By John A. Huffman Jr.
When you define sin this way, you realize we all are involved. Granted, I have a bit of an ego problem. Most of us do. I would like to define my sin as "dysfunction" rather than use the blatant label SIN. I fact, I have subtle ways of denying that some of the things I do, some of the attitudes I have, some of the things I have left undone, some of the attitudes I do not but could have, are actually SIN. I prefer hiding my head in the sand when it comes to myself, and pointing my finger when it comes to others.
Third, Jesus came to give forgiveness of sin.
Remember how the angel came to Joseph as he was struggling with the pregnancy of his fiancee, Mary? The angel reassured Joseph in a dream that this was God's activity, the advent of God into human history, with these words: "'Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins'" (Matthew 1:20-21).
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That's at the beginning of the earthly life of Jesus Christ. Let's take a look at what Jesus said about his purpose in coming at the very end, prior to His ascension into heaven. He said, "'Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem'" (Luke 24:46-47).
Years later, the Apostle Peter wrote this about Jesus: "He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed" (1 Peter 2:24).
This is Good News, not bad news. The bad news is that we are sinners. The Good News is that we can be forgiven. This is GRACE -- God's unmerited favor. One definition of grace is, "God no longer tries to collect what you owe Him." He already did that through Jesus Christ.
Fourth, you are forgiven, not just from something--but to be more.
For some, the reception of forgiveness is an end in itself. They clutch the one-way ticket to heaven, so proud they have responded to the invitation to receive Jesus Christ as their Savior. They somehow think that forgiveness is the end. They don't realize it is just the beginning! You and I are not just forgiven from sin, we are given a fresh slate to begin a new life, empowered by the Holy Spirit to not be in bondage to the debilitating action of sin in our lives.
Some of us completely misunderstand what it is to be born again. We forget that this rebirth is to a beginning of a new life, not just an end of an old life. The Good News is not just that we are going to go to heaven someday. We are standing patiently in line, holding our one-way ticket, waiting for that day. The forgiveness which we have received in Jesus is an entitlement to a life here on earth in which we become partners with God in His work on earth. The theologians distinguish between spiritual regeneration, which is our appropriation of what God did for us on the cross in the person of Jesus Christ, and sanctification which is that process of growing toward wholeness as the Holy Spirit enables us to be all that God created us to be. We are not just forgiven from something but to be more than we have ever been before.
