Sunday, March 1, 2009

What Can Wash Away My Sin?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Oh! precious is the flow;
That makes me white as snow.
lyrics by Robert Lowry


Joseph saw his first snow today. Everyone had lots of fun until the snow ball fight because half of the snow worked its way inside their jackets and gloves. Of course, after the snow looks more like dirt, it is just not that fun anymore. The thing that draws you is the fresh, beautiful snow that has never been touched. You just can't wait to get your hands on it.

Then I remembered that God made the first man, Adam, from "the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being" (Genesis 2:7). That same man disobeyed God and brought sin into the world by eating of the one tree that they were not suppose to, the tree of life. "He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever" (Genesis 2:22). Basically, sin was brought into the world and the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).

If that was the end of the story, it would be a sad story but God and his unfailing love provided a plan and that plan was Jesus. "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whosoever BELIEVES IN HIM will have ETERNAL LIFE" (John 3:16). This life on this earth is but a vapor but when we leave this earth, we will live forever in His presence if we accept His gift, Jesus, as Lord and Savior of our lives. Remember, it is a GIFT not something we did to earn it so that we could boast about it. "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith (in Jesus Christ)—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9).

If we could have done it on our own, there would have been no need for Jesus to die on a cross. But there was a need. The wages of our sin is death but JESUS paid our ransom with His life. "For even the Son of Man (Jesus) did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45). "He himself bore our sins in His body on the tree (cross), so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness" (I Peter 2:24).

The Good News is "for just as through the disobedience of the one man (Adam) the many were made sinners , so also through the obedience of the One (Jesus) the many will be made righteous" (Romans 5:19). When we accept the Gift, we were made RIGHTEOUS BY THE BLOOD OF JESUS. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as WHITE AS SNOW; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool" (Isaiah 1:18). So when we confess Jesus as Lord of our lives and acknowledge that He died for our sins, God doesn't see the "dirt", our sin, but only sees the "beautiful snow", the righteousness of Christ, that covers us and He can't wait to get His hands on us to use us for His glory.