Thoughts from The Bible

Thoughts from the Bible

Monday, 13 May 2024 12:31

To remove sins
by Sarah Wootten Corinth Missionary Baptist Church

The stones were practically in their hands. The Pharisees and the scribes brought a woman who had been caught in adultery to Jesus. They reminded Jesus that the law of Moses demanded her death as a punishment. Jesus stayed silent for a few moments, but eventually said that whoever has no sin of his own should be the first person to throw a stone at her. One by one, each of the accusers went away until no one was left. Jesus asked her if anyone condemned her. She said no. Then Jesus replied with these words, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more,” (John 8:11, ESV).
We ended last week with the thought that Jesus came to remove sins. We often think of this in terms of Jesus removing the guilt we deserve for our sins, which is absolutely right. Jesus came to forgive sins, but Jesus’ removal of sins doesn’t end there. For the Christian, coming to know Christ changes the whole of his life from rebellion to righteousness.
If you were to read through 1 John 3:4-10, you would find that the apostle tells us in about eight different ways that God’s children obey His word, and those who are of the devil make a practice of sinning. Those who continue in sin don’t know Him. Those who practice righteousness do know Him. The meaning is clear, but this leads me to a question. If John said it plainly eight times in these few verses, then why do we so often disregard these statements?

I think the reason is that it’s hard to swallow these truths. We’re scared for our friends who say they trust in Jesus, but their lives do not reflect the righteousness of Christ. We’re scared for our own souls because we know that we often fall into sin, and it just doesn’t seem like we’re as godly as we should be at this point in our Christian lives. For others, it’s scary because they know that they are the ones who have made a practice of sinning.

So to a certain extent, these verses should cause a tremble inside of us. Faith in God demands trust in His word, which in turn requires obedience to it. Jesus didn’t tell the woman caught in adultery, “It’s okay. Your sins are forgiven. You’re loved, accepted, and you can go do what you want to do.” No, Jesus told her to go and stop sinning. “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God,” (1 John 3:9, ESV). We can be sure that if this woman trusted in Jesus for forgiveness, then her life was radically different than it was before. If you think I’m teaching that Christians are perfect, I’m not. But there is a world of a difference between a believer who walks in humble repentance before God and is doing work to put to death the sin in his life versus someone who is indifferent to their sin and just walks in it.

The life of the believer should be markedly different from the life of the unbeliever. We’ll dive into some of those differences in the following weeks. But for now, I want to leave you with a few notes of encouragement. Jesus came to remove sins, but when He ascended, He didn’t leave us to fight the battle by ourselves. When you came to faith in Christ, you were given a new life that is no longer enslaved to sin. You are different than you were before, no longer carrying the guilt of your sin before a holy God. You’re entirely made new. Jesus also sent the Spirit to help you walk in His way. In our local churches, we are given brothers and sisters in Christ who can provide encouragement for us in our battle with sin. We even have His word to guide our steps in the right path. Yes, we have the responsibility to resist temptation and to pray for God’s help. But thankfully, Jesus has removed our sins (1 John 3:5), defeated works of the devil (3:8), and fully equipped His people to do battle with their sin. We must be humble and obey.