What Christ Saved Us From

I can almost hear in my head the response of some religious people to my last post... "But we can't ignore sin! Yes God is loving, but he also holds people accountable for their sin! What about the wrath of God we were under while we were still living in sin?" And on and on...

Look, although people who indulge in sin may appear to momentarily enjoy their actions, do you really think anyone needs help feeling more painfully aware of their sin? Even those of us who know Christ usually are not far away from feelings of unworthiness, shame, condemnation, guilt, etc. And we are the forgiven ones who supposedly know that we are covered by the grace of Christ.

Before the Good Friday service this past Passion week I asked Jesus for a new experience of the cross. I went into the service and we began to worship by singing songs about the cross and the sacrifice of Jesus. Do you know what I felt? Love. I felt how my friend who had been having a bad day needed a hug. I felt how pleased God felt for the brother who has been struggling with his faith. I felt the approval God felt for the pastor.

There was all this talk about how excruciatingly horrendous and awful our sin is which necessitated Christ's death on the cross. I think it is an evangelical belief (and perhaps more widespread to Calvinism- you theological experts can let me know) that in order to fully appreciate the sacrificial death of Christ as an atonement for our sins we must fully own the weight of depravity of our sin.

I decided to reject that focus this Easter. I posed the question, "Why are we focusing so much attention on what Christ saved us from rather than what He saved us to?" How does it glorify Christ to focus on sin? If we have accepted Christ why spend much time focusing on it at all?

Come on people. Think about what it means to have had the atonement for sin already accomplished... We are no longer viewed as sinful, but we put on the righteousness of Christ!

Romans 8

Life Through the Spirit

¹ Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, ² because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. ³ For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴ in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

⁹ You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. ¹⁰ But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness.

Galatians 2

¹⁵ “We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles ¹⁶ know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.

¹⁷ “But if, in seeking to be justified in Christ, we Jews find ourselves also among the sinners, doesn’t that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! ¹⁸ If I rebuild what I destroyed, then I really would be a lawbreaker. ¹⁹ “For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. ²⁰ I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. ²¹ I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”

I believe, that in spending so much time in sermons and Bible study discussions about the battle with the flesh, and overcoming sin in order to be more Christ-like, etc. we are just going right back to striving to uphold the requirements of the law, which Christ has already set us free from. He has ALREADY pronounced us righteous and has given us the ability to accomplish everything necessary to live a godly life through the Spirit.

That means we can get past this obsession with sin.

That frees up SO MUCH TIME to think about other things! I want to keep the discussion going, but I am not thinking it will need to be addressed in another post. Stay tuned and feel free to chime in with your thoughts!