15 April 2018 - behold sin defeated

Today's Readings (Audio)

The author of life you put to death,
but God raised him from the dead; of this we are witnesses.

Peter does not tell the people this so that the dwell in self-pity or self-hatred. Instead, he wants them to be converted.  He wants the crowd to realize just what their previous ignorance let them do. It was not a harmless ignorance by any stretch. But this realization is so that they can fully appreciate and internalize the saving work that God brings to fulfillment in Christ.

This knowledge of the seriousness of sin is why John warns so strongly against it.

My children, I am writing this to you
so that you may not commit sin.

Even the just man falls seven times a day. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Knowing our human weakness and the seriousness of sin could lead us to despair. But it should not. It should lead us to a radical trust in the mercy and grace that God provides.

But if anyone does sin, we have an Advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous one.
He is expiation for our sins,
and not for our sins only but for those of the whole world.

The Cross was God's plan all along. He knew we would sin and fall short of his glory. And so he provided the means whereby we might obtain mercy.

And he said to them,
"Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer
and rise from the dead on the third day
and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins,
would be preached in his name
to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

The trouble is that we often forget our need for the Advocate before the Father. We often try to succeed on our own strength. Or else we give up entirely and no longer even try to maintain even a pretense of holiness. Both of these approaches are doomed. We need Jesus to reveal himself to us as the risen LORD. We need to behold the wounds on his hands and feet. These are wounds that our sins inflicted on him. But we see these wounds now on the risen body of Jesus. We see our sins defeated on his own flesh. This shows us that we must not give up. Holiness is simply too important. It matters too much. Without it no one will see God. We also see that we need not try to struggle on our own. The one who is victorious is our advocate before the Father. He wants to share his victory with his people.

Know that the LORD does wonders for his faithful one;
the LORD will hear me when I call upon him.