The Naked Gospel: Truth You May Never Hear in Church (11 page)

P
ICTURE MY SON
G
AVIN’S FIRST BIRTHDAY PARTY
. F
RIENDS AND
family gather in our backyard, and on the patio table sit dozens of birthday gifts and a big chocolate cake.

To kick the event off with a bang, I feel I should start with a speech. I hold Gavin high atop my shoulders and begin to share what a joy he is to me and his mother. I tell cute and funny stories about things he has done, how he is growing so fast, and all the things we have to look forward to with him.

While I am sharing about Gavin, a friend at the back of the crowd shouts, “I’ve got a drinking problem.” On the heels of that comment, someone else mutters, “I’ve got a critical spirit.” Yet another confesses, “I struggle with lust.”

Soon chatter gives way to more chatter, and the whole focus of the event shifts. No longer is anyone concerned with Gavin and what I have to say about him. Instead, everyone seems to be consumed with their own issues.

How ridiculous! How inappropriate! Of course, this event never really occurred. But I tell the tale to illustrate a point. God has lifted his Son high, seating him at his right hand. God has declared that his Son’s works are awesome and that we should marvel at them. The central purpose of our lives is to focus on the Son. In so doing, we please the Father.
Just as I hoped that all would genuinely celebrate Gavin’s birthday, God the Father wants us to be obsessed with his begotten. We are to eat of his flesh, drink of his blood, and relish his finished work on the cross.

Sadly, often we get so self-consumed that it’s nearly impossible to get Christians to talk about anything other than our sins. It’s as if our sense of importance stems from the fact that we’re dealing with struggles. These struggles enable us to think about ourselves, converse about ourselves, and even obsess about ourselves—with a spiritual label on it all.

We can become so focused on our struggles that we can’t believe God wants us to look elsewhere. We become convinced that our sins are different—that somehow God hasn’t forgotten them and asked us to move on. As we wallow in our failures, we miss the privilege of celebrating. We miss the reason for the party.

If the ridiculous circumstances at Gavin’s party were actually to occur, my only response to those who interrupted would be, “Join the club! We all struggle. But we’re not here to focus on your issues. We’re here to focus on my son.” Similarly, we’re invited to fix our eyes on Jesus, since he is worthy of celebration.

Are you consumed with your sins when God says he remembers them no more? Are you willing to agree that the focus is no longer on your failures? Will you please the Father through obsession with the Son?

The Son of God has finished his work. He is risen and is now seated in heavenly places. There’s only one appropriate response. All eyes on him!

Today I don’t see us making it a big deal that Christ died
only once.
It seems to be a rather insignificant point. But to the Jewish mindset, it was extremely important. Hebrews goes to great lengths to
emphasize that Christ died only once and that he’s not in heaven dying over and over. We might say, “Of course, he’s not up there dying all the time!” So why even mention it? Why make such a big deal about it? Well, let’s first take a look at how the author of Hebrews puts it:

Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself
again and again,
the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But he has appeared
once for all
at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.

H
EBREWS
9:25-26, italics added

Unlike the other high priests, [Christ] does not need to offer sacrifices
day after day,
first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins
once for all
when he offered himself.

HEBREWS 7:27, italics added

Why emphasize how many times Jesus died? A devout Jew could connect the dots quickly. The thought process might look like this:

• Only blood brings forgiveness.
  
• Jesus’ blood will never be shed again.
  
• Therefore God is satisfied.
  
• And I enjoy lifelong and eternal cleansing.
  

We need to grasp how central the cross was to Jews. The impact on their lives was dramatic. Accepting Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross meant that all of their law-centered attempts to motivate
God to forgive them came to a screeching halt. Temple sacrifices no longer made any sense.

The writer of Hebrews pleads with his fellow Jews to abandon the dead works of the temple. He begs them to hang on to Jesus plus
nothing.
How insulting it would be to God if any Jewish believer were to return to participation in the temple sacrifices! They would be publicly disgracing Jesus Christ, since they sought another means of forgiveness after being introduced to the cross. Their attitude would be something like this: “I believe that Jesus died for my sins, but just in case I’ll continue to participate in animal sacrifices.” And some actually
encouraged
this double-mindedness in the early church!

