Grace and Peace Episode 6

 Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

Grace and Peace Episode 6

Presbyterian Church of Easton

October 6, 2020

Grace and Peace Episode 6

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:2

Heidelberg Catechism

12Q.  According to God’s righteous judgment we deserve punishment both now and in eternity:  how then can we escape this punishment and return to God’s favor?

A. God requires that his justice be satisfied. Therefore the claims of this justice must be paid in full, either by ourselves or by another

13Q.  Can we make this payment ourselves?

A. Certainly not.  Actually, we increase our debt every day.

Can we ever be good enough to achieve God’s demand for perfect obedience?  Of course not.   God demands perfection.  We are commanded to do what God wants in all of our actions and thoughts.   But we substitute our own ideas of right and wrong.   We decide for ourselves where the line is and, like magic, we are always on the right side of the line.   But the line between right and wrong is not set by us.  It is set by God.   And God’s line is so far away that we can never get to it much less cross it.  The gap between what we do and what God wants us to do is so large we can never close it.  We can never pay the debt we owe to God.

But God’s justice requires that we pay this debt.   Or we have to find someone who will pay it for us.   Who might that be?  We read this in the Book of Romans chapter 8, “ 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”  Jesus Christ paid the debt we owe to God.

Jesus was the only person ever born who lived his entire life in full obedience to God.   He did everything that God wanted him to do.  His every thought was God’s thought.  Jesus never crossed the line.  Jesus never had a debt to pay. 

So when Jesus suffered and died he paid not for his own sins, but for ours.   Jesus paid our debt.  Jesus carried us over the line.  Jesus bore our punishment.   Jesus made us right with God.  Jesus answered our prayer, “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”

For all of these, we should be extremely grateful.   And we show our gratitude for what Jesus has done for us by our joyful obedience of God's law.

Let’s pray.   Heavenly Father, we are grateful for what your Son has done for us.   He suffered and experienced death so that our sin would be forgiven.   Jesus paid the penalty we owe.   And so we are filled with joy and pledge our obedience.  This we pray in our savior’s name.  Amen.