Part Iii. Totally Forgiven

I overheard some Year 8 boys absolutely killing themselves laughing. They had all stolen a Mars bar from the local store, but that isn't what they were laughing about. One of them felt so guilty, he returned it to the store when the shopkeeper wasn't looking. Guilt sticks to us, it stains us. You can't wash it away. Guilt also tells us we've been going our own way, in preference to God's way. That's why we feel guilty. So how can we get back to God? By simply saying that we're sorry? If I'm flying down the freeway, break the speed limit, I'm pulled over by a policeman... or if I burn your house down... is it sufficient for me to say to you, 'Oh, I'm sorry.' No!! If I break the law, there is a penalty to be paid. We have picked up the image of God, (that's our relationship with God) and smashed it by going our own way in preference to God's way. We've broken the law and there is a penalty that must be paid. And the Bible says that that's death. That's permanent separation from God. The Bible actually puts it this way, "THE RESULTS OF SIN IS DEATH." ROMANS 6:23 But then God's got this problem... He totally loves us and yet we have totally smashed our relationship with Him and He wants to totally forgive us. Jesus is the answer. Everybody knows Jesus was crucified. Was it with a little 2-inch nail? Or was it rather with a 9-inch spike, which held him to the cross, driven though both palms of his hands, and a spike through his shins. Then we have this question If Jesus could stand on the bow of the boat and go 'Peace be still!' and calm a storm... If he could stand in front of a grave and say, 'Lazarus, come forth!' and he raises a dead guy... If he could touch the untouchable and heal them... If he could feed 5000 people with the smallest five loaves of bread... How come, a spike like THIS, simply held him to the cross? Because it wasn't a spike that held him to the cross, it was His love for you and for me. He paid the penalty for our sin, which was death. The total love of Jesus held him to the cross, so that He might bring us into a relationship with Him. If when I was speeding, you came over and out of the goodness of your heart and wallet, you paid the penalty, the $300, for my fine, then you, the innocent, would be paying the penalty for me, the guilty. The penalty for us going our own way wasn't $300 it was death! And Jesus, the innocent, paid that penalty, for us the guilty, that He might bring us to God. The Bible says, "GOD SHOWED HIS LOVE TOWARDS US IN THAT WHILE WE WERE YET SINNERS AND WHILE WE WERE GOING OUR OWN WAY, CHRIST DIED FOR US." ROMANS 5:8 This is how Jesus brings us back to God, Totally Forgiven.