In Charles Dicken’s classic novel “A Tale of Two Cities” the character Charles Darnay is sentenced to die. He didn’t actually do anything wrong, but the story takes place during the French Revolution, which was a dangerous time for many people. Darnay went to Paris in spite of all the chaos because someone needed his help, and while he was there he was arrested and condemned to die because of the crimes of his aristocrat ancestors. Darnay didn’t have much hope. Neither did his wife or his daughter or his friends.
But Sydney Carton had a plan. He’s another important character throughout the book, and unlike Darnay he wasn’t all that upstanding of a person. He didn’t have a wife or children. He’d wasted a lot of his life with laziness and alcoholism. But he looked like he could be Charles Darnay’s identical twin.
And so he finally found a purpose in life. He visited Darnay in the prison the night before his execution and tricked him into switching places. Charles Darnay was free, and Sydney Carton went to the guillotine, with the knowledge that he had saved a good man from dying.
Charles Dickens put a lot of Christian thought and symbolism into his stories, and so I wonder if he had in mind our text from Romans when he wrote this. What an amazing thing it is for a man to sacrifice himself for another! Even for a good man like Charles Darnay, for Sydney Carton to give up his own life is a selfless act that defies belief. But what if it was the other way around? What if it was the good-for-nothing drunk who was sentenced to die? Who would die for him? Who would die for the sinner?
The Apostle Paul answers that in his letter to the Romans. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Last week we heard from Romans 8 where Paul asks the question, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” Indeed, he shows us how as we face trial and temptation and suffering in this world we do not need to be dismayed, because nothing can separate us from the love of Christ.
Today we’re backing up in that same letter to the Romans so that we can consider a bit more just what that love of Christ looks like, both in the past, and right now, as we stand before God.
Paul’s letter contrasts the saving love of God for us in Jesus, which gives us true righteousness as a gift, with the idea that somehow, by our own actions, we can become righteous before God. We all have this idea ingrained in us that it’s important to be a good person. We all understand that Charles Darnay is a good and honorable man who doesn’t deserve to die. And we might feel sorry for Sydney Carton, especially at the end, but we also all agree that it was not good for him to spend his life on selfishness and laziness and drunkenness.
But before God we’re all sinners, the Sydney Cartons and the Charles Darnays. We have inherited sin from our ancestors. We’ve also committed many sins of all kinds. God doesn’t demand that we be pretty good people. He demands that we be perfect, as our Heavenly Father is perfect. Every sin, no matter how small, is a rejection of him. It’s a slap to his face. It’s cutting the tether, the lifeline, that holds us to the one who gives us life. It isn’t an unjust verdict at all that leaves us in this life with the guillotine casting its shadow across the bars of our window. Death is the just punishment for sin.
But Paul says,
At the appointed time, while we were still helpless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7It is rare indeed that someone will die for a righteous person. Perhaps someone might actually go so far as to die for a person who has been good to him. 8But God shows his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Would you die for someone else? That question is one that is hard for us to grapple with, because it’s not the sort of thing we have to consider very often. And I also know that just because I might say, “Yes, I would die for you,” it doesn’t mean that in the moment where I actually have to follow through on that decision I would feel the same way. I don’t know what I would do. Maybe I would become a coward. Maybe I would hesitate, just a little too long. Maybe I’d be haunted by regret for the rest of my life.
As Paul says, it really is a rare thing for someone to die for someone else. And in those rare cases there’s probably some reason. You’ve been so good to me. Charles Darnay always treated Sydney Carton so well. Carton could easily reason that Darnay’s life was worth more than his. In fact, Carton’s life had little meaning until now, until he made this sacrifice.
But God’s love is not that kind of love. The horrible death that Jesus died on the cross was suffered for people who fully deserved it. The hell that Jesus faced was in fact the hell that my sins had earned. And it wasn’t a lesser man giving his life meaning by sacrificing himself for someone better than himself. It was the holy Son of God who gives all life its meaning who sacrificed himself for sinners, for us.
And so what does this mean for us now? What does a guy like Charles Darnay do when certain death has been averted, when someone else went to his grave so that he could live? It probably makes him look at life a little differently, don’t you think? And that’s what happens with us too. When we know what Jesus has done, what he has accomplished for us, giving us his life and righteousness by his death and resurrection, then our view of life changes too. Paul says,
9Therefore, since we have now been justified by his blood, it is even more certain that we will be saved from God’s wrath through him. 10For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, it is even more certain that, since we have been reconciled, we will be saved by his life. 11And not only is this so, but we also go on rejoicing confidently in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received this reconciliation.
Back in the days of the Old Testament people were saved the same way that we are. We’re saved by grace through faith. God gives to us the forgiveness of sins and perfect righteousness for the sake of his Son. The only difference between us now and the people who lived back then is that they hadn’t seen it yet. They knew God’s promises but they hadn’t seen the fulfillment of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem, or his baptism in the Jordan River, or his ministry full of teaching of the kingdom of heaven and healing every disease. They didn’t have, like us, the opportunity to read those eyewitness accounts of how he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, and how the crowd shouted “Crucify him!,” and how darkness shrouded him as he hung from the cross.
Oh how blest it is to know, were as scarlet my transgression.
It shall be as white as snow, by your blood and bitter passion.
(“Jesus Sinners Does Receive”, CW 304, Erdmann Neumeister)
We do know these things. We’ve seen them recorded in Scripture. Jesus’ sacrifice for us isn’t just theoretical. It happened just as God said. He did not hesitate. He did not turn away. He did not fail in his promise.
And we’ve also seen how Jesus rose from the dead. We’ve seen how he claimed us as his own when we were baptized in his name. How can we doubt then that God’s wrath has been appeased? How can we doubt when he says he will be with us always? How can we doubt that all things are used by him for our eternal good? How can we doubt his promise to bring us with him to life everlasting?
Hold onto that cross of Jesus. That cross is God’s love for you. Hold onto it when you’re suffering. Hold onto it when the devil tempts you and accuses your conscience. Hold onto it when death looms over you. By his death on the cross Jesus has redeemed you from death, has paid for your sins, has won for you the kingdom of heaven. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. We have been justified by faith. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.
— Pastor Seth Georgson