The Sending Away

John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. (Mark 1.4 NASB)

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are oppressed… (Luke 4.18 NASB)

And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you; for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins. (Matthew 26.27-28 NASB)

And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. (Hebrews 9.22 NASB)

Forgiveness can be a tricky word. At least our understanding of it. Intrinsic to the common understanding of the word is the idea of pardon, of being excused from an offense.

Is this what Jesus came to do? To offer humanity a pardon from sin? An absolution? To excuse us from sin’s offense and protect us from his Father’s supposed wrath? Or did the forgiveness he came to bring include something deeper and more wonderful: the sending away of sin itself!

In the above verses from the Bible all translate the Greek word, aphesis (a noun), as forgiveness save for Luke.In Luke’s reference the same word appears twice in the passage and is translated both release and set free, meanings that amplify the literal sense of the word. For aphesis denotes a release from bondage or imprisonment. The verb form, aphiemi, means to send away, let go and was used by Jesus on the Cross when he uttered, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” It’s as if he were imploring his Father to release us from the wrong of crucifying the Blameless One, desiring the sin to be sent away from humanity.

Prevailing orthodoxy has it that God is obligated to punish sin, that the Old Testament perspective of an “eye for an eye” yet prevails and not even God can wiggle out from under the Law’s demands. The best he can do to rescue fallen humanity is take the penal sentence we deserve and lay it on his Son.

The problem with this supposed arrangement is threefold. 

First, there is nothing “just” in punishing an innocent person for the wrongs of the guilty. No court in America allows one person to stand in for the guilt of another. Justice is by no way served by such a substitution. If anything, justice is perverted. And if a human court shudders at such an unjust proposal, how much more the perfect judgement of God!

Secondly, it does the guilty party no good to be let off the hook by someone else taking the rap for his or her crime. 

The goal of all divine punishment is redemptive in nature. God wants us to choose goodness and reject evil. Facing the consequences of our wrong choices helps move us in such a direction.

Picture a family in which there are two sons. One has been sent home from school for stealing from a fellow student. It isn’t the first such incident. His parents decide on a course of discipline in keeping with their objective to discourage such behavior. As the boy is stubborn and has a deeply rebellious nature, the punishment is stern, meant to impart a lesson not soon forgotten and urge him towards a better course of conduct. Yet his brother, whose heart is soft and well-intentioned, appeals to the parents to lay his brother’s punishment on him. With an understanding smile the parents decline, for they know that no transformation of character is likely to be achieved on the part of the guilty son if he escapes the consequences of his poor choices.

Third, and perhaps the objection that eludes so many, is the mistaken notion that God is not free to forgive without exacting penal retribution. As our Lord’s own brother says, “…mercy triumphs over judgment.” (James 2.13)

So then, what is to be done about sin? What does God’s forgiveness of sin look like, this sending of it away as the verb of the Greek word, aphiemi, implies?

Does not John the Baptist provide us with insight?

John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. (Mark 1.4 NASB)

Repentance, a change of heart, is what God desires. Forgiveness is the natural inclination of his Father heart. The moment his child turns from the wrong—be it in motive or act—to do what is right the doorway of forgiveness bursts open.

But what, you challenge, if the wrong be so great as rejecting God himself?

This sin too must be sent away as must every sin, small or great, until the child of God be like his Lord in thought, word and deed. It is no good for sin to be pardoned if the child is left in such a dreadful state as to have wrongness resident in him. Did not Jesus clearly command it should be otherwise? Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5.48)

And in pursuit of this perfection we moment-by-moment grow closer when, in submission to the Lordship of Jesus, we grasp the help he so willingly offers and begin to slay the sin in us, sending it away by denying it the right to work death in us, dying with Christ Jesus that we might also live with him saying, together with Paul, I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. (Galatians 2.20)

Jesus himself gives us clear direction, illustrating that ours is not a passive role but one that follows the example he rendered in the Garden of Gethsemane: If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. (Mark 8:34)

My purpose in writing this brief essay is not to deny or diminish the forgiveness of our sins by Christ’s atoning death. In no way! For I delight in what Jesus has done for us and the joy it brings to my own heart! Yes, without his death and resurrection I would count myself forever lost in my sin. My aim is only to encourage a deeper understanding of God’s priorities: the sending away of sin out of his universe over that of penal retribution. Of redemption over judgment. Of love’s ultimate victory.

God’s objective is family reconciliation, the making of sons and daughters in the image of Jesus Christ, our example and Lord who shows us the way home to our birthplace, God’s Father heart. The process of achieving this wondrous objective involves an active partnership—the will of every individual yielding to the will of God by the power of the Spirit of Christ in them—in sending sin away until the entire universe is, at long last, full of rightness to the glory of God! 

~m