City Life Starter

I. The Word: Psalm 32

By Stefan Johnsson

Psalm 32 speaks to me every time that I read it. It reminds me of what sin does to us if we do not confess it to God. The opening is powerful in itself. Blessed is the one who has been forgiven by straying from the righteous path, who has not been able to hit the mark. Blessed is the one whose sin does not count against him (Psalm 32:1-2).  If we just kept to this we would be fine. Though, as humans, we are quick to forget. It is because we want to hide our sin and shame from the world…and from God. Hiding means that we have something to lose and we only cause more pain to others and ourselves by doing so. Our heavenly Father wants to forgive us, to have us live in the light and not the darkness. As John 3:31 says, “But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.” This means we need to step out from our sin and shame and be cleansed.

In the beginning of the Bible we see what sin does and how God approached it. Genesis 3:7 states, “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.” Verse 8 goes on to say, “…and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.”  

Sin entered the world and brought with it human actions that were not there before. The first is that we have come to realize our guilt and the shame from it. The second is that we want to cover our sin up and hide the actions of what we have done from others. Sin finds comfort in darkness.

God, in his righteousness, had to take action. He could not accept what sin brought because sin and shame were against his very nature. After having punished man and woman for sin and with the knowledge that they would be forever banished from the Garden of Eden, He showed an act of love to His creations. The Son of God, the Son of Man, in all his glory, made clothes for Adam and Eve. He made clothes… Just dwell on that for a minute. He served man and woman when all he had to do was cast them out. God had a love for humankind that surpassed all understanding, even in his righteous anger. God, from the beginning of creation showed both grace and truth, both compassion and justice. This is the God we serve.  Though, if we dig further into the verse, we come to realize what the clothes were from. It was no fabric, no wool or silk.  It was skin.  Jesus, the Son of God, the Angel of the Lord, put the wrath of sin on an animal to die the death in place of Adam and Eve. The first death on earth was done to atone for the sin and to cover the shame it brought. A price had to be paid.

Fast forward to the birth of Jesus. We see in the gospel of John that the story was connected all along. John states in verse 1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, the Word was God.”  In the beginning…from before creation, the Son of God, ever existing, never changing. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…full of grace and truth. The same traits that were exuded from the beginning in the book of Genesis. Carrying the truth to punish sin, yet showing the grace to find a way to bring people back into a relationship with Him.

Having served his time on Earth, Jesus was sentenced for blasphemy, for claiming to be God, yet having portrayed God fully, showing God’s nature through Himself and His actions. Jesus knew though, that this was his mission all along. He was to crush the serpents head and end the reign of sin once and for all. To take the wrath of God’s righteousness upon Himself. To die the death we should have died.

And then, as Jesus was being crucified, we see in John 19:23 that Jesus was stripped of his clothes so that he would be put to shame upon the cross. Jesus was stripped of his clothes? Jesus was shamed? Jesus is the last person to deserve something like this! How could Jesus clothe us from shame and then be stripped to be shamed…unless, unless that was His plan all along? Was it not Jesus in the Garden of Eden that first clothed man and woman in their shame? Did he, as he was making the clothes of skin from an animal, think about the cross and that his own clothes would be stripped from him? That God Himself, in his compassion, knew all along that He would be the one to carry our shame and our sin upon himself so that we did not have to. That, just as an animal in the Garden of Eden was killed to clothe Adam and Eve, Jesus, in return, became the ultimate sacrifice, the Lamb of God, for us. He became the final sacrifice that would clothe us and cover up our shame and our sin forevermore.  How compassionate is our God! That from the beginning of time, He showed us what He had to do by clothing Adam and Eve with a skin of an animal. The one who conquered sin and allowed us to live without shame, knowing that he took this shame upon himself through his death upon the cross. Now, brothers and sisters, repent, turn to God for forgiveness and live with the joy of what He has done for you in your life! Dwell in the light and not in darkness.

 

Forgiveness in Repentance

In the darkness, I tried to hide

Keeping my sin pushed to the side

I had no one that I could trust

Not a soul, not even if I must

 

Hiding in my sin I could not sleep

My heart pounded as if it tried to leap

The transgressions that I did commit

Was ones that I wish I could omit

 

Your hand on me was too heavy to bare

I could not forget, not let go without a care

Day after day I struggled and tried to fight

You wouldn’t let go, even deep into the night

 

You humbled me to the point of defeat

I could no longer hide or live in deceit

To you I confessed my sin and shame

That which before I was too afraid to name

 

You forgave my sin and rescued me with your hand

You took away the pain and allowed me to stand

You instructed and guided me in the path I should go

Loving me as the father that I have come to know