Christ Destroyed Your Record Of Wrong And Bled To Cleanse Your Conscience

Texts:  Colossians 2:6-15 & Hebrews 9:11-14

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

God’s holy Law has not only been inscribed on mankind’s heart at creation, it has also been chiseled into stone in what we know as the Ten Commandments.  These commandments of God are the voice of God’s holy, perfect, true, and good will towards and for mankind.    God’s Word of Law makes prohibitions, “Thou shall not,” and it makes demands of what we should do, “Thou Shall.”  God’s Word of Law addresses how we should live externally speaking and it also addresses the proper attitudes of the mind.  Yes, the Law addresses our thoughts, words, and deeds; the Law addresses the whole person.

So what is our attitude towards God’s Law?  It should be one of reverence and respect, for God’s Law is true and good and holy.  God’s Law is not unfair or unjust.  However, with that said, when we look to God’s holy character and His will for us as expressed in the 10 Commandment, we find ourselves out of our league.  Frankly, we cannot manage God’s standards as expressed in the 10 Commandments.  We cannot meet the demands of God’s perfect and holy Law.  Thus, as a result we find ourselves at odds with God’s Law.  We find that God’s Law, which is good, true, and perfect, now stands against us as it speaks its prohibitions and its demands. 

As we look at the Law we come to realize that the Law has a valid claim upon us because we have not kept it to perfection.  We have voided the contractractual nature of the Law.  Thus, because of our sinful nature we find ourselves experiencing pressure from the Law; this good and holy standard stands against us because we violate it daily by our thoughts, words, and deeds.  This is not the fault of the Law.  The Law did not turn and become our enemy; no because of our sinful nature we have turned our backs on God’s Law.  Thus, just like a mortgage, car loan, or credit card statement with its red numbers showing us our debt, the Law of God does the same; it shows us where we have sinned.  It shows us just how much in the hole we are.  Putting our life up against the Law results in a record of wrong that truly stands against us.    

Not only does the Law show us where we have sinned but it also makes continual demands to us.  Like that mortgage statement showing us how much in debt we are and then demands further payment, the Law of God does the same.  The Law continues to make demands upon us, “You shall be holy just as your Heavenly Father is holy!”  Indeed, God’s Law is like those red letters on the mortgage statement jumping off the paper saying, Payment Due Now. 

Yes, the Law not only shows us our wrongs thus convicting us by compiling a criminal rap sheet, but it continually exerts pressure upon us by reaching out to us and calling forth for perfection.  Alas, our consciences become bound, guilt sets in, and pressure is applied. 

As a result of the God’s Law bringing pressure to us, following us, and constantly revealing sin, our consciences most certainly become weighed down and burdened with conviction and guilt.  As a result though, we construct all sorts of methods to deal with the pressure and accusations of God’s Law upon the conscience. In our day and age people will cut themselves and abuse drugs on the one extreme and on the other extreme people will give a million dollars to the United Way and serve in soup kitchens to calm the rattling conscience and to satisfy the demands of the Law.  However, the result is the same.  The conscience still condemns us for the Law demands continual perfection.

Indeed, no amount of good works, personal piety, and spiritual aerobics can alleviate and lift this stain of sin from our conscience or appease the demands of the Law. Because of our violation of the Law, this guilt and stain of sin embeds itself at the depths of our being and it clings to us, it follows us, it haunts us, and it presses down on us.

As a result our mission then subconsciously becomes one of trying to avoid, escape, overcome, ignore, and suppress the guilty conscience.  When we realize that we can’t clean our conscience and appease the demands of the Law with our own works, we employ all sorts of escape tactics.   We deny that we have sinned.  We run from the accusations of the Laws, ducking, tucking, and rolling from its demands of perfection.  We try to suppress the guilt of the conscience by exchanging the truth of our sin for lies.  However, the problem is that none of these actions can cancel out this debt, satisfy the demands, make an adequate payment, and cleanse the conscience.  It is truly amazing to see the amount of money and resources that we spend and exert in order to calm the troubled conscience. 

