by William Oldham
“…Sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” Romans 6:14
When God brought Israel out of Egypt, He entered into a covenant with them through Moses; it was a conditional covenant of law: if they obeyed His laws, they would be blessed; if they broke His laws, they would be cursed—it was just that simple.
God knew they would sin, and so in His covenant with them, out of love for them, He made a way for them to be forgiven and avoid being cursed: the Lord established a system whereby their sins could be atoned for or covered, and they would be forgiven. Their sins would be covered and forgiven by a blood sacrifice.
The Lord established a priesthood. The Lord had an altar built ( It would have looked like a huge barbecue pit). If someone sinned and wanted to be forgiven, the Mosaic law prescribed what kind of animal they were to bring to the priest. They would, for instance, bring a bull to the priest.
They would put their hand on it, signifying their guilt and their desire to be forgiven, and it would be accepted by the priest. They would then kill the bull before the Lord. The priests would take the blood and sanctify everything with it, and burn the body. This was God’s way of dealing with His chosen people’s sin at that time; but it was temporary and only for the children of Israel. His perfect plan to deal with sin was coming.
God so loved the world, that He sent His Son into it, to take care of the sin and curse issue, once and for all. Jesus Christ taught, preached, cast out demons, and healed folks; but His mission was to settled the sin problem forever, and bring an everlasting salvation to sinners. And this Jesus did—0n the cross!
On the cross, Jesus became God’s bloody sacrifice for the remission of sin: God laid on His Son the sin of the world, and in His death, Jesus took away the sin of the world. Which then made possible, the greatest gift ever offered to sinners.
The message of the gospel is the free gift of the forgiveness of sins and eternal life to a sinner. It’s a free gift, because it was bought and paid for at Calvary. When a sinner hears of Christ’s death burial and resurrection, that is the Holy Spirit leading a sinner to Jesus. There, the sinner is made to see his sinful condition and condemnation, and he calls upon the name of the Lord and is saved out of it. But there’s more!
When a sinner calls upon the name of the Lord, they are saved; but they are also born again: they are given a new heart, a new nature. Their sins are not just forgiven, they are removed forever. The saved sinner is given a clean slate: their sins are not covered—they’re gone. And the label, “sinner” is removed from them, and by faith, they are declared righteous before a holy God.
Being made righteous by the blood of Christ, they are brought into the family of God by adoption. They are given eternal life and the Holy Spirit. They may sin, but if they do, there’s no record of it made, because they are no longer under the law of sin and death but under grace. But, as God’s children, and partakers of His love, sin in a Christian’s life is much harder that it was under the Mosaic law.
Sin in a Christian’s life grieves the very heart of the Father, and His children know it; and that guilt is worse than the fear of death and Hell. We don’t want to offend our Father, but sometimes we do. God, in great mercy and grace has provided the way for His children to redeem themselves:
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9
