Choosing Forgiveness: It Is Finished!

I can hardly believe that our time together is over! We have journeyed long and hard through forgiveness and hopefully we find ourselves in a new found freedom. How appropriate that we arrive at freedom on the day that reminds us of the work that purchased our forgiveness, our freedom. We are each Barabbas, the guilty criminal, who has been freed and Jesus goes to take our place!

I stated at the outset that forgiveness is never easy and the deeper the hurt, the harder it is to grant forgiveness. We have comfort in the fact that Jesus knows the pain of forgiveness. The very reason that we celebrate instead of lament over the crucifixion is because it secures our forgiveness. It cost God the Son His life to atone for our sins and even make forgiveness a possibility. Even as Jesus hung dying He left us an example in the words, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

We tend to hear these words and believe that there was something divine within Christ that overrode His humanity. We tell ourselves that this was Jesus, Son of God who made these statements rather than Jesus, Son of Man. For surely no man could look at His murderers, seeing their hatred and utter such words of compassion. J.C. Ryle wrote, “These words were probably spoken as our Lord was being nailed to the cross, or as soon as the cross was reared up on end. It is a worthy remark that as soon as the blood of the Great Sacrifice began to flow, the great High Priest began to intercede.”

I can scarcely contain emotion over that thought. At the moment when the full agony of the cross became a reality, when the post was dropped with a jarring blow into the ground and the weight of His body was borne by the nails through His wrists and feet, He thought not of revenge but of forgiveness. He thought not of Himself but of His enemies. Enemies that could now be made friends; not just friends but sons, daughters and heirs…by grace through faith in the cross alone.

He thought of the men who had scourged Him with a whip that had shards of bone and metal woven into its strands. He thought of those who had mocked Him placing a faded purple robe and a crown of thorns on His head. He thought of those who cursed Him and hurled insults, blasphemed and derided Him. He thought of those who drove the spikes into His flesh, gambled for His clothes and offered Him nothing but vinegar to quench His thirst…and He thought of you and me. He thought of every sin that had ever been committed since the fall in the garden and every sin that would ever be committed until He comes to judge the living and the dead.

You see, up to this point in history the only atonement for sin was a temporary covering by the blood of animals. The slaughter never stopped. Year after year, thousands of people traveled to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover. Year after year, ¼ million lambs were sacrificed between Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. It is estimated that it took 600 priests killing 4 lambs a minute in order to accomplish this bloody task. Can you even imagine the scene? The sight? The sound? All of this because sin must be dealt with, somehow, some way…

Was it up to God to make a way for Him to forgive us? Was it up to Him to atone for our sin? Death is the just penalty for our sin yet grace makes a way for life and life eternal. Jesus bore the just penalty that belongs to me and to you for our sins. He bore it as a perfect, spotless Lamb; the very pet Lamb of God. On that Friday when the priests were making preparation to begin their work, in the distance Jesus cried, “It is finished!” There was no need for them to even go to work that
day. The Great High Priest had made intercession ONCE, for all.

Jesus came to do the work of Prophet, Priest and King but He also came to be the prophecy, the sacrifice and the kingdom. Every day of His earthly life pointed to the day when He would be the sacrificial lamb, the atoning sacrifice, the amelioration for our sins. His ministry was the ministry of reconciliation, forgiveness, restoration…

As we close out our week and as the sun sets on this Sabbath Day I hope that you will marvel at the darkness that overtook the earth 2000 years ago, the earthquake that broke the ground apart and the power that tore the temple veil from top to bottom. The price for sin had been paid. Forgiveness had been secured and the lamb lay slain for you and for me. The blood was plentiful, pure and precious.

What would you hold on to that is more grievous than this? What is the prison that is so tightly sealed that the freedom of Calvary cannot penetrate? What is the darkness that blinds you from the sunrise of Easter morning? Take your burdens to the cross and leave them there. Hear your Savior saying, “Father, forgive her, she knows not what she does” and then go and do likewise.