Jesus is my Propitiation

Some people who are a bit familiar with the Christian faith will say things like this to us.

I've rarely had anybody say, I've had people say something like this to me face to face.

It's more something that you read or you'll see on YouTube.

You Christians are crazy.

You believe in a petty tyrant, thin-skinned God who's always angry

and is always seeking to mete out his anger at human beings

who are just basically trying to mind their own business.

And how preposterous is this to think that your God is just so completely consumed with anger

and consumed with judgment, and that's bad enough.

But it's even worse that you Christians think that the brilliant idea around this

is that he should kill his son and that somehow or another that lets you all off the hook.

How is that not something like child abuse?

How is that not just something that fosters anger in people and fosters,

in fact, gives permission for people to do horrible things to their kids?

The whole idea of Christianity is completely and utterly preposterous.

Here endeth the sermon. No.

I don't know if you've ever had anybody say that.

You can read about it.

People like Christopher Hitchens were very famous for going on rants like this.

Often one of the things that Christians will say in the face of that,

and I've only had it maybe twice,

somebody say something along that lines to me in a coffee shop.

In fact, in both cases, they said it with quite a loud voice.

And I'll be honest with you.

I got very red-faced

because the whole Starbucks turned to look at me

as this guy went on this rant about me.

But usually you don't have people say that to your face.

You'll just see it in YouTube.

A lot of times Christians, in response to this,

will say something like,

well, that's sort of more of an Old Testament idea,

and Christians aren't Old Testament people.

We're New Testament people.

And the New Testament really portrays God as love and Jesus as love,

and that's not the right way to understand what the Christian faith is.

Now, the unfortunate thing is

that if the person speaking to you knows the Bible at all,

they'll say,

I'm sorry, it's in the New Testament.

And that's the verse that we're looking at today,

is one of the times in the New Testament

where, in fact,

the anger of God at sin

is, in fact,

very specifically and explicitly taught.

It's just not often recognized

because it's an old-fashioned word

that we don't use very often.

So if you would just turn your Bibles again,

I'm going to bring it to your attention.

I'm going to read the three verses before it,

or the four verses before it,

and then the key verse.

And this is going to be one of those Sundays

where we're just going to really camp

on this idea of God's anger.

And I can't give you advice

about how to handle a conversation like that with people.

Probably my main advice would be to say,

listen, you've caught me really off guard on this.

How about if you talk to my pastor?

Or just caught you off guard.

Maybe we can get together in a week,

and I'd love to try to explore this with you.

I'm not quite sure what to say,

but I'd love to continue.

And that might be just the best thing that you can do.

But we're going to explore this idea

and the objections that most Canadians would have to it.

But let's look at it first.

It's 1 John, right at the back of your Bible,

chapter 1, verse 8, and we'll start there.

If we say we have no sin,

we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

If we confess our sins,

he, that is God, is faithful and just

to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us

from all unrighteousness.

If we say we have not sinned,

we make him, that is God, a liar,

and his word is not in us.

My little children,

I am writing these things to you

so that you may not sin.

But if anyone does sin,

we have an advocate with the Father,

Jesus Christ, the righteous.

He is the propitiation for our sins

and not for ours only,

but also for the sins of the whole world.

And the word propitiation means

something which turns aside.

I'm going to unpack the idea a little bit more.

Something that turns aside God's anger.

That's what it means.

And it's here, it's in chapter 4,

it's in the book of Romans,

and it takes place in a noun form

in a variety of other places in the Gospels.

I think it's a total of six times

in the New Testament this word is used.

So if we have somebody making this

very strong case against Christianity

and we try to say it's an Old Testament idea,

not a New Testament idea,

if they know the Bible at all,

they'll come back at us

and we won't really know what to do.

So let's just think about it for a second.

Well, the first thing about this

is to think about anger.

I mean, that's where a lot of this gets its power.

This is quite a few years ago now,

but there was a woman

who used to go to this church.

This is a long, long time ago.

I've been here a long time.

I hadn't realized it was as long

until Andrew got up and reminded us.

Just if you're wondering,

I came here as a pastor at 14,

so 25 years, I'm only 39.

Not true.

