Expunged – Acts 13:38-39

Acts 13:38-39 “Therefore, my friends, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. ³⁹Through him everyone who believes is set free from every sin, a justification you were not able to obtain under the law of Moses.

My heart warms when people are willing to listen to the truth. I don’t care whether it is truth about how the way RNA and DNA interact with each other, or the Truth about God. When someone is willing to leave folly, shallow and selfish thinking, and embrace the world as it actually is, rather than as they would like it to be, I feel some hope for humanity.

I feel hope because all truth is a result of God’s Truth. He is the author of and source of everything that is true. Truth can be discovered without a relationship with the LORD, but not without His help. He created our intelligence and our drive for knowledge, so He is the One that gave us the ability to discover. And we use that ability pretty well, at least until truth bumps up against our sinful, selfish nature, then sin wins.

Our text recounts an address made by Paul, one of the leaders of the early Church. He, along with Barnabas, have been sent out with the objective of bringing Jesus to non-Jewish peoples. He is in the city of Pisidian Antioch, a prominent Roman city with ties to the royal family. This is a city of influence in that region.

The two verses of our text quoted above give the summary, the BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front) of their message. The old way of relating to God has come to an end. It didn’t work, and it has been retired from the inventory. Although it might have helped in the process in the past, due to the current solution, all trainer models are declared obsolete due to user error.

Sin has been dealt with in a manner that seems unusual. Someone has died to pay the death penalty that we all incurred. And because that someone was eternal, the extent of the penalty payment is eternal. And this is the recovery method that Jesus provides.

Forgiveness of sins is still a big deal. Just ask anyone who is facing a crisis like the discovery of an affair. The world as they know it has been destroyed. Restoration is the desired option, but sin stands in the way. Just how can the sin issue be solved? Forgiveness. But it is harder than expected, and the road to restoration is longer and more painful than first predicted.

Our text states that forgiveness of sin is provided by Jesus. And the road to that forgiveness comes when we believe that His payment is enough for us. There are no limits to that forgiveness. Every sin is included. Freedom from them has already been proclaimed. We just need to walk it out.

And this change in our status brought about by Jesus death and resurrection is something that the Mosaic Law could not provide. Remember, it was only the tutor. It couldn’t take the test for us. The Law taught us in part what forgiveness looked like, but it didn’t actually provide any forgiveness.

But now in Jesus, we are able to stand before God just as if we had always obeyed His requirements. When He looks at our criminal record, He sees Jesus record of obedience. The Law could never do this. The sacrifices were temporary placeholders until Jesus’ death was accomplished. Now that Jesus’ death has happened, the ‘get out of jail free’ cards are no longer accepted.

This is the message Paul preached, maybe not with these modern word pictures, but in language that they understood in his day. So, are we willing to have our record expunged and it replaced with Jesus’ record of obedience?