The Greatest Act

[HKHaugan]

“Christ didn't have any sin. But God made him become sin for us. So we can be made right with God because of what Christ has done for us (2Cor.5:21).”

There are two events that stand out in my mind.

The first one: As a young teenager I remember being on a work crew with ten other teens at a camp. I felt very much alone since I didn’t know the others and I was small and skinny besides. One of the kids on the crew was not really accepted by the others and I could sense that if I was going to be accepted in that group I would have to dislike him and treat him like the others did. That’s what I did most of the Summer.

The second event was similar: Where I lived I acted the same. The neighborhood was one of gang related activity where you had to belong to some group or you would be a daily victim of another group. You joined, talked and behaved the way they did just to survive. That was scary all the time. You were always looking over your shoulder.

Both experiences illustrate not only teen-age dynamics but adult behavior as well. Whether it is in business, social activities or even in church the way we handle our world experience is based on that heart-driven behavior which is so clearly described in Genesis 3. The adapting process there is based on sin and the isolation from God it causes resulting in aloneness, its fear, pride, guilt and self-excusing blame. From there it is making one’s self look good at the expense of others.

Perhaps you have met someone or seen someone you thought to be no good, not worthy of thinking about, to be avoided at all costs, just a pariah. Remember as kids we used to judge other kids on the basis of how they looked or what others thought about them? And we made sure we weren’t seen with them but acted toward them based on the influence of others. As we become adults we do the same but we just sophisticate it. There’s always a need to feel ‘in’ and not ‘out.’ We probably still do. That is the core of what Jesus took on Himself--- man’s lonely sin-driven need to be his own god.

But it’s that process of judgment we use to secure ourselves that is the essence of what we call sin. Sin dominates every kind of relationship and activity we’re involved in. Sin is exactly what Jesus faced when He was tempted by the devil in the wilderness, when He was persecuted by the Pharisees, Sadducees, clergy and officials of Jerusalem. They were the ‘in’ groups politically, religiously and economically. The deck was stacked against Jesus at every turn yet their influence did not faze Him. The more He was Himself in spite of their pressure, the more they conspired against Him.

This is how institutional leadership always seems to respond. They feel threatened by the images of what might happen which is exactly where sin gets leadership in every area to fear and act from fear. “Get rid of those we can’t control.” All you have to do is look at the way present corporate and political leadership has crumbled in the face of immoral behavior. Even the leadership of the Boy Scouts whose motto vows to be “morally straight” cower in fear at the thought of being accused of bigotry. Businesses can no longer stand on faith principles for fear of litigation. 'Political correctness' is an evil spiritual principality that rules through the spirit of fear.

Luke 11:50 says this about the high priest that made his judgment of Jesus, “You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish." What the high priest was saying meant the establishment; its leaders, lands, buildings, forms and structures, must be preserved no matter what the cost. Adult peer pressure is no different than teen peer pressure. It's just more subtle. It is the fruit of sin at every level of human interaction. This is what some of our denominational structures have become in our time. They are compromised forms without substance populated by leaders whom C.S. Lewis characterized as “men without chests.”

By His willingness to go to the Cross Jesus exposed the helplessness of compromised humanityhel in the captivity of fear, the devil's tool. To glorify His Father, Jesus chose to trust His Father while the rest of the world lived in a spirit of compromise, fear's companion. The uncompromised Perfect Man willingly let Himself be crucified by the compromised imperfection of lonely fear born and borne in every person. It is precisely this atmosphere of sin that the devil exploited in Israel's leadership to conspire, trap and kill Jesus.

From the time He was baptized He endured the invisible spiritual reality of sin in all its missile-like dimensions; personal, interpersonal, political and institutional, along with its death penalty, and by faith took it to the Cross in our place. When David said, “In sin hath my mother conceived me,” he was declaring his self-centeredness, his acting apart from God and His Word and his deliberate willful disobedience. That describes the same sin in which each of us was conceived and the same sin that victimized Jesus, brought Him unjustly to the Cross and killed Him.

But Jesus rose from the dead and in Him, through His faith and obedience, sin died that 'Good Friday.' When we accept Him and take up our cross sin is crippled in us and dies the moment He brings us home into His Kingdom. As one preacher gloriously put it, “It's Friday [in this world] but Sunday's comin'!”

That's right! It's Friday in this world but Sunday is coming! So let's repeat the essence of the good news in Jesus:

God let every person be his own final judge regarding identity, behavior, mind and heart. Gen.6:5 tells it like it is, “God saw that every inclination of the thoughts of a man’s heart was only evil all the time.” Then God allowed Himself to be subject to man’s sinful self-indulgent judgment. He did this by letting His Son be judged, found guilty and suffer the death penalty in order to make us right with Him. He allowed His sinless Son to become thought of, treated and judged as not only a sinner but as sin itself. He did this so that His perfect sacrifice undertaken in our place could bring us back to the Father and to what the Father intended us for in the first place. It is His faith given us, to have a relationship with Him, that makes us right with God, others and ourselves. That is what the Resurrection proved. That is the good news of the Gospel and that is the work of the Spirit in us. That is what the word salvation means. We were saved in order to continue being saved. So let's take up our cross and praise Him today and every day.