My friends, some things never really change.  The problem of a stained and dirty conscience that stands condemned under God’s holy and perfect will is as old as Adam and Eve.  As soon as Adam and Eve sinned by violating God’s Word, their conscience was stained and troubled. Indeed this violation of God’s Law not only resulted in having the written demand standing against them, scripture also shows us that their conscience was convicted as they covered themselves with fig leaves and hid from God.

What this all boils down to is that like Adam and Eve, we as mankind have a God problem, a problem with God’s character of righteous holiness. 

Tonight though, we ask the question yet again, does this Old Rugged Cross do anything about the demands of the Law?  Does the Old Rugged Cross do anything to this tension between God’s holy character and our unholy character?  Does the Old Rugged Cross do anything about the burdened conscience?  Does the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus do or saying anything to us?

In our Colossians reading for tonight we read something remarkable, that there is a cancellation of our debt.  This cancellation of our debt happened on the cross when it was nailed to the cross.  Indeed, this record that stood against us, our record of sin; our record of the times that we violated God’s perfect holy Law was canceled and erased.  Yes, this damning record was cancelled as it was nailed to the cross.  How was this damning record nailed to the cross?  Parchment was not nailed to the cross, rather, Christ was.  Yes, this damning record of our violation of God’s Law was ascribed to Christ and He endured our damnation thus destroying this record of wrong.  Therefore, this record of you does not say ‘payment due’ but says, ‘paid in full.’

But what of the Law that continually stands against us?  The very perfect, holy, and righteous Law that condemns us is the very Law that Jesus was born under; so that by His righteousness He might fulfill, yes fulfill it, on our behalf.  Thus, Jesus not only destroys your record of wrong, but then gives you His record of right as a pure gift!  Yes, you have a new record and that is Jesus’ perfect record of righteousness. 

But what of the guilty conscience?  Hebrews says that the blood of Christ removed this stain from the conscience.  Yes, the blood of Christ cleanses and gives relief to the conscience as well.  The blood of Christ is the only cleansing agent that the universe knows that can give the conscience the relief in life and peace in death.  Yes, the Gospel actually ‘purges’ or ‘cleans’ our conscience.  You who have ears, listen to the Words of the Gospel, “Your Sins are forgiven, Christ has atoned for your sins, God is now well pleased with you…”  These words are not mere abstract ideas, but God’s Word for you.

My friends, in Christ, you are not condemned by the Law.  In Christ, God’s wrath has been satisfied.  In Christ, God is pleased with you because of Jesus’ righteousness for you.  In Christ, the Law has been fulfilled for you.  In Christ, all of your haunting sins from your life cannot slam you.  The blood of Christ not only cleanses and covers you now, but reaches back into your history and deep into your closets and washes you clean.

Rest my friends in Christ and Him crucified for you.  Rest in the shadow of this mighty cross; a cross that drips of Christ’s blood, blood that was shed for you.  Rest, knowing that you are indeed righteous because of Christ for you. 

Now, the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Only The Death Of Christ Could Destroy Death Itself

Text: Hebrews 2:14-18

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

What do people say about death?  According to some, death is it; nothing else exists after death; the show is over.  For others, the mentality with death is, ‘whoever dies with the most toys wins.’ They approach death from the perspective of trying to squeeze the most out of life before the final curtain is drawn.  Well, whatever the flavor or understanding of death that a person has in our contemporary culture one thing is for sure, there is a consistent theme with death.  That consistent theme is that death produces fear.  Frankly, you and I as Christians are also not immune from this fear of death. 

