Josh Benner

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  • Sermon: A book all about Jesus – John 5:37-47

                Prayer 

    From Matthew 5: 

    13 “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. 

    14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. 

    Our heavenly Father, we again come to you in praise and rejoicing that we are again able to meet in person. May you bless our time in your word. May our lives be transformed by the truth of your scripture. May we point to Christ. Lord, we continue to pray for our peace in our nation. There has been so much violence and destruction in recent weeks. May we continue to grow in grace and love. 

    Lord, may we shine with a light that is evident to all of those whom we meet. May we have a burden that we are your ambassadors in the world. That how we talk, and act, and treat people, and love people is all meant to be a reflection of the great God whom we serve. In Jesus’ name, amen. 

                Text: John 5:37-47

    37 And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, 38 and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent. 39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. 41 I do not receive glory from people.

     42 But I know that you do not have the love of God within you. 43 I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. 44 How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? 45 Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. 46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. 47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?” 

    We’re finishing up John 5 today. 

    The last time we were in John, two weeks ago, Jesus was talking of those who bore witness to him. And we talked about three witnesses to Christ: John the Baptist, the works of Christ, and God the Father.  In our passage today, we see a fourth witness to Christ. The scriptures themselves witness to the truth of who Jesus is. 

    I will say up front that I LOVE this passage. Jesus is making the concluding remarks of a speech to the Pharisees which began in verse 19. Last time we were in John, we quoted part of verse 37. Jesus was talking of God as a witness to his messianic identity. 

    And that’s where we’ll start this morning. And this is my plan for us today. We’re going to talk about the passage and the end of the section will lead into some closing remarks on the scriptures and how they point to Christ. 

    First point I want to make from our section. 

    1. Misunderstanding the Bible 

    Quoting from verses 37-38: And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent. 

    Once again, a couple weeks ago, I talked about how God bears witness to Christ, and our passage this morning points to how the scripture bears witness to Christ, but Jesus will talk of God to lead into the scriptures as a witness to his Messianic identity. 

    Jesus begins in our passage by saying that God has sent him and that God bears witness to him. And then Jesus tells the pharisees that they have never heard the voice of God, nor seen God, nor do they have the word of God dwelling in them. Saying the true thing is not always the popular thing. And Jesus, once again, does not mince words with the pharisees. He says that they have never heard the voice of God. 

    Keep in mind the context of what he’s saying. He’s talking to the experts of the Old Testament. The Pharisees. God had given his word to the Jewish people. It was a point of pride. 

    And they have Jesus speaking to them. Jesus is God incarnate, speaking the words of God. In 3:34, Jesus says: he whom God has sent utters the words of God.

    Also remember how John’s Gospel begins. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God(John 1:1). 

    Jesus is the Word of God whom the pharisees don’t hear. There’s the irony that the pharisees are listening to God speak to them and they don’t hear what he’s saying.  Moses had heard the literal voice of God in the Old Testament. And an idea that will come up at the end of this passage is that if the pharisees had been true followers of Moses, they would have recognized Jesus for who he was. 

    It’s also true that the pharisees often missed the heart of God’s teachings. It can be easy to know a lot about the Bible but to not have it truly changing your heart. I remember when I was in seminary and we’d pray before classes. A common refrain was that we would ask God to grow in heart knowledge, not just head knowledge. 

    As James prays: that we would be doers of the word and not hearers only (James 1:22).  Let’s consider for just a moment that confrontation which inspired this entire speech which the Lord Jesus has been giving. It began with Jesus healing a man on the Sabbath, which the pharisees had considered a violation of the law, because they had such a restrictive view of what it meant to follow the Sabbath. 
    Jesus says that they have never seen God’s form. Again, there’s irony in that they have God incarnate telling them that. They’re actually looking at Jesus who is God on earth and they don’t see him for who he is. But it’s also true that Jesus has seen the Father and they have not.  

    In verse 38, he’s already told them that they’ve never truly heard from God, and here he’s saying God’s word is not abiding in them. When Jesus says that they do not believe in the one whom the Lord has sent, Jesus is obviously referring to himself. 

    Jesus continues his harangue against the pharisees.

