – and us – in his second letter to the Corinthians: (2 Corinthians 5:17) “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”

We should pause a moment and reflect on this absolutely life-changing reality: Whatever horrible things I have done in my past, they’re all gone. Purged from God's record book. Every shadow of every stain washed away by the sacrificial blood of my Savior Jesus, who took the Father’s wrath for MY sins on Himself.

And you; You who sit here in this sanctuary – whatever horrible things YOU have done in the past, if you’re a new creature in Christ by your faith in the atoning sacrifice of Christ who took the Father’s wrath for YOUR sins on Himself – your record has ALSO been purged. Tossed into the deepest oceans.

Listen to Revelation 20:11-15, and as I read it, I hope you will let the Holy Spirit apply this glorious truth to your heart: “Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”

Let me speculate for a moment with you about this scene. I picture myself standing before the Holy God at the Great White Throne Judgment. And He will open the book – MY book – that catalogues every sin I’ve ever committed – whether in act or in thought.

Every sin – which should mean that I would have every good reason to panic. But do you know what God will see when He opens my book? Every page of the book – EVERY page of the book – will be blank. Nothing there. And do you know why? Because all of those sins have been washed away – purged by the blood of the Lamb of God who takes away our sins.

And listen to this, also: If YOU are living a life of repentance, seeking to the best of your human frailty to obey Jesus Christ and honor Him with your lifestyle – then when God opens the book that records all the wrongs YOU’VE done in your life – what will the Father find? Every page – EVERY page will be blank.

We know from Paul’s comments in that sixth chapter of 1 Corinthians that some in that Corinthian church were guilty before God of some quite corrupt and perverse sins – any of which would have brought them eternal damnation. But – and that’s an important word here, ‘But’ – but they were WASHED in the blood of the Lamb of God. Listen to God's promise in 1 John 1:7 – “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses (Greek: purges, purifies) us from all sin.

That promise of Scripture is the reason I selected that song we sung at the beginning of this message: “Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power?/Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?/Are you fully trusting in His grace this hour?/Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?/ (Oh) Are you washed in the blood/In the soul cleansing blood of the Lamb?/Are your garments spotless?/Are they white as snow?/Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?”

The Corinthians who’d come to Jesus out of lifestyles of sin now had dazzling white garments. Their pasts – just as MY past and YOUR past – no longer shadowed them. Like any shadow dispelled by blinding light, the shadows of their past sins – of OUR past sins, as egregious as they might have been – every shadow has perfectly, absolutely, and entirely disappeared. They are gone forever.

But there was more for them – as there is more for us and for all who have come to Jesus for new birth and new life. They – and WE – were sanctified.

I don’t want anyone in this sanctuary to miss that point. Former thieves and homosexuals and drunkards and idolators and liars and gossips – God had now sanctified them. That means He set them apart for His work, whatever that work might be, whether prominent to others or virtually unnoticeable to others – it doesn’t matter. What DOES matter is that God sent those former pagans, those used-to-be sinners to work in His vineyard.

And do not overlook this next comment for even a moment: God has done the same all-inclusive cleansing to everyone in this sanctuary who belongs to Him through their obedient faith in Jesus.

Yes, that means God has ALSO saved, washed, and sanctified all of us who are retirees. He has sent even YOU to work in His vineyard, regardless of your age and physical limitations. And if any retiree doesn’t know what they can do for the Kingdom – just ASK the King of the vineyard. I absolutely guarantee He will tell you.

Those saved sinners in Corinth – and we who are saved sinners here in this sanctuary – were not only washed and then set apart for God's fields, but God had also JUSTIFIED them just as He has justified us.

If you remember some of my earlier messages and Bible study teaching, the Greek word translated as ‘justified’ means that God Himself declares the redeemed sinner to be righteous!  God declares the saved sinner to be without guilt!

Yes. God calls you and me – of all people – righteous. Listen to Paul’s words to the Christians at Philippi: [That I ] may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith”. (Philippians 3:9)

Why did the Holy God call the Corinthians righteous? Because their sins – as are our sins – were all transferred to Christ as He shed His blood on that cross to wash away our sins. The penitent sinner now stands fully righteous before our holy God.