But there was a woman

who was about to start having children

and one day she wanted to talk to me

and we set up a time to talk.

And one of the things that she shared with me

is that she had a mom,

she was really looking forward to getting married,

but she had a great fear about having children.

And the reason she had a great fear

about having children

is that she herself had a mom

who was very anger driven.

You never knew what would set off her mom's anger,

but something would set it off.

It was all very idiosyncratic.

It was always something self-centered,

something that offended her in some way.

And she would set off her mom's anger.

And then her mom was very, very, very,

she used corporal physical punishment

and was very, very violent with this woman.

And she said,

the problem is

that I see my mom and myself more and more.

And I'm just really, really worried

that if I actually have kids,

if I'm able to have kids,

that I'll end up being like my mom

and that I'll have this anger

and I'll do so much violence to them.

Now, we had several conversations around all of this

and the point of it isn't

how you counsel somebody about something like that,

but the fact of the matter is

is that we all know anger driven individuals,

every single one of us.

In fact, if we were just to say,

let's share some stories afterwards

about anger driven people,

we'd all have stories.

In fact, we might start trying to top each other

with stories about anger.

And so when we hear this idea of this idea of propitiation,

that God's anger has to be turned aside,

the first thing that we do

is start to think of anger driven individuals.

In fact,

that'd be exactly what people in Jesus' time

would have thought about

because one of the things

that characterized the gods and the goddesses

is you never knew when you were going to piss them off

and when they were pissed off,

boy, they were pissed off

and they would do all sorts of terrible things to you.

Now, what I would just say to that

is I'd say one particular thing for us as Christians

when we see this idea,

which is very unsettling,

and that is this,

Christians all accept

that the most perfect revelation of God is Jesus.

And all I would say to anybody,

if I had the chance,

is I'd say,

I just challenge you to this.

I ask you to read the four gospels.

Just read the four gospels.

It's recognized that these are

either eyewitness biographies of Jesus

or based on eyewitness testimony of Jesus.

And I ask you,

read these four gospels

and then see if Jesus is an anger driven individual.

And nobody could read the stories of Jesus

and think that he was an anger driven individual.

And then I might say,

and not only is Jesus not an anger driven individual,

but if you know anything at all about the Christian faith,

that the heart of the Christian faith

is this idea of the Trinity.

You're going to get sort of a bit bored of me

always going back to who God is,

but the fact that the God is triune

is unbelievably important.

The fact of the matter is,

is that you could wonder about Allah's anger.

But the fact is that

the Christian doctrine of the Trinity

shows that before there were any human beings,

before there was a creation at all,

that from all eternity,

the Father loved the Son

and the Son loved the Father.

And the Holy Spirit both loved the Father and the Son

and is the love between the Father and the Son.

And you can see that

that there's this fundamental harmony,

that there's no anger in God in his very nature.

And that God in his very nature

creates not out of anger,

but out of love and out of goodness.

And so whatever this doctrine means,

what we have to understand is

God is not an anger driven petty tyrant.

Listen again.

My little children,

I am writing these things to you

so that you may not sin.

But if anyone does sin,

we have an advocate with the Father,

Jesus Christ the righteous.

He is the propitiation for our sins.

But some of you might say,

but George, you're still, I don't know,

like, but don't you think

a God that never gets angry is a better God?

Like, don't you think that

that should be what we're evolving to,

is to not be angry?

Don't you think if God is really God

that he should evolve

to never even having this line

of propitiation in the Bible at all?

To which I would just say this.

Think about anger again a little bit more.

Now, no longer thinking about

anger driven individuals

who are petty tyrants.

Imagine that you were to take

a group of people

and you were to show them

a documentary,

maybe even a bit of a graphic documentary,

of the many places in the world

where either young girls

are stolen from their family

to satisfy the sexual lusts of men,

or where parents actually

sell their young girls,

like very, very young girls.

And imagine you watch that video.

Would it be a sign of moral evolution

if you were not mad at that?

Somebody who could watch that

and think about it

and not be mad,

it's a sign

that they're immoral.

They're missing something.

To not be angry

at real abusive evil.

In fact, even think about it for a second.

