Why forgiveness of sins?

5 days ago I preached a message on Luke 7:36-50. It is the story of a sinful woman who walks into the house of a Pharisee crying, broken, and overcome with joy. She washes Jesus' feet with her tears and hair, and anoints his feet with an expensive ointment. Since preaching, I have read through the passage 7 or 8 more times and written a poem on it (albeit a rudimentary one). It is safe to say that this text has been bouncing around in my mind quite a bit.

I tend to stray as far away from the "prototype evangelical Christian" as much as possible. Partially because I am a bit jaded from life in the 90's church, and partially because I think most of the men preaching on TBN are sadly mistaken (maybe that opinion is related to the first part of the sentence). In any case, preaching a message called "grace" seemed a bit overdone...I don't want to stand in front of teenagers nudging them towards tears, promising streets paved with cheese, and that life with Christ is like "Pleasantville." It's not. Life is hard, as a Christian it's harder. I don't believe I did a good job of emphasizing the reason for grace on Wednesday as I read this passage over and over. The woman comes into the house not to hear the words of Jesus, for she has already heard them and received. She comes in to celebrate his words. A sinful woman enters into a house where she is not welcome because she wants to be at the feet of Jesus no matter what the cost. She sees him as the source of the joy that she had been missing for so long and she will not wait to express it through tears of joy and repentance.

I can relate to the woman in the story- I recognize that the forgiveness of sins in my life is a debt I am unable to repay. The mountain of debt stood before me as I knelt at the cross of Christ with empty pockets and he granted me absolution from a past cluttered with failure. And for that I am ever thankful, but it is NOT the source of my joy. All too often I think Christians preach that exoneration is the good news. Forgiveness of sins is the gospel. Heaven is the good news. Heaven is NOT the good news. Forgiveness of sins is NOT the good news. The good news is that God saved us for HIMSELF! Our sins are forgiven so that we can be with him. Heaven is good news because we are in the presence of God- and the byproduct of that is we have no more tears or sadness, our souls are filled to the point of overflow with joy!

If the good news of the gospel is that our sins are forgiven, we may find ourselves sinning more (Romans 6). But if the good news is that our lives are with Jesus because we are dead to sin and will be resurrected with him in life…our lives change. The glory of the gospel comes from the transformation of lives, and the transformation of lives comes from death to self, and death to self happens in order that we may be made like Jesus in suffering and in resurrection (Philippians 3). Let me reiterate this one more time- the grace we are given as sinners is wonderful and should shock us into awe of who Christ is, but the reason it is offered is so we can live a life with God, and eventually be WITH him in eternity. Oh how wonderful this news is! I am not merely forgiven my sins but the object of my greatest affection- the one that I desire to be with and yet could never approach has grasped me in the palm of his hand and drawn me to Himself! This is the good news that does not dwindle with age or sanctification. Each day the joy of knowing I am his brings me to a point of flooding with praise! This is why I worship, this is why death is at work in me…so that one day that feeling of God’s presence being “lost” is not even a memory and is replaced with infinite, glorious, breathtaking joy.