Episode 5

Day 5: We Can’t Fix Sin—Grace in Light of the Cross

We wrap up week one of In Light of the Cross by looking at sin as a problem we can’t fix ourselves and why we need God’s grace. After praying, we read Ephesians 2:1–10 and focus on Paul’s point that we were dead in sin and saved by grace through faith, not by works. We use a story from Master and Commander to show why “trying harder” can’t solve sin, and we connect this to Genesis 3:21 where God clothes Adam and Eve with skins, pointing ahead to sacrifice and ultimately Jesus. We talk about confession as a practice that deepens fellowship with God, not a work that earns salvation, and we end by thanking God for grace and praying the Lord’s Prayer.

00:00 Week Recap and Focus

00:58 Prayer and Scripture Reading

03:05 Grace Not Self Repair

05:08 Genesis Covering and Sacrifice

07:26 Why Works Cannot Pay

08:43 Confession and Ongoing Grace

11:08 Application Gratitude Practice 1

1:59 The Lord's Prayer Closing

Transcript

Nathan Beasley: 00:00:00

welcome back to another episode of In Light of the Cross.

: 00:00:03

It is week one, day five, and

this week we've been exploring

: 00:00:07

sin in light of the cross.

: 00:00:10

So we began day one with talking about

how sin is breaking the command of God and

: 00:00:16

it's betraying our relationship with God.

: 00:00:19

And then we explored how sin is.

: 00:00:21

And not just that, but it's

actually siding with the enemy.

: 00:00:25

It's siding with Satan.

: 00:00:27

And then yesterday we talked about how

sin is forfeiting the life that God

: 00:00:32

intended for us, the good life, and how

we feel this in various ways through

: 00:00:36

brokenness, with our relationship,

with God, with others, with ourselves,

: 00:00:40

and even with all of creation.

: 00:00:44

as we wrap up this week, we want to

explore how we can't save ourselves.

: 00:00:49

We've got this huge problem.

: 00:00:52

In fact, we've got the biggest problem

and how we need God's grace for it.

: 00:00:58

So let's just begin here with a minute,

as we've done to send ourselves,

: 00:01:03

begin with the word of prayer.

: 00:01:04

Invite the spirit into our time

And prepare ourselves to receive

: 00:01:08

what God has for us this morning.

: 00:01:10

wherever you're at, we want

to invite you to pray now.

: 00:01:26

As we move into our time of reflection,

I'm going to begin by reading Ephesians

: 00:01:30

chapter two verses one through 10.

: 00:01:34

This is Paul writing here,

speaking to the Church of Ephesus.

: 00:01:39

He says, as for you.

: 00:01:41

You were dead in your transgressions

and sins in which you used to live when

: 00:01:48

you followed the ways of this world

and of the ruler of the kingdom of

: 00:01:53

the air, the spirit who is now at work

and those who are disobedient, all of

: 00:01:59

us also lived among them at one time,

gratifying the cravings of our flesh

: 00:02:04

and following its desires and thoughts.

: 00:02:07

Like the rest.

: 00:02:08

We were by nature deserving of wrath.

: 00:02:12

But because of his great love for

us, God who is rich in mercy, made

: 00:02:16

us alive with Christ even when

we were dead in transgressions.

: 00:02:20

It is by grace.

: 00:02:22

You have been saved and God raised us

up with Christ and seeded us with him

: 00:02:26

in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.

: 00:02:29

In order that in the coming age, he might

show the incomparable riches of his grace.

: 00:02:35

Expressed in his kindness

to us in Christ Jesus.

: 00:02:39

For it is by grace.

: 00:02:40

You have been saved through faith,

and this is not from yourselves.

: 00:02:45

It is the gift of God, not by

works so that no one can boast.

: 00:02:50

For we are God's handiwork created in

Christ Jesus to do good works, which God

: 00:02:57

has prepared in advance for us to do.

: 00:03:01

Amen.

: 00:03:02

Daniel Jepsen: Amen.

: 00:03:02

That's a great passage.