Because of this fear of death, the typical reaction is that we turn inward towards self-preservation.  Let me give you an example.  Florence Nightingale's most famous contribution came during the Crimean War. On October 21, 1854, she and a staff of 38 women volunteer nurses, trained by Nightingale, were sent to the Ottoman Empire, where the main British camp was based.  She and her nurses found wounded soldiers being badly cared for by overworked medical staff in the face of official indifference. Medications were in tiny supply, sanitation was being ignored, and mass infections were common, many of them deadly. There was no equipment to process sustenance for the patients.  It has been reported that Nightingale reduced the rate of death from 42% to 2% either by making improvements in hygiene or by calling for the Sanitary Commission.[1]  Now, here is the reason why I share all of this with you.  Later on in life at the age of 37, Florence Nightingale became bedbound.   She was sporadically bedridden and grieved from depression.  Some believe it was due to health problems but other information specified that she was so crushed by witnessing death that she simply became overwhelmed and was basically emotionally paralyzed by the sight and memories of death, so paralyzed that she ended up in bed for the next 53 year.  She lived to be 90 years old.[2] 

My friends, the fear of death can cause us to seek self-preservation; we can turn inward with fear, preserve self and shut the world off from ourselves.  The result of being bound in fear can lead to a person not feeling alive, but being practically dead already.  We can become dead men walking. 

As a result of the sobering reality of death the cultural message of death is that we should throw off this fear of death, force it out of our minds, and say to ourselves, “Why should we worry.  When we are dead, we are dead.  Don’t worry, be happy.”  However, this ploy is not healthy for it dismisses the reality of death and it pretends that God’s wrath, hell, and damnation don’t exist.

If death cannot be dismissed and if we don’t want to be paralyzed by death we have another option and that option is to desensitize death and that is what our American culture has done.  In our media, death is portrayed in movies, books, and news so frequently that we have become numb to death; the reality and pain of it is not portrayed. It isn’t uncommon to turn the news on, pick up the paper, watch a crime drama, and experience the casual-ness of death. In fact when it comes to funerals, people often look better in the coffin than they did in real life.  Death is sanitized at funerals; the edge is taken off with flowers and the workings of the morticians.  This is society’s way of processing death.  This is the natural man’s way of processing death. 

Thus, what we see at the root of all these methods that attempt to respond to death, is essentially fear. 

As we contemplate death and its fruits of fear, does the Old Rugged Cross of Christ have anything to say to this issue of death?  Does the Old Rugged Cross of Christ do anything to death?  Yes, it does speak to death and it does do something to death.

Jesus became, and still is, a real human being and truly our brother.  In His birth, life and death He shared with our humanity yet without sin.[3]  But what does this have to do with our topic of death?  Let me explain, Satan initially planned death for humankind for he was a murderer from the beginning.  Death was to be the ultimate destruction of mankind.  However this device of devastation for mankind becomes the instrument of mankind’s exaltation and eternal life; thus the death brought in by Satan is counterworked and made powerless by the death of Christ.  The Cross, which is a picture of ultimate death, is now the solution for death.  Only the death of Jesus could destroy death itself. 

Yes, Jesus changes everything.  Christ’s cross shatters the power of Satan and it abolishes the sting of death.  Death was destroyed by an act of self-sacrificing love.  Thus, death may kill our body, but it cannot kill our soul.  Our soul is safe in Christ and even more, our mortal body will be raised anew someday. 

Yes, death may taunt us, but destroy us? No. Confine us to eternal death?  No. 

What this means is when we find ourselves coming face to face with the darkness of death, the key is not to deny our fear or cover our fear, but rather our fear be met by the one who partook of death, Christ crucified.  Death and its fruit of fear are to be met by Jesus’ words that death has been defeated; it is finished.

Yes, in Christ we can stare into the darkness of death and say, “What is death?  What is hell?  Christ, the Son of God, placed himself under God’s laws and died.  But Christ’s death defeated death and gave us life.”[4] 

My friends, in Jesus nothing is more certain than eternal life and the resurrection and this is certainly true, even when the shadow of death will encroach on you someday.  Indeed as Paul states in Romans 8:38-39, “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,  (39)  nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

May the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ. Amen.

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[1] Wikipedia, “Florence Nightingale.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Nightingale (26 March 2014)

[2] Ibid.

[3] See Hebrews 2:14.

[4] Martin Luther.  Source Unknown.



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