    2. the scriptures bear witness to Christ

    Verses 39-40: You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. 

    Jesus acknowledges that the pharisees do study the scriptures, but as D.A. Carson says “there is nothing intrinsically life-giving about studying the scriptures.” At least, there’s not if you miss the ultimate meaning and purpose of the scriptures in pointing to the glorious and gracious God who has made a way for fallen man to be redeemed. Plenty of people value the moral teachings of the Bible, even many non-Christians would affirm that. But that is not the soul-saving point of God’s Holy Word. 

    People can study the scriptures. A person can know the Bible backwards and forwards. But if you don’t understand that it is Christ to whom the scriptures bear witness, you’ve missed the whole point of the Bible.

    When I was in seminary, in one of my preaching classes we had to do a sermon, but before doing the sermon, we had another long list of things to do. We had to translate the passage from the original language, give grammatical comments on the text, give a grammatical outline, a sermon outline, on and on and on. 

    It was a lot of work. And then you had to actually write the sermon. And it was a hard sermon to write because after spending time doing all of that, I didn’t truly understand the heart of the passage. My point is that you can spend lots and lots and lots of time studying the Bible and miss what it’s saying. 

    Similarly, a person can have long sections of scripture memorized. That’s fine. But are those verses impacting you? Are they impacting your life? Are they impacting how you look at God? Are they impacting your trust in Christ? Jesus says at the end of verse 39 that it is the scriptures which bear witness about him. It’s not the first time, nor is it the last time in this gospel that it talks of the scriptures as pointing to Jesus. 

    Put another way, Jesus is here speaking with the Pharisees and he’s telling them that they don’t truly know the scriptures, because they don’t know Jesus, and it is the scriptures which point to Jesus. 

    They had the attestation of the prophet who came before, John the Baptist. They saw the signs Jesus was doing. They had his teaching. They had reason to believe but did not. It’s not that they should have had a perfectly worked out theology of who Jesus was during his lifetime. The disciples didn’t even have that. But as the disciples saw the ministry of Jesus unfolding, they were drawn to this man and had a growing knowledge of who he was. When Phillip was called to be a follower of Jesus at the beginning of this gospel, he points to the scriptures. 

    John 1:45: Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.

    When Jesus does his first sign, where he turns water into wine, John notes that this helped make sense of his entire ministry later on. 

    John 2:22: When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. 

    And then you have Jesus interacting with Nicodemus. Another of the pharisees, the teacher of Israel. An expert in the Law. John 3:10: “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?

    But the pharisees instead hated Jesus, plotted against Jesus, and ultimately set their actions towards crucifying Jesus. While it’s true that we have the whole story and the pharisees didn’t, they also had the chance to see, hear, and experience the ministry of Christ. So the pharisees are judged on account of their failure to recognize the scriptures as pointing to Christ. 

    Jesus continues speaking to the pharisees. He’s talked about the witness of the scripture. And now he comes back to a verdict against the pharisees. 

    Verses 41-42:  I do not receive glory from people. 42 But I know that you do not have the love of God within you. 

    Jesus says he doesn’t receive glory from people. He’s pointed to the witnesses of his works, of God, of the scriptures to his divine identity. Jesus is glorious because of who he is. The glory of Christ is not contingent upon the adulation of humanity. The earth revolves around the sun, regardless of if a person wanted to accept that or not. 

    Borrowing again from D.A. Carson: if Jesus primarily cared about receiving glory from men, he could pander to the pharisees. He could say what they wanted to hear. But then, what kind of a Messiah would he be? He came to do the will of the Father, not the will of men. 

    Verses 43-44: I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. 44 How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? 

    Verse 43, Jesus points to God, in whose name has has come. 

    Jesus says that if another comes in his own name, they would receive him. It follows from the fact that they’re mistaken and blind to the true Messiah, that they therefore are going to be susceptible to following a false messiah. And historically, we know that there were many first century false Messiahs who came after Christ. 

    Instead, the leaders receive glory from one another. They’re looking for the Messiah, but for the wrong reasons. Not out of love for God, not out of a desire for truth, not to know salvation. The people wanted a Messiah, but not the Messiah who Jesus was. Not the Messiah who points out their sin, points out the flaws in their system, who wouldn’t do what they wanted him to do. 

