Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. (Psalm 32:1) Guilt can have paralyzing effects when we know we’ve done wrong and our conscience is burdened. And one of the greatest and most devastating mistakes we can make is to try and suppress our conscience and bury our guilt. We try and shake it off or explain it away. Often saying things to ourselves like, ‘Maybe I was mean to that person and should not have said the things I said, but they deserved it. They had it coming’ or ‘I should not be looking at this internet pornography but if my wife gave me more attention, I would not be forced into this’ or ‘yes, I should not have committed that sin but no one is perfect; we all sin; it’s not a big deal.’ Over time, as we continue to not deal honestly with our sin, not own up to it, acknowledge it and confess it, it will begin to eat away at our soul. Unconfessed sin is like a beautiful delicious red apple that has a worm inside and is being eaten away and rotting from the inside out. It is not noticeable to the outside world or even to yourself until it is too late. For this reason David writes, “Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer” (Ps. 32:1-4). When David kept silent regarding his sin, his “bones wasted away.” His strength was dried up. He groaned inwardly all day long. So what does he do about it? “I acknowledged my sin to you [O Lord], and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,’ and you forgave the iniquity of my sin” (v.5). This is why David begins this psalm by saying, “Blessed [happy] is the one whose transgression is forgiven.” If you want happiness in life, start by owning up to your sins, every one of them, and then confessing them each to God.
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He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. (Matthew 28:6) If you attended Passion Week services or have been following Passion Week celebrations online or otherwise, then this past week has been a mix of emotions of joy and sorrow. Sorrow as we reflected upon the difficult week our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ suffered through and experienced during his last days on earth. Maundy-Thursday, the night on which Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper, but also the night on which he prayed in great anguish in the garden of Gethsemane, sweating great drops of blood, knowing what await him, knowing that in a few short hours he would experience one of the most cruel and tormenting means of death ever devised my man. Then on Good Friday, along with the rest of Christendom, we reflected on the day in which Christ suffered and died. In hindsight, we recognize that the cross of Christ was a glorious event, but at the time it would have been a heart-wrenching, tear-jerking, confusing event for his disciples. To watch the person they loved so dearly, the person who had brought them so much hope and joy and peace, die on a cross would have been very difficult and confusing. But today we celebrate the fact that his death was not the end of the story. Rather, it was the beginning of the end for death, sin, and Satan. This was the day, two-thousand years ago, in which “death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” (1 Cor. 15:54-55). On this day Christ conquered the grave for all those for whom he died, for all those who place faith in him alone for their salvation. Today is a day of celebration and praise for all Christ has done for his people! He has risen indeed!
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. (Isaiah 43:2) Living in a fallen world can be incredibly difficult. Life does not always go the way we want or would hope. We lose loved ones to death far too soon. Couples struggle with infertility. Babies are miscarried. Single adults struggle with loneliness. We are diagnosed with terminal diseases. We suffer debilitating injuries. We experience financial ruin. We are betrayed by our spouse, abused by those we trusted, abandoned by those we depended on. In a world like this, how do we avoid spiraling into a deep dark place? In Isaiah 43:1 God says, “Fear not, for [here is the reason we should not fear] I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.” For those who have placed faith in Christ, we belong to God. God is on our side. Therefore, He goes on to say, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.” If God was willing to send his son into the world to die on the cross for those who place faith in Christ, to redeem us to himself, then surely he will not abandon us. But notice that God does not say he will direct us around the deep waters or around the raging rivers or around the fire, but rather “when you pass through the waters, I will be with you.” God will never abandon us nor forsake us. Though often the things we go through may not make sense to us, they make sense to God and he is there guiding, leading, caring, and comforting. Why? Then he adds, “For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior” (v.3). Because God is our God and our Savior, we can trust him. We can depend on him. We can lean on him.
And it was the third hour when they crucified him. (Mark 15:25) Today Christians around the world celebrate Good Friday. This is the day on which Jesus of Nazareth was crucified on a Roman cross two-thousand years ago. But why call it Good Friday? Jesus was completely innocent not only of the crimes he was accused of, but of any crime or any sin. Jesus was without sin. Thus, if this is the day on which the greatest miscarriage of justice was ever carried out, the greatest evil was ever committed, then why call it good? Because it was good for sinners. The Bible tells us we are all sinful, that we have all transgressed the Laws of God (Rom 3:23). As a result, we all deserve to perish eternally. We all deserve death, eternal death in hell because “the wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23). No one forces us to sin. We all choose to sin and rebel against God. If God were to send every person who has ever lived straight to hell for all eternity, he would be completely just in doing so because that is what we all deserve. Yet for some amazing reason we are told that “God showed his love for us in that while we were sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:). Though we are all sinners, though we live our lives in open rebellion against God, he still loved us, and he demonstrated his love for humanity by sending his perfect son into the world to die for sinners--to die on our behalf. If the “wages of sin is death” and Christ had no sin, then why did he die? “He died for us.” He died on our behalf. He absorbed the wrath of God that should have come upon us. He died in our place as our substitute, as a substation for those who place faith in Christ and believe he died on the cross to pay for their sins. The scriptures tell us that “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved” (Rom. 10:9-10). Thus, Good Friday is about remembering that from the greatest act of evil ever committed came the greatest good ever offered to humanity.
And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me." And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, "This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood." (Lk. 22:19-20) Today is Maundy-Thursday. But what does that mean anyway? For years as a young believer I would think to myself, ‘What a strange phrase—Monday-Thursday.’ ‘Huh? Monday through Thursday? Is that what they mean by Monday-Thursday?’ Maundy is a word derived from the Latin meaning ‘mandate.’ Thus, Maundy-Thursday is the day in which Christians celebrate the day on which Christ instituted the Lord’s Supper. In some churches it is also the day on which Christ commanded the disciples to wash each other’s feet. Thus, in some churches they practice foot washing as part of the Maundy-Thursday observance. However, regardless of your tradition, all recognize it as the day on which Christ and his disciples celebrated the Passover meal on the night before his crucifixion. What an interesting and somber night that must have been. With the sound of bleating lambs in the background, with the image of lambs being slaughtered at the temple, and with a tone of sorrow in his voice, Jesus says to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer” (Lk. 22:15). Jesus, the Lamb of God, is preparing to become the one true sacrificial lamb for the sins of his people. Then he takes a piece of unleavened bread and holds it up and says, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” He then holds up a cup of wine and says, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” Jesus was communicating to them that just as there was a covenant established with Israel in the wilderness after God delivered them out of bondage via the blood of a lamb, so also Jesus was about to establish a new covenant with God’s people who would be truly delivered from the bondage of sin, Satan, and death via the blood of the Lamb. Maundy-Thursday is the day on which we remember that sacrifice and the new covenant community established through Christ.
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