Day 4: Jesus Forgiving

“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” Mark 1:15

I once went to an Imagine Dragons concert without really knowing who they were. I had only heard one song, and I didn’t even know it very well. But the show was so well done I became a fan and loved their music from then on.

That’s the goal of the entertainment world. The bigger the production, the greater the attention. Capture the audience. Make them unable to look away at the beauty, the glamour, and the excitement. 

Is this the way Jesus works? According to the gospels, no. It’s almost scary to see how ordinarily Jesus announced that the kingdom of God had come. In Mark 1:15, Jesus simply said, 

“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” 

There was no earthquake, clap of thunder, no dramatic music, no glitter falling from the ceiling, or lights flashing. Therefore, it would be easy to miss the magnitude of what Jesus announced. Though the announcement may not have been grandiose, how Jesus accomplished total forgiveness was an extraordinary act.

To solve the “sin problem,” His answer was to send His Son Jesus into the world on a rescue mission. Amazingly, Jesus took all of the consequences of our sin upon Himself. A sinless man carried the weight of all of your sin, all of my sin, all of humanity’s sin—past, present, and future—with Him when He willingly, sacrificially, gave His entire life for us on the cross. 

Jesus was whipped, beaten, and suffered greatly. As he was hanging on the cross, struggling to breathe, nearing the end, the Gospel of John says the very last phrase Jesus uttered was one Greek word—tetelestai. In English, it is translated: “It is finished.”  

The word tetelestai was also written on business documents or receipts in New Testament times to indicate that a bill had been paid in full.” This declaration shows us that Jesus’s death was a payment for a debt.

After this, Jesus bowed His head and gave up His Spirit. The devil thought that Jesus was finished. But the only thing that ended at the cross was the payment for our sins. 

We owed a debt we could never pay. Jesus paid a debt He did not owe! 

The same Spirit that Jesus gave up on Friday would bring resurrection power on Sunday. The resurrection is the objective evidence that the bill has been paid in full.

When Greek readers saw the word tetelestai, they would have understood that Christ’s accomplishment at the cross was the full payment of all of humanity’s sins. 

Including yours.

Challenge

Spend some time thinking about the forgiveness of God. 1 John 1:9 says that when we confess our sins, God will not only hear us, but He will forgive us. Spend time today confessing your sins before God. The words that you say can be important, but even more important is the promise of God’s forgiveness. After admitting sin, hear these words as if they were told from God: “I forgive you.”