    Our world can be just as susceptible to this. That’s part of why it’s important to come to Jesus, to come to the word of God in humility. If you’re never challenged by what Jesus is saying, you might simply be following a Messiah in your own making. We are sinful, and therefore there is a constant reformation of the human heart in encountering the person and teachings of Christ. Our default is sin, not righteousness. 

    3. The indictment of the pharisees

    45 Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. 46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. 47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?” 

    Jesus is likely referring to the entire Old Testament and Mosaic Covenant. Moses is the accuser of the pharisees. It’s symbolic. It’s not to say that Moses is the divine judge. Obviously, Moses is just a man. But Jesus is saying to the Pharisees “you want to put so much stock in the Old Testament, you want to put so much stock in the Law of Moses, well if you really understood that, you would believe because Moses’ writings are all about me.” 

    Again, this is an indictment from Jesus to the pharisees. To truly believe in the writings of Moses is to believe in Jesus. And this is the point to which we’ve been building up this morning and where we will be spending the rest of our time. 

    In verses 39-40, Jesus said:  You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. 

    And here at the end of the passage: If you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. 47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?” 

    The Bible is a book about Jesus. 

    First. You have prophecies which are fulfilled in Christ. 

    It’s amazing. You have some very specific prophecies about Jesus which are fulfilled in the New Testament. Think about it for a moment. You have where he’d be born and that his ministry would be preceded by a forerunner. He’d be born of a virgin. Hosea said that he’d travel to Egypt. We see this early in Matthew. Psalm 40 predicted that he would preach repentance to Israel. Psalm 78 predicted that he would teach in parables. 


    Isaiah 6:9 predicted that people would not listen to his teaching: “Go, and say to this people: “ ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ 

    Other prophecies fulfilled in Christ. He would have a miraculous ministry. Isaiah 35:5-6: the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; 6 then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. 

    The Old Testament mentions that he would minister in Galilee and draw gentiles to himself. The Old Testament mentions that he would ride into Jerusalem on a donkey, be plotted against, be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver.

    You have prophecies that say he would be forsaken by God. Psalm 22:1: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? 

    Psalm 22:16 says that he would be pierced. This is often taken to be a prophecy referring to his crucifixion, in spite of the fact that crucifixion didn’t even exist at the time. Dogs encompass me; a company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet— 

    The Old Testament says that lots would be cast for his clothing and that those closest to him would abandon him. Psalm 41:9: Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me. 

    The Messiah would usher in a new covenant. Jeremiah 31:31: the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah

    I realize that with some of these fulfilled prophecies, the Pharisees weren’t aware of them yet. Not to mention that we have the family he’d be born into. The tribe of Judah, a descendant of David. You don’t have control over where you’re born, or from what family you’d be born. You don’t have control over all of the events that happen in your lifetime. But we have all of these prophecies that point us to what would happen during Christ’s ministry. 

    A skeptical person could look at all of these and try to explain it away “well what if the writers of the New Testament just read through their Old Testament, pulled out these little details and reverse engineered the Jesus story.” 

    The answer is that that makes no sense when you recall that the apostles were persecuted and died for their faith. Why would they make up a story and then die for something they knew wasn’t true? 

    Well what if it’s a coincidence? 

    The idea that a person coincidentally had all of the Old Testament prophecies pointing is a bigger leap of faith that believing that Jesus is who he says he is. Perhaps some of you have heard this illustration. 

    A mathematician and astronomer named Peter Stoner calculated the odds of just 8 of the prophecies of Jesus coincidentally being fulfilled coming true. He said that the odds were 1×10 to the 17th power. Or 1 in 100 quadrillion. 

    Put more seriously, the odds of something that’s 1 in 100 quadrillion is as if you were to take silver dollars and cover the entire state of Texas 2 feet deep in the coins. You put a red dot on just 1 of those coins, you take a person and blindfold them and tell them they can walk wherever they want but that they need to pick up just one coin. The odds of that person walking all across Texas and picking up the one marked coin are about the same chances as Jesus fulfilling 8 prophecies. 