: 00:03:03

Thanks for reading that.

: 00:03:05

and that's gonna introduce our main theme

here for this podcast episode is that

: 00:03:10

sin is a problem not only because of all

the things it brings, the alienation,

: 00:03:16

the death, the disruption, uh, all

of that, but because we can't fix it.

: 00:03:23

Nathan Beasley: Yeah,

: 00:03:23

Daniel Jepsen: we can't fix it.

: 00:03:25

We need grace.

: 00:03:26

We need God to fix it for us.

: 00:03:29

one of my favorite movies is

called Master and Commander.

: 00:03:32

Have you ever seen that movie?

: 00:03:33

Nathan Beasley: I don't know if I have.

: 00:03:34

Daniel Jepsen: Okay.

: 00:03:35

Well, it's set around 1812.

: 00:03:37

So it's during the Great Wars, during

the Napoleonic era between France

: 00:03:42

and England and an English, ship.

: 00:03:44

Is out on the Pacific and

they're very much isolated.

: 00:03:47

So there aren't any ports around,

there aren't any other ships around.

: 00:03:51

And there are two main

characters on the ship.

: 00:03:53

One is the captain and

the other is the doctor.

: 00:03:57

And so it explores their friendship and

the tension between them and what happens.

: 00:04:01

And in one of the great scenes in this,

the doctor is accidentally shot by

: 00:04:06

someone who's trying to shoot or bird,

um, but the doctor gets shot on accident.

: 00:04:12

but there's no one else in

the crew that can perform the

: 00:04:15

surgery to remove the bullet.

: 00:04:17

And so what they do is they go ashore

on this deserted island and they set up

: 00:04:21

a, a tent, and then he instructs someone

to hold the mirror in a certain way.

: 00:04:26

Someone else to hand him tools and he

actually performed surgery on himself.

: 00:04:31

And that's something sometimes

what we think we can do.

: 00:04:34

Well, yeah, we sin, we

know it's a problem.

: 00:04:36

We make mistakes, but we're gonna fix

it by trying harder, by doing better.

: 00:04:41

The problem is, according to the

passage you just read, Ephesians

: 00:04:44

chapter two, we are not injured people.

: 00:04:47

We are corpses.

: 00:04:49

A corpse can't do surgery on itself.

: 00:04:52

We are dead in our trespasses and sin.

: 00:04:55

And so that's why Paul emphasizes

we were by nature objects of wrath.

: 00:04:59

We were dead in our trespasses and

our sins, but God, because of his

: 00:05:04

great love for us, saved us by grace.

: 00:05:08

And you even see that right there

in the Genesis story, don't you?

: 00:05:12

So you talked to last time, after

Adam and Eve sinned, they felt shame.

: 00:05:16

They felt guilt before God.

: 00:05:18

They hid before God and then they hid

their bodies from each other by clothing.

: 00:05:23

They sewed fig leaves together

some sort of leaves together.

: 00:05:28

And what does God do after God says

this is what their sin will bring.

: 00:05:35

God does something.

: 00:05:37

Nathan Beasley: Yeah, the

Lord God made garments.

: 00:05:40

Of skin for Adam and his

wife, Eve and clothed them.

: 00:05:43

Chapter 3 21 says

: 00:05:45

Daniel Jepsen: right now,

why garments of skin?

: 00:05:48

Why weren't their efforts to

create their own coverings enough?

: 00:05:53

Well, we're not told exactly here,

but if you read the rest of the

: 00:05:56

scripture, it becomes pretty obvious

that this is gonna point toward the

: 00:06:00

animal sacrifice that God would use

as a substitute to cover their sins.

100

: 00:06:06

That was in place during the Old Testament

Mosaic law, which also, which pointed by

101

: 00:06:11

itself to Jesus the ultimate sacrifice.

102

: 00:06:16

An innocent creature had its bloodshed

to cover their guilt and their sin

103

: 00:06:21

that they could not do themselves.

