Difficulties Week 2

Difficulty: Why did Christ have to go to the cross, what did it accomplish and what were the implications.

How God meets our need then we in turn meet the needs of others.

Need 1:-Forgiveness - we have sin that needs to be forgiven.
Rom 3:23 “all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God”
Rom 6:23 “wages of sin is death”

Forgiveness is bearing the cost of someone else’s sin against you.

When we forgive we are paying the price for the wrong against us.
(example someone defames your character)

The other options are…
Revenge & Bitterness…if we respond like this the evil actually spreads. ---With Revenge we spread evil
-With Bitterness we kill ourselves from inside out.
Karl Menninger, the famed psychiatrist, once said that if he could convince the patients in psychiatric hospitals that their sins were forgiven, 75 percent of them could walk out the next day!
Tim Keller states in his book “Reason For God” Many people have said when we forgive and absorb the debt it can be as painful as death,

This is true but after that experience the only place we have to look is up, for the Christian that means resurrection. Instead of leading a life long death of revenge and bitterness we can be resurrected

Human forgiveness works this way because it points to what our Creator.

Jesus death for our forgiveness resulted in resurrection.

How do we meet the needs of others in this area?
-Forgive as we have been forgiven Matthew 6:12
-we don’t hold grudges
-we absorb the cost
-we turn the other cheek
-we resurrect

How it was accomplished…

Need 2: Redemption: Forgiveness is costly and the price had to be paid. Jesus is our Substitutionary Atonement

That means that death is the payment of sin and Jesus was willing and able to pay the price for us. we call in “Redemption” we have to be bought back into a right relationship to God.

Sin is the slave driver and our master and if we live in un-forgiven sin we will be separated from Jesus for eternity in hell.

Jesus death buys us back Revelation 5:9

Why does there have to be payment for sin? Why can’t God just say…”its all good” God’s justice is at stake.

We inherently understand this:
In C.S. Lewis’ Essay Humanitarian Theory of Punishment he speaks about the conservative view of retribution, “people have to pay”. And then he speaks of the liberal view of “rehabilitation”, “people have to be cured”

The substitution of Jesus Christ does both,
God is the victim in every sin and justice dictates that we pay, Jesus pays for us.
We are broken and need to be cured, when we trust Jesus the Holy Spirit comes and begins the work of sanctification. And in eternity we are fully rehabilitated.

A question that comes up a lot is “Did Christ go to Hell when He paid for our sin?” Based on the Apostles Creed “He descended into Hell” the answer is NO Ephesians 4:8-10

Christ’s Cost
-Philippians 2:5-11 Emptied Himself “Christ emptied Himself of His preincarnate position, yet did not diminish His person” The self emptying permitted the addition of humanity and did not involve the subtraction of Deity or the use of the attributes of His Deity. There was a change in form and not in content” Ryrie Isaiah 53:12 “He poured Himself out to Death”

The main point we want to remember here is that this was a willful decision that Christ made (Phil 2:7) it was not debated but it was God plan before the foundation of the world (Rev 13:8)

I like to think of it as Jesus decided to confine Himself in space and time but was not confined, He stepped down for us.

-Forsaken This is one of the issues that keeps coming up when people hear Jesus say this…what did He mean?

2 Cor. 5:21 Jesus became sin for us, so He felt the loneliness and abandonment that sin always produces, except in this case it was our sin and not His own.

If we have been redeemed by Jesus how do we in-turn redeem others?
Truthfully only Christ can redeem, but there are things that we can do so people see His redemptive work. It costs us everything

-Philippians 2 consider others more important then yourself, doing good to others for the sake of the GOSPEL

-We have to be around other people Niebur “Christ of Culture” This is a huge cost to us because that means we live among this sinful world that rejects the Lord. Our kids go to school, we go to work etc. when we do those things we are no longer insulated in our own bubble. What good can we do if the world around us if we just create our own little safe haven? Paul says we would have to leave this world.

What the motivation was….
Need 3:-Love- We all need Love,
-you may be bouncing around from relationship to relationship.
-maybe you are currently in a relationship and your spouse is not meeting your needs
-maybe you are not receiving the love you need from your parents
-maybe you are not getting love from friends that you need

With my kids I fish for compliments
Silah “Because you loved me first”

The type of love we need is given to us in Jesus
1 John 4:19 - He first loved us
Rom 5:8 - While we were sinners
Gal 2:20 - His love inspires life change
John 15:13 The greatest Love
Romans 8:35-39 Nothing can come in between His love for us.

How does that play out in everyday life? Jesus tells us that it is easy to love those who love you. Jesus’ Love (2 Cor 5:14) Compels us
Eph 5:2 walk in love because Christ loved