Sin means – “missing the mark” of the holy standard of God. It is an archery term that means that the arrow missed the target. If the arrow missed the target by half an inch – that is a sin. If it missed it by 500 yards – that is a sin.
There are many sins – greed, selfishness, lust, idolatry (loving something or someone else more than God), stealing, gluttony, addictions of every sort, un-forgiveness, envy, taking God’s name in vain, adultery, lying, rage, slander, gossip, pride, self-righteousness, divisiveness, vanity, refusing to help those in need, apathy, hatred, bitterness, grudges, unbelief in God, disobeying God’s Word by doing something against it or by not doing something He asks us to do…. They all separate us far from the one and only holy God of the universe.
God is a holy God – yes He is Love – but He is also holy – He is pure and undefiled by sin. He cannot tolerate being in the presence of sin. It is completely filthy to Him – just like we would be appalled if someone made us a cake with poop in it. We wouldn’t be okay with even “just a little poop” being in the cake. Whether it was 2 pounds or 1/4 of a teaspoon – we would still be completely repulsed – as we should be. That would be disgusting! We would all want to start with a whole new uncontaminated cake before we would be willing to eat the smallest bite.
I know that was graphic – but God has a similar revulsion to sin. Although it is even nastier to Him than this illustration would be to us. Even “just a little” sin in our lives is a big issue for Him. He wants to start with a whole new life for us.
God REALLY hates us boasting about how good we are. We are not good in and of ourselves. We are all fallen apart from Jesus. Jesus Himself said, only God is good. We can’t be good enough on our own. Only perfection will do. That’s why we need His incredible gift so desperately. Accepting Jesus’ gift of forgiveness and payment for our incalculable sin debt creates gratitude and humility in our hearts – and those qualities are very beautiful in God’s sight.
When we were unable to do anything about our sinful and wretched condition and still dead spiritually in our sins, Jesus was willing to set aside His glory as God, take on a human body, live as a man, and then take on the unfathomable weight of the sin of the entire world onto His pure, undefiled, holy soul on the cross to pay the penalty that we deserved and that we earned.
He died the awful death I deserved.
He took all of my sin onto Himself and paid for it in full.
He offers to exchange all of His goodness and righteousness for all of my sinfulness.
God counts Jesus’ death as my death and His life as my life if I will receive it.
He gets what I deserve and I get what He deserves. That is not fair at all. That is GRACE!
He gave all for me.
Now I give all of myself to Him in gratitude to live the life He can empower me to live – He is now my Master. He is in control, not me. I seek His will far above my own. That is what it means for Him to be LORD.
He bore the colossal weight of every sin ever committed and overcame death to rescue us – if we will but accept His gift, put our trust and faith in Him, love Him with our whole hearts and live our lives surrendered to Him. We can’t earn this relationship! This is not a deal where I pray one prayer and then live however I want to live. This is a matter of me giving my whole life to Him to be used for His purposes from this point on. He gave all for me. He is willing to take our sin and the death we deserved in exchange for giving us His life, His right relationship with God, His holiness, His power, His heaven… WOW!
We deserved death. We deserved condemnation from a Holy God. But God loved us too much to leave us in that awful condition. He made a way for us to be made right with Him and to be able to have a relationship with Him. He destroyed our sinful nature through death on the cross in Christ and gives us a whole new nature in Jesus. We are a new creation in Him!
He desires to love us, lead us, cherish us, make us more and more like Him, to be one spirit with us, to know us intimately, for us to know Him deeply and to prepare us to be His radiant, sinless, spotless bride in heaven (Ephesians 5:27) – where a great wedding feast awaits all who love and trust in Him!
Admit you are a sinner and you can’t be perfect and holy enough in God’s eyes to be right with Him on your own.
Believe that Jesus died to pay the price for your sin and to give you a way to be right with God – to be forgiven.
Confess that Jesus is your Lord – this means, Jesus is now your Master and you live your life for Him and His glory rather than for yourself.
I pray that you might be sensitive to God’s Holy Spirit speaking to your heart today. I pray that you might be willing to confess every known sin in your heart to God today. I pray that you might ask Him to forgive you by the power of Jesus’ blood. There is no sin that Jesus’ blood cannot cleanse from our souls. I pray that you might repent (turn 180 degrees away from sin and toward Jesus) and live for Him from this day on!! This is how we throw off the weight of sin that entangles us!
When we come to Jesus and receive His incredible gift of grace, God counts my life as if I died with Jesus on the cross and was buried. I am now dead to my sin and my sinful self and this world. He counts it as if He gave me a new life when Jesus rose from the dead. Now, I am alive to God through Christ!
I pray that you might say “Yes!” to His invitation to be your Savior and LORD – the One Who deeply knows you, yet loves you anyway – the One from Whom you have no secrets and no room to brag. I pray that you might say, “Yes!” to the One Who gave up His life and suffered and died in your place – paying for your sins – so that you could live a spiritually abundant life now and live with Him happily ever after in heaven forever! I pray you might discover what an incredibly gentle, selfless, loving, unfailing, trustworthy, faithful, good, strong, powerful Lord Jesus is and find His narrow path that leads to life.
Jesus is Real Love and He is Real Life.
If you are interested in giving your heart and life to Jesus – you are welcome to leave a comment – or you can read more in your Bible, speak to a strong Bible-believing Christian or Bible-believing pastor who can tell you more about how to have a living relationship with the King of kings and Lord of lords that will give you life forever in heaven with Him in the future, and a life of spiritual abundance, adventure, forgiveness, peace, joy and freedom from sin here on earth.
This first step is called, “salvation” or being “born again” when God gives us spiritual new life. But then we continue daily to be spiritually intimate with Jesus and telling Him about any other sin issues we have so that we continually throw off every sin and live to honor Christ. We live for Him from this point on, seeking to yield our lives to Him, to live in the power of His Spirit, to know Him more deeply, to allow Him to radically change us to be more and more like Him, to walk in obedience to Him (by His power working in us) and to bring Him the greatest glory in all that we do. He is in charge now, not us! That is what it means for Him to be our Lord.
When we receive this gift from God and throw off the weight of our sin, we are able to be truly beautiful spiritually in the eyes of God as God’s Spirit fills us to overflowing! Then we are able to have the gentle, peaceful spirit that does not give way to fear that is so gorgeous and lights us up with the joy of Jesus! That is when we soar on wings like eagles and live life to its absolute fullest!