104

: 00:06:24

That's grace, and we don't have to

know all the ways that the cross works.

105

: 00:06:30

But the main thing you see right

here at the very beginning in Genesis

106

: 00:06:34

chapter three, is that God is the one

who has to deal with the sin problem.

107

: 00:06:39

God is the one.

108

: 00:06:40

It can't be us.

109

: 00:06:42

'cause we're dead.

110

: 00:06:43

We're the ones stuck in

the pit with no way out.

111

: 00:06:46

We need someone from above to send down

a rope or some other way to save us.

112

: 00:06:53

Nathan Beasley: it's amazing

that in Genesis chapter three,

113

: 00:06:56

God just covers their bodies.

114

: 00:06:58

But then the way this points to Jesus,

it's more of just the physical covering.

115

: 00:07:03

Daniel Jepsen: Yeah,

116

: 00:07:03

Nathan Beasley: it's a full, full

spiritual covering, so to speak.

117

: 00:07:06

Daniel Jepsen: Mm-hmm.

118

: 00:07:07

Nathan Beasley: It blots out.

119

: 00:07:09

It covers us at the blood of

Jesus covers us in all of our sin.

120

: 00:07:15

Daniel Jepsen: Yeah.

121

: 00:07:15

Right there.

122

: 00:07:15

At the very beginning, God's

telling us, look, you have a big

123

: 00:07:20

sin problem, but the way that that's

gonna be handled has to be from me.

124

: 00:07:26

So it's not us trying to work harder,

trying to do better, trying to balance

125

: 00:07:31

out our bad things with our good things.

126

: 00:07:34

That's never gonna work.

127

: 00:07:36

If I commit a serious crime, and

I go before the judge, he says,

128

: 00:07:39

you are found guilty of this.

129

: 00:07:40

You have to pay the penalty.

130

: 00:07:42

Here's what the law says of the penalty.

131

: 00:07:44

I can't say yeah, but think of all the

other good things I've done in my life.

132

: 00:07:49

Or, yeah, but I'm gonna try to work really

hard to do more good things in my future.

133

: 00:07:55

That's irrelevant to the case.

134

: 00:07:57

There is something that has to be paid.

135

: 00:08:01

the point being that we can't balance

it out simply by our own efforts.

136

: 00:08:05

Sin is a problem that only God

can deal with, and he does.

137

: 00:08:10

Nathan Beasley: Hmm.

138

: 00:08:13

Daniel Jepsen: So as we look at sin

in light of the cross, one of the

139

: 00:08:17

things that we see is a huge problem.

140

: 00:08:19

It is.

141

: 00:08:20

It is such a big deal that it

required nothing less than the

142

: 00:08:25

death of God's perfect son to fix.

143

: 00:08:29

And it's something we can't do ourselves,

and that's why God had to do it.

144

: 00:08:34

Send his son to die in our place.

145

: 00:08:37

He saves us by grace, not by works.

146

: 00:08:43

Nathan Beasley: So as we move to a time

of application, confession is not a work.

147

: 00:08:49

Daniel Jepsen: No.

148

: 00:08:49

Nathan Beasley: It's not something

that if we do this, then God will

149

: 00:08:53

give us grace and forgiveness.

150

: 00:08:55

Daniel Jepsen: Right.

151

: 00:08:58

Nathan Beasley: rather it's a practice of

recognizing the ways that we are still.

152

: 00:09:02

In this broken, sinful state.

153

: 00:09:05

We've got one foot in

each camp, so to speak.

154

: 00:09:07

Daniel Jepsen: Yeah.

155

: 00:09:08

Nathan Beasley: We've been saved

just as the Israelites were brought

156

: 00:09:11

out of Egypt and the Exodus, but we

know that even though they had been

157

: 00:09:15

removed from a place physically.

158

: 00:09:17

They still had habits that were

In Light of the Cross

Episode 5

Day 5: We Can’t Fix Sin—Grace in Light of the Cross

Transcript

About the Podcast

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Daniel Jepsen

Nathan Beasley