"I have swept away your sins like the morning mists. I have scattered your offences like the clouds. Oh, return to me, for I have paid the price to set you free."
We have sinned against God, all of us, offending Him more and hurting Him worse than we could possibly realize. But God loved us and sent His Son, Jesus to die and pay the price for our sins, to set us free from them. Sometimes, this is hard to believe. Sometimes, when I've sinned, the sin seems so big to me. I feel dirty, guilty, and unworthy of God's love. At times like this, I try to push Him away, but He insists on being near to me. While it's true that my sins are a big deal to God, I have underestimated how big a deal His love and atonement are. Christ's blood covers all my sins, completely. There's nothing left to offend Him, nothing left for me to feel guilty over, nothing left to spurn His love--Jesus swept all of that away, and now He bids me draw near to Him.
The Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" But Jesus answered him, "Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness."
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
But taking away our sins isn't the end of the gospel. Some people treat it that way, though. The other day, I talked for an hour with four Mormon guys, explaining to them that salvation was by grace alone, through faith alone, from the scriptures. They agreed wholeheartedly that Jesus had died for their sins, but insisted on believing that it was now their responsibility to earn God's rewards in heaven by their own good works. A lot of people have this mindset, a lot of Christians even. Sometimes, I catch myself doing it (as I wrote in a previous post). Sometimes, even if I'm not feeling guilty, I'll see some Christian do some good "Christian" thing--like getting baptized, reading the Bible, praying, or winning the lost--and I'll feel a little insecure. Look what they did, I think to myself. I bet if I did something like that, God would love me more. Sometimes when I fail to do one of these things when I know I should, I begin to feel like I've lost His love. But it's not true!
Christ's death does more than sweep away our sins. It gives us His righteousness. How extensive do you think that is? Christ prayed and read His Bible regularly. He gave three years of His life to public ministry, evangelizing the lost and ministering to them. He memorized scripture. He was baptized. He performed miracles by His faith. To top it all, He was God's own Son! There is no righteous deed that He didn't fulfill, and He gives that righteousness to us. He counts those deeds as if we'd done them. That means I don't need to worry about not being baptized as an adult: Jesus did it. I don't have to sweat if I miss a day in reading: Jesus has it covered. I don't need to wonder if God would love me more as a full-time evangelist or a college student: God already loves me that much because He accounts Jesus' ministry as mine.
Now, this isn't to say that we shouldn't do good works. Ephesians 2:10 says that God wants us to do good works and has some in mind already, prepared for us. However, these good works are not the measure of our Christianity, nor an assurance of God's love. If we lack any of them, though it would be good to do them, we need not doubt for a minute that God loves us with the deepest love imaginable. We cannot earn His love by good works, and a lack of them cannot make Him love us less.
Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. And the LORD said to Satan, "The LORD rebuke you, O Satan! The LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?" Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments. And the angel said to those who were standing before him, "Remove the filthy garments from him." And to him he said, "Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments." And I said, "Let them put a clean turban on his head." So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments.
This passage in Zechariah--though admittedly taking the form of a hard-to-follow prophetic vision--puts it all together for me. Here, Zechariah sees God take the filthy garments (symbolizing sin) off of Joshua, and then clothe him in pure garments, symbolizing righteousness. So also, God, in Christ, puts away our sin from us and covers us with perfect righteousness. Thus the gospel removes any stumbling-block to a relationship with Him.
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