Focal Point

Dave Drewie: Today on Focal Point we're tackling a crucial question: Why was it necessary for Jesus to die? Couldn't God have come up with another way to offer salvation? And what about people who were forgiven of sin in the Old Testament long before the crucifixion? Well, stay tuned.

Welcome to Focal Point. I'm your host, Dave Drewie. Glad you could join us today for our weekly appointment with Pastor Mike Fabarez. It's a chance to sit down one-on-one and ask some tough questions about life and faith, and we'll get some clear answers.

And later at the end of the program, I'll explain how you can contact us with questions of your own. In the meantime, let's join Executive Director Jay Werton inside the pastor's study for an eye-opening edition of Ask Pastor Mike. Jay?

Jay Werton: Thanks, Dave. Pastor Mike, one of our listeners wrote to us and asked: In Mark 2:10, Jesus said he had the ability to forgive sins even before he died. Why then was his death on the cross necessary?

Pastor Mike Fabarez: That's a great question, and I think we need to recognize that God had been forgiving sins of human beings in the Old Testament regularly. I think of David in Psalms 32 and 51. Those two psalms are great, speaking of how great it is to have God not count our sins against us and how blessed is that man.

So God had been doing it. The question is how could he do it? And so Jesus did say that, that he had the authority to do that, but it has to be based on something. It would be like me having a huge racked up debt on my Visa card and going to the bank teller who's a friend of mine, maybe, and she looks at my balance on the computer screen and I know that just with a few keystrokes, she could just zero that out.

Well, okay, you could do that, but it would be wrong unless there was a payment that could settle that account. In other words, you could do that, but it would be criminal unless, of course, she took her account and transferred that to my account. Then she could zero it out. She could even do it with a check, but that check's going to need to clear at some point. I don't want to take this illustration too far, but the idea is there has to be a payment.

Even though there can be forgiveness, the transaction of forgiveness can take place, there has to be a payment that makes that valid. And the way I like to talk about it before the death of Christ, it was all done on credit, if you will, that someone sinned and God forgave. David commits adultery, God forgives. Well, on what basis? Well, there has to be punishment for the sin of adultery and it needs to be paid.

How does it get to be paid? Well, it's going to be paid on the cross one day that Christ was going to be treated as though he were the adulterer that David was, and then David could be forgiven. Well, he could be forgiven in advance, just like we can purchase something on a credit card in advance, but it had to still be paid in human terms. In other words, human sin needs human punishment, and God had to mete that out somewhere to be a just God.

Well, after the cross, of course, the same transaction of forgiveness can take place. It's just now it's drawing on the merit and the payment of the cross. So one looks forward to it, one looks back to it. And even though God was forgiving from the earliest days of human history right on up until the death on the cross when Jesus cried out "Tetelestai," which is the Greek word "paid in full" or translated "it is finished," well, that's when it was paid.

Then after that, every sin of Peter or anybody else in the church or right on down to us, all of our sins now are all reckoned and made right, the balance sheet is made right because of the cross. So God can't forgive out of thin air. Just like my teller can't just through a few keystrokes zero something out unless she wants to be a criminal. There has to be some forgiveness, some merit, some grace that God is going to impute to each sinner to make them right before a holy God.

Jay Werton: A lot of people will say to that kind of reasoning or line of thought that if God is all-powerful, all-knowing, why can't he just do it without having to sacrifice his son for that?

Pastor Mike Fabarez: Well, it's because God would then be inconsistent. It's like saying can't he make 2+2=5? Well, you could say, I guess, in some Alice in Wonderland theology he could, but God is a God who's consistent. There's things that he cannot do, including deny himself. And the denial of himself, that's what it would be for him to look at sin and say, "Well, I'm just going to forgive that."

And the illustration I often give is if I'm going to candidate for the judge position in Orange County here in California, I can't run on the campaign slogan that if I become the judge, I'm the nice judge and everyone goes free. Vote for me, they all go free. That won't fly because you want a judge who's going to do his job and dispense his duties the way he should, which is that he's there to uphold justice, which means he can't just let all the murderers and rapists go.

He's got to respond justly. And so God would cease to be just if he just looked at sin and said, "Well, let's just forgive them all out of thin air." There has to be a payment. There has to be equilibrium, to kind of put it theoretically, in the universe. God has to somehow solve the problem of sin and the only way to do that in maintaining his justice is to pay for sin in some way and he's done that in the God-man Jesus Christ.

Jay Werton: When we look at that costly payment that Christ had to make on the cross, how do we respond to people who flout the grace card as a license to do whatever they want?

