Your Sins are Forgiven

A few weeks ago an oil rig exploded off the coast of Louisiana, killing 11 people. Officials estimate the sunken rig was gushing almost 210,000 gallons of oil into the Gulf waters each day. Humanly speaking, oil spills are bad, causing separation between people and the ocean. Spiritually speaking, sin is worse. Like an oil spill it messes us up; causing separation in relationship with God and people. We need forgiveness. That we can be forgiven is the greatest news we could hear – because we are all in the same boat so to speak when it comes to sin. Like a ruined oil tanker gushing oil in the water – we are polluted, without any hope of cleanup on our own – and if we are to be forgiven God has got to do it. God knows our sin condition and has provided a means to deal with it in the person of Jesus Christ.

In Matthew 9:1-8 we see that Jesus got in a boat and went back to Peter’s home (Mk. 2:1) in Capernaum. In the gospels Jesus is a man of 4 cities: Bethlehem (birth city), Nazareth (growth city), Capernaum (ministry city), Jerusalem (city of death and resurrection).

People brought
Some people brought to Jesus a paralyzed man lying on a bed. Real friends, bring their friends to Jesus. Jesus saw their faith. Mark 2:1-5 and Luke 5:17-19 explain in greater detail that they came in through the roof at great risk and cost. They were crazy desperate for Jesus. This unnamed man’s friends brought him to Peter’s home, most likely a 2-story structure with an outside stairway to the roof where people would go to relax in the cool of the day and sleep on hot nights. They lowered their friend right in front of Jesus as He was teaching the Word. Deroofing was antisocial but faith is compelled to get in the presence of Jesus. Jesus says to the man “take courage, My son, your sins are forgiven”. Courage overcomes inward fear as opposed to simply being outwardly bold. “Forgiven” means sent away, driven away, done away with. Ps. 103:12 says “as far as the east is from the west has He removed our transgressions from us”.

Scribes thought
The scribes thought ill of Jesus. They accused Him of sin against God. To them Jesus had insulted God by acting as if He was God. Jesus acted as forgiveness’ source. As God this is what He was and is – they just didn’t believe He was God. Only God can forgive sin.

Jesus taught
Jesus knowing their thoughts said 'Why do you think evil in your hearts?' He also asked 'which is easier to say: your sins are forgiven or rise and walk?' He gave a telling answer which revealed His heart, His power and their error. 'But that you may know I have authority to forgive sins' - He said to the paralyzed man – 'rise, take up your bed and go home.' The healing showed the mighty works of God; showed forth His glory. Jesus doesn’t just heal bodies, but souls. The Scribes believed that a person could not get up and walk unless his sins were forgiven. Jesus made him walk, proof He was able to forgive sins.

Man walked
Jesus healed him spiritually and physically; he obeyed Jesus’ instructions and went home.

Crowds awed
Their reaction was reverential fear in the presence of Him who was so superior to them. So they gave credit to God for what they had seen – contrary to Scribes who in accusing Jesus of blasphemy were guilty of blasphemy themselves

There are some significant implications for us. Let’s draw a circle around one phrase in Matthew 9:2 and dive into its depths.

3 things we need to know regarding forgiveness.

1. While everything we suffer is indirectly due to sin, everything we suffer is not directly due to our sin.
In those days people believed disease was the direct result of a person’s sin. Not true. Job, who through no fault of his own, encountered horrific tragedy and debilitating illness. His friends thought he had sinned: one asked him ‘who ever perished being innocent?’ In John 9, we see a man born blind; Jesus’ disciples asked ‘who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind?’ Jesus said ‘neither – it was that the works of God might be displayed in him’. Avoid making unwise connections between sin and sickness.

2. Everyone needs God’s forgiveness because everyone sins.
We hide our sin (minimize it, like using air freshener to hide odors) or we overemphasize it (magnify it). I recently toured the Frank Bowerman landfill Irvine. Landfill is a fancy word for “dump”. It’s where we take our trash, our garbage. The smelly stuff we don’t want to see. Those working the landfill are engaged full-time in a complicated, time-consuming process of getting rid of trash – multiple layers, buried, covered. It’s a picture of what God does with our sin. He removes it from us. He frees us from the power and penalty of sin and one day in heaven will free us from its presence completely. I have a deal with the waste management company – I pay them and they take away my trash every week. Every time you see a trash truck, think of what God does with your sin. The difference is He pays the entire cost and takes out the trash in our lives as we confess (admit) our sin and accept His forgiveness. (Read 1 John 1:7-10)

3. Everyone needs Jesus.
God has provided a means to deal with our sin in the person of Jesus Christ. The man knew he was a sinner because he was. And since he was he must have figured God was his enemy. Jesus brought him forgiveness and then he knew he was God’s friend. The scribes felt no need for forgiveness. They felt a person had to earn it and they felt very deserving. The man had the debt of sins released by the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world" (Luke 1:29). Jesus came to "save His people from their sins" (Matt. 1:21). There is no forgiveness from God apart from faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. Not everyone acknowledges or believes this or ever gets there. Jesus is the Savior of all who believe. If you will not believe He will not be your Savior. If you don’t know Jesus there is a separation between you and God and if that doesn’t change before you die you will stay in that state forever. The substitutionary death of Jesus is the only basis for forgiveness. You need to accept Him as your substitute, and God will no longer relate to you on the basis of your sin, but on the basis of the shed blood of His Son. As Ephesians 1:7 says, ‘In Him we have redemption, the forgiveness of our sins’.

Sometimes we don’t believe we are really forgiven. Maybe because we know how hard it is to forgive others – we say “I forgive you” but still hold the thing against them – and we think God is just like us. God really lets it go! God doesn’t say “I forgive you but…” or “I forgive you” and then continue to bring it up. In Jeremiah 31:34 God says ‘I will forgive their iniquities; their sins I will remember no more.’ God freely forgives those who trust Him humbly by faith.

There may be things you have done and things that have been done to you that make you feel dirty, shameful, even unlovable. Things you don’t want anyone else to know. God knows. But you find it hard to relate appropriately to the people God has put in your life – spouse, siblings, friends. You hear the gospel but end up only applying part of it. You don’t experience the true victory Jesus won. God wants you to see the true gospel message – including the parts you tell yourself just can’t be true or possible in your situation. Jesus despised the shame of the cross so that we could go free. You may be living with huge relational and emotional scars, Jesus loves you just as you are.

Eugene Peterson said 'a person has to be thoroughly disgusted with the way things are to find the motivation to set out on the Christian way. A person has to get fed up with the ways of the world before he, before she, acquires an appetite for the world of grace.' We need to be disgusted by the thought of our sin and want Jesus to forgive us. A good look at the badness of our sin drives us to Jesus. To make us thankful to God for the blessed bankruptcy of soul that drives us to seek forgiveness. God cleans up the oil spill of sin in our lives. Ps. 32:1 says 'Blessed is the man who transgressions are forgiven, whose sin the Lord will not take into account.'