"For Our Sake"

2 Corinthians 4:13—5:1 ¹³Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak, ¹⁴knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. ¹⁵For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.

          We have all been convicted of a crime and found guilty through evidence that is beyond questioning.  There is nothing we can do to change this verdict and we are waiting for the execution of punishment that fitting to our crime.  We stand waiting and knowing that our punishment is to be eternal death, eternal suffering, and eternal humiliation. What are we going to feel?

          Some might try to plead an appeal, but the evidence is too conclusive to change the verdict.  Some might try paying penitence but the cost is so insurmountable to pay that even a monetary apology could never be enough.  The verdict stands, we wait for our executioner to show his face.  We might even try to be genuinely sorry and plead that we won't do it again, but our track record says we will and the verdict stands the punishment waits to be carried out. 

          We are guilty of a crime and the law demands our punishment is eternal death.  The punishment will be carried out sometime in the future to give us plenty of time to think about what we did and about the fate we deserve.  There is no escape plan to come.  We are trapped and not even a place to hide.  Life is over as we knew it.  We are left in our sorrow, helplessness, and we are weak and powerless.  It is nothing less than a gloomy depressing outlook to a miserable existence.

          2 Corinthians 4:13—5:1 ¹⁶So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. ¹⁷For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, ¹⁸as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

          The sorrow, helplessness and powerless gloom and doom of our convicted status are those things that are seen and are transient, brief, and temporary.  What!!!?  What are we going to feel?  Luke 7:44-48 is the story of the woman who washed the feet of Jesus with her tears and her hair.  She knew her convicted status, she knew she is a sinner, and the punishment for her sins was eternal death.  Yet she washed the feet of Jesus not to gain favor but to show her repenting heart and sorrow for what she had done in the name of sin.  The other reason for this woman's tears was to show her love for Jesus.  What love did this women have for Jesus?  It is quite simple, this woman loved Jesus for His mercy, and for His grace given to her through forgiveness.  Do we realize Christ forgiveness comes through His love for us?

          We stand waiting our punishment and love little because we do not realize the reality of our situation with God.  We live in denial of the gospel given to us by the physical suffering, the suffering of humiliation, and the dying through suffocation and loss of blood that Jesus our Christ endured "for our sake."

          We stand convicted ready to be put into death, and someone comes to our executioner and say WAIT!!!  This punishment will not take place with these people for they belong to God!  I will take their place and die for their crime.  Let them go to their Father and He will wash away their inflictions with my blood.  The Father will give them the reward of everlasting relationship and eternal life because I will pay the ransom and they will become adopted into my family by my Father and become my brothers and sisters.

2 Corinthians 4:13—5:1 ¹For we know that if the tent, which is our earthly home, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

          Through the mercy God we are saved from eternal death and punishment.  Through our Lord Jesus Christ we are forgiven through His grace and given eternal life in God's new earth and new heaven.  Amen.