Sin? Fugettaboutit!

Sin? Fugettaboutit!

Hebrews 10:1-18

A friend of mine once said that if someone asked him whether he still sinned he’d answer, “I don’t know; I haven’t been paying attention.” To most Christians that response would sound irresponsible, even crass, but I want to encourage you to consider it carefully.

The Law says, “Do good, get good; do bad, get bad.” That’s the way the Mosaic covenant worked. But what about the covenant before that? Remember Abraham? He’s listed in the “Hall of Faith” in Hebrews 11 and we read in several places that his faith was credited to him as righteousness. (Romans 4:3, 9, and 22; Galatians 3:6; and James 2:23)

But let’s take a closer look at Abraham, the great man of faith who was called a friend of God and to whom was given an unconditional covenant of blessing.

In Genesis 12 and again in Genesis 20 we read about Abraham misleading someone by telling them that Sarah was his sister. In truth, though she was his wife—the fact he was trying to hide so that he would not be killed —she was his half-sister.

Genesis 20:5-7 (NKJV)

King Abimelek is speaking:
⁵  Did he not say to me, 'She is my sister'? And she, even she herself said, 'He is my brother.' In the integrity of my heart and innocence of my hands I have done this."
⁶  And God said to him in a dream, "Yes, I know that you did this in the integrity of your heart. For I also withheld you from sinning against Me; therefore I did not let you touch her.
⁷  Now therefore, restore the man's wife; for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you shall live. But if you do not restore her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours."

Genesis 20:12-13 (NKJV)
¹²  But indeed she is truly my sister. She is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife.
¹³  And it came to pass, when God caused me to wander from my father's house, that I said to her, 'This is your kindness that you should do for me: in every place, wherever we go, say of me, "He is my brother." ' "

And it sounds like he did it on more than two occasions! Sounds exactly like something I might do!

Yet God blessed Abraham each time. In fact, in the second situation God told Abimelech to go to Abraham for prayer so that he would not die!

Clearly God did not call Abraham “friend” because he was without sin.

Then there was the covenant with Israel that was made through Moses.

Exodus 34:27-28 (NKJV)

27  Then the LORD said to Moses, "Write these words, for according to the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel."

28  So he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread nor drank water. And He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.

Exodus 19:3-8 (NKJV)

3  And Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him from the mountain, saying, "Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel:

4  'You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to Myself.

5  Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine.

6  And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel."

7  So Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before them all these words which the LORD commanded him.

8  Then all the people answered together and said, "All that the LORD has spoken we will do." So Moses brought back the words of the people to the LORD.

Do good, get good; do bad, get bad. This covenant was flawed because of our flesh.

Romans 8:3 (NKJV)

3  For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh,

Hebrews 8:7-13 (NKJV)
⁷  For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second.
⁸  Because finding fault with them, He says: "Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah--
⁹  not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the LORD.

But the new covenant is not like the old one. This covenant is between God within Himself.

¹⁰  For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
¹¹  None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them.
¹²  For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more."
¹³  In that He says, "A new covenant," He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

Father promises to be merciful to our unrighteousness (II Corinthians 5:21) and our sins and lawless deeds He promises to remember no more! Yet we too often remember what God Himself has forgotten.

The story is told of a Catholic Cardinal who heard of an old woman in some South American country who claimed to hear messages straight from God. He, of course, was skeptical, but he had a trip planned to a nearby area and decided to go and see this woman and test her to see if she really heard from God. On the day of his visit he asked the woman whether she still heard from God. She said that she did, so he said, “The next time you hear from God, ask Him what I said in my last confession.” The woman agreed and the next day she returned and the Cardinal asked her if she heard anything from God the night before. The woman said “Yes I did, and I am going to tell you His exact words. “OK”, said the Cardinal, “What were they?” The woman leaned toward the Cardinal and said, “He said,  ‘I don’t remember.’”

Jesus told the Disciples about what would happen when the Holy Spirit came.

John 16:8-9 (NKJV)

8  And when He <the Holy Spirit> has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:

9  of sin, because they do not believe in Me;

The conviction of sin by the Holy Spirit comes upon the world. His conviction comes upon them because the world does not believe in Jesus Christ. To be sure, most people in the world (and sadly even in the church) think that it’s because of their sins and because they do not do what God requires.

This error in people’s thinking has been made over and over throughout history.  Here is an example from the book of John.

John 6:28-29 (NKJV)

28  Then they said to Him, "What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?"

29  Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent."

