A few years ago there was a Snickers candy bar commercial that showed people waiting in line to enter into Heaven. It played on the long-held belief that when we all die we are going to be in line waiting to see a video of our lives played before us as we are judged to see if we are worthy enough to gain entrance into Heaven. This video, of course, will be of every sinful action, word or thought we have ever engaged in. Because a Snickers is supposed to fill you up, you wouldn't be hungry as you waited for your turn. The commercial was funny, but also reminded me of a video I am a part of that was recorded over ten years ago. At the time I was still a babe in Christ struggling a lot with the flesh. A friend of mine and I went to the mountains to enjoy a week of partying. The video showed me glorifying alcohol and sexual immorality amongst other things. It wasn't anything X-Rated, but certainly not something I would want to surface if I was running for political office. Now, this video was taken over a period of about one week. Imagine how long it would take to watch a video of our entire lives? Add to that all the billions of people that have ever lived and some who lived hundreds of years and you would need way more than one Snickers to kill time. While the commercial made its point it is sad that there are people who actually live in fear thinking that God is keeping record of every sinful thing they have ever done and that it might jeopardize them getting into Heaven. In Jeremiah 31: 33-34, we read:
"This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel
after that time," declares the LORD.
"I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
No longer will a man teach his neighbor,
or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,'
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest,"
declares the LORD.
"For I will forgive their wickedness
and will remember their sins no more."
The truth that God no longer remembers our sins is something that needs to be shouted from the rooftops. Regardless of ones faith, you won't have to look too far before you will find some teaching dedicated to overcoming sin in some fashion. Some religions even teach that sin is an illusion of some kind. To think of all the sins we do, or cross our mind, during our lifetime and then to have them ran before us as some sort of evidence against us is not something I would look forward to enduring nor do I think it representative of a God of love. Besides, does anybody ever think about God's role in all this? Far be it from me to predict the actions of God, but I think He has better things to do then sit through an endless laundry list of sins. God isn't surprised at what we do.There is no need to remind Him of just how unlike Him we are. After all, scripture says "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." But, as was mentioned in a previous post, God wanted to have a relationship with us. Therefore, in order to accomplish this act, He had to do take away the sins that prevented that relationship from happening. And He promised to that when, through the profit Jeremiah, He said He will forgive our wickedness and remember our sins no more.
"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." John 15: 1-5
The only way anybody can begin to see a reduction of sin in their lives is through reliance on and trust in Jesus Christ. But, that is only possible because God is no longer dealing with mankind on the basis of sin and death. God is now dealing with mankind on the basis of a new life in Christ. We are either dead to God, without Christ, or alive to God, in Christ. Scripture says that apart from Christ we can do nothing. Well, we can't be with Christ if God hadn't first taken our sins away from His sight for all time. It was sin that caused God to withdraw His life from Adam back in the Garden. And in order for that not to take place again He had to make sure the sin issue was forever a non-issue. When Christ exclaimed, "it is finished" with His last breath, He was referring to the sin issue. By His once for all sacrifice the sins of the world were taken away for all eternity. The death of Christ cleared the way for God to offer His life . made available through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, as a free gift to all who believe in Him. Now, the life we live we live by faith in Christ who produces His fruit through us. The more we allow Jesus to live through us, the more we will see a reduction of the sin in our lives. Anything we do to glorify God is because of Jesus doing it through us. Therefore, scripture comes alive for us as we realize that we can't do anything apart from Him, especially avoiding sin.
"My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the one who turns aside God's wrath, taking away our sins, and not only ours but also the sins of the whole world." 1 John 2: 1-2
The global Flood of Noah's time. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. These are moments in time that all of us will never forget. They serve as perfect examples of God's wrath towards sin. He destroyed every living thing on earth, except for eight people, when He sent the flood waters. He left nothing behind when He destroyed two of the most sinful cities that ever existed. So, it stands to reason that God would not have the patience or the desire to sit through every sin, real or imagined, of every individual that has ever existed. That wrath He showed in times past was poured out on Jesus Christ for our sake. God doesn't need to sit through the "footage" of what He has pronounced "finished." When we sin, because of our faith in Christ, God doesn't see that, but the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on our behalf. We sin, God says, "finished." Because of the finished work of Jesus Christ, we can now approach God in confidence to see where it was we weren't trusting Him with our lives. We don't approach Him to be sat down in a seat of condemnation to view just how terrible we were throughout our lives. The power of the Cross is that the sins of unbelievers do not prevent them from coming to the Lord for life in Christ. And it is also powerful enough that those of us in Christ are not in jeopardy of losing that life when we do sin. All we can say to that is thank you. So the next time you eat a Snickers, remember that as it satisfies your appetite is also serves as a reminder that God is satisfied with the sacrifice of Jesus Christ as payment for your sins.
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