    But he fulfilled many more than that. The argument that it’s a coincidence is absurd. The scriptures literally point to Jesus. But prophecy is not the only way in which the scriptures point to Jesus. You have patterns, sometimes called ‘types’ of Christ throughout the Old Testament. 

    The lamb led to slaughter in Isaiah 53 is a type pointing us to Christ the greater lamb who was led to slaughter. 

    Isaac was a type for Christ in that he was the promised Son of Abraham. He was the Son who Abraham was asked to sacrifice, but at the pivotal moment, God said that he himself would provide the sacrifice. 

    Joseph was a type for Christ in that he suffered unjustly and was then exalted to save his people. What men meant for evil, God used for good. 

    Moses was a type for Christ in that he was a mediator between God and the people, but in Jesus, we see the greater mediator. Moses had to cover his face when speaking to God, Jesus is the one who has seen God. Moses was given the Ten Commandments on a mountain, Jesus spoke with authority in his Sermon on the Mount.  

    Joshua was a type for Christ in that he led Israel into the land, and Jesus leads his people into the greater land: the new Jerusalem, the new heaven and the new earth. 

    David, the great King of Israel who was the man after God’s own heart is a type for Christ, the greater king. 

    Jonah was a type for Christ as one who spent 3 days in the fish, Jesus spent 3 days in the tomb. 

    And there are many more people. And there are many other themes which show types or themes for Christ and what he’d fulfill. 

    Very briefly, we’ve talked about these themes before. Sonship is a theme in the Old Testament where Israel and the Davidic kings are called the Son of God. Jesus is the true Son of God who allows us to be adopted as God’s children. 

    In the Old Testament, priests offered sacrifices at the temple. Jesus is the great high priest, who is able to approach God and offers himself as a sacrifice so that we could be redeemed to God. As the temple is the presence of God in the world, Jesus is literally God in the world and the true temple. 

    Other themes. Sabbath. Faith in Jesus is what brings the true Sabbath, as we enter into God’s rest. You have the covenants of the Old Testament but Jesus both fulfills the Old Covenant and ushers in the New Covenant. You have creation, Jesus brings new creation. You have wisdom. Jesus is the perfect personification of wisdom. Jesus is the truer Israel who follows the law perfectly. 

    It all points to Christ. It’s all about Christ. The Old Testament feasts are all about Jesus. His crucifixion happened at the time of Passover. Passover was the celebration of God redeeming Israel from slavery in Egypt. It was commemorated by sacrificing a lamb. Jesus is the true Passover lamb who redeems sinful people from sin. 

    You have the Old Testament holy day of Yom Kippur: the Day of Atonement. They took two goats. One was sacrificed for sins. Again, symbolic of Jesus paying the ultimate price for sin. The other goat was sent out of the camp, which was a symbol of our sins being taken away from us.

    Everything in the Old Testament is about Jesus. The New Testament writers certainly thought that. They point to the presence of Christ in the Old Testament. 

    The writer of Hebrews talked of Moses’ trust in Christ. 


    Hebrews 11:24-26:By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, 25 choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26 He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. 

    The Apostle Paul talks of Jesus’ presence with the Israelites in the wilderness. 1 Corinthians 10:2-4: All were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 and all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.

    Jude pointed to Jesus as the one who had redeemed the Israelites from Egypt: Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt (Jude 5). 

    This is debated, but I would even argue that Jesus is the fourth man in the fire furnace in Daniel, the heavenly figure with whom Jacob wrestled, and the king and priest, Melchizedek to whom Abraham gave homage. 

    If you read the Old Testament, you have all of these genealogies. Maybe it’s tempting to want to skip those or think they don’t matter. The genealogies form links in a chain which leads to Christ. 

    From Luke 24:26-27: Jesus is walking on the Road to Emmaus and he interacts with the two travelers. They don’t know that the Lord Jesus is in their midst and that he has risen. Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. 

    The scriptures were explained from Moses and the prophets as pointing to Jesus. 