Imagine that after the video

that not only is one of the people

not mad at it,

but they then give you a long argument

as to why it's not as bad as it looks.

They become a spin doctor for evil

and you would look and say,

you're a spin...

They would not be a person

that any one of us would point to

and say this is an example

of highly evolved moral person.

We would say there's something wrong with you.

And it's the same thing as this.

Why would we want a God

that's never angry at evil?

Why would we want a God

who is not angry at...

During Cambodia,

when the Pol Pot killed

one-third of the population

of the country,

why would we want a God

who's not angry at that?

The fact of the matter is

is that God's...

This doctrine of God's settled anger

against evil

is in fact a good thing.

Like, why would you want to worship a God

that does not get angry

at great evil and injustice?

Listen again to the text.

My little children,

I am writing these things to you

so that you may not sin.

But if anyone does sin,

we have an advocate with the Father,

Jesus Christ the righteous.

He is the propitiation for our sins.

But some of you might say,

George, here's part of the problem.

The idea of sin

is just a completely

and utterly ridiculous idea.

And it is.

I don't watch very many comedians

on Netflix

or any of the other places

where you can watch comedians.

But I can tell you this.

The little that I know about them,

that if a comedian

came out onto the stage

and began by saying,

I'm a sinner,

the whole audience would laugh.

I want to talk about

how bad a sinner I am,

the whole audience would laugh.

It instantly conjures up

prune-like spinsters

frowning at people having fun.

Nuns and monks

who are completely and utterly

off their rockers

with fasting

and self-flagellation,

being upset with people.

That's the image

that it conjures to our society

and our culture.

And it's one of the reasons

why usually if I talk

to non-Christians,

I won't use the word sin.

I would only use the word sin

if I had really developed

a very long relationship with them.

I would, in fact,

talk about evil and wickedness.

But, in fact,

the idea of sin

is something which is

a very, very important word

for Christians to remember.

It's a very, very good word

for Christians to remember

because it includes God in it.

that if I was just to use

the way Canadians speak

about right and wrong

and I would do something,

maybe I punch Chris.

I'd never punch Chris.

He's younger, vastly bigger,

and stronger than me.

It would be a foolish thing to do.

But let's say for some reason

I decided I would punch Chris.

Well, people can say,

well, you've done something

wrong to Chris.

It was also a really stupid thing to do.

But you did a wrong thing to Chris.

And it's just between you and Chris.

Why on earth does it include

something like God?

It's just between the two of you.

So here's where the word,

this is where the doctrine of sin

is very important

for Christians to remember

because it actually opens up

the fact that it's never

just a private act of evil

against a person.

There's something else involved.

And I'll give you a story,

an illustration

to help you to understand it.

I was going to originally use

that some Canadians went

and invaded the U.S. embassy

and took part of it over.

But given how people in Canada

feel about Trump,

we might cheer at that.

So I won't use the U.S.

as an example.

Imagine that there's a group

of Canadians,

three or four from this church

after the service,

and they go to the French embassy.

And while they go

into the French embassy,

they punch the guards

and go into the embassy

and start throwing their weight around,

punching a couple

of the embassy staff

and maybe even punching

the ambassador from France.

Now here's the question.

Is their action

just a sin

or just a wrongdoing

against the individuals

that they punch?

No.

It's an offense against France.

In fact,

it would be the case

that if after they came out,

Canadians just said,

yay, way to go,

and the Canadian government

refused to try to punish them at all

or do anything at all like that,

not only would the people

who were punched be upset,

all of France would be upset.

All of France would be upset

because it wasn't just

an individual act

against a particular person.

It was an act

of aggression

against France.

And that's how everybody

in Canada

and throughout the entire world

would understand it.

And you see,

this is then

why the doctrine of sin

is very important.

It's why churches

need to never lose

the doctrine of sin

because to say

that something's wrong

or something's evil

can easily seem

as if it's just between me

and the person who's wrong.

But the idea of sin

always brings

to our remembrance

that it's also

something against God.

God is included.

Why?

God is the creator

of all things.

He is the sustainer

of all things.

He is sovereign

over all things.

He has never renounced

his sovereignty.

He didn't go down

and look and say,

I'm sick and tired

of Canada.

I'm sick and tired

of the earth.

