Freedom From Sin (October 2011)

Last month we saw how God’s word condemns sin, so the word became flesh in Jesus so God could offer us grace without denying who God is. And God IS, we can be sure of that. But sin also ‘is,’ so the question is how we avoid the hopelessness of it all. Now it’s time to focus on the conquering of sin–for three months! The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit all play a part. We can’t go any further if we don’t acknowledge that Jesus has conquered the finality of, and the death associated with, sin. 

It is a cancer. It’s a plague. But its days are assuredly numbered.

John the Baptist calls Jesus the lamb who takes away the world’s sin (Jn 1:29), a reference to the Jewish sacrificial system of removing the guilt of, or paying for, sin. And in Jesus, according to Paul, we should see ourselves as dead to sin because of Jesus; that is, set free from the death it brings (Rom 6:11, 18)! Death is sometimes a hateful, terrifying prospect (even when we know as a follower of Christ that death is not the gruesome end of our relationships with God and other believers)–maybe because on this side it seems so final. We remember losing loved ones. We remember the feeling of ‘never’ getting to see them again. And we remember how they, like us, had hopes of things they could have still done without death’s cold embrace.

And maybe that’s what we fear in death: not the moment or its coming but the separation of our lives from the hopes for the future. We dread the loss. In America it can be hard for us to contemplate what freedom means, since we are so free compared to the rest of the world. We appreciate that freedom, and yet we can become dulled to the cost of that freedom. We do not often think about its loss, not when the USA is at its strength. But events like 9-11 and the tragedy of New Orleans serve to remind us that nothing is permanent, we are not untouchable, and we will all one day be faced with loss. The schedule is not our own. But the hope, the peace we have because of Jesus, is.

That peaceful hope is indestructible, not manipulated by others or world events, and is based not on our goodness but on God’s greatness! Jesus took a ‘game over’ sign that hung around our necks like a millstone and tore it in half, once for all, and welcomed us into the biggest party the world has even known. Sin? Nah, I’m good–I’ve got another invitation. “God, in the power of Your Holy Spirit, mold me more and more into the image of Jesus.”