************ Sermon on Heidelberg Catechism Q & A 9-11 ************
Doctrine: Sin must be punished
By: Rev. Adrian Dieleman
This sermon was preached on December 3, 2000
Q & A 9-11
Romans 2:1-16
"Sin Is Punished"
Introduction
On this first Sunday of Advent, this Preparatory Sunday, we remember God's love. But God's love only makes sense when we see it against the backdrop of man's sin.
Do you remember the game that Adam and Eve played in the Garden of Eden when God first confronted them with their sin? They played the Blame Game. "The woman you put here with me – she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it." That's what Adam said. "The serpent deceived me, and I ate." That's what Eve said. Notice, Adam tried to blame Eve and God (the woman You put here). Eve tried to blame the serpent.
All men since then have been playing the same game. When we do something wrong we play the Blame Game. When an inner city youth rapes or kills or robs, he is not responsible. No, the blame is put on the environment he is forced to grow up in. When an alcoholic drives under the influence and kills someone, the blame is put on the genetic predisposition he or she has towards alcoholism. When a young man turns to homosexuality, the blame is put on an overly protective mother or an overly demanding father. Man loves to play the Blame Game in which everyone is a victim and no one is responsible for their actions.
The three questions in front of us today reflect the same sort of attitude. By these questions, you see, man plays the Blame Game. These questions reflect the thinking of man's sinful nature. They reflect the thinking of man without Christ.
These three questions especially reveal the extent of our sin and misery. They speak of man's love for sin and his great fear of sin's punishment. Sin is so much fun; usually it is done because of the fleeting pleasure derived from it. At the same time man is in mortal dread of the punishment and fires of hell. So what does man do? He tries to find a way whereby he can escape the punishment of his sin. He plays the Blame Game.
What a contrast we are to Jesus. We sin and love to sin and try to escape the punishment for sin. Jesus, in contrast, did not sin and voluntarily bore the punishment for sin. The sinful ones try to escape God's wrath; the Sinless One willingly bore God's wrath.
I Is God Fair?
A Question 9 asks if it is fair that God demands of us what we are unable to do? "But doesn't God do man an injustice by requiring in His law what man is unable to do?"
Remember what God requires in His law? "Love me above all," says God, "and love your neighbor as yourself." Do you remember unregenerate man's response? "I can't," he says, "I am unable to. I have a natural tendency to hate God and neighbor" (Q&A 5). "I am so corrupt I am totally unable to do any good and inclined toward all evil" (Q&A 8).
Is it fair that God demands of us what we are unable to do? Isn't this like demanding a thousand dollars of a penniless beggar? Isn't this like demanding a dance from a lifelong paralytic? Isn't God demanding the impossible?
B This sort of question, if you think about it, attacks the person, the character, and the being of God. This sort of question says God made a mistake in His requirements. This sort of question says God isn't sovereign, all-powerful, and all-knowing. This sort of question says God isn't holy, perfect, and just in all His ways. With this sort of question man puts himself over God and dares to judge the Almighty's ways.
"But who are you, O man, to talk back to God?," says the Apostle Paul (Rom 9:20). Who is man to even ask if God is unjust? Can man judge God? Can we by our imperfect, sinful, human standards question and judge the requirements of a just, loving, sovereign, and almighty God? Who does man think he is? How does he dare to pass judgment on God's requirements? Can the clay question the potter, "why did you make me like this?" (Rom 9:20). Can man, the creature, question God, the Creator?
Of course not! Only God, and not man, has the right to ask whether the requirements of the law are just or not.
C But sinful man demands an answer. Is God unjust when He demands of man something man can not possibly keep? The Catechism says: "No. God created man with the ability to keep the law. Man, however, tempted by the devil, in reckless disobedience, robbed himself and his descendants of these gifts." God created man with the gifts and abilities to keep His law of love. But man lost and squandered these gifts by following Satan. Man had the ability to meet God's requirements but he willfully lost these abilities.
To God's ear question nine of the Catechism must sound silly. To Him we must sound like a drunk driver who says to the judge: "I couldn't help driving in the wrong lane, your honor, because I was drunk." "I can't help my inability to love, God, because I am a sinner." The Blame Game; that is what is going on here.
Topic: Law
Subtopic:
Index: 435-441
Date: 11/2000.101
Title:
Imagine for a moment that you pay a contractor $200,000 to build you a house. Let's suppose that the contractor spends the money on vacations and furniture so he no longer is able to build the house. Even though the contractor no longer has the ability to build you the house, don't you still have the right to demand a house from him? Of course you do!
In the same way, man was given the ability to keep God's commandments: he was created good and in God's image. He, however, lost that ability. But God still has the right to demand that he keeps the law.
Romans 9:14 is direct and to the point here: "What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all!"
As we prepare for the Lord's Supper we need to remember that all of us are guilty before God. We need to remember that all of us deserve to be punished.
D God has the right to demand that we keep His law. We, however, are not able to. What does God do now? Does He cut us off? Does He act as if the relationship never existed? No, God remains faithful and loving.
Our God is so loving. He never surrenders the claim He has on us. Even when people give up on Him, God does not give up on them. Out of love He sent Christ to be born in our flesh, to suffer and die in our flesh. As the Sunday School song reminded us, out of love God washes us and cleanses us with the blood and Spirit of Christ.
II Will God Suspend the Sentence?