I'm just going to forget

about it.

If he forgot about it,

we wouldn't exist.

He's never given up

his sovereignty

over the entire world.

And so every act

against the created order,

because it can be,

it's a sin to pollute.

It's a sin to rape the earth.

Any act against animals

which is cruel

is a sin.

It's against God's creation.

And any act

against a human being

is also a sin.

And so therefore

it is appropriate

for God to be upset.

Nobody would wonder

why France was upset

that Canadians went in

and punched the ambassador.

We wouldn't think

they were being ridiculous.

And so it is

that every human being

needs to understand

that their wrong actions

is also something

against God.

Listen again to the text.

My little children,

I am writing

these things to you

so that you may not

sin,

but if anyone does sin,

we have an advocate

with the Father.

Jesus Christ,

the righteous,

he is the propitiation

for our sins.

Some of you might say,

I'm the downtown version

of a Kanata soccer mom.

Like, everybody loves me.

I don't do anything bad.

Like, I'm a good person.

Like, you'd want to have me

as your neighbor.

Like, the school loves it

that my kids go to that school

because I volunteer

and help them out

all the time.

I'm a good employee.

Like, I'm a good person.

Like, I've never done

anything against God.

Like, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I can see that God

should do something

about those people

who abuse children

and Paul Pot

and what he did

in Cambodia,

but I'm a good person.

I'm a soccer mom.

I'm a deputy minister

in the civil service.

Like, I know how to mind

my P's and Q's

and dot my I's

and cross my T's.

I haven't done racist things

or anything like that

that's going to get me

in trouble.

Well, you can look

through my whole

Twitter history.

Nothing bad.

Well, the illustration

of the French embassy

once again

would show us the problem.

Let's say in this

particular case

that a group of you

go in

and you punch

the guard and all

and you punch

the ambassador

but then you take over

a whole floor

of the embassy

and you seal it off

and through the door

you apologize

for having punched

the person

but basically

the fact of the matter

is you say,

listen,

I love the location.

This is way nicer

than my apartment

or my house.

I don't have to pay

anything for it.

Like, the furniture

is really nice.

It's really clean

and by the way

I expect the French

government

to keep sending in

a maid every day

and clean everything

like that

and I'll just ignore France.

I'll just live here

but I'll ignore France.

Well, what would we say?

Well, we think

actually what we would think

is we'd think

they were mentally ill.

Like, we'd say

anybody who thinks

they can take over

the third floor

or the second floor

of the French embassy

and just live there

as if it's theirs

and doesn't think

there should be

any consequences

or that they've bothered

the French government

and that if the French government

is mad,

it's like,

what's your problem?

Like, we'd think

you're missing something,

like you're mentally ill.

But that's exactly

the story of the soccer mom

or the deputy minister.

We live in God's world.

We breathe his air.

We depend upon gravity.

We didn't create ourselves.

God gave us

the gift of life.

Every single breath

we take

is given to us

by God.

Every thought

that we have in our mind

is given to us

by God.

Everything that is good

is, in a sense,

coming from God.

We consistently

and utterly

live in God's world

and yet,

if we completely

and utterly

ignore him,

it's no different

than taking over

the third floor

of the embassy,

thinking it's yours

and ignoring

the French government

and then wondering

why they think

it's wrong.

Once again,

listen to the text.

My little children,

I am writing

these things to you

so that you may not sin,

but if anyone does sin,

we have an advocate

with the Father.

Jesus Christ,

the righteous,

he is the propitiation

for our sins.

But then some of you

might say,

okay, well,

this propitiation,

the siniest side

of the wrath of God,

well, why doesn't God

just get over it?

Like, isn't that

a sign of maturity?

Like, the mature person

gets over it.

Why doesn't God

just get over it?

Now,

think about it

for a second.

Who usually says

get over it?

The person who's

done the wrong.

Imagine this scenario.

My wife isn't here

because we had

three of our grandchildren

come and spend

a sleepover,

and anyway,

that's why she's not

here this morning.

But imagine

that I'm up here,

and then halfway

through the service,

my wife Louise

comes walking

on the stage.

She singles to Andrew

with, you know how

women can have the look?

