Easter Sermon: Beauty for Ashes
April 12, Anno Domini 2009
Introduction
Beloved people of God, one of the many things we celebrate in the celebration of Easter is our deliverance from the ravages of sin and death. But this can hardly be understood by the world today, because if there is anything which is considered hopelessly passé in our world, it is the notion of sin.
The notion of sin presupposes a divine law and consequently a divine law-giver. It presupposes a transcendent moral order which is inflexibly enforced by a holy God. But the world scoffs at such an idea. In most people’s minds, God (if he exists at all) is at most an indulgent grandfatherly figure, who gives us some folksy wisdom in the Bible—you know, like God helps those who help themselves, and cleanliness is next to godliness—but he is not one to intrude into our affairs, certainly not one to impose his will upon us and hold us accountable for our doings. The very idea runs counter to the world’s cherished idea of moral relativism: live and let live, to each his own, I’m OK you’re OK.
But yet those of us who have been made to taste of the grace of God know otherwise. We know both by the testimony of Holy Scripture as well as by our own bitter experience that sin is an evil power and a truly destructive force that wages war against our soul.
Sin is destructive in two ways. First, it makes us guilty before God, so that we are under the sentence of his just condemnation. Second, it makes us unlovely people. The good news of the gospel is that Jesus died and rose again to save us from both of these effects of sin
Sin Makes Us Guilty Before God
Let us speak first of how sin makes us guilty before God, and how Jesus’ death and resurrection, when appropriated by faith, removes that guilt. In the first place, then, sin makes us guilty before God. The Bible defines sin as a transgression of God’s law. St. John, for instance, in his first epistle, says, “Sin is lawlessness” (1 Jn. 3:4), that is, living without regard for God’s law. Sin is a violation of God’s holy standard for human behavior. Again, St. John says, “All wrongdoing is sin” (1 Jn. ). The Westminster Shorter Catechism has an excellent definition of sin: “Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God.” That is, in whatever way, or in whatever manner our lives fail to conform to God’s will as it is expressed in the teaching of Scripture, is sin.
And just as there is a penalty for violating the laws of the land (perhaps a fine or imprisonment), so there is also a penalty for violating the laws of God, for breaking his commandments, for disobeying him. What is that penalty? Death. Not just the death of the body, but the death of the soul—spiritual death, eternal death, everlasting darkness, blackness forever. Death follows sin as surely as night follows day.
“In the day you eat of it you shall surely die” (Gen. 2:17)
“Sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin” (Rom. 5:12)
“The soul who sins will die” (Ezek. 18:4)
“The wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23)
And this punishment is one which is visited upon the sinner in the fullness of the fury of the wrath of Almighty God. This is almost too horrible even to think about—that the Almighty and Eternal God, the Maker of heaven and earth, whose power is unfathomable, is angry with those who willfully defy his authority by living without regard to his commandments. But yet this is the consistent testimony of Scripture.
“God is a righteous judge, and a God who has indignation every day” (Ps. 7:11)
“He will render to each one according to his works… for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek” (Rom. 2:6, 8-9)
"Jesus will be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might” (2 Th. 1:7-9)
These are very sobering things to think about. And no one ought to think he can say to himself, “These things don’t apply to me because I’m not such a bad guy; I’m not a sinner.”
The apostle John actually anticipates this line of thinking, and he refutes it when he says, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us… If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us” (1 Jn. 1:8, 10).
He says we make God out to be a liar if we say we have no sin. How so? By saying his testimony concerning us is false. He has testified that everyone who is descended from Adam, (except our Lord Jesus Christ who was born in a miraculous manner), is under the taint of sin. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23).
All have sinned…
Some people’s sins are obvious and egregious and particularly evil; the sins of other people are less conspicuous, but no less worthy of condemnation in the eyes a holy God. But the point of the matter is that everyone has fallen short of the standard of perfection that God requires.
“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way” (Isa. 53:6).
