Wednesday, April 10, 2013

1 John 3:5


You know that [Christ] appeared in order to take away sins.”

STRONGS HEBREW/GREEK ORIGINS

You know that [Christ] appeared (phaneroo: made manifest, made visible, exposed to view) in order to take away (airo: take up, bear, cause to cease, take upon one's self and carry off) sins (hamartia: offenses, to miss or wander from the path of uprightness and honor, violations of God's law).”


SUMMARY

You know that Christ appeared and made Himself visible to mankind in order to bear and carry off our sin and offenses against God.

MEDITATION

As most of you who are reading this know, I work in the automotive detailing business. Yesterday I had a customer contact me requesting some interior work on her vehicle. Specifically, she had a bottled drink explode and empty a bit on her floorboard before she could get to it. So of course the drink was in the carpet and needed removed. When I met her later in the day to do the job she went on to tell me about how she had “sprayed some carpet cleaner on it” after the incident. I kind of chuckled at this knowing that this would do absolutely nothing to help her situation.

As I was doing the job, I got to thinking about the spiritual metaphors buried within this. A lot of times in our lives we approach our sin and guilt in this manner. It’s “in” us and needs removed yet we just spray some topical fix on it that convinces us that just maybe that will be enough. The problem is however that it doesn’t really do anything. The customer went on to say that she sprayed the cleaner to “hopefully at least keep it from smelling”. This too is an easy spiritual comparison. “If I can just keep it from being seen or noticed (smelled), maybe that will be enough!” we may say.

But there is really only one solution of course – it needs removed. The sin, the stain needs seized and carried off. What in your life have you just attempted to cover over with the fragrance of religious piety or masks of being “OK”? We all have ugly stains that need removed. Jesus Christ left all of Heaven to come to this earth to do this on your behalf. Invite Him to come and wash you today. No more hiding or covering up, just Jesus who appeared to take away our sins.              

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