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Jesus took away sin! Where did it go?

8/28/2012

These well-known words of John the Baptist were captured in John 1:29, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" Such a profound truth. So where did sin go when Jesus took it away? Let's start by defining sin. From the Greek word, hamartia, it means missing the mark; fault; failure. So as we plug this into the statement from John the Baptist, it reads, 'Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the failure, fault, and missing the mark of the world.' Thanks to the blood of the Lamb, God no longer sees us as sinners. He no longer sees our faults, our failures. In Christ, we are saints. We are made righteous by the blood of the Lamb. Amen! :-)

The author of Hebrews wrote these words from the Holy Spirit, (10:17), "And their sins and lawless deeds I will remember no more."

As we look at the rest of Scripture in proper context we realize that God sent His Son to take the focus off of our self-efforts, faults, and failures and place the focus on Jesus. As we walk in Christ, with Christ as One, it is vital to remember to focus on the Spirit that lives inside us rather than the flesh that lives in the body.

In 2 Corinthians 5:17, Paul writes, "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature (creation); the old things passed away; behold, new things have come."
2 Corinthians 5:21, Paul continues, "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."

Through a process called spiritual circumcision, Christ has removed the body of the flesh. Paul captured this in Colossians 2:11-14, "and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross." Amen! :-)

In Colossians 3:1-3, Paul says, "Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God."

Paul is referring to being dead in our flesh (in Adam-the old self-sin-law) and being alive in the Spirit (In Christ-the new creation-grace). Paul goes into greater detail in Romans 6,7 & 8.

Romans 8 begins with, "Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh as an offering for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit."

In Romans 8:5-8, Paul wrote, "For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God."

The three truths of understanding in order to be established in grace and experience the power of the New Covenant:

1) Sin has been taken away by Jesus and not just covered.

One Sacrifice of Christ is Sufficient

Hebrews 10:1 "For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near.

Hebrews 10:9-18 "then He said, 'Behold, I have come to do your will.' He takes away the first in order to establish a second. By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time onward until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet. For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us; for after saying, 'This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord; I will put My laws upon their heart, and on their mind I will write them,' He then says, 'And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.' Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin."

2) We do not have sin in our hearts. We have a pure new heart as a new creation in the New Covenant. God cut away the body of our flesh and raised the inner man from the dead, quarantining the power of sin in the members of the physical body.

3) There is no focus on sin in the flesh in order to be changed. We focus on Jesus and in Him we discover our true identity.

2 Corinthians 3:18, Paul says, "But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit."

We bear eternal fruit by focusing on Jesus.

We have only one nature in Christ.

Romans 8:9-10 Paul says, "However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness."

The New Creation can only be understood or experienced in its fullness with a revelation of spiritual circumcision.

Jesus took away sin. As we remember who we are as new creations, the abundance of God's love will permeate our being and spread to those around us. God's grace has established us as righteous, holy saints as a new creation in Him. Let's walk in the reality that His grace has granted us. It is a free gift. Let's continually experience the liberty that He died to give us. Believe and receive the reality of what is already there, Christ in YOU! :-)

Thank you, Jesus!

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The Truth Will Set You Free! What is truth?

8/8/2012

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Many of us have been taught the phrase, "The truth will set you free", as a motivator for studying the Bible to know the Bible. The suggestion is that the more one knows about the Bible, the more free one can become. Biblical truth alone has no ability to bring about any change in our lives. The Pharisees knew the Bible well, but their knowledge of biblical content did nothing for them. What is defined as 'truth' is very important here. In John 8:32, Jesus said, "and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free." Six chapters later Jesus also said in John 14:6, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me." After reading John 14:6, we understand that in 8:32, Jesus is referring to Himself as the truth, "and you will know Me and I will make you free."

We don't study the Bible in order to learn it. We study it to learn Him. Many teachings exist today that focus on what we are to do rather than knowing our Savior more intimately. The emphasis is so heavy on religious performance and so light on Christ Himself. The focus of Christian living is not on doing the right things, it's about knowing Him intimately. All the doing flows freely from that relationship. His works flow through us as the Holy Spirit surrenders our will to His. When the focus is on doing the right things, we end up with nothing more than religious dead works, regardless of how admirable they may look to those around us.

Studying the Bible is not enough. Engaging with the Spirit of Christ through the Scripture is the true path to find real freedom. Paul wrote in
1 Corinthians 8:1-2, "Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies. If anyone supposes that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know" The truth will not set you free until you connect to the living truth (Jesus Christ) by faith. Eternal truth is personified in Christ, and by knowing Him, we are set free from the lies about ourselves, our lives, others, and even God. By intimately knowing the One who is the truth of the Father expressed to us, you will know that truth, and He certainly will set you free. Paul wrote these words in 2 Corinthians 3:17, "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." Amen! :-)

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Are we holy or do we become more holy? A sanctification clarification

8/2/2012

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How does a person become holy? Is it by something we do? Fasting, giving up bad habits, reading our Bibles, praying more? No! None of these will make us holy or more holy, because they are all based on what we do. Grace is about what God does. The definition of sanctification (holiness) is to be set apart by God. When we believe in Him, a transformation process begins at the moment we are born again. At that very moment, we are made holy in Christ. We are set apart by God for Himself and for His own purposes.

In 1 Corinthians 3:16-17, Paul writes, "Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are."

The reality is that you don't become holy by what you do, and you can't become more holy than you are right now. You have been set apart, and it's not possible for you to cause yourself to become "more set apart" than you already are.

The idea that one can grow in holiness fails to recognize the finished work of Christ on the cross. Holiness comes to you in the person of Jesus Christ.

Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 6:11, "Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God."

Truth is based on what God says. Let's not be thrown to and fro by our feelings or our actions. The truth is not determined by what we feel or how we behave. Remembering and recognizing who we really are in Christ will automatically change our feelings and our actions will display this awesome reality. It is not the other way around as many false teachings will suggest. Through this reality, a transformation process will take place and our lifestyles will change through the renewing of the mind.

Even though the behavior of the believers at the church in Corinth was sinful, Paul still referred to them as saints in 1 Corinthians 1:2, "To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, with all who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours:"

In 1 Corinthians 1:30, Paul reiterated that it was God's doing that they were in Christ, and that Christ is their sanctification. "But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption," These saints are already holy in God's eyes. And as a believer, so are YOU! Amen! :-)

In Hebrews 10:10, the author is explaining that one sacrifice of Christ is sufficient and that God took away the Old Covenant to establish the New, "By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all."

Let's look at Scripture that seems to point to seeking holiness. In Hebrews 12:14, "Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord." It seems the author is clearly advising us to pursue holiness. If we define pursuing sanctification as getting better and better at keeping rules, we will find ourselves right back in legalism, but we have already seen that rule-keeping is not the meaning of holiness.

To pursue it means that we act diligently to agree with God concerning what He has said about us, and we act like it's true because it is true! We have Jesus Christ, and He is our holiness. So we are pursuing sanctification or holiness when we are living out of the reality of His indwelling life. We grow in the expression of holiness in our thoughts and attitudes and even in our actions, but we don't become more and more holy. Our actions are catching up with our identity and we begin acting more and more like the person we already are in Christ. You are holy. This is what we are! Remember 1 Corinthians 3:16-17. Amen! :-)

When we affirm that Jesus Christ is our holiness and simply accept His finished work as the basis for our holiness, we honor the cross and the Christ who gave Himself for us so that we might be made holy. Remember you are a saint! :-)

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