And it is important to know that as long as the record of our sin stands—as long as our guilt remains—we are exposed to the wrath of Almighty God. And this is a very frightening thing to think about. As the prophet Nahum says,
“Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the heat of his anger?” (Na. 1:6)
“The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth” (Rom. 1:18)
Now you understand this not an irrational anger that God has; it’s not a sinful, unholy, or unworthy anger, as ours often is. This is the anger of a holy God. It is the anger of one who has a right to be angry. It is one of his perfections, in fact, one of his glorious attributes, that he is too pure to look with favor upon evil (Hab. 1:13). On the contrary, he condemns it. He must condemn it. Otherwise he is complicit in evil, and this he can never be. A judge who fails to uphold the law by failing to sentence a criminal with an appropriate penalty is an unrighteous judge. He is unworthy of his office. He becomes an accomplice to the crime.
We should understand further that our guilt is an objective reality, whether one feels it subjectively or not. Now what do I mean by this, that our guilt is objective? What I mean is that there are two kinds of guilt: objective and subjective. A person may be guilty of breaking one of God’s commandments without being particularly troubled by it. That is, he doesn’t feel guilty. He is guilty because he’s done the deed; but the fact that he’s done it doesn’t disturb him in the least.
And the world is filled with such people. And frankly I fear for them. Their hearts are hardened. Their consciences are seared. They have so little regard for God that they can sin without feeling the least bit guilty about it.
Who wouldn’t fear for such people? How can they be reached? How can they be led to repentance if they have no consciousness of wrong-doing? If their soul is not troubled? If they are so self-deceived as to think they are in no danger?
It is actually an encouraging sign, a reason for hope, that a person feels guilty when he does wrong. It means that there is still some tenderness left in his heart.
Jesus Delivers Us From Guilt
Now, I said just a moment ago that one of the ways in which sin destroys us is that it makes us guilty before God so that we are exposed to his holy wrath, but that the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, when appropriated by faith, removes this guilt—and if the guilt is removed, if the record of our wrongs is expunged, then there is no sentence of condemnation against us. We are no longer under his wrath and curse, no longer viewed as enemies of God, but as his dearest friends. But how can this be? How can this come about? How can the enemies of God be reconciled to him? Well, now, this is what the gospel is all about, isn’t it?
The Bible teaches that we are the work of his hands; he has made us; he has fashioned us; and like any master craftsman or like any skilled artist, he loves what he has made.
But it goes even deeper than this for God, because not only did God make us, like he made all things; but he made us in his own image, in his own likeness. We bear the impress, as it were, of his own divine nature, uniquely in all creation. And so, although we have corrupted ourselves terribly by sin; although we have played the part of traitors and betrayers, turning against the God who made us by willfully defying him, and so justly incurring his anger and condemnation, nevertheless we are still the work of his hands. We still bear his image; and if there is nothing else he can love in us, he loves his image in us; and so he pities us; he feels compassion for us. Although we are worthy of his wrath and curse, and deserving of everlasting punishment, yet he desires to have mercy upon us.
These may seem like conflicting and irreconcilable ideas, that God simultaneously feels both anger and compassion toward sinners. But it’s nothing different than what a parent feels toward a wayward child—disappointment and even anger over what his child has made out of himself and yet a longing, a yearning for his child to return, and a eagerness to receive him with open arms when he does.
And so, on the one hand, the holiness and justice of God move him to punish sin, while the love and compassion of God move him to have mercy upon the sinner. And, beloved people of God, it is precisely at this point that we see both the wisdom and beauty of the cross. Jesus steps up and says to the Father, “Charge their sin to my account. Let me absorb the wrath, the condemnation, the punishment which is due to them. Let me be treated as a sinner in your eyes, and in turn treat them as righteous.”
In this way, you see, God is able to maintain his righteousness. He does not wink at sin. He does not, like an unjust judge, allow it to go unpunished, thus undermining the authority of the law. Rather, he demonstrates his own righteousness by vindicating the claims of the law. Sin must meet with punishment. But by a gracious act of God, that punishment is visited upon Christ so that those who are united to him by faith may not have to undergo it themselves. The wrath of God is poured out him. He is treated as if he were guilty of our sins, and in exchange we are treated as if we were righteous with his obedience. Our sins are imputed to him, and his righteousness is imputed to us—to as many as are united to him by faith.