What about us today? How does our doubt about the once-for-all sacrifice manifest itself? We don’t express our doubt through temple ceremonies or through animal sacrifices in our backyards. We employ more subtle means of insulting God. Rather than publicly disgracing him, we
privately
disgrace him in our mind-sets and belief systems.

If the writer of Hebrews were to address us today, he’d challenge our double-mindedness as we perform theological gymnastics to make ourselves feel cleansed before God. He’d confront us when we invent nonbiblical terminology and propose that we’re forgiven from God’s vantage point but not
actually
forgiven without a “method.” He’d accuse us of doing exactly what the recipients of his letter were doing—insulting the Spirit of grace.

It’s fair to make some comparison between the Old and the New. Under both systems, only blood brought forgiveness. But there’s a significant difference between blood sacrifices under the Old
and the one sacrifice initiating the New. As we begin to look at the difference, let’s return to John the Baptist’s announcement concerning Jesus as sacrifice: “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).

While old sacrifices brought atonement (covering) of sins, the blood of Jesus accomplished something greater. The blood of Jesus
took away
our sins! Animal blood couldn’t achieve this. There was never an animal sacrifice qualified to do so. Hebrews brings this truth to our attention to highlight just how significant the cross is. The cross wholly and unquestionably dealt with our sins forever.

Although Old Testament sacrifices were mandated by God for the nation of Israel, they paled in comparison to Jesus’ work on the cross. Old Testament believers who offered blood sacrifices found themselves yearning for the Lamb to come: “Those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins. It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (Hebrews 10:3-4).

On some level, they were aware that sacrifices under the Old were only a shadow of things to come. Sure, they experienced the benefit of having their sins temporarily covered. But it would only be through the blood of Jesus that their sin problem would truly be solved. They were staking a claim on an IOU or promissory note from God that was cashed in at the cross. This is why John the Baptist was so excited as he announced the appearance of the One who would
take away
(not just cover) the sin of the world.

Jesus Christ so thoroughly obliterated our deserved punishment for sins that God will never refer to our sins again. We nod our heads in agreement that Jesus died for our sins and took them away, but soon
afterward we find ourselves buying the idea that we’ll be judged for our sins when Jesus returns. How could we be judged for our sins if he has taken them away? How could we be punished for our sins when he remembers them no longer? And the only worthy punishment for sins is death, and death is precisely what Jesus experienced on our behalf.

Read carefully the words of these two Jewish writers who express excitement about the perfect Lamb and the
effects
of his sacrifice:

Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation
without reference to sin,
to those who eagerly await Him.

H
EBREWS
9:28 NASB, italics added

He is the one who
turns aside God’s wrath,
taking away our sins, and not only ours, but also the sins of the whole world.

1 J
OHN
2:2 (see NIV text note), italics added

If we miss the message of the gospel, it holds no power to alter natural mind-sets that control us. Partial forgiveness provides partial relief from guilt but breeds an unhealthy fear of judgment. Real forgiveness means that the sin issue is
over.
Real forgiveness means that there’s no present or future punishment for sins. Jesus’ death satisfied God forever. And there’s nothing about us that will ever anger him again: “When he had received the drink, Jesus said, ‘It is finished.’ With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit” (John 19:30).

A
CHAIR WAS A FORBIDDEN PIECE OF FURNITURE INSIDE THE
J
EWISH
tabernacle and later in the temple. Why? Imagine for a moment that you’re an average citizen of Israel. You enter the temple on the Day of Atonement and are greeted by a priest lounging in a La-Z-Boy. What would this communicate to you? He must have nothing left to do! To avoid this false impression, God didn’t allow such a scene to take place. He forbade Levitical priests to sit down on the job, so that the image of
unfinished
business would be imprinted on their consciences.

Hebrews contrasts the constant standing and ongoing religious performances of Old priests with our
seated
High Priest, who will never again offer another sacrifice for sins:

Day after day
every priest stands
and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest [Jesus] had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins,
he sat down
at the right hand of God.