Pastor Mike Fabarez: Sure, and in theory, I guess that's where you go. I mean you think okay, if my sin is forgiven and that merit from the cross is so vast and immense that it would cover any sin no matter how heinous, then what would it matter if I did those sins? Well, it matters because we love Christ.

I don't mean to put so many illustrations in here in this brief casual conversation, but I think about a marriage sitting there at the front of the aisle where your bride says, "Hey, I'm never going to leave you. I'll be with you thick and thin, sickness, health, richer, poor. It doesn't matter. I'm going to be with you." Well, if I got that kind of promise, why not just be the worst husband ever?

Well, I guess that's a logical question if you didn't love your spouse. And so, yeah, you could say why don't I just sin because I got a free pass? God's promise that the cross is sufficient and he's not going to leave me. Well, okay, I guess you don't love God. That's kind of a silly, ridiculous, contradictory thing to say.

We want to do what's right because we don't want the pain of the cross to have to be invoked because of a decision I make this afternoon. I want to love God and I want to do what's right. It pleases him. I don't want to rely on his promise of acceptance through Christ and the cross to say, "Oh, well I can just be any kind of jerky Christian I want to be."

Jay Werton: Well thank you, Pastor Mike. We're going to keep this conversation going by listening to a message you gave called "The Word's Ultimate Solution."

Pastor Mike Fabarez: Well, have you ever needed something you couldn't afford? I didn't say want something you couldn't afford. I know that list is long. I'm talking about need something that you couldn't afford. I mean we are so blessed to live in a place and in a time where every truly needed commodity is available to us at some level for every budget. There's rarely a real need that we ever have that we can't afford.

But consider for a moment if I told you that a large asteroid was currently plummeting toward Earth and I happen to know about it and it's coming. It'll be here by 6:00 tonight and it doesn't matter where you live. Call your relatives in Canada. It doesn't matter. It's going to destroy the whole planet. Life as we know it on Earth will be over at 6:01 tonight. It'll be done. The planet and everybody, it's just going to annihilate the world.

But the good news is, I have already done a little work. I've colonized the rear portion of the moon. You can't see it, but I've put townhouses and I've got homes. I got oxygen now being pumped in there. I've got golf courses. I've got parks. There's shopping malls, Outback Steakhouse. The whole thing. It's all set up for you to go there.

And Richard Branson and I have put together this little lunar shuttle and we're going to get people there. Lots of room. It's big. And I have talked Branson into launching from our parking lot. Anyone who would like to come with us, you can come with us. The only real downside and potential problem is every seat on the shuttle is going to cost $103 million.

So I don't know what the limit is on your ATM, but we're going to need it in cash before we leave. Now you'd have a need you couldn't afford. Am I right? Which, by the way, is precisely the dilemma that is painted for us in the Scripture, right? You have an urgent, pressing need to be delivered from the coming wrath of God that will be here at any moment.

He didn't tell us when that was coming and it's going to come. And when it comes, you will have to suffer and be punished for your sin for all eternity. That's the problem. But the good news is there's a solution and the word of God is going to great lengths to tell us that there is a way out, a solution where you can live in a great place.

I don't know if there's an Outback there, but there are all kinds of wonderful things to enjoy in the kingdom of heaven. God said it would be like saying enter into your happiness. Here it is. Into the joy of the kingdom. It's available. And the only downside is you can't afford it. As a matter of fact, we've spent three chapters in the book of Romans really analyzing the spiritual balance on your checkbook. Your good deeds and you're pretty much bankrupt. Sorry.

Coming wrath of God, there is a solution. You just can't afford it. But of course, you know the great news about the book of Romans and the whole Bible is that it's already been paid for. So you can get on for free. But here's the deal. In Romans chapter 3 verse 24, stating the reality that this came by the redemption that was really—that's what that means, purchase.

That's what redemption is. It's a purchase. It was made by the purchase of Christ. Christ purchased it. And while your money is no good to get on the spiritual ark to be able to end around the wrath of God at the end of your life, the reality is the benefactor has paid for it all and he is willing if you would trust him to give you a seat on the shuttle for free.

But it was costly. And that's kind of the paradox of biblical faith. You can't work for it. It's not for sale. You can't buy it. But it was tremendously expensive. Romans chapter 3 verses now 25 and 26 tell us just how costly it is. And I got to tell you, this is a critically important passage for you to understand because today it is increasingly an unpopular and it's not even accepted by a lot of modern pastors and theologians.

This is people double talk their way through this and it's just pretty much swept under the carpet because if the problem is sin and the solution is forgiveness, why would that cost anything? I mean that's the real modern view on this. Right as one very popular, bestselling quote-unquote Christian author puts it, if you want to forgive your wife, you don't have to go in the next room and kick the dog for half an hour. Right? There's no price to be paid for forgiveness.

