Ripples and Redemption Part 2 - A Deeper Dive
The Journey from Sin to Salvation
Scripture: Isaiah 44:21-22, 2 Pter 3:8-9
Message Recap
This week, we conclude our two-part series Ripples to Redemption, A Journey from Sin to Salvation. In Part 1, we looked at the collateral damage of sin - the ripple effect - and how the consequences of our sins can affect people we don’t even know. In Part 2, we’ll focus on the idea that despite how far the impact of our transgressions reaches, God will still lead us to redemption and salvation.
According to one unknown author, the nature of sin can be described as follows:
“Sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you there longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay.”
At its core, sin is a rebellion against God. It’s choosing our way over God’s way, darkness over light, instant gratification over eternal joy and peace. As difficult as it is to admit, we all sin. We are all, to some degree or another, broken.
Despite our brokenness and our inclination for disobedience, God wants nothing more than to save his creation and be reconciled in love and fellowship. We have a path to salvation laid out right in front of us.
Last week, we looked at several well-known Old Testament stories to illustrate the ripple effect of disobedience to God. The story of Achan removing forbidden objects after the fall of Jericho; Eli’s sons and their disregard for the Lord’s offering and other heinous acts; King Solomon’s turn from the God of Israel to the false gods of his foreign-born wives; and of course, the sin that started it all - Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit.
We also considered the story of King David’s sin. We know that King David had a favored relationship with God. If we tried to model what it is to be righteous and godly, we would use David’s example. Except, he had a moment in his life that changed everything. He was tempted by lust; he had an affair with Bathsheba, which resulted in a child born out of wedlock; he lied about the affair; and he concocted a plan to cover up the affair, which ultimately led to the death of Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah.
The last verse in 2 Samuel 11 confirms what David must have known in his heart:
“27 After the time of mourning was over, David had her [Bathsheba] brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing David had done displeased the Lord. ”
Despite everything he had done for the Lord before this, his love for God, and his life of righteousness, David found himself separated from God because of his sinful acts.
God sends the prophet Nathan to confront David, who tells a story about a rich man and a poor man. The rich man steals a sheep from the poor man and has it killed and prepared for a feast. David is incensed by the rich man’s actions and insists he should be severely punished for his misdeed. Nathan tells David that the story represents David’s own transgressions.
Humbled by Nathan’s words and the words from the God David has faithfully served, David confesses, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Nathan responds by telling David that the Lord has taken away his sin.
The word of God convicted David, but David repented. There were still consequences for the sinful acts: David’s family no longer had peace, David would be publicly humiliated for a private sin, and the infant son David had with Bathsheba would die. These harsh punishments could and should have been even more severe based on the Law. By confession and repentance, David avoided physical and spiritual death.
To repent is to turn back to God. It is to have a change of mind and behavior, but repentance is not our natural response to sin. You see a pattern in the Bible, going back to Adam and Eve in the Garden. What did they do after they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?
They hid! They heard God walking in the Garden in the cool of the morning, and they hid. They knew they had sinned, and their human response was to try and hide what they did.
Most of us have found ourselves in a situation where we’ve tried to hide a sinful act. The heaviness of guilt can be overwhelming. Psalm 32, which David wrote some time later in his life, gives us insight into how he was feeling before he repented:
“3 When I kept silent,
my bones wasted away
through my groaning all day long.
4 For day and night
your hand was heavy on me;
my strength was sapped
as in the heat of summer.”
When we have not confessed or repented for something we’ve done that separates us from God, we live in a fog where nothing seems clear. But, as written in this week’s Old Testament text (Isaiah 44:21-22), God promises that when we return to him, he will sweep away our offenses and remove the weight of our guilt. This is redemption.
Confession is part of the journey to salvation. The Apostle John writes in his first epistle,
“9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
Jesus' death on the cross was the atonement for our sins. All sin and guilt - past, present, and future that separates and alienates us from God - has been forgiven. If we accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, we never have to ask God for forgiveness to be saved again. However, the power of greed, envy, anger, and unforgiveness can disrupt our ability to enjoy what we know is eternally true. So, to maintain that close, intimate relationship with Jesus, we confess.
Confession, prayer, and repentance help us grow in Christ. Confession means that we agree with God about our sins. And we offer our confession within a community of brothers and sisters so that they might help us as we struggle.
We pray to God for strength to change our desires and to express thanks for his immensely undeserved grace and mercy. God is worthy of our praise even amid our wreckage.
Finally, we must patiently and passionately choose repentance. We’ll never be perfect, but we should continually pursue being Christ-like in our words and actions.
Confession, prayer, and repentance will be a process we repeat over and over again. This is what it is to be a Christian. We have been saved and transformed, but God isn’t done with us yet.
“4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.”
An Angry and Wrathful God
The punishment King David received, specifically the death of his son, may seem overly severe. It is troubling to read scripture that describes God allowing a child to die as punishment for his father’s sin. The image we create in our minds of a wrathful, spiteful God, who seemingly takes some perverse pleasure in punishing his children, doesn’t sit well.
Perhaps this is why some people question the God of the Old Testament vs the God of the New Testament. Have you ever wondered how the angry God of the Old Testament changed to such a loving and caring God in the New Testament? The answer is God didn’t change; circumstances did. Jesus took the wrathful punishment on our behalf, so we no longer have to. In fact, since Jesus endured the full wrath of God for sin on the cross for all of those who would be redeemed, including Old Testament saints, you might say that the New Testament displays more of God’s wrath than the Old Testament.
The real story of the Old Testament is about God’s continued mercy to Israel despite Israel’s continual rejection of God. Even when God disciplined Israel and sent them into exile, he graciously called them back and forgave those who repented. What appears as anger in the Old Testament is really God allowing the natural consequences of bad behavior to run their course. And it’s the same today. We are saved by the sacrifice Jesus made on our behalf, but the consequences of sinful behavior are still allowed to happen. God may be disappointed, or even angered, by our disobedience, but he still loves us and wants nothing more than to be reconciled with us.