    Jesus is the key that unlocks the Bible. I truly hope that understanding this is something that is edifying and encouraging. That these are not just legends or stories. It’s the Word of God, written by different people in different cultures, in different centuries from fisherman to kings and from tax collectors to doctors. But it has a unified message from start to finish of pointing us to Jesus and his gospel. 

    The Bible is a challenging book. But it’s an impossible book if you don’t understand that it’s about Jesus. 

     39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.

    The scriptures point to Christ. Therefore the scriptures point to life. 

    Thanks so much for watching! Don’t forget to share and subscribe.

  • D-Day 76 years later: the battle that was the beginning of the end of WWII

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    Today is the 76th anniversary of the Normandy invasion. Over 150,000 Allied forces took part in the invasion. Over a million men were part of the overall battle of Normandy. Thousands of ships and planes. Even trying to fathom the size of the operation is impossible to comprehend.  

    It remains the largest seaborne invasion in history. The strategic significance of the Normandy invasion was that it gave the Allied forces an entry point into continental Europe.

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    A lot of our mental images of what D-Day would have been like come from the opening sequence of the movie Saving Private Ryan. D-Day hero and Medal of Honor recipient Walter Ehlers used to tell people to multiply that scene by 60 to appreciate what it was actually like.

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  • Pastors seek apology from Jerry Falwell for racially insensitive Tweet

    Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

    Alumni are speaking up about a recent Tweet shared by Liberty University president Jerry Falwell, Jr. In the photo, Falwell shows a picture of a custom printed medical face mask which features the controversial photo of current Virginia governor Ralph Northam who appeared in a racially insensitive photo in his medical school yearbook which featured two men; one in blackface and one dressed as a klansman.

    In another Tweet defending himself, Falwell said he had done this in response to cutbacks in higher education from governor Northam.

    Alumni have called for Falwell’s resignation. I think Liberty is a fine school. I respect the university. It’s one of the best known Christian institutions in America, but these antics are unacceptable. Seriously. What is that? He’s the president of the university! And given the conservative Christian values of the school, such a display should absolutely be beneath Falwell. Where’s the grace? Where’s the virtue? If you want to criticize Northam for reducing higher education funding, go right ahead, but that was the most untactful way in which Falwell could have possibly made his point.

    Falwell’s relationship with President Trump has bee talked about at length. But one of the ways where a Christian should not be imitating the president is in terms of verbiage and social media escapades.

    A letter from a group of 35 Liberty alumni who are all African American pastors and ministry leaders was sent to Falwell. It’s very thoughtful and brings up legitimate grievances with the school’s president. A change.org petition has over 30,000 signatures asking Falwell to apologize.

    The letter states:

       For several years, you have said and defended inappropriate statements that represent Liberty and our faith very poorly. You have belittled staff, students and parents, you have defended inappropriate behaviors of politicians, encouraged violence, and disrespected people of other faiths. We were all taught at Liberty about the sanctity of life (Jeremiah 1:5) and the dignity of every human – made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27), and yet, you have repeatedly violated and misrepresented core Christian principles (Romans 12:9-21) through brash tweets and statements that harm our Christian witness. 

    One of the striking indictments in the letter was:

    A review of your social media and statements during your presidency would lead many to believe that you care much more about politics than Jesus Christ, Evangelism, and the discipleship of students.

    I’ve had the exact same thought before. The Northam Tweet is bad enough, but it’s also part of a pattern of inappropriate behavior. Falwell should apologize and repent.

    Thanks for reading. I’d love to hear what you think!

  • no, looting is not just like the boston tea party

    Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

    I’ve seen umpteen people compare the looting and riots occurring to the Son’s of Liberty in the Boston Tea Party. They’re not the same. Writing for the Federalist, Joshua Lawson points out that the Boston Tea Party was not about plundering for person gain. They didn’t loot the ships for the tea, they dumped into the harbor. They didn’t burn down the ships, they didn’t cause physical harm to people. The only injury in the Boston Tea Party was one of the Son’s of Liberty who was hit by a tea crate. The only personal item damaged was a lock which was replaced by the Son’s of Liberty. The looting largely went after personal property. The Boston Tea Party was specifically a protest against the government.