The look.

I can't do it.

I should have somebody

come up here

and give the look.

Andrew has been married

for many years.

He understands

the look.

And she points to this,

and Andrew

quickly turns it on,

and then she points

at me,

and he quickly

mutes me.

And then Louise

gets up on the stage

and tells you

the terrible thing

I did to her

this past week.

And you were all

horrified

at what I've done.

And then I say

to Andrew,

to that,

and I'd say

to Louise,

why don't you

just get over it?

How would that

go over

with the whole room?

Would any of you

say,

George,

you hear

what she just said?

you can't say,

why don't you

just get over it?

So why is it

that we can say

that to God?

Why don't you

just get over it?

Why don't you

just get over it?

Listen to the text

again.

My little children,

I am writing

these things to you

so that you may not

sin,

but if anyone does sin,

we have an advocate

with the Father,

Jesus Christ.

He is the propitiation

for our sins,

the one who deals

with God's wrath

in a just way.

But,

some of you

might say,

okay,

George,

I think God's

still a little bit

overreacting

about this whole thing,

this anger thing,

you know?

Because I'm not

that bad a guy

or a gal.

Here's another thing.

Just imagine

for a moment,

if I ask you,

can you think

of somebody

who did something

wrong to you

that you still

remember and are

bothered by?

My guess is

every single one

of us will

instantly remember

something that's

happened to us

that was wrong

and we still

remember.

In fact,

I would bet

that if I said,

we're going to

take 20 minutes,

half an hour,

I'd like you to

write down 10

things you remember

that have been

wrong to you

and you still

remember and

it still bothers you,

probably all of us

would be able

to write that list.

Some of us might

actually,

when we start

to think about it,

this is one of

the problems

with memory,

is that it might

go back to something

when we were 12

or 10 or 8.

We all know

what it is,

especially for those

of us who are a little

bit older,

that all of a sudden

we smell a smell

or we hear a sound

or we see a scene

and it brings us

right back to that

time when we were 12

or when we were 16

or some other time

and we remember

once again,

it might have slipped

our mind,

but it's never really

gone away.

We remember that thing

which is wrong.

We all have that,

but the very,

very sobering thing

is that people

have those same

thoughts and memories

about me

and about you.

The fact of the matter

is we all know

that we do things

that are wrong

and they can trouble us.

They can make us sleepless.

They can make us ashamed.

They can trouble us

and I talked about that

a little bit last week

in the sermon

about one of the sources

of like a type

of secular cursing.

But the fact of the matter

is is that even though

we can be troubled

very much by certain things

that most of us

actually very quickly

discount the way

we've hurt another person

and no longer

think about it.

So imagine what

it would be like

if all of a sudden

God was to show up

and he was to

freeze me in space

and all of a sudden

people who remembered

something that I had

done wrong to them

or I had done wrong

to others that they loved

and they still remembered

it and it still hurt them

and they start to file in

because they're going

to remind me about it.

Every seat in here

would be full.

God is able to bring them

and they remembered.

Every seat in this room

would be full.

In fact, this room

would be too small.

I don't know how big

the room would have to be.

It might have to sit

several thousand.

The fact of the matter is

is that I would be horrified.

I would see people

I wouldn't remember

but then if they start

to voice it

they say,

George, this is what

you did to me

when I was 10.

This is what you did

to me when I was 8

and you were 8.

This is what you did

to me, George,

when you first got ordained.

This is how you spoke

in such a way

and how it hurt me.

And many people

would have more than

one thing that they

would say

and the room

would have

not just 300 and some

but 3,000 and some

and I would have to

stand there

in the face

of all those people

throughout my life

that I have done

something wrong to them

that it was sufficiently wrong

that they still remember it

and it still bothers them

and hurts them.

How could I stand

in front of that?

And if you folks here

were able

by the power of God

to all be off

on the side

and to watch that

you would get quieter

and quieter

and quieter

as the room filled

and as each person

came in

as they told the whole room

what it was that I had done

and you would know

that I had no hope

at all

of satisfying

their righteous

anger

and bother

and bother

at what I had done

to them.

I might be able

to handle

one or two

or three or four

but I couldn't handle

them all.

