Bam! Bam! Bam! Pound! Pound! Pound! Actually, it was more like BamBamBamBamBam… PoundPoundPoundPound!!!!
Last Thursday - Saturday, the shingles on the peaked roofs over Trinity’s church and school gym were replaced. To linger long beneath the hammering and the pounding was to invite a pounding headache.
However, if such a replacement could be done in silence, would it seem like it was real?
Think of how we accumulate debt. These days we incur debt silently – online, sliding debit/credit cards through electronic machines, phone apps, maybe a quick beep to confirm the transaction. It’s easy to rack up debt quickly this way. Remember the old days, the old credit card machines (one is in the accompanying picture)? Every time you incurred debt, you heard it. RackRack!
Imagine some divine accounting room somewhere, racking up our debt/guilt, making this annoying sound every time we sinned.
Guilt. Your guilt is crushing. It is damning. Mine too. Unpayable. Irreversible. How can we give it up?
We don’t. We can’t. Jesus takes it on himself. Does it work? Can he pay the price? Your guilt? Mine? That of the whole world?
Get the credit card racker ready, follow Jesus’ life and it will…remain silent. He was holy, blameless, pure, sinless. Old Testament priests always had to symbolically sacrifice for their own sins before they began their work of offering symbolic sacrifices for the sins of others. Every day. Not Jesus. “He sacrificed for sins once and for all when he offered himself.” (Hebrews 7:27b) Once for all. Scripture, especially the book of Hebrews, makes this abundantly clear. “He has appeared once and for all, at the climax of the ages, in order to take away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” (Hebrews 9:26b) “By this will, we have been sanctified once and for all, through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ.” (Hebrews 10:10)
Can we be sure – absolutely sure, sure beyond any doubt – that guilt is gone, paid for, finished? That the Rack?Rack! of sin’s debt has been satisfied? We can. We are. Thanks to Jesus. Praise him!
Grateful with you,
Pastor Stephen Luchterhand
Last Thursday - Saturday, the shingles on the peaked roofs over Trinity’s church and school gym were replaced. To linger long beneath the hammering and the pounding was to invite a pounding headache.
However, if such a replacement could be done in silence, would it seem like it was real?
Think of how we accumulate debt. These days we incur debt silently – online, sliding debit/credit cards through electronic machines, phone apps, maybe a quick beep to confirm the transaction. It’s easy to rack up debt quickly this way. Remember the old days, the old credit card machines (one is in the accompanying picture)? Every time you incurred debt, you heard it. RackRack!
Imagine some divine accounting room somewhere, racking up our debt/guilt, making this annoying sound every time we sinned.
- Every time you put you first and God second. RackRack!
- Every time you wanted to hurt someone, or get even. RackRack!
- Every time you lusted. RackRack!
- Every time you coveted. RackRack!
- Every time you envied someone else’s possessions or positions. RackRack!
- Every single sin. RackRack!
- You have taken that which was not yours. RackRack!
- You have grieved and dishonored your parents. RackRack!
- You have hated and been angry and impatient. RackRack!
- You have sought to serve self and made your own happiness top priority rather than seek to serve others and meet their needs. RackRack!
- You and I have treated God like some desperate little child, so eager for our attention that he will endure our little games, our sports, our parties, and our vacations all taking his place – robbing him of the time, devotion, love and attention he deserves. RackRack!
- You and I have judged our neighbors and gossiped about them. RackRack!
- We have griped and complained about one another, about our church, about our God. RackRack! RackRack! RackRack!
- Everysingle sin. Rack!Rack! BamBamBamBamBamPoundPoundPoundPound!!!!
Guilt. Your guilt is crushing. It is damning. Mine too. Unpayable. Irreversible. How can we give it up?
We don’t. We can’t. Jesus takes it on himself. Does it work? Can he pay the price? Your guilt? Mine? That of the whole world?
Get the credit card racker ready, follow Jesus’ life and it will…remain silent. He was holy, blameless, pure, sinless. Old Testament priests always had to symbolically sacrifice for their own sins before they began their work of offering symbolic sacrifices for the sins of others. Every day. Not Jesus. “He sacrificed for sins once and for all when he offered himself.” (Hebrews 7:27b) Once for all. Scripture, especially the book of Hebrews, makes this abundantly clear. “He has appeared once and for all, at the climax of the ages, in order to take away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” (Hebrews 9:26b) “By this will, we have been sanctified once and for all, through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ.” (Hebrews 10:10)
Can we be sure – absolutely sure, sure beyond any doubt – that guilt is gone, paid for, finished? That the Rack?Rack! of sin’s debt has been satisfied? We can. We are. Thanks to Jesus. Praise him!
Grateful with you,
Pastor Stephen Luchterhand
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