The Cost of Forgiveness

Preacher:
Date: May 14, 2015

Bible Text: John 1:4 | Speaker: Dr. Harold J. Sala | Series: Guidelines For Living | In him was life, and that life was the light of men. John 1:4

The most striking Christmas card I have received in years came with the headline: HISTORY IS CROWDED WITH MEN WHO WOULD BE GODS. Underneath were the images of nine powerful historical figures: Alexander the Great, Tutankhamen, Julius Caesar, Maharishi Yogi, Adolph Hitler, Vladimir Lenin, Napoleon Bonaparte, Gautama Buddha, and Mao Tse Tung. Even those who flunked world history would recognize some of those names. Who would deny that these individuals aspired to reign as gods with supreme power and authority?

The Caesars proclaimed themselves to be gods and demanded the worship of a god. But what made the card unique was the message inside which read, BUT ONLY ONE GOD WHO WOULD BE MAN. Underneath was the reproduction of a Dutch painting depicting the infant Jesus in the manger with Mary and Joseph looking on.   Amazing but true is the fact that many would be god, but only one God would be man.

Theologians call it the incarnation, a word that comes from the Latin which means “in flesh.” Question: Did God really become man? And, if so, did God cease to be God?

The record of Scripture is profound and clear at the same time. It says that God the Father loved the world so much that He gave His only Son. Stop! Think about that for a moment. God, the Son, became willing to lay aside His role as God, sitting at the right hand of the Father, to be born of human flesh. The up side of that is simple: God understands my weariness, my heartache, my pain, my suffering, even the limitations of my joy and happiness. God became man, completely human, completely normal.

The Babe born at Bethlehem grew to manhood experiencing the emotional ups and downs of adolescence, and became an adult male, completely physical like any male today. John gives us this record so beautifully in the introduction to the Gospel which bears his name. He says, “Before anything else existed, there was Christ, with God. He has always been alive and is himself God. He created everything there is–nothing exists that he didn’t make. Eternal life is in him, and this life gives light to all mankind. His life is the light that shines through the darkness–and the darkness can never extinguish it” (John 1:1-5, Living Bible).

It is here that the whole issue pushes our understanding because being completely human and completely God means something different, something marvelous, something—yes, supernatural. Paul explains how Jesus laid aside His exercise of deity to become man, in Philippians 2.

Was Jesus, Who was born at Bethlehem and lived most of His life in the city of Nazareth to the north of Jerusalem, like us in the sense that He was tempted and torn, at times, between right and wrong? The record says He was in every way tempted as we are, yet without sin. As man He was able to sin, but He was also able not to sin–which gives us hope as well.

Amazingly, Jesus said, “I forgive you…go and sin no more!” Only God could do that. Many men would be god, but only one God chose to be man. Amazing, yet true. When John says that God so loved us that He sent His Son, he adds something powerful. He says, “that whosoever believes on Him should not perish [or be lost] but have eternal life” (John 3:16). That is the bottom line, and if you miss that truth, you have missed the point of the whole issue.   God loved. God gave so that you might have life for all eternity.

Resource reading: John 1:1-12

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