See the God

who does exist

is a God

who knows all things

sees all things

and he doesn't forget

and his not forgetting

isn't a bad thing

because remember

what I just said?

Why don't you just

forget about it?

Whoa!

No, no, no, no.

There's some things

you don't forget about.

How could I possibly

stand

before these demands

and God hasn't even

added his own voice

and nobody has even

added the things

that I've said

and done in my own mind

that only God

has known?

Could you imagine

what it would be like

if God all of a sudden

revealed to every person

the different things

in my mind

that I have thought

and done

and said

in my mind

that have been silent

and how big the room

would be

and how could I stand

before it?

Listen again.

My little children

I am writing

these things to you

so that you may not sin

but if anyone does sin

we have an advocate

with the Father.

Jesus Christ the righteous.

He is our advocate

and he's not just

our advocate

he's not just

the righteous one.

He is the propitiation

for our sins.

He is the one

who satisfies

God's proper anger

at the evil

that I have done

the things

which I should have done

which I did not do

which demand

that there be

some satisfaction

of justice

and he is the one

who satisfies

God's proper anger

because he is just

and he does something

for me

in my place

when I could not stand

for I would be

completely

and utterly

unmade.

Why didn't he just

pardon me?

Really?

Really?

If just before Trump

whenever it is

whether he loses

this election

or whether he has

to step down

at the end

if just at the end

of that

if Trump takes

all of his cronies

and pardons them

how many of you

will celebrate it

and say that's a good thing

he just gave him a pardon?

What will you say?

