Sin and Singular
I am going to tell you something that may shock you. After you read it, please read on before you label me a heretic. I’ve chosen my words carefully. Here it is: Sin was not forgiven on the cross. Keep reading. I told you that I chose my words intentionally. I believe that sins were forgiven by the shed blood of Christ on the cross, but not sin. What’s the difference, you might ask? There is a monumental difference between sins and sin. Scripture makes the difference, and therefore so must we. An often misquoted verse is John 1:29 where John the Baptist sees Christ and says, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” Sometimes people mistakenly say “sins” there. John wasn’t talking about forgiveness. He could have said, “who forgives the sins of the world” and that would be true, but he didn’t. The thing is, sins can be forgiven, but sin cannot. By it’s very nature it cannot be forgiven.
Sins are either acts (or thoughts) committed that offend another party, or they are acts omitted that should have been done which offend another party. Sins are lying, stealing, murdering, coveting, etc… Forgiveness is when a person whom these acts have hurt decides to pardon the offender of the just consequences of those actions. But Sin (singular) is the very principle by which those acts are committed. Sin is the driving force behind sins. You can forgive a person for stealing money to pay for their addiction to heroin, but you don’t forgive the addiction. You have that person sent to rehab to get clean of it. Sin is like addiction. You don’t forgive it – you get rid of it. You take it away… “who takes away the sin of the world.”
Sins bring us guilt. We need to be forgiven so that guilt does not cripple us for life. God knows this. He’s been in the forgiving business for a long time. But he has begun a new thing with the Cross of Christ. He has been a Deliverer in the past, but not to the degree he is now through Jesus. Romans 8:3 tells us what he did. “He condemned sin in the flesh.” Sin was condemned. It was put away. It was taken away by the cross. Christians sin still. It’s a sobering thing to see what Believers in Jesus are still capable of, but they don’t have to. Before salvation, Sin was a supernatural force guiding life like puppet strings on a marionette. We danced whenever that nature moved its fingers. But the cross cut those strings. Simple belief in Jesus makes it true of every Babe in Christ. It takes a long time to realize it, after being used to sin having it’s way with us. But when you “reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin” you start to see what Jesus was up to when he chose to die for you. He wasn’t willing to simply forgive you and leave you just as prone to earn the right to ask for pardoning again! He wanted you to be free from sin.
You’ve probably had someone at some point in your life come up to you and ask you if you’ve seen their glasses. All the while those glasses are sitting on top of the head of this person, and you just have to laugh and tell them where they are. The truth of our new life in Christ is like that. We need to be told and retold and reminded and refocused on a regular basis. I need it. You need it. We all need it. When we are tripped up with sin, we need to forgive each other and remind each other of how free we are in Christ.
BJ
Sins are either acts (or thoughts) committed that offend another party, or they are acts omitted that should have been done which offend another party. Sins are lying, stealing, murdering, coveting, etc… Forgiveness is when a person whom these acts have hurt decides to pardon the offender of the just consequences of those actions. But Sin (singular) is the very principle by which those acts are committed. Sin is the driving force behind sins. You can forgive a person for stealing money to pay for their addiction to heroin, but you don’t forgive the addiction. You have that person sent to rehab to get clean of it. Sin is like addiction. You don’t forgive it – you get rid of it. You take it away… “who takes away the sin of the world.”
Sins bring us guilt. We need to be forgiven so that guilt does not cripple us for life. God knows this. He’s been in the forgiving business for a long time. But he has begun a new thing with the Cross of Christ. He has been a Deliverer in the past, but not to the degree he is now through Jesus. Romans 8:3 tells us what he did. “He condemned sin in the flesh.” Sin was condemned. It was put away. It was taken away by the cross. Christians sin still. It’s a sobering thing to see what Believers in Jesus are still capable of, but they don’t have to. Before salvation, Sin was a supernatural force guiding life like puppet strings on a marionette. We danced whenever that nature moved its fingers. But the cross cut those strings. Simple belief in Jesus makes it true of every Babe in Christ. It takes a long time to realize it, after being used to sin having it’s way with us. But when you “reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin” you start to see what Jesus was up to when he chose to die for you. He wasn’t willing to simply forgive you and leave you just as prone to earn the right to ask for pardoning again! He wanted you to be free from sin.
You’ve probably had someone at some point in your life come up to you and ask you if you’ve seen their glasses. All the while those glasses are sitting on top of the head of this person, and you just have to laugh and tell them where they are. The truth of our new life in Christ is like that. We need to be told and retold and reminded and refocused on a regular basis. I need it. You need it. We all need it. When we are tripped up with sin, we need to forgive each other and remind each other of how free we are in Christ.
BJ
posted by BJ at 3:38 PM
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