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| > Sermon Archive > Sermons by Author > Dr. Wes Bredenhof > Praise God for the forgiveness of our sins! | Previous Next Print |
| Order Of Worship (Liturgy) Hymn 3:1-2 Psalm 86:1,2,4 Hymn 26 Hymn 1 Hymn 3:3-5 Scripture reading: Ephesians 1:1-14 Catechism lesson and text: Lord's Day 21 QA 56 and Ephesians 1:7 |
Beloved congregation of Christ,
The other day I was listening to a radio station from Canada and they played this classic song by The Who, Baba O’Riley. The song is a story about a Scottish farmer taking his wife and children to London for a concert. In the first verse of the song, we hear these lines from the farmer:
I don't need to fight to prove I'm right
I don't need to be forgiven…
It was that last line that caught my attention: “I don’t need to be forgiven.”
How many people today still hold that view? Forgiveness implies guilt. Guilt means there’s a moral system standing above you. A moral system standing above you suggests a divine Law-giver. So, many people today are allergic to the idea of needing forgiveness, particularly if we’re talking about forgiveness from anyone other than our fellow human beings.
But the Bible teaches that forgiveness is one of the most important things we need in life. If we don’t have God’s forgiveness, we’re facing an eternal death sentence. Without God’s forgiveness, this life is as good as it will ever get. Once we die and face the Judge, things only go downhill and quickly.
The Bible also teaches that we can’t bring about forgiveness for ourselves. Even if we were to spend a million years in hell, we wouldn’t be able to achieve forgiveness for our sins. But what we can’t attain for ourselves, God provides in his grace. When we experience this and understand this, it leads to worship. This afternoon we’re learning about forgiveness in the context of Ephesians 1:7. This passage teaches us to praise God for the forgiveness of our sins.
We’ll learn about:
- What is promised
- How it’s provided
- Why there’s praise
The first chapter of Ephesians is well-known as the place we turn to when it comes to the doctrine of election. For those who don’t know or don’t remember, election is the teaching about how God chooses individuals to salvation before the creation of the world. God does that without any consideration of anything the persons chosen might do. It’s an unconditional election. And this forms part of the basis for the whole stream of praise that comes out of the apostle Paul in this section. But it’s not the only part.
Verse 7 includes redemption and the forgiveness of sins as another reason to praise God. According to our Heidelberg Catechism, the forgiveness of sins is part of what the gospel promises us. The whole Apostles’ Creed is about God’s gospel promises. So when we get to the forgiveness of sins in QA 56, we should look at it from the perspective of: what does God promise us when it comes to forgiveness? Our Catechism approaches it by pointing out how God will no more remember our sins or our sinful nature. The Bible teaches that forgiveness involves this no more remembering in passages like Psalm 103 and Micah 7. Our sins are removed as far as the east is from the west, thrown into the depths of the ocean. In places like Isaiah 44:22, God speaks of blotting out transgressions, erasing them from his sight. These things are true.
But Ephesians 1:7 adds more depth to the picture of what God promises in the forgiveness of our sins. At first glance, it might seem like Paul is speaking about two different things: redemption and the forgiveness of sins. But they’re not. They’re like two sides of one coin. It’s the same idea expressed slightly differently.
Redemption means a payment has been made to free someone. In the ancient world, you would pay a price to free someone from slavery. If you’re a Christian, you are someone who has been bought back from slavery. The price has been paid by Christ so you can be free from guilt. The price has been paid so you can be free from slavery to sin and death and all it entails.
Forgiveness here in Ephesians 1:7 refers to release from an obligation. It’s best illustrated in the parable Jesus told in Matthew 18 about the unforgiving servant. The story begins with a servant who owed the king an astronomical debt. The servant begged for more time to pay. But instead of giving him more time to pay, the king had pity on his servant and he released him entirely from the debt. He forgave him all of the enormous debt. The servant was let go from his obligation to pay it back. This is what we have in the forgiveness of our sins. Think of the worst financial crisis you’ve ever had. You had a huge debt and you thought you might never be able to pay it back. Well, it pales in comparison to the astronomical debt we owe to God. This is because we have sinned against infinite majesty. Sin against infinite majesty incurs infinite debt. But in Christ God has pitied us and he has released us from our obligation to pay it back. We are forgiven. The gospel promises us this. When we place our trust in Christ, we are freed from the burden of the debt.
