The second Sunday in Advent for Series B has the following three readings: Isaiah 40:1-11; 2 Peter 3:8-14 and Mark 1:1-8. The chosen text is Isaiah 40:2, “Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her, that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned…”
The word for this week is “pardoned.” While it is a synonym for “forgiven” it provides a better insight into God’s good news than what most Christians understand by just the word “forgiven.” What is of first interest is that God is not speaking directly to His people but through the prophet Isaiah. God is a God of means and remains so today in speaking through pastors and teachers who are faithful in repeating back to the people of God what God has revealed in His holy Word.
How many funerals are there in which the only “good news” is a eulogy spoken by one or more of the relatives or friends. It may be that the person in the coffin was a nice man or woman but so often eulogies only work to bring comfort if people did not know the individual intimately. For an intimate knowledge of any person means you realize that no matter how nice, he or she still was a sinner deserving nothing but temporal and eternal punishment.
The GOOD NEWS as distinct from the eulogized good news is that God really has pardoned His people. But note well that being pardoned does not mean that you are not guilty. President Bush pardoned a farmer for killing bald eagles because he had poisoned certain animals that the bald eagles ate. While it was not his intention to kill the birds, he still broke the law and the pardon did not remove his guilt. What it removed was his punishment!
So also with the true God. The pardon or forgiveness He provides at no cost is not a removal of our sinful nature nor our guilt but a “get out of jail free” card. How can a just God do that? Because He took it upon Himself to pay the price of the curse of the Law at the cross with the words, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Answer? “Because you have on your shoulders the sins of the whole world.”
People are prepared for this pardon not by doing good works, thoughts or words but by confessing that they are sinners in need of a Savior. That is the work of the John the Baptists in our day so that the Good News of the Messiah is received by grace, through faith on account of Jesus Christ. Believers in Christ are ungodly people whom God has pardoned (forgiven) for their sins while they remain ungodly and guilty for such sins. No other religion in the world comes even close to that Good News as revealed in the Christian faith.
Name:Tom Baker