    But all of this raises an important philosophical question. If you look at the Boston Tea Party as a justification for rioting and looting today as a response to an unfair system, to oppression, as long as the system is the way that it is, by the logic of your justification, shouldn’t rioting and looting be justified at anytime until the system is changed? Honest question. If someone looting tonight or last weekend was justified, why shouldn’t that also be justified six weeks from now? Or six months from now? If someone is looting in opposition to injustice, how do you put a timeline on when it is and isn’t acceptable? Where’s the consistency?

    I maintain that it’s wrong to steal and it’s wrong to harm private businesses. It undermines the vast majority of demonstrators who are peaceful and law abiding citizens. Not only is the looting morally wrong, it’s also counterproductive. It’s wrong to steal and it’s wrong to hurt private businesses.

    The Boston Tea party also brought consequences upon the colonies where Britain passed the “Intolerable Acts” in retaliation. They did have to pay for that rebellion. Being a revolutionary has consequences. I find it interesting that people talk of the horrors of troops being used in major cities to help regain civil obedience. But for rioters who are talking and acting like revolutionaries, what should they expect? Above all else, the job of government is to maintain law and order. It’s shameful that mayors were allowing people to ride roughshod in their cities over the weekend. That is a disservice to their communities.

    Again, I’m not talking about the peaceful protesters. And I know the vast majority of protesters are peaceful and have a right to be angry and to protest. But society should have no acceptance of those who seek to cause looting and destruction.

    Thanks for reading! I welcome your comments and don’t forget to subscribe.

  • The cross of Christ shows us the cost of sin

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    Originally published May 1, 2018 

    We have a sinfully low view of sin. We cannot overestimate the weight of sin when we see the cost of sin on the cross. 

    None of us lives up even to our own moral standards. Do you ever get mad and you regret it? Ever yell at someone and wish you hadn’t? Ever look at something and feel shame for it? Ever tell a lie or bend the truth and wish you could have it back? Ever manipulate people to get your own way? Ever do something where you know deep down it’s not what you should have done? Of course you have. We don’t live up to our own standards. And if we can’t do that, how on earth do we live up to the standards of a holy God? We don’t and we can’t.

    We have nothing to go to God with on our own and say “you have to accept me. You have to love me. You have to let me into heaven.” On what grounds?

    We sin. And it’s not just “well nobody is perfect.” But that we sin. We rebel against God. In our thoughts, in our hearts, in our actions, in our inactions. Our view of sin is so low that we think we can master it on our own. Our view of sin is so low that we think we can do enough good to outweigh our sin. 

    Then why the cross at all? Why did Jesus die? The world likes to judge God. Likes to say what he should do if he really were loving. That he’d just wipe the slate clean. That that would be love. We like to tell God what love is. Because we have a sinfully low view of sin. Because the reality is that God SHOWS US what love is. On the cross. That’s what love is. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friend (John 15:13).

    Jesus shows us what love is when he lays down his life for you. When he endures the penalty of your sin for you. When he bears the wrath of God for you. And again that’s a message that many find offensive. That many hate. But that again shows our sinfulness when we try to judge God. We try to tell the God who made us what really would be just or holy or good. We can’t earn God but he freely gives himself. On the cross.

    We might debate sin. Just how big of a deal it really is. Just how much it really matters. But Jesus shows us how big of a deal sin is on the cross. He shows us how imperfect we are on the cross, how sinful we are on the cross. Because he bears the weight of our sins. 

    We have a sinfully low view of sin. We cannot overestimate the weight of sin when we look at the price Jesus paid for sin. Jesus didn’t die for you because your sins weren’t that bad. He did it because of the holiness of God and our inability to live up to that. But rather than to just have us languish with no hope, he gave us hope. On the cross. 

    Jesus is God. And because he’s God, he was a worthy sacrifice for our sins. For all of eternity, Jesus is God. God came into the world. The word became flesh and dwelled among us (John 1:14). Born of a virgin at his incarnation, Jesus is fully man. And because he’s fully man, he is like us in our human nature. He lived the holy life we could not. The sinless life we could not. And he died for you. 

