"Trading Places"

sermon by Pastor David Layman

April 3, 2005

John 20:24-29, I Peter 2:21-25

Sin is like trash and litter in our world. We can ignore it and do

nothing about it, but eventually, it has to be dealt with. For example, it's sad the amount of litter that accumulates in a place like the arboretum over the winter. Many people will toss a cup or wrapper out the window. Lazy people leave dumpster lids up. The wind picks up trash and drives it around. Everytime it snows, the trash is temporarily covered up, and the world looks pristine. But then the spring comes, when the snow melts, and there's a depressing amount of trash to deal with. Our sin and our trash is disposable, so we think.

But over time, dumps begin to take on the appearance of the Appalachians. Mountains grow up where once the land was flat. And when trash is burned, harmful chemicals can be released in the air, which damage lungs, and perhaps increase the sun's radiation. Sin is that way. Many don't take sin seriously, especially their own. But eventually, it has to be dealt with!

Several years back, Eddie Murphy was in a movie entitled "Trading Places". We read in I Peter 2:24 that Jesus is the One who "traded places" with us. Peter wrote "Christ ... suffered for you... He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth. When he was abused, he did not return abuse; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he entrusted him self to the one who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness." We live in an age when many believe they aren't responsible for anything. It's always someone else's responsibility to pay their debts. Our Hebrew ancestors didn't see life that way. Someone has to pay for every debt, and every sin requires a corresponding sacrifice. There are no "get out of jail free" cards in life. Every harmful act requires that someone pay a price. Peter is saying that Christ has paid that debt for us!

As R.c. Sproul notes, "Because sin touches even our best acts, we are incapable of making a sufficient sacrifice. Even our sacrifices are tainted...we have no gift valuable enough, no work righteous enough to atone for our own sins. We are debtors who cannot pay their debts." (Essential Truths of the Christian Faith, Tyndale House Publishers, Wheaton, 1992, p. 173). The signs of Christ's atonement were the mark of the nails in his hands and feet.

The initial reaction of those that knew and loved Jesus was one of grief that he had been crucified. They saw no sense to it; they only experienced the pain of their loss. But when God raised Jesus from the dead, and Jesus taught his disciples the deeper meaning of his life and death, they began to see the light! The people of Israel had long known the scriptural principles of how sacrifices must be made to atone for sin. What they hadn't comprehended before Jesus' resurrection was that Christ was THE atoning sacrifice, the lamb of God, that takes away not just their sin, but the sin ofthe world! Jesus was "trading places" with us and all others, who truly deserve the punishment for our sin!

When the risen Christ appeared to the disciples, Thomas was not with them. Thomas said "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe." A week later, the risen Christ appeared to Thomas as

well. That's when Thomas exclaimed, "My Lord and my God!" As the risen Christ taught the disciples, they came to see that Jesus was the "Lamb of God", that Jesus paid the price for their sin on the cross.

In 1977, capital punishment was reinstated in the United States with the execution of Gary Gilmore in Utah. Utah officials invited applications from anyone who wanted to serve in the firing squad. They wondered if anyone would volunteer. To their surprise, there was a flood of people volunteering to pull the trigger, and send Gilmore to his death. But not one person came forward and said "I will die in Gary Gilmore's place." Yet that is exactly what Jesus did. (Sanford Hull, "The Suffering One", PRESBYTERIANS TODAY, MARCH 1996, p. 24) He atoned for our sin by giving His life on the cross.

When Jesus was struggling in the Garden of Gethsemane as to whether he should go to the cross and take our punishment upon himself, his prayer was "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want." (Matt.26:39). Amazing words! We live in a world all too much like the three year child, grasping something in his hands, saying "Mine! It's all mine!" People are saying "It's my body, and I'll do with it what I want! It's my money, and I'll do with it what I want! It's my life, and I'll live it as I please!" Yet Jesus did not die for himself, but for us! May we like Thomas be led to exclaim "My Lord and my God!"

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