Sin and the World's Shortest Book

Spirituality Column #204
October 5, 2010
Current in Carmel - Current in Westfield - Current in Noblesville
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

Sin and the World’s Shortest Book
By Bob Walters

What is the world’s shortest book?

It’s not “Different Ways to Spell ‘Bob,’” “The Engineer’s Guide to Fashion” or “Al Gore, The Wild Years.”

And no, it’s not 3 John, the Bible’s shortest book.

The world’s shortest book is “Sins for Which Jesus Christ Did Not Die.”

Jesus, you see, died for them all (2 Corinthians 5:15, 1 Peter 3:18).

The human race is a motley lot. We seek Godly heights yet often stumble into the lowest of pits due to either our own sin or the fallenness of the world around us.

"We are,” to quote my worship minister friend Shockley Flick, “sinful, rebellious, willful, demanding, slow to learn, resistant to change, egocentric and sometimes just not very pleasant to be around.

“Yet,” he continues, “Jesus Christ, through His grace and love, reached out and lifted us up from our squalor to walk with Him.”

As Christians we are taught that we must deal with our sin, but sometimes forget that Jesus Christ has already dealt with our sin … all of it.

Every sinful thing we’ve done, are doing and will do is why Jesus died on the Cross. For the sake of our eternal salvation, our sin was forgiven, taken away, removed and erased.

The “debt” was cancelled on the Cross.

Despite this Biblical truth, non-believers scoff at Christ and salvation. Even some Christians cling to their own sin, wallow in their guilt, and speak somberly of their – or accusingly of someone else’s – “unresolved sin.” But that makes me want to ask, “What sins could anyone possibly have that Christ didn’t die for?”

In God’s eyes, Jesus Christ already resolved our sin by His sacrifice on the Cross. That forgiveness, that grace, is a gift for which humanity did not ask, but is a gift freely given to anyone who in faith believes and declares that Jesus Christ is the Son of the Living God and trusts Him as Lord and Savior.

Faith is the key. Trying to resolve one’s own sin, with effort or works, is a fool’s errand, a canard, an oxymoron, an impossibility.
We can’t resolve sin. Jesus can, and did.

Sin is death in each of our lives until we declare our faith in Jesus Christ, confess our sin, and live our life dedicated to His Glory rather than our effort, happiness and comfort.

That’s the long and short of it.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) figured out years ago you can’t hide anything from Jesus. Confess, repent, worship, try to do better. Above all, have faith.