A All of us are guilty before God. All of us deserve to be punished. Yet, is there a chance God will overlook our disobedience? That's what question 10 wonders about. It asks, "Will God permit such disobedience and rebellion to go unpunished?"
In Western society it is impossible to maintain a law if no one observes it. You cannot send everyone to jail. When a certain illegal behavior has become commonly accepted practice, the illegal practice is generally "decriminalized." Nationally, this has happened with abortion, homosexuality, adultery, and gambling. At one time these were all criminal offenses. They are no longer. In this way our criminal justice system is elastic.
Is God's justice also elastic?
Neither God nor His justice is elastic. God does not "decriminalize" certain kinds of behavior even if everyone does it. If everyone breaks the law of God, God holds everyone accountable. God would not be God if He would change and alter His code. The Lord Jesus says, "not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished" (Mt 5:18). This means that sin must be punished.
Many people don't like this teaching. They don't want to hear that God punishes sin. They deny that God punishes sin. Think about this for a moment. To deny punishment for sin, do you know what it does? To deny punishment for sin is to hit at the heart of the Gospel. For at the heart of the Gospel lies the teaching that Christ, in our place, took on the punishment for sin. To deny punishment for sin is to deny Christ's sacrifice and our salvation. Our Scripture passage in Romans 2 is so very clear about God's punishment for sin:
(Rom 2:8) But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil ..."
B According to the Catechism, God "... is terribly angry about the sin we are born with as well as the sins we personally commit. As a just judge he punishes them now and in eternity." Sometimes, God punishes sin immediately. He did that with Sodom and Gomorrah. He did that with Achan. He did that with Jezebel. But He doesn't always do that with us. You see, we are now living in the time of God's forbearance or long-suffering. This period began just after the Flood, with the covenant of Noah. After God had flushed away the wickedness of the world, He vowed that never again would He destroy the earth and all living creatures (Gen 8:21). God promised to withhold His judgment even though every inclination of man's heart is evil from childhood (Gen 8:21). Which means that today we are living under the threat of God's judgment and under the rainbow of God's long-suffering. But none of us should ever make the mistake of taking God's kindness for granted; it, says Paul in today's passage, is supposed to lead us to repentance (Rom 2:4). And, don't fall asleep while the kindness of God endures for when you awake it may be too late to repent (Mt 24:36-25:13).
C The Catechism says God punishes sin both now and in eternity. What is the punishment for sin? To Adam and Eve God said, "when you eat of it you will surely die" (Gen 2:17). And the Apostle Paul can say, "the wages of sin is death" (Rom 6:23). The universal punishment we all experience now is death and dying and illness and pain.
But there is also an eternal punishment for sin. The punishment we all face for eternity is the eternal death and fires of hell.
Many people have thought up theories to escape the harsh teaching of hell. Some have said that we will get a second chance. But Hebrews 9:27 says, "... man is destined to die once, and after that to face the judgment" – thereby teaching us that there is no second chance. Others say there will be an ultimate universal pardon. But Matthew 25:46 teaches that after judgment people go either to eternal punishment or to eternal life. And, still others say that in the end only believers will have a continued, conscious existence while the wicked will simply cease to exist. But this too contradicts the express testimony of Scripture (Mt 25:46; Jn 5:28,29).
To deny eternal punishment is to again hit at the heart of the Gospel. For at the heart of the Gospel likes the teaching that Christ, while on the cross, suffered the pangs and torments of hell in our place. This He did out of love.
As we prepare for the Lord's Supper we need to remember that sin is punished – both now and in eternity. There is no escape from God's terrible anger against sin.
III Isn't God Merciful?
A Question 11 attempts to play off God's justice against God's mercy. Man attempts to divide the indivisible God into separate attributes or characteristics.
But man can't play God's attributes against one another. God is one, and His attributes are to be seen as part of that oneness.
B "God is certainly merciful, but He is also just," says the Catechism. God is the only One Who maintains justice and mercy to all eternity. And the two must always be seen together.
Topic: Justice and Mercy
Subtopic:
Index:
Date: 4/1993.101
Title:
Imagine a judge who has to give sentence to criminals convicted of serious crime like murder or rape. Suppose that the judge decides to pardon the criminals. What sort of mercy is that? It is a foolish mercy which means nothing. Or, imagine a father with hungry children convicted of stealing a loaf of bread. Suppose that the judge decides to give him life imprisonment. What sort of justice is that? Mercy must be just and justice must be merciful.
"God is certainly merciful," says the Catechism, "but he is also just. His justice demands that sin ... be punished."
Conclusion
The Blame Game. Man plays the Blame Game. But God doesn't let us get away with this. The clear message of Scripture is that God will judge us for the wrong we do. Both the sin we are born with as well as the sins we actually commit deserve punishment. There is no escape from the wrath of God, no escape at all. We need to remember this as we prepare for the Lord's Supper.
Yet, congregation, there is good news. We cannot escape condemnation and judgment; but we can be rescued. We ourselves cannot clean off or hide the filth of sin; but – as the children's song indicates – we can be washed clean by grace. The Savior, Jesus Christ, stands between us and the awesome judgment of God. You see, God sent Jesus to take our place. Jesus received the awful punishment for sin that you and I deserve. It is in Jesus that we see God's justice and God's mercy being displayed at the same time and in the same person.