April 10

April 10, 2009

Human Weakness and Good Friday

If there is any theme that we have seen in our months of Bible reading it is that all of mankind is hopelessly messed up. Here is our “hero” David rising to his peak of power and influence. So what does he do as he reaches the apex of his career, he commits adultery and murder?

The wonder is not that David proved to be morally flawed; the wonder is that David could be forgiven after he messed up so badly.

In Psalm 51 David experiences the forgiveness of his transgressions. All his sins are washed away and he is cleansed from sin. This is the wonder of grace and our personal hope as we observe Good Friday.

One theologian said "Forgiveness is to man the plainest of duties; to God it is the profoundest of problems."
The reason it is such a problem for God is the collision between his divine holiness and the sinfulness of mankind. God’s holiness is so complete that sin cannot be in his presence. God’s justice is so extensive that he cannot compromise. When you combine these two together you see the problem. Every sin must be punished because it is a violation of God’s standard. But here is where the “wonder” comes in. God sends his son Jesus to the cross to pay the penalty on Good Friday so that David and all of us can be set free from this death penalty. This is why Jesus died on the cross 2000 years ago. So the holiness and justice of God could be satisfied and we could have an eternal relationship with the Father.

On this Good Friday every one of us find ourselves flawed in ways that would permanently block us from a relationship with God. We all can identify with some sort of moral failure in our lives. Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount said that just looking at a woman lustfully is an inward way of committing adultery. That makes everyone an adulterer. And if we have anger in our heart’s it is the inward equivalent to murder. This makes all of us just as guilty as David.

The wonder of this story of David’s story is the wonder of our story.

On this Good Friday take the time to bow before the cross again and contemplate the cost of forgiveness.