Sin and Salvation

In the first place, let me give you a story about my biological brother. He was in the group of Pentecostal Churches every Wednesday and Saturday, who spent the whole day shouting and preaching to people who were interested. Most of them were passers-by. As people pushed past with their bulging bags of shopping, they would shout out loud, “Repent and believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved from your sins.”

The thing was, neither my brother nor the others ever explained what sin is, and why we need to be saved from it. You were just supposed to know. Why do we need to be saved from our sins? What exactly is sin? Well, the place to find out is in the Bible, God’s handbook for human life. Here we trace the story of the very first sin and what happened afterwards.

Stepping out of line

The first man, Adam, lived in a beautiful garden where he could help himself to all sorts of food except one particular tree: the tree of knowledge, which was forbidden on pain of death. Adam, persuaded by his wife who had, in turn, been persuaded by the serpent, ate the forbidden fruit. As a result he and his wife were condemned to suffer and toil and die.

This action, breaking God’s law is what the Bible calls ‘sin.’.. It is like setting us inside a circle drawn on the sand and saying, ‘You must not cross over that line!’ The line represents God’s rules. He says, for example, we are at liberty to dig the ground and grow food, but if we steal someone else’s food, that is wrong. As long as we stay inside the circle, that is fine. But when we cross over the line, we are sinners and we find ourselves condemned to death. The apostle Paul puts if neatly: “Sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all have sinned” (Romans 5:12).

Missing the mark

Actually, there is more to sin than that. The Greek word translated “sin” in the Bible literally means ‘to miss the mark’. It is like an archer aiming at a target. He needs to hit the bull’s-eye, but misses it most of the time. That is how we all are. The target we should be aiming for is perfection. It is the kind of life lived by Jesus, who always did what his Father asked. He is our role model. But every night, when we go to bed, and reflect upon what has been done during the day, we realise that we have failed to live up to his example. We have crossed God’s line and we have failed to match up to the amazing grace and love of the Son of God.

So where does that leave us? If there was no way to escape from the condemnation of sin and death, we should be in a sorry state indeed. But God is merciful. He has prepared a way for our sins to be forgiven. And by a dramatic irony, the way to forgiveness and hope is through the death of His Son.

The Sinless One

How could this work? How can the crucifixion of Jesus set us free? The answer is logical, but awe-inspiring. Jesus never sinned. Not once in his 33 years on earth did he cross the line of God’s law. Every day he hit the bull’s-eye spot on.

He was the perfect example of obedience to God. So when he allowed evil men, consumed by envy and hatred, to have him executed, he was laid in a tomb which he did not deserve to be in, for he was not guilty of sin. He had volunteered to share death with us, so that he could deliver us from it. As the apostle puts it, “He tasted death for every man” (Heb 2).

If an innocent was laid in a grave which he did not deserve (and we mean innocent of all guilt, not just a single charge), then God could, in justice, bring him back to life again. That is exactly what He did, after three days. And if we have the humility to go down on our knees before God and admit that we are sinners, and ask to be forgiven, then, for the sake of His dear Son, He will count us ‘not guilty’. Our sins will be covered over with the goodness of Jesus, like the coat of skins God provided to cover the nakedness of sinful Adam.

Identification

The point at which the would-be Christian joins himself to Christ is at his baptism. Here, he or she confesses publicly the need to be forgiven and is symbolically buried with the Lord before arising the next moment to a new life, free from sin.

From this time on, the baptized believer aims to live in a way which is holy for God, keeping separate from the evil world and its ways and waiting in hope for the day God has promised when those who have died in faith will be raised, like Jesus, to a new and immortal life. That is what being saved truly means.

Questions to the brothers and sisters of Christ the world over:

• Shall we continue to miss the mark?
• To whom shall we go to if we step out of line?
• Can we remember our daily target such that we can reach the bull’s-eye?

Bro Jonathon Johnstone (Kilembe, Uganda)