WATCHWORD:
He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we may become the righteousness of God in Him. 2 Corinthians 5:21
Meditation:
Deliberate and Determined
“Pastor, you’re talking about Jesus, right? The ‘He’ you quoted from the Bible, that’s Jesus. This is something I simply do not understand. I don’t care how many times you preach, it makes no sense. I’ve not been a good person, and you don’t know the half of it. You once told me about someone who called himself the ‘chief of sinners.’ Well, I can match his record. When I was a kid, I stole from the collection plate. How about that? You should see my record at school, the times that I’ve cursed my teacher? How could Jesus possibly know all the sins that I have committed, then waste his life in a foolish act of forgiveness? Let alone for me. Because, you know what, I just go on sinning.”
“Stan, you’re absolutely right. You haven’t missed a thing. If Jesus died on that cross, a horrible death, an agonizing death, for sins committed throughout the world; the cruelty, killing, lying, harming others, and the world goes on, repeating it over and over, throughout the centuries, one could say it was a waste. Let me ask you something: Have you ever prayed?”
“Pastor, You’ve got to be kidding!”
“No, I’m not kidding, Stan. Let me ask this; what is the difference between sins, and sin?”
“Pastor, do you think I’m stupid. Of course, sins is plural of sin.”
“No, Stan, I don’t think you’re stupid. Follow me on this. You could say that the sins you have committed was doing things wrong in the eyes of God. In fact, you could say that it is deliberate and determined behaviors totally independent of God, no thought of God.”
“I suppose…”
“Stan, the passage I read uses the word ‘sin’, not plural, as you put it. In this case, you could say that sin is a mind-set, an attitude, sin that is not wrong doing, but wrong being…
“Now wait a minute…”
“Let me finish. When you behave with no thought of God, you are ‘wrong doing’, and you are on the wrong side of ‘being’, totally independent of God. Do you remember that part of the crucifixion, when Jesus died, and the curtain in the temple was torn top to bottom. That symbolizes a door opening between you and God, and you can just walk right in, and open your heart to Him. He already knows all that stuff you’ve done. Your role is to want to change. And you ask, Help me, God. And guess what? It’s done. Now you are on the right side of being. Give it a try. What have you got to lose, Stan? Go with God.”
Not all of that is me, this Stan, but some of that could be. Oswald Chambers, in a recent devotional said: “It is revealed throughout the Bible that our Lord took on himself the sin of the world through identification with us, not through sympathy for us. He deliberately took on his shoulders, and endured in his own body the complete and cumulative sin of the human race. He made him who knew no sin to be sin for us and by doing so he placed salvation for the entire human race solely on the basis of redemption. Jesus Christ reconciled the human race, putting it back to where God designed it to be.”
For someone new coming to the Lord, it seems like a complicated idea, until you give your confusion to Him, and it becomes clear, and it seems so right, and so blessed. And we, you and I, are all recipients of that blessed, miraculous, act of God. Praise the Lord. Amen.
Praying Psalm 51:
Heavenly Father, create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.Open my lips, Lord, and my mouth will declare your praise. You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise. I pray in the Name of Jesus. Amen.
