Jesus Showed Up So that Sin Could Be given Up

What Did Jesus Do?

You know that he appeared to take away sin.
I John 3:5

Patient (Moving painfully): “Gee, doctor, it always hurts when I do this. What do you think?”

Doctor (Sighing out of frustration): “I think you should stop doing that.”

If we are told that our recurring headaches result from caffeine intake, maybe we should try cutting out the coffee and the cokes, you think? If our practice of jogging five miles every day leaves our knees so sore we can hardly walk afterwards, it might be time to substitute swimming in our exercise routine. If we wonder why God seems so far away from us, the reason is almost certainly sin. Might it be possible that sin is getting in the way between us and a relationship with the Father? Hmmm.

It’s like this, the Father hates sin, cannot abide the presence of sin. His moral code (the Law) is absolutely opposed to sin; sin is, in a word, lawlessness (1 John 3:4). Fortunately, Jesus showed up so that sin could be given up. Don’t get me wrong, there hasn’t been a single Christian, nor will there ever be one, other than the Lord himself, who never sins. The question is, what do we do with the reality of our sin? Do we deny it? That’s not going to fool anyone, least of all God. Do we struggle to overcome it on our own? Epic fail ahead! Or do we just go ahead and keep on sinning, while pointing to the Cross and saying, “See, I’ve been forgiven”? It is impossible to do this while claiming to truly know the Lord.

If we truly know Jesus, know the reason why he came into the world, know of his perfect obedience to the Law and of his love for the Father, and know the brutal facts of why and how he died, then our sin should be absolutely repugnant to us. If we truly know Jesus, then we realize that for each of our sins a drop of his precious blood was shed for us on the cross. How could we just go on doing that which we know hurts the One who loved us so much that he died in our place? John spells it out plainly enough, “No one who abides in Jesus keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen Jesus or known Jesus.” (1 John 3:6) Again, it’s not that Christians don’t sin, it’s that Christians are forgiven. And, knowing the price of our forgiveness, we bring the sin in our life, which we now hate for love of Jesus, regardless of how much pleasure our sin may give us for a season, to the Cross, where we give it to the Lord.

In writing to the Church, John was/is addressing those who know, or who should know, better than to think that a relationship with Jesus is possible while continuing to sin, to disobey the Law of God. The Church in John’s time had fallen prey to false teachers who so spiritualized the work of Christ that they argued that sin didn’t matter any more. We must remember that Jesus died to free us from sin, not to free us to sin. If we are truly a part of God’s family, are the Father’s children, and abide now and forever in a relationship with the Father and the Son, than our lives should become more and more a reflection of the Father’s righteousness in and through the Son, and less and less the evidence of our unrighteousness apart from Jesus.

In just a couple of days (January 6) the Church celebrates the Epiphany of the Lord (epiphany means “appearing”). What better time could there be to give our sins to Jesus, who “appeared to take away sins”?

Christian (Confessing painfully): “Gee, Lord, it always hurts [you], when I sin. What do you think?”

Jesus (Sobbing out of compassion): “I think you should give your sins to me.”

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4