It’s important to understand what kind of forgiveness we’re discussing here. There are two kinds of forgiveness in the Bible. The first is judicial forgiveness and that’s what Ephesians 1:7 is speaking about and it’s what QA 56 is about. Judicial forgiveness is about forgiveness from God as judge. This takes place in the context of our justification – justification is when God declares us right with him because of what Christ has done. Justification includes the forgiveness of all our sins, past, present, and future. They’re all swept away and we’re released from the debt we’ve incurred because of them.
The other kind of forgiveness is what we call parental forgiveness. Having been justified by faith, we’re adopted into God’s family. He is our Father and we’re his beloved children. Nothing can ever change that. No one gets kicked out of God’s family. But within this family context, we still do sin against our Father. We now go to him in prayer as our Father and ask for his parental forgiveness of our sins. This is the forgiveness mentioned in the Lord’s Prayer, “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” Parental forgiveness is also then what you find in the explanation of the Lord’s Prayer, in Lord’s Day 51. It’s the forgiveness of someone who is already God’s justified child.
So to review: what is promised in the forgiveness of our sins is a payment to free us from sin. What is promised is release from the debt owed to God for sin. Now let’s move on and learn about how this forgiveness is provided.
In our Catechism we confess that God’s judicial forgiveness of us comes “because of Christ’s satisfaction.” Christ has satisfied the demands of God’s law for the punishment of sin. In Ephesians 1:7, we read that God’s judicial forgiveness comes through the blood of Jesus. It’s a more vivid image compared to what we have in our Catechism and it’s worth pondering.
On the one hand, you could say that the “blood” here stands for everything connected with Christ’s suffering and death on the cross. That wouldn’t be wrong, but it would miss something important about blood. Hebrews 9:22 reminds us that “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.” But why is that? Why is blood so important for forgiveness?
In the Old Testament, blood is said to be connected to life. When Christ’s blood was flowing out of him on the cross, that was his life being offered for ours. His blood represents his life as our substitute on the cross. He took our place. He paid our debt for us.
This connection between blood and life also helps us understand what the Bible says elsewhere about the value of Christ’s blood. 1 Peter 1:19 tells us it was precious blood, worth more than perishable things like silver and gold. Why was that blood so precious? Because it was the infinitely valuable life of the Son of God. As we regularly hear in the Lord’s Supper form, that life was poured out “for the complete forgiveness of all our sins.”
The shedding of this infinitely valuable blood shows us how serious God takes sin. It took an infinite sacrifice to bring about our forgiveness. It couldn’t be anything less. That shows us how offensive sin is to the holy God. He doesn’t take it lightly. Something dramatic had to happen to deal with it. Infinitely valuable blood needed to be shed.
And because it was so infinitely valuable, God accepted this blood. He accepted the sacrifice Christ made on the cross in our place. He proved this on the third day when he raised Jesus from the dead. The resurrection was the proof that God was satisfied with Christ’s work on the cross for us.
Now our Catechism says, “I believe…” The question is: do you believe? Do you believe that Christ’s blood was shed for you, for the complete forgiveness of all your sins? Perhaps there’s someone here this afternoon who has not yet believed that for themselves. Maybe one of the kids, maybe a young person, maybe a visitor, or even a long-time member. Whoever you may be, you need forgiveness and God promises forgiveness only through the blood of Christ shed on the cross. Take hold of Christ by faith. Say in your heart, “This Saviour is mine. The blood shed on the cross was shed for me so I could be forgiven and have a place in God’s family.” The forgiveness you need from God is there in Jesus – take hold of it for yourself.
