This week, we are celebrating the greatest life that ever lived and the greatest death that ever died. There has never been, and there never will be, a greater life lived than the life of Jesus on the earth. And there has never been a more important death, nor will there ever be a more important death, than the death which Jesus died — all of which totally misses the point unless you know something else first. A great life lived and a great death died have little significance unless you know something else first.

What You Already Know

What has moved me as I’ve reflected on this evening is that all of you know exactly what you need to know concerning what must come before, to make the living of that life and the dying of that death mighty and powerful. You all know.

It is remarkable how the Bible confronts us with what we already know. Listen to these words from Romans 1 and see if they are not true for you.

The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they [everybody] knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images . . . (Romans 1:18–23)

And I would add, “especially the one in the mirror.” Isn’t that amazing? There is not a person in this room who does not know God profoundly. There is not a person in this room who does not know that God is to be honored and God is to be thanked. He is infinitely honorable, and he has given us everything that we have. He is to be honored, and he is to be thanked.

There is not a person in this room who does not know that you have failed to honor him and thank him for anything near what he deserves. Those are great facts, and everybody knows them on the planet. Amazing. Do you know something else that comes before?

When you come to the end of Romans 1, it talks about how you know what all of this implies for you. All this knowledge and all this failure — you know. It says, “Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them” (Romans 1:32).

Do you hear what that means? Not only do we know God, not only do we know he is to be honored and thanked, not only do we know we have failed and fail every day — all of us — but we also know what the consequence is for us and for those who do them. Which means that in our minds we are not only suicidal, we are murderous because we approve of those who do them, knowing that the doing of them deserves death.

So, we go online and endorse the doing of sin. We go to the theater and endorse the doing of sin. We conspire with others to join them in sin and thus murder them and kill ourselves. Isn’t it amazing how much we know? You don’t need the Bible to know these things, the Bible says. But if you know this, then there’s something that you may not know that you need to know, and that is why this evening exists and why this table exists — to show you.

What You Need to Know

The first phrase of it is on the front of your worship folder:

Surely he has borne our griefs
     and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
     smitten by God, and afflicted
But he was pierced for our transgressions;
     he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
     and with his wounds we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
     we have turned — every one — to his own way. (Isaiah 53:4–6)

We know this. However, “the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6). We do not know that unless we’re told. That isn’t communicated through nature. That’s communicated in the gospel. It’s communicated tonight out of my mouth to you because God wants you to know that. This service did not begin with “God so loves the world” for nothing. Yes, the wrath of God is being poured out, but that’s not all God pours out.

The Christian Gospel

So the question now is, “Alright, innately, I know there’s a God. Innately, I know he is to be honored and thanked. Innately, I know I have failed; my conscience bears plenty of good witness. And now you’re telling me that there was a Messiah, a servant, a Son of Man, Son of God, who came into the world, and surely he has borne my griefs? Though I innately know that the penalty is my own judgment, you’re telling me that judgment fell upon him. You’re telling me that the curse that was upon me fell upon him, and the sins that I committed now have landed on him. The punishment I deserve went onto him. Is that what you’re telling me?”

That’s exactly what I’m telling you. That is the Christian Gospel. If you ever wondered, “What’s the heart of Christianity?” it is the great exchange: my sin goes to him, his righteousness comes to me. He bears my punishment. I gain his reward. This is the gospel.

The urgent question in this room right now is, “So how do I get in on that? Will everybody be forgiven, or do you have to do something?” I’ll give you the answer with a verse from the Bible, preceded by just a little setting.

Receiving Jesus as the Great Doer

Some of you know this, some of you may not. Peter, as we heard, denied Jesus three times (John 18:15–27). He wept bitterly. Jesus forgave him (John 21:15–19). Peter became a great rock in the church, but it didn’t happen all at once.

Do you remember the time Peter was in the tanner’s house on the roof and the sheet came down in a vision filled with unclean animals, nonkosher animals? He’s Jewish, and the voice came, “Take and eat.” And Peter said, “I have never eaten anything that is unclean.” Three times that happened. ‘Take and eat, take and eat,” a voice from God, saying eat the unclean stuff. Then there was a knock at the door, and Gentiles were there — uncircumcised, unclean, Gentiles. You don’t eat with them, you don’t go with them. Then the voice said, “Go down. They’ve got a message.” And the message was, “Come with us because there’s a centurion named Cornelius, and God told him to get you to come preach to us so that we might be saved” (Acts 10:9–22).

Peter goes down there and walks into the house with these unclean individuals. He realizes, “Okay, that’s what the unclean animals represented. I’m supposed to no longer count anything unclean that God has cleansed. So I’m here among the Gentiles, sharing the gospel. It’s what I’m doing right now” (Acts 10:23–42).

Then the last thing Peter said in his message after he told the story of Jesus was, “To him,” referring to Jesus, “all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins” (Acts 10:43).

The answer: no, you don’t do anything to obtain it. You believe in something. Believing is different from doing because believing is banking on the actions of another. Jesus did something. We’re singing it, saying it, symbolizing it, proclaiming it. We’re just trying to position ourselves in the middle of it tonight. Jesus accomplished the great thing. He died the death we could never die for ourselves, and he lived the life we could never live for ourselves. He bore the punishment that was meant for us to bear, and he took the curse that was meant for us to be cursed with. He did the doing.

Now, all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in his name receives the benefits of all that. It becomes yours. You know why? Because believing in Jesus — receiving him as the great doer of all you need done for you that you can’t do — unites you to him. When you’re united with Jesus, all that he is, he is for you. All his forgiveness is your forgiveness. But if you stay away from him, this great achievement is not yours.

The Table Is for Believers

So there are people in this room who are at a critical moment because the only people, as the Bible says, who should eat and drink worthily are believers (1 Corinthians 11:27–29). We invite you to eat with us if you’re a believer in Jesus Christ. If you are not banking on yourself, somehow weighed in the scales, you won’t go down. You go up. Jesus is the only one who goes down on the scale of justice.

So the question now is, are you throwing yourself on him for mercy? Is he your only hope for forgiveness, for the fulfillment of all his promises to you, even eternal life? Or are you somehow banking on yourself, your tradition, your family, your achievements, your devotion, your pastoral role?

If your answer is “No, him alone,” then we welcome you to eat. If not, have integrity, and when the tray comes, just pass it by. But deal with God. Deal with God. You’re not here by accident. I can hardly even see you, so I can’t make any judgments about who’s here, let alone why you’re here. But God knows why you’re here, and it’s to hear these songs, this message, see this enacted, and be confronted with the most important news you’ve ever heard.