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| The Good News series |
Liberty through Pardon
We saw, last week, how the Good News is that Jesus gives us freedom from slavery to sin. But how did He do this and what does this freedom give us? Let’s look again at what Jesus read in Luke 4:18-19, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” This word for ‘liberty’ on both counts comes from the Greek root ‘aphesis’ and can be understood as “a letting go, a release, pardon, complete forgiveness”.
At first glance this might seem like an odd translation, that is ‘forgiveness = freedom’. But, as we discussed last week, sin entraps us so we can’t escape. What’s more, we know that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). So when you consider this, pardoning our sins “as if they had not been committed”, we can see how forgiveness is the most valuable freedom of all. If a criminal is fully pardoned, he has far more freedom than the one who is paroled or who has escaped. No wonder David says, “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.” (Psalm 32:1-4)
Yearning of Our Soul
But Christ doesn’t merely give us freedom and leave it at that. This freedom bears with it the most precious gift – Peace with God. At our very core, we long for love and acceptance, a sense of belonging. And we don’t just want to be loved for what we do, we want to be loved regardless of what we do. The pastor at my church, Robert Morris, explained this once. He admitted how he would often ask his wife Debbie, “Why do you love me?” When she would answer with things like “Because you’re kind”, he would start wondering, “So you wouldn’t love me if I wasn’t kind?”. One day, during his quiet time, he heard God say “I know why Debbie loves you. It’s the same reason I love you.” He asked, “Well why do You love me?” God answered definitively, “Because you’re Mine”. We yearn to belong.
As a part of this, we also long for approval, desiring to please those we care most about. If I can tell that someone doesn’t approve of me, it tends to gnaw at me. Maybe you have also found yourself awake at night reliving the confrontation or convincing yourself you didn’t do anything wrong. It feels good when the people whose opinions matter most to me are happy with me and pleased with what I’ve done. Moreover, when we really think about it, the opinion that matters the most to us is God’s. At the core of who we are, we long to be at peace with God, we long to know He loves us and is pleased with us. Not knowing how God feels about these things can often put us at odds with others when they withhold their love or approval.
At Peace with God
Christ’s relationship with the Father was perfect regarding both of these things. He belonged to His Father who loved Him. He was pleasing to His Father, having His full approval. Do you remember what the Father said when Jesus was baptized? “This is My beloved Son [love/belonging], with whom I am well pleased [approval].” (Matt 3:17)
The forgiveness that Christ gave us comes through the gift of His righteousness. Now righteousness is having a right relationship with God. So, to say that we have Christ’s righteousness is to say that we have the same relationship with God that Jesus had. Paul explains it this way in Romans 5, “since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). What’s more, this righteousness does not depend on what we do, but on our position as children of God which was given through His sacrifice on the cross and is received through our faith in Him.
This is so good that it bears repeating. Christ came to pardon our sins by His death on the Cross. This pardon means that we can be free, free from bondage to sin and free from the consequence of sin, death. In the pardon that was our freedom, Christ also gave us His relationship with the Father as a gift. As a result, God now says to each of us who believes, “This is My beloved son (daughter), with whom I am well pleased.” In this relationship with God, our most fundamental desires are fulfilled. This really is Good News!
I’d like to invite you to receive this Good News. Let’s acknowledge our desire to be at peace with God and our need for His help to do so. Believe that Christ is God’s son, evidenced by His life, death, and resurrection. Through what He did for you, He has invited you to trust Him so that you can be reconciled to God. If you have questions or simply want to know more please email us at [email protected].
Next Time
Next time Monica and I will help make this series practical as we talk about how to actually live a life free from sin. Be sure to subscribe because you don’t want to miss it!
With Such a good presenting of this wonderful Good News, I felt such peace to read it. I read and then read-read it slowly, taking in the meanings of this beautiful reality of what our Lord did for us and the Life of relationship it gives us to Him and to our Father through His Spirit. Thank you, and both of you, for thoughtful and very obviously prayerful wording of these truths! And Thanks and Praise to our God for the gift of eternal life and eternal relationship to Him!!
Thanks so much for this timely word. We all need the “peace that passes understanding”. It truly does come from His unconditional love and acceptance. And, the reminder that it is His opinion that matters most really helps us do the things He has called us to even when it is difficult. Our Lord is so good! Thank You Lord!