Which by the way is training a whole generation of young pastors to get into pulpits and misunderstand the whole point of the cross. Because the cross in Scripture is a costly payment for sin and people say, "Why in the world would there need to be a payment? Right? If forgiveness is the point, you just overlook it." And yet there is something about that old-time religious perspective in the Bible that says no, it doesn't happen that way.

If you don't understand this really one Greek sentence—it's two in English—in Romans chapter 3 verses 25 and 26, you will miss the whole point of the cross. You'll have to reinterpret the cross into something else besides a payment, which is how this started in verse 24. That's what redemption means. Take a look at the context.

This righteousness from God is revealed. It comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. Are you with me here? Romans 3:22. There's no difference because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are all—all are justified freely. Now here's some phrases we're used to from Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8. By his grace.

The other component to that is down there in verse 25. Through faith. It's by grace through faith. And it comes on the basis of or through the redemption, the price, the purchase that came by Christ Jesus. Now, verses 25 and 26 unpack that one phrase. And if we don't get it, we've missed the whole point of the cross, which it seems is very popular today to willfully redefine what the cross was all about.

The Bible says forgiveness costs and the cost is huge. And that's why we honor the gospel by recognizing that though it's free, it's not cheap. Now what God does for us, and it's very helpful in getting us to understand this, is that he gives us illustrations throughout the Bible, particularly Jesus in his preaching, to show you why forgiveness costs.

And the best way to do it is to take our minds and get us to think about things that we value and then say don't you want settlement there? And then he says, "You know what? I value this over here, which may not be that, but it's important to me because it's part of my nature and therefore I need settlement here." The thing that God values is holiness.

The illustration God often uses through the teaching of Christ is money because that's the thing that we value. If only we could value holiness as much as we value money. But here's the thing. Jesus tries to make the point that because the God of the universe values holiness, it is the top and supreme attribute of God. When there is some impinging upon that holiness, when there's some transgression of that holiness, there needs to be a settling of accounts just like you guys, this is how Jesus seems to put it, want a settling of accounts when it involves money.

The word in the text—we haven't even read it yet—here it is. Let's read it. Is the word "justice." But verse 25 says God presented him, this redemption, as a sacrifice of atonement through faith. There's the second half of this transaction in justification. It's by grace through faith. In his blood. That really is connected with the sacrifice of atonement. I'll prove that later.

Here's the second sentence in English, which is just a big run-on sentence in the Greek language. He did this to demonstrate his key word, what is it? Justice. That's the key to all this. Because in his forbearance, he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished, which by the way would cause you to throw a flag on the play and say, "Well, you're not all that just because look, you're calling Abraham your friend, but we know he's a pretty bad sinner. And David, a man after your own heart, but look at his sin. How can you say all that? You must not be just."

No, he is just. In his forbearance, he hadn't punished sins beforehand, but he did it now. Look at verse 26. He did this to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just. He is just and the one who makes right or justifies those who have faith in Jesus. Do you get the theme here? Justice in the second half of this.

This explains why Christ had to purchase our salvation with a sacrifice of atonement, quote-unquote. He did it to demonstrate his justice, because before you could say where's the equilibrium? Where's the settling of holiness and sin? Because you didn't punish those sins. Oh, there may have been discipline involved for sinners and some temporal kind of punishment, but where's the real punishment of God toward sin?

Well, we didn't see it when he didn't punish sins before. But now that we see the cross, he demonstrates his justice. And he does it now after the cross. We see it so that he can be just, because he is. But he's demonstrating that justice and he can also now justify. What people want is a God who can justify without being just.

Because if God just overlooks sin, he doesn't settle accounts, and if he doesn't settle accounts, there's not an equilibrium in the cosmos. That may sound a little funky to say it that way, but you want equilibrium in your relationships with people you hang out with, right? Turn to Matthew chapter 18 real quick. Matthew chapter 18.

Just to try and drive this home with an illustration and Jesus gives us the best one. The analogy here is of money, but because we value money, maybe this will be helpful. Look at verse 23. Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to—now here's two great words—settle accounts with his servants. That's called the judgment, by the way.

That is what settling accounts is all about. For us, we think money because this illustration's about money, but the issue is forgiveness. As a matter of fact, just glance up at the first two verses that preceded this. Peter's talking about forgiveness. Now, I know that the point of the illustration is Peter forgiving his brother. But it's predicated on divine forgiveness and that divine forgiveness he wants to put in the terms of money.

And so he illustrates it. Verse 24, Matthew 18:24. He began the settlement and a man who owed him 10,000 talents was brought to him and we all go, "Whatever that means." He can play the piano, he can juggle, he's good at Nintendo. You know, whatever talents, I don't know. That's not what talents mean. You understand that, right?

