Good morning and a most blessed Thursday to you.

I am currently reading the book Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus, which is one of our current small groups that is taking place on Sunday evenings via Zoom. If you would like to participate in that, it’s not too late. You certainly are able to do so. Just let me know, and we’ll get you hooked up with the link and the book, and you’ll be good to go.

But aside from that, I was reading the book—or actually listening to it on Audible—and I came to a portion on Wednesday morning, driving into work, where a Christian, a Muslim, and a Buddhist are all having a conversation. The author actually jokes about how their friendship seemed like an ongoing source of jokes.

But they’re having a conversation about sin and the sin debt being paid by Jesus. And the Muslim and the Buddhist are saying, “That’s not fair. That’s not fair for all of our punishment, all of our sin, to be laid upon one man.”

And it got me thinking: It’s not fair.

It’s not fair that your sin, that my sin, all of our sin—in thought, word, and deed—all of the hate and the pride and the envy and the lustfulness, all of it laid upon Christ. The punishment for our sin.

It’s not fair.

We’re going to go to the book of Hebrews again today, as we did last week in our time of devotion.

We’re going to go first to chapter 8, where it begins:

“Now, the main point in what we are saying is this: We have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister in the sanctuary and the true tent that the Lord, and not any mortal, has set up.”

And then we’re going to jump over to chapter 9, looking at verse 11:

“But when Christ came as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent, not made with hands, that is, not of this creation, he entered once for all into the Holy Place, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.”

Continuing on in verse 24:

“For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made by human hands, a mere copy of the true one, but he entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.”

And then verse 27:

“And just as it is appointed for mortals to die once, and after that the judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.”

It’s not fair that Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, took upon Himself the punishment for our sin.

It’s not fair.

And that is what makes it gracious.

Because it is an act of God’s love and mercy for you—not because we have done anything to deserve it, but because God is good and gracious and loving and merciful.

This is good news.

It turned out to be very good news for the Muslim, for the Buddhist, and it is good news for you and me.

Week after week, prayer after prayer, time of engagement with God’s Word, we are told how much God loves us. And He proved it to us through His own sacrifice upon the cross, dealing with sin once for all of eternity.

How good He is to make us know this.

How good He is to place this Gospel, this good news, upon our lips.

May we go forth this week, and every week, praising the Lord, singing His praise and His worthiness, and sharing it with all who will hear, that they too may know the graciousness, the goodness, and the love of God.

Let’s pray.

Heavenly Lord, we thank You so much for Your grace.

We thank You for the grace on display for us on the cross, as You bore the punishment for our sin.

Lord, we thank You that though it is not fair, it is part of Your eternal justice. It is part of Your eternal mercy that You would indeed demand payment for our sin, but that in Your love, You would step in and take that payment, or make that payment, on our behalf.

Thank You, Lord, for this good news.

Let it sustain us and hold us ever in Your grace.

We thank You and we praise You in the name of Jesus Christ.

Amen.

I leave you with a beautiful benediction from Hebrews, the 13th chapter, beginning in verse 20:

“Now may the God of peace who brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, make you complete in every good, so that you may do his will, as he works among us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.”

I look forward to worshiping this awesome Jesus on Sunday.

Until then, God bless.

Pastor Malinak