I’ll say that again: God called those in the Corinthian church who’d placed their lives into the hands of the savior – God called them ‘righteous’ on the sole basis of what Jesus did for them and how they responded to what He did for them.

THAT is why Paul and the other New Testament writers called their audience, ‘saints.’ The Greek word means, ‘holy ones.’ For example, here is how Paul opened his letter to the saved sinners in Corinth: (1 Corinthians 1:2) “To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, with all who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.”

Application time: If you have received Jesus as your Lord, King, Master, Savior – if you have confessed to Him your sins and do so in an ongoing fashion – then it matters not one whit your sinful past. Even if you were once like those in Corinth – adulterers, homosexuals, drunkards, liars, thieves, blasphemers – when you became a child of God by your obedient faith in Christ – God now calls YOU a ‘saint.’

Oh!  Hallelujah! Thanks be to God for His indescribable free gift.

Many years ago, I ran across a most somber post on the internet social media site called, ‘Facebook.’ This is what the man wrote:

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“Guys, I’m struggling. I don’t think I’ll be saved. In fact, I might be more assured of my damnation than my salvation. Getting to heaven seems to be the most difficult thing in this entire world. The road to heaven seems to be fraught with not only outward crosses, but inward trials. By that I mean the struggle with sin, the uncertainty of grace, the easiness to lose the state of grace, despair and discouragement mounting up and creeping in.

I don’t understand how anyone cannot be discouraged at the prospect of these things. Heaven is so uncertain to reach and to get there takes the most arduous and strenuous effort. If this is the requirement for heaven, then I know assuredly that I will perish.

The writer concluded: If that doesn’t bring despondency, then I don’t know what will.”

Oh, what a horrible and totally unnecessary BURDEN that man suffered under. He clearly wanted to please God but was convinced he could never do so. And do you know anyone like that?

Please hear this reminder: Calvary’s cross did not happen in a vacuum. It did not catch God by surprise, and the Creator of the universe did not have to implement Plan B when Jesus fell into the hands of those evil children of Satan. God the Son went willingly to that cross to pay the price of death that God demands for our sins.

The person who wrote that note is living in hopeless fear – the fear that Jesus’ sacrificial death was not completely and finally sufficient to save him from eternal damnation.

The Corinthians learned what I hope that Facebook writer has by now learned – and what you and I must remember day after day: The penitent sinner is washed. We are sanctified. We are justified by and though our faith in Jesus our Christ.

The heart-rending note written by a poorly taught Christian was not the first time I’d ever heard such despair rooted in the lie that God is not true to His promise of mercy. And whenever I tried to remind them of His mercy, their typical response was something along the lines of: “Yes, but you don’t know what I’ve done.”

And I always responded back: I don’t need to know what you’ve done. All I need to know is what God has promised – and that is the complete and total forgiveness for the penitent sinner. How could God make His vow any clearer?

Listen to what Paul wrote to the saved sinners in the church at Rome:

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. 3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:1-4)

In other words – the penitent sinner is now washed in the blood of the Lamb. He and she are sanctified – placed into God's vineyard. Yes, even retirees. The penitent sinner in Corinth and the penitent sinner at Ashwood Meadows is now justified – one whom God Himself decrees to be righteous. A ‘saint.’

I’ve quoted CS Lewis before and I do it again because what he said makes perfect Biblical sense: “I think that if God forgives us, we must forgive ourselves. Otherwise, it is almost like setting up ourselves as a higher tribunal (a higher court) than Him.”

Let me say it kindly, but also unmistakably: How dare we sit in the corner nursing our guilty conscience when the faithful, and utterly trustworthy God has said to the penitent: I forgive you?
 
Please, don’t go another moment believing the devil’s lying whispers that you cannot be forgiven for what you have done. Join me now in this prayer, and then leave this chapel in full confidence of God’s faithfulness to His own promises to us.
 
Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; According to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against You, You only, I have sinned and done what is evil in Your sight. . . . Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. As you have promised all who confess their sins to you to forgive us of those sins, I believe what you have said to be always true, and I now thank you, heavenly Father, for making me clean through the blood of Jesus. Amen. (Based on Psalm 51)