Is sin the central issue of life?
“…so also Christ was offered once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people. He will come again, NOT TO DEAL WITH OUR SINS, but to bring salvation to all who are eagerly waiting for him.” (Hebrews 9:28, NLT)1
Do you know why Jesus is not coming back to deal with sins? Because He already dealt with them 2000 years ago!
“You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin.” (1 John 3:5, NASB)2
“Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29, NASB)
The challenge for people is that they can’t see beyond sin. They think God assesses people based on sin, so they think it is the central issue of life. If sin were the issue for righteousness, then we would only have two options: try not to sin or say that sin isn’t sin. Most of the church would never go the direction of condoning sin, so the answer is to just do better so God will be pleased with us. However, there is a growing trend towards re-interpreting scriptures to somehow prove that particular sins aren’t really sins. In other words, we just misunderstood God in a few places. Under the banner of “grace” and with the intention of being inclusive and loving, some are redefining certain sins to take them out of the category of sin and put them in the category of non-sin. What would be the motivation to redefine sin? It’s the same EXACT motivation as trying not to sin: to make oneself acceptable to God. Either way it’s still legalism! It’s what the Pharisees did. They just moved the bar so they could reach it.
We don’t have anything to lose by letting sin be sin. Why? Because the Lamb of God has taken it away! The more people focus on sin or “non-sin,” the more they are going to sin, and the more miserable they are going to be. Any time we focus on sin, we’re back to the law. We don’t have to rewrite the Bible so that people will “”feel”” loved. They will know and believe they are loved when they look at Jesus and see what He did for them.
(from pages 267-268 of Unveiling Jesus)
Want more from Tricia Gunn? Check out excerpts from the Unveiling Jesus 20-part series!
Unveiling Jesus, by Tricia Gunn, is a verse by verse study of the pure gospel of grace. It’s an amazing journey of love, identity, and freedom in Christ.
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1Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
2Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible®,Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973,1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)”