When we do that, then what a sense of relief! The burden is gone. It’s like we’ve been let out of prison after a long sentence. It’s like the doctor has told us the cancer is gone. What a relief! And then we’re led to praise. That’s the last thing we’re learning about this afternoon.
The Bible teaches us that this gift of the forgiveness of our sins is not to be taken for granted. It’s something to be embraced, appreciated, and celebrated. We see that in Ephesians 1:7 when it says forgiveness is “according to the riches of his grace.”
Riches we know about, but grace is one of those Bible words we easily glance over. We think we know what it means, but if we have to explain it we might struggle. Listen: grace is when you receive the opposite of what you deserve. It is not merely unmerited favour, but dismerited favour. To help you understand the difference between unmerited and dismerited favour, think of a man who has been in prison for many years. He gets out and starts living on the street. A kind old man sees him living out there in the cold and invites him into his home. He feeds him, provides him with clothing and shelter – all for nothing. One night the guest robs the kind old man of all his silverware and heads out the door. Out in the street, the police arrest him and return him to the kind old man’s house. The old man tells the police that he gave his guest the silverware. Then he goes to another cupboard and pulls out a silver candlestick and says, “My friend, you forgot this one. Here take this one too.” That story comes from Les Miserables by Victor Hugo and it’s a good illustration of dismerited favour. The guest didn’t deserve any kindness – in fact he had betrayed and taken advantage of the old man’s kindness. But he received grace. He not only received the silverware he had stolen, but even more. God has shown us grace like that, not only forgiving us our sins, but also granting us the righteousness of Christ that we might never come into condemnation.
He has truly lavished us according to the “riches of his grace.” We have so much debt from our sins, but it’s all covered with the blood of Christ. God gave richly to cover what we owe, he has given “according to the riches of his grace.” William Hendriksen explains this by describing two incredibly rich men. Both are providing a gift to someone. The one rich man gives just a paltry sum, a small percentage of his wealth. The other rich man gives an enormously generous sum. He has given according to the riches of his grace. That’s exactly what God has done for us in giving us his Son and the blood he shed for us on the cross.
Loved ones, here we have so much reason for praise. I have nothing but the debt of my sin, but God has erased it with the precious blood of his Son. He has pitied me and you and everyone who believes in Christ. He says, “Your debt is gone. You are free!” We can take none of the credit for this. All we can do is lift up our voices in worship for God and his grace. Praise God that he pitied us. Praise God for the love in which he gave his Son to take our place on the cross. Praise God for the blood which redeems us and makes us his children. Praise God for the riches of his glorious grace!
In this sermon, we’ve learned about what is promised in the forgiveness of our sins – we’re promised the payment to free us, we’re promised release from the debt we owe to God. We’re promised what we learned is judicial forgiveness, part of our justification. We learned that forgiveness comes to us through Christ’s blood, through his life poured out for us as our substitute. And we learned that all of this drives us to want to love and praise and worship God for the riches of his grace. Now having learned all that, a good application would be to take what you’ve learned and share it with someone else, whether today or in the week ahead. After all, everyone really does need God’s forgiveness and it’s available for everyone in Jesus Christ. AMEN.
PRAYER
Gracious God and Father,
Thank you that you promise us redemption and forgiveness through the blood of your Son. We need that forgiveness and we’re glad you’ve provided it. We pray that there would be no one here this afternoon who is a stranger to this forgiveness. If there is someone here who has not really experienced your forgiveness through Christ, we pray that you would work it in their heart with your Holy Spirit. Father, we praise you for the riches of your grace. You have lavished us beyond what we can grasp. You’ve cancelled our debt and for that, we’ll forever love and thank you. Please help us with your Holy Spirit to appreciate more and more what you’ve done for us in the gospel, that we would praise you more and more. Please give us help also to share with others what the gospel offers in the forgiveness of sins. We pray that increasing numbers of people would hear the good news of release and freedom through the blood of Christ.
* As a matter of courtesy please advise Dr. Wes Bredenhof, if you plan to use this sermon in a worship service. Thank-you.
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