Jesus says that the work is to believe. You may recall me talking in the past about laboring, or working, to enter His rest and that’s the idea exactly. We have nothing to do to keep this covenant other than to believe, and thus to receive righteousness. Just like Abraham, our faith in Jesus Christ is credited to us as righteousness, but we also have something Abraham never had. We have the Spirit of the Living God within us.

John 3:18 (NKJV)

18  He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

Jude 1:5 (NKJV)

5  But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.

From these passages we can see where condemnation comes from. It isn’t from sin, it’s from unbelief. It’s hard for people to accept, but when all is said and done, it is not about whether we sin or don’t sin. We all sin, even after we have been remade. What’s important is belief.

Do we actually trust that the death and resurrection of Jesus has made us righteous and acceptable to God?

Please be careful to note what I am not saying. I am not saying that we should sin, that it’s OK for us to sin, that our freedom in Christ gives us license to sin. The Spirit of Jesus Christ, the Living God lives within us. How can we live in Sin when we are in Christ?

What I am saying is what Paul said in Romans 6:7 “…he who has died has been freed from sin.” What I am saying is that we are dead to sin, “How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?” Romans 6:2 (NKJV)

There is an old Hymn by Horatio G. Spafford (1828-1888) entitled “It Is Well with My Soul”. My favorite verse is this:

   

    My sin—oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!—

    My sin, not in part but the whole,

    Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,

    Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

The whole of our sin was nailed to the Cross when He who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (II Corinthians 5:21) and we bear it no more!

Jesus’ perfect sacrifice brought an end to repeated atonement.

Hebrews 10:1-18 (NKJV)

1  For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect.

2  For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins.

They would have had no more consciousness of sins! Of course not; because they would have been purified, so there would have been no sins of which to be conscious. We’ll get back to this thought, so stay with me.

Picking up with verse 3 now:

3  But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year.

4  For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.

5  Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: "Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, But a body You have prepared for Me.

6  In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure.

7  Then I said, 'Behold, I have come-- In the volume of the book it is written of Me-- To do Your will, O God.' "

Let’s stop right here for a moment and unpack this somewhat cryptic Old Testament quotation a little. It comes from Psalms 40:6-8.

It tells us that the blood of bulls and goats was inadequate. It failed to provide satisfaction; it wasn’t what God really wanted. God wanted pure people. He wanted them to love Him from the heart.

Animal sacrifice was established to provide a temporary covering for sin, but it could never take away sin. In the fullness of time, Jesus came to provide blood that was adequate—the only blood that could possibly be adequate. Perfect life fulfilled the Law. Perfect blood eradicated sin. Taking it away, He nailed it to the Cross.

Colossians 2:13-14 (NKJV)

13  And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses,

14  having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

What is this “handwriting of requirements”? The only handwriting we are told about in Scripture is that done by the hand of God; those 10 requirements written in stone. And this passage says Jesus wiped it out!

OK, back to Hebrews 10, picking up with verse 8:

8 Previously saying, "Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had pleasure in them" (which are offered according to the law),

9  then He said, "Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God." He takes away the first that He may establish the second.

Here the writer of Hebrews shows us that the sacrifices and burnt offerings were being taken away in favor of the second, and better, and last, sacrifice.

Now to verse 10:

10  By that will <the will of God that Jesus came to do> we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

11  And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.

12  But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God,

13  from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool.

14  For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.

You are perfected forever, saints; the offering was once for all. You need have no further consciousness of sins. You are dead to sin.

OK, let’s finish the passage. Picking up at verse 15:

15  But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before,

16  "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,"

17  then He adds, "Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more."

18  Now where there is remission of these <sins and lawless deeds>, there is no longer an offering for sin.

The word rendered “remission” here is aphesis [S859] freedom; (figurative) pardon :- deliverance, forgiveness, liberty, remission.

Where there is freedom, pardon, deliverance, forgiveness, liberty from, remission of sins and lawless deeds, no offering is needed—because the infractions don’t exist.

If there is no longer an offering for sin, then sin is not the issue.

Your sin has been taken away. You are dead to sin.

Don’t mix up the two covenants. You are not under the old covenant—in fact as a gentile, you never were. Scripture says that you were lost, without hope and without God in the world.

Ephesians 2:11-12 (NKJV)

11  Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh--who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands--

12  that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

You are under the new covenant. The covenant of grace made in Jesus’ blood.

Be conscious of Christ, what He has done for you and who you are in Him, rather than conscious of your sin.