That dirty rascal

It's not a sign

of justice

Justice needs

to be paid

Here's this two

final types

of things

to understand

what it is

that Jesus

does for me

Two of them

are both

illustrations

that I've used

before

in different contexts

I apologize

for those

who've heard them

before

but I'm still

using them

because they're

a very good one

You see

what we want

is we want

some type

of satisfaction

Justice

when things

have been wrong

there needs

to be

not just

justice

shown

but there needs

to be

Here's the

illustration

I've used

before

You have

a young

woman

and her

husband

is off

traveling a lot

for the job

they're just

starting out in life

they live

paycheck to

paycheck

they don't

shop at

Nordstrom's

they shop

at Walmart

they look

forward to

the day

they could

afford Costco

they just

shop at

Walmart

they go

to

Fresco

they go

to the

reduced

section

if they

go into

Loblaws

they're just

getting

paycheck to

paycheck

but the

young woman's

mom has

given her

a couple

of extra

dollars

to treat

the kids

and so

the husband

has gone

on one

of his

trips

trying to

make some

money

and she

goes to

this little

restaurant

just a

family

restaurant

takes her

three little

kids

five

three

and one

into the

restaurant

they're basically

good kids

but she

goes into

the restaurant

she has

the restaurant

time from

hell

her waiter

or waitress

has that

perfect ability

to not see

when you signal

you know those

times when you're

in the waitress

and the waitress

just seems to

have that ability

to not see you

and respond

and so

they're not

getting served

and the kids

start to get

a bit antsy

and then finally

they come

and they bring

them water

and the waitress

throws up

and goes

okay

like what

do you want

like this

and she's

just really

rude to her

and she looks

at her kids

and she rolls

her eyes

and she's rude

and she's

really slow

with the food

and so the kids

make a little

bit of mess

they spill

their water

and every time

the waitress

comes with a

loud sigh

she sighs

about having

to clean up

the mess

and people

in the restaurant

are now

looking

and then finally

the food

comes

and the waitress

gets the order

all wrong

but rather than

the waitress

apologizing

she says it

you know

women like you

just make me

sick and tired

like you just

have baby brain

and baby brain

and mommy brain

I didn't get the order

wrong

you got the order

wrong

she says it

with a loud voice

and the whole restaurant

is looking at the mom

and the poor mom

is getting all red faced

completely and utterly

embarrassed

she doesn't know

what to do

so she ends up

just giving in to it

because she can't

stand up for herself

and her kids are upset

and everybody in the room

is looking at her

and she just feels

completely terrible

and so she's leaving

the restaurant

and as she's leaving

the restaurant

finally she's trying

to get her kids out

she's just

the tears are coming

down her face

she doesn't care

about her makeup

being wrecked

and her tears

are coming down

the face

and there's an

older woman

who comes into

the restaurant

she sees

this young woman

with the three

little kids

and the older woman

says

honey

like dear

what's wrong

and the woman

it's the first time

she's been in the

whole restaurant

that anybody's

even shown

any compassion

to her at all

and she just

starts to blurt

it out

how terrible

it's been

and how the waitress

mistreated her

and how everything's

wrong

and the food was wrong

and she gets all upset

and the woman

you can just see

her heart's breaking

with compassion

the older woman

for her

and then she says

I'm the owner

of the restaurant

I'm going to make it right

I want you to be satisfied

I'm going to make it right

we could all discuss

afterwards

over coffee

about how she's going to make it right

part of her making it right

is going to cost herself

right

the owner

and part of it

might be

that she goes in

and she says

excuse me everybody

I really apologize

for the way my staff

have treated this young woman

what they did

was reprehensible

they're fired immediately

by the way

and I'm just really bad

I'm really sad

that this has come up

to upset you

and just to show you

my commitment

to this being a family restaurant

apple pie

for everyone

on me

and then she goes

and not only does she

give the lecture

to the waitress

and she fires the waitress

but she says

to the young woman

listen you're going to be

my guest in this restaurant

for the next year

you come in

you order anything you want

it's all on me

and all

everything is dealt with

the injustice is dealt with

her reputation

the lack of money

that she had

all of those things

and the woman goes away

thinking

it still was really hard

but justice was done

and I'm satisfied

imagine once again

all the people here

and they all have

these things about

that I have done wrong

and I can't deal with them

I might be able to make

amendment of life

for one or two

or three or four

but all of the things

and I can't possibly

deal with this

and the Bible says

that Jesus

is the propitiation

for my sins

for your sins

and what that means

is that Jesus

seeing my inability

to deal with justice

and understanding

all of us

intrinsically understanding

that what we need

with justice

is that it's made right

that there's

a satisfaction

and that's what it means

by satisfying God's anger

it's not that he's willful

it's not that he's hateful

he's only love

he's only driven by justice

and God can't just pardon me

because all of those

who have wronged me

can say

you can't just

there needs to be

some sense of satisfaction

and so in this profound

mystery of grace

God the son of God

takes my place

he is the perfect one

his sinless life

for mine

his place

he trades places

with me

at this profound

eternal level

that the anger of God

at my wrong

can be dealt with

the final example

I've used this before

because you might say

well how it is

that Jesus can do that

for me and for all the people

we inherently understand

that it is possible

for certain natural

representatives

to take the place

of many lives

two years from now

three years from now

COVID-19

is a long distant memory

there's been a vaccine

nobody in the earth

will get it

and you go to

Wembley Stadium

110,000 people

they're there to watch

a soccer game

a football game

and sometime

during the show

all of a sudden

a group of terrorists

they get all of the entrances

they lock them up

with chains

there's an announcement

made that

they put a small

nuclear bomb

in the very center

of the field

the whole place

is a hostage

they say

if anybody tries

to do anything

we're going to start

shooting innocent people

and all of England

and all of the world

will be spellbound

by this thing

terrorists

having taken over

110,000 people

in Wembley Stadium

and the whole world

would be captured by it

all of England

Scotland

Ireland

and Wales

Canada

United States

all of the former

commonwealth

everybody would be

mesmerized by this

110,000 people

held captive

by these terrorists

and if I called them up

and said

if you let them all go

I'll sit on the bomb

they'd go

what?

are you nuts?