HEBREWS 10:11-12, italics added

After [Jesus] had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.

H
EBREWS
1:3

Grasping this truth can revolutionize our understanding of how pure and clean we are before God. We’re invited to recognize our High Priest as seated at the right hand of the Father, with nothing left to do about our sins. The work is completed, and we’re now forgiven for all time.

Our past, present, and future sins were dealt with simultaneously through the cross. God didn’t discriminate with regard to time of occurrence. All of our sins were in the future when Jesus died. He looked down the entire timeline of human existence and took away all sins. Whether the sins occurred two thousand years before or after the cross made no difference. When Jesus finished wiping out all record of our sins, he took a seat. And he has been relaxing at God’s right hand ever since.

What position are you in with regard to your sins? Are you standing up, running around, and trying to make up for them? Attempting to get forgiven, to get cleansed? Or are you seated with Jesus Christ in a relaxed position? Do you realize that your Savior has taken them away once and for all?

Christians today talk about wanting to be like Jesus and to think like Jesus. We often hear the popular question, “What would Jesus do?” Thinking like Jesus involves having the same attitude about our sins that he does. He assures us that the sin issue is over. There’s no other act that will make us more forgiven than we already are:
“By one offering [Jesus] has perfected for all time
those who are sanctified” (Hebrews 10:14 NASB, italics added).

Are you willing to be like Jesus by forgetting your sins? Are you eager to agree with God that you’re a forgiven person? Would you go so far as to agree with the writer of Hebrews that you’ve been made perfect forever? Anything short of these astounding claims is not faith in the gospel. God wants us to know that
real
forgiveness has been accomplished on our behalf. It’s ours to enjoy. Freedom from guilt is our daily destiny as believers in Jesus.

Nothing is more convincing than the numerous Bible passages that refer to our forgiveness as a completed act. When it comes to forgiveness, most of these passages talk about it using the past tense:

When you were dead in your sins…, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.

C
OLOSSIANS
2:13-14 NIV

Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

E
PHESIANS
4:32

“Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.”

And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.

H
EBREWS
10:17-18

Whether it’s expressed as “forgave” or “have been forgiven” makes little difference. The concept is plain and obvious. Jesus shed his blood, and this brought forgiveness. Since he doesn’t die daily, our forgiveness is not issued daily. Since he’ll never die again, there’s no further forgiveness needed. We have been forgiven, and therefore we live in a forgiven state.

Let’s say you are a married man. Imagine if every night before you went to sleep, you leaned over to your wife and asked her to marry you. It’s just something that would make you feel better—asking her again and again. It’s your way of confirming that you’re married. So every night you say, “Honey, will you marry me?” The words you choose are no big deal. It’s just semantics. You know you’re really married, but you just like to ask her over and over.

This ritual is more than a bit strange, isn’t it? Your wife would never let you get away with something so ridiculous. Semantics? Hardly. Repeating a question like that over and over might even be a little insulting.

If I were to try this with my wife, she would ask me to reconsider my thought processes: “Don’t you remember the ceremony? The vows? The witnesses? We were married years ago. I have the photo album right here. It’s now a past event. We live in a constant state of being married. There’s no need to ask me over and over if I’ll marry you.”

It’s the same way with our forgiven state. And it’s not just semantics. It matters. Have you thought about how many times the epistles urge us to ask God for forgiveness? The answer is
zero
times. You won’t find a single epistle that suggests that we ask God for forgiveness. Why not? Because the writers penned their words
after
the death of Jesus. They were fully aware of their forgiveness as an accomplished fact.

Like my wife’s recollection of our wedding, the writers remembered the “ceremony” of the cross and the “vow” made by God to remember their sins no more. In fact, some of them were eyewitnesses of the once-for-all sacrifice. It wouldn’t make sense to urge their readers to ask God for forgiveness.

These authors were Jews by birth. They were fully aware of God’s economy—only blood brings forgiveness. In their minds,
asking for forgiveness would be equivalent to requesting that Jesus hang on a cross over and over again. You know—one death for today’s sins, another death for tomorrow’s sins, and so forth.

They knew better.