Talents is a unit of money and because they weighed out their precious metals, it was a way to weigh out precious metals. And you started talking about talents when you were talking about big sums of money. A talent is 66 pounds. There's your equation. Of silver. That's what talents were all about. 66 pounds of silver. That's a lot of silver. He owed him how much? 10,000 sets of 66 pounds. That's 660,000 pounds of silver.

That's more than your donkey can carry, right? That's a lot of cash. It's a lot of money. He wants to settle. When does he want his money? Right now. We're settling now. Can I have $100 million, please? Because we need to settle accounts. Verse 25, it's comical. You can see him reaching for his wallet. Well, hmm, I don't have it on me. Not able to pay.

So the master said, "Fine, you're going to pay with your life." The master then ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt. The servant fell on his knees before him. "Be patient with me," he begged. "I will pay back everything." The servant's master took pity on him. You want to know the equivalent of salvation in our hearts? Here it comes, three words: He cancelled the debt and let him go.

Now, in this illustration, it's about the fact that God has cancelled a great debt in our life so we should be able to cancel debts in each other's lives. But it doesn't speak to the pain that is involved in paying the debt because God in the equilibrium of the universe has to settle accounts. And because he values holiness the way you value money—he actually values it much, much more—he's got to settle up.

Who's going to pay? If he cancels the debt, who's going to pay the $103 million for this guy? That's what Romans 3 is all about. The redemption was paid by Christ. Here's a cross reference for you you can put in the margin if you want. Proverbs 29:4. By justice a king gives a country stability. That's a great word. That's the concept, the equilibrium.

There has to be justice if you're going to be the monarch of the universe. God highly values it among us and if he values it among us, certainly got to value it in heaven. The wages of sin is death and justice demands a solution. You and I need to admit that. Justice demands a solution. "Isn't he a forgiving God?" Yeah, he's a forgiving God.

But he's a just God and because of his justice we need a cross. See, that's the whole point. So payment must be made and payment was made. How did he save you? With a substitutionary death. The wages of sin is death. The wrath of God is going to come on someone who doesn't deserve it so that you that do deserve it doesn't have to have it.

It's a substitutionary sacrifice. Every sacrifice was a picture of substitution because justice demands a payment, a propitiation, a satisfaction of his justice. That's why hymn writers have said for years things like this: "When I survey the wondrous cross." This is a juxtaposition of strange feelings. Think about it. A Roman execution rack where someone died, on which the Prince of Glory died.

That would seem repulsive. But no, my richest gain I count but loss. There's that picture. My resume done and I pour contempt on all my pride. He saved us, we don't earn it. You think that one's theoretically rich, listen to this one: "The types and figures are all fulfilled. Exacted is the legal pain. The precious promises have all been sealed, the spotless Lamb of God is slain.

'Tis finished! All the debt is paid. Justice divine is satisfied. The grand and full atonement made. God for a guilty world has died. Accepted in the well beloved and clothed in righteousness divine. I see the bar to heaven removed and all your merits, Lord, all your credit, all your righteousness, are mine." That's a good hymn. Those are good words. The glory of God can shine in our lives, the favor and acceptance of God because the price has been paid.

Dave Drewie: "The Word's Ultimate Solution." That's the title of today's study from Pastor Mike Fabarez here on Focal Point. And it's part of our conversation on why Jesus's death was necessary on this edition of Ask Pastor Mike. If you joined us late, you can catch up on any parts you might have missed by listening to today's broadcast online at focalpointradio.org or through our free Focal Point app, available in any app store.

And maybe during today's discussion, some other questions came to your mind. Well, we'd love for you to send them our way. You might even hear your question answered on a future Ask Pastor Mike program. To send us your question, go to our website, focalpointradio.org, and click on the "Ask" tab. Or send us your question through Facebook at facebook.com/pastormike.

And while you're on the website, we hope you'll also request a special resource Pastor Mike has selected for you called "All the Promises of the Bible" by Herbert Lockyer. You'll discover a complete catalog of every divine promise in Scripture, organized by topic and explained with clarity to strengthen your confidence in God's faithfulness. Request your copy of the book "All the Promises of the Bible" when you give a donation of any amount. Call 888-320-5885 or give online at focalpointradio.org.

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Are you ready to take that step right now? Give us a call. 888-320-5885 is our number. Again, that's 888-320-5885. Or you can give online at focalpointradio.org. Well, I'm your host, Dave Drewie. So glad to have you with us. And be sure to come back again next time as we continue exploring God's word right here on Focal Point. Today's program was produced and sponsored by Focal Point Ministries.