hang up

I can't just go

and sit on a bomb

so they give

110,000 people up

the Queen

called them up

the Queen of England

called them up

and said

if you let those

110,000 people go

I will sit on the bomb

in their stead

the terrorists

would take that

in a moment

she naturally

could take the place

of 110,000 people

and no one

would question

or doubt it

this teaching

that when Jesus

dies on the cross

he is dying

as a propitiation

for your sin

and for mine

that God

the Son of God

if the Queen of England

can naturally stand

for 110,000 people

how much more

can God

the Son of God

stand for every

human being

who has ever lived

and ever will live

and how could it

not be

that he

by his

emptying himself

of his glory

of his divine

prerogatives

of his splendor

of his appearance

of God

and he's setting

all of these aside

all of these aside

so that he ends up

dying on a cross

and experiencing

all there is

to taste of death

you can see

that within this

that there is

a full

satisfaction

of justice

and the whole

gospel

is this

profound news

that God

never stops

being opposed

to injustice

he never stops

being opposed

to evil

and he does

not just merely

pardon and let go

his cronies

but that God

the Son of God

seen my great need

and yours

that we could not

deal with on our own

he comes to me

and says

take my hand

if you take my hand

I'll take your place

and you can have

my place

and I

am willing

to be undone

and unmade

for you

and that is

what the gospel is

that is what

the gospel is

that is what

the text here says

listen to it again

my little children

I am writing

these things to you

so that you may not sin

but if anyone does sin

we have an advocate

with the Father

Jesus Christ

the righteous

he

is the propitiation

for our sins

just a couple of things

as we close

he's done it

but we need to receive it

and we can only receive it

not by weighing

our merits

but by saying

I need you

thank you for doing this

I

accept you

as my savior

and my lord

and

that profound thing

that you do for me

the second thing

about this

which is so important

for us

just as we close

is it helps us

to understand

why Christians

should never

be partners

or spin doctors

for evil

and injustice

because we see

that God

never lets

evil and injustice

off the hook

and as we are

formed and shaped

by the gospel

it means that

we should be formed

and shaped

to always be repelled

and horrified

and properly angry

at evil

and injustice

the gospel

shapes us

for goodness

and for justice

and for a hatred

a proper hatred

of evil

and injustice

and finally

only the gospel

provides the impetus

and the grounds

by which I can begin

to examine my own life

to know that

Jesus has dealt

with all of the

demands of justice

against me

with nothing left out

in his once for all

sacrifice

and to know

that when he

takes my place

and bears

the proper anger

of God

that justice

might be satisfied

and offers me

his place instead

and to know

that one day

I will dwell in glory

does not then

give me

not because of anything

I've done

or not because of my marriage

but purely because

what of Christ

has done for me

and that God

with perfect knowledge

there's nothing

in my past

present or future

that was not dealt

with by Jesus

upon his death

on the cross

that actually begins

to provide

a type of security

for me to look

at the evil

that I do

day by day

or maybe evil

that I have done

in the past

to begin to say

to God

and to people

that was wrong

I beg your forgiveness

how can I amend

my life

only in that

sure and strong

place

of the gospel

can we begin

to have a place

to stand

to see ourselves

without self-deception

without self-flattery

but to have one

who's our advocate

who can also speak

to us and say

George

let's look at this

let's look at this

let's look at this

together

remember I've already

paid for it

let's look at this

because evil

always ruins our lives

and is never the basis

of our identity

please stand

invite you to stand

just bow our heads

in prayer

father we give you

thanks and praise

that you do not

tolerate evil

and injustice

that it is always

wrong to you

we give you

thanks and praise

that you will

judge

father we confess

before you

that there is

no way

at all

on our own

merits

or by own

cleverness

or flattery

or spin

that we could

stand

before perfect

justice

we acknowledge

that our

standing

before you

our cry

to you

as our

father

our cry

to you

as our

father

who loves

us

is not

based on

our ability

to spin

our lives

but our

acknowledgement

that we

can only

stand

before you

because our

blessed

savior

jesus

is our

propitiation

that he

has stood

in our

place

and dealt

and been

dealt

the punishment

that we

properly

deserve

that justice

might be

satisfied

and has

not only

taken our

place

to bear

this

proper

anger

and evil

but has

offered

us

his

perfect

standing

with you

so father

we stand

here

only in

jesus

our

propitiation

and we

ask father

that as

your holy

spirit

draws us

to be

more

and more

to be

more deeply

knowledgeable

and aware

of what

it is

that jesus

has done

for us

that father

as this

becomes

more true

in our

lives

the way

that we

understand

ourselves

and see

our lives

and see

our past

and our

present

and our

future

we thank

you father

that it

is a place

by which

we can

deal with

those things

that we

do that

are wrong