This, then, is how Jesus delivers us from guilt and condemnation and the penalty which is due to us on account of our sins
Sin Makes Us Unlovely People
Now, you’ll remember that I said sin destroys us in two ways. The first is to bring us under the condemnation of God; and we are delivered by Jesus taking that condemnation upon himself. The second way in which sin destroys us is that it makes us unlovely people.
Sin mars the beauty of our humanity. It mars the image of God in us. Let’s face it. Sin is ugly. It makes us unpleasant, obnoxious, disagreeable, unlikable. Sin is a disfiguring element, a deformation of the soul. Let us not whitewash it. Nothing is gained if we overlook the seriousness of sin.
Take the habitual liar, for instance. Isn’t lying an ugly trait? Doesn’t it reveal a deep defect in the soul? You can’t respect such a person; nor can you put any confidence in him.
Or take a man who is enslaved to his lusts, who lives more like a beast, like an unreasoning animal, urged on by instinct and appetite, always sniffing the wind to find a female in heat. He has no love of virtue, no self-control, no respect for women. And we can have no respect for him either.
The same is true for an immoral woman, whether she’s an actual prostitute or not. If she sleeps around with whoever takes her out, the only difference between her and an actual prostitute is the price. The prostitute gets paid in cash; she gets paid with maybe dinner and movie.
There is something very beautiful about sexual purity in both men and women: the virtue of self-control; modesty in dress and conversation; the dignity and respect that are accorded the opposite sex; the way in which purity honors marriage, the highest of all human relationships
On the other hand there is something very ugly, something very degrading about sexual immorality. It defaces the beauty of the act which God designed to be an expression of married love.
Or take someone who is enslaved to drugs or alcohol. It’s an ugly sight. They have no willpower, no self-control. They are not free men, but have made themselves slaves, voluntarily putting themselves under the power of some substance, of all things. They don't even have the dignity to have a human master. They're the slave of an impersonal substance.
Or take someone who slanders his neighbor, willfully, intentionally, telling falsehoods about his neighbor in order to ruin his reputation. Or the gossip, who is always looking to hear and always willing to tell some juicy little secret about someone. Or take someone who is cocky and arrogant, filled with such extravagant self-conceit, he thinks other people exist only to admire him. Such people are repulsive, aren’t they? You can hardly stomach them.
Jesus Delivers Us From the Ugliness of Sin
My point is simply that sin makes us unlovely people. Sin is ugly and repulsive—a defect, a deformation of the soul. And in the same way that Jesus delivers us from the guilt of sin by his death and resurrection, so he delivers us from the uglifying power of sin. He transforms people. He makes them lovely by making them virtuous.
How does he do this? Is it merely by the power of his example? This is what some would say. And I don’t want to minimize the importance of his example. We are called upon to imitate him. But it’s not as if we are left to our own strength to do so. Rather, by his death, Jesus has qualified us to receive the Holy Spirit; and it is by the Holy Spirit that we are transformed, that we are made lovely, that we are given beauty for ashes. The fruit of a Spirit-filled life, as Paul tells us in Galatians, is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal. 5:22-23). And the one whose life is characterized by these things is a lovely person. Who would not want to be friends with such a person? Who would not want to work for such a person? Who would not want to be married to such a person? Who would not want to be such a person?
Conclusion
Sin destroys us in two ways: it makes us guilty before God, so that we come under his righteous judgment; and it makes us unlovely people. But by the death and resurrection of Christ we can be delivered from both these effects of sin.
Delivered how? By calling out upon God and asking him to have mercy upon us for Jesus’ sake. Jesus makes this promise: “Whoever comes to me I will never cast out” (Jn. 6:37). And St. Paul assures us that “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Rom. 10:13).
Perhaps you have never done this? What prevents you from doing so?