    Jesus goes to the cross and in going to the cross, he doesn’t simply die for us. He’s tortured for us. It’s not like our day and age where methods of execution are designed to be relatively painless. Crucifixion was designed to humiliate and maximize the torture and pain. It was designed to prolong suffering. After being flogged to within an inch of your life, a person would have to carry the top part of the cross beam, which weighed upwards of 125 pounds to the place of his or her death. Nails would have been driven through the wrists and feet. Just imagine the agony of that. And the cross beam would be hoisted up with the condemned person attached. Struggling to breathe, their body sagging down on the weight of their legs. Then pushing up somewhat to get more oxygen. And repeating this horrid cycle until a person died from asphyxiation or exposure to the elements. 

    But there we have God on earth. Dying in the most agonizing way. The most humiliating way. In a public way. But it was for the sins of the world. It was so we could be forgiven. Because as he was nailed to the cross, so was our sin.  We have a sinfully low view of sin. That that was the price to be paid for it. God on earth dying for it. But he did it willingly. Not because he had to. But because of his love for you. That’s what love is. 

    Jesus never leaves us, he never forsakes us. His disciples let him down. Three times they fell asleep in the garden. Three times Peter denies Jesus. Judas leads the party who arrests Jesus. Judas walked with the Lord for three years. And betrayed him. Jesus is brought before the Jewish ruling council. They’re not out for the truth, they’re trying to find any charges that will stick. They take his words out of context and bring him before Pilate, saying he should be crucified.  Pilate is an earthly authority, the governor. Pilate knows he can find no fault in Jesus. He sees the innocence of Jesus. Pilate symbolically tries to cleanse himself: he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves.” 

    In the face of intense pressure, Pilate can’t bring himself to do the right thing. He offers up an option. Pilate has a custom of annually releasing one prisoner. There is Barabbas who is a killer and an instigator of insurrection. Or they can have Jesus who is totally innocent. And they select Barabbas. The Roman guards later mock Jesus. They make a crown of thorns, they hand him a reed as a makeshift scepter, they put a robe on him. They bow down and say “Hail, king of the Jews.” But again they play into the irony. Because Jesus IS the king. He’s the king of kings. While he’s on the cross, the mocking continues. Jesus is crucified with two men who are guilty. And they too join in the mocking. The guilty mocking an innocent man. Dying people mocking the Lord. Crucified men who can’t even show humility for another man who is dying the same gruesome death. 

    The priests, scribes, and elders continue mocking Jesus, beginning in 27:42, “he saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him.” 

    It’s because Jesus didn’t come down from the cross that we CAN believe in him. Because Jesus died on that cross that day. The mocking continues in 27:43 “he trusts in God, let God deliver him now, if he desires him.” Again they miss the point. God did not spare his son so that he could spare you. The followers of Jesus, the betrayer of Jesus, the ruling Jewish authorities, the ruling Roman authorities. All contributing in various ways to Jesus’ death. 

    This isn’t the isolated failing of one person. It’s not a lone wolf assassin who takes out Jesus. If that had been the case, maybe we could chalk it up to one bad egg. But in the passion narrative, it’s everyone. Everyone’s failures and sins lead to the cross. But even in spite of that, God is working it for his own glory. In spite of that, God had planned throughout all eternity to actually use that evil and wickedness for our salvation. Because even though it was sin and evil that brought Jesus to the cross, it’s because Jesus went to the cross that he was able to die to sin for all who believe in him.  

    We see the sinfulness of humanity in Christ’s passion. We can’t downplay the sinfulness of humanity when Jesus came into our world and we killed him. The righteous and holy God who made the world came into the world and we crucified him. We can’t downplay the severity of our sinfulness with that one. The most atrocious way that humanity has ever conceived of to end a person’s life, crucifixion is what is used against the righteous savior of the world. But in spite of all of that, we again see the grace of the Lord on the cross. Because Jesus bore infinite wrath for sin.

    There is infinite grace when we turn to him. There is no sin he is unable to forgive. It’s not that he died and can forgive every sin, but he can’t forgive that one, or this one, or what you did, or what you’re struggling with. Infinite wrath because of our sin. But infinite mercy on the cross because of his grace.

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