"Salvation and the Forgiveness of Sin"
Zechariah, speaking to his new born son John, speaks by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit: "And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins . . ."
"It started in the forest. A man from the village Bena-monyi had been in the forest hunting. He came to an area where there were dead birds and mammals on the ground and he ate some. Two weeks later he developed severe abdominal pain and fever and was taken to a small mission hospital where he subsequently died. He was an important individual and many attended his funeral. All 27 persons who handled his corpse subsequently developed the same symptoms.
"Those who fell ill wondered if evil spirits from the dead man had cast a spell on them. Some went to traditional healers seeking relief from the spirits; others visited church structures hoping to be purified. None of these efforts worked, and two weeks later all 27 were dead.
"Those who took care of the 27 then became ill and the virus spread from village to village. Some of the sick left their villages and traveled to larger towns seeking sophisticated care; others with the means took a bus into the city to visit better equipped medical facilities. Within two months an entire province was in the midst of a full-fledged epidemic of unknown etiology. The number of tabulated deaths is close to 200 but those are only people who died in hospitals or clinics and were counted. We have no idea how many more remained at home or died in the forest where large numbers have fled hoping to avoid this fatal virus. The village hunter knew he was not supposed to eat dead animals, but he was hungry . . . and the consequences of that single act are wreaking havoc in our midst today."
The problem with the Ebola virus is that there is no treatment or cure, and once it begins to spread, you cannot collect it and bring it back to the deep forest. All that can be done is to isolate, to protect health workers with gloves and masks, and wait for it to lose its power.
There are some parallels to sin: how it gets started in us, how it spreads, how it destroys and works its way to death. So today we focus again on the meaning of salvation, and specifically how we come to salvation through the forgiveness of sin.
The word "salvation" has a history. In its earliest use in the Bible it meant simply "rescue from enemies." It was a very practical, this-worldly, even political term. God saved Israel from the armies of the surrounding nations. As time went on the understanding of finding salvation from enemies deepened into a consciousness of the need for God to save his people from the consequences of their sin. Salvation became a faith relationship with God.
So the center of salvation is the forgiveness of sin. It is repeatedly found in the Gospels and in the early preaching of the church in Acts. For example, in Acts chapter 5, Peter says, "The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead – whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel."
This raises a problem in our culture. People do not necessarily want forgiveness of sins. It is not what sells these days. Scot McKnight writes, "to speak to our society of the need of salvation in order to be acceptable to God is to speak, too often I fear, a language that our culture simply does not hear." This is why Rick Richardson feels that there must be a time of soul awakening before the Gospel can be effectively proclaimed.
N.T. Wright points out that there is also a history to the term "the forgiveness of sins." When Israel was sent into exile in Babylon, the people understood that defeat and loss of the Promised Land was the punishment of God for their sins. The forgiveness of sins then, meant for them, the return from exile. "When we can go home, then we will know that our sins are forgiven."
Jeremiah 33:4: The LORD says, "I will heal them and reveal to them abundance of prosperity and security. I will restore the fortunes of Judah and the fortunes of Israel, and rebuild them as they were at first. I will cleanse them from all the guilt of their sin against me, and I will forgive all the guilt of their sin and rebellion against me."
But what happened is that when they returned to the land, that did not take away from them the feeling that they were still in exile. Just like the Ebola virus, there is no human cure for sin. A change of scenery does not cure the sinful heart. Scot McKnight writes, "Mercy is that pity God shows towards humans in spite of their sin and because of their total helplessness to right their wrongs." Something deeper needed to be dealt with than could be corrected by a return to their homeland and the rebuilding of the temple.
So once again, Israel came to understand a deeper, spiritual issue. Their need for salvation included at its heart the forgiveness of their sin.
In the ministry of Jesus we see that he often tied forgiveness of sin to healing and the return of a person to their family and community. Whether it was lepers, blind beggars or lame men, forgiveness and healing led people to being re-united with family and becoming full members of the community again. Wright says that when Jesus announced forgiveness of sins to people, he was celebrating the coming of the Kingdom of God.
What this says to us is that forgiveness of sin is far more than the removal of negative consequences for being bad, or for breaking rules. Let's say you are stopped by the police for a minor traffic violation. But the officer does not give you a ticket. You feel relief; you may decide to drive more cautiously in the future. You may carry some resentment towards the police for stopping you, feeling you did not break the law, or at least you were doing something everyone else is doing. This is a very shallow view of forgiveness. If God is simply the police officer who lets you go for your minor moral offenses then the cultural view is probably correct.
But when the Bible speaks of forgiveness of sin that leads to salvation, it is speaking much more broadly about coming to true healing, about returning home to friendship with God, about being freed to truly love and serve God. The Bible speaks of forgiveness as the power that restores our spirit. It is experiencing the loss of power in that which is truly destroying you, that which holds you down, that which controls you. Sin is like the Ebola virus; it will kill you. It will destroy you. To see its power taken away is a very powerful experience.
It is the cross and resurrection of Jesus that takes away the power of sin.
Look again at the prophecy spoken by Zechariah. See in it how God is determined to rescue Israel from her oppressors. See in it the liberation of people to once again serve and bless God in holiness and righteousness. The knowledge of this salvation is given to the people through the forgiveness of their sins. David Tiede points out that as Zechariah speaks these words over the infant John, we know that it is the forgiveness of sins that will be the subject of John the Baptist's preaching. It is the baptism of forgiveness that prepares the people to receive the Messiah, Jesus. That is their spiritual awakening. That opens their hearts to the power of the cross.
We could look at it from another perspective. If we could imagine all the white people of Jena, Louisiana, coming together at the courthouse and holding a demonstration in which they expressed forgiveness to the six black youth accused of beating up a white teenager, what impact would such an action have upon that community? It is not so farfetched. After all, that is precisely what the Amish have done when their community was devastated by bullets fired by a young man in a school. So, if the people of Jena could forgive, we know that such action would not solve all the racial problems in that community. It would not resolve the legal issues in itself. But it would surely take the power out of racism in that place.
And God surely demonstrated one day at Calvary against the power of sin. In the death of Jesus forgiveness of sin was pronounced. And those who respond in faith and come to trust Jesus with their lives thereby allow the power of the cross to make them well. Confessing their sins, and being honest with God, they come into the light and the love of God and experience the healing power of salvation.
"In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope . . . and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade away."
Amen.