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.
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.
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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