Hi all,
Fortunately
when I was a young teenager Barb went to a different church, for if she
had seen what I'm about to tell you our first date might never have
happened - someone came out with a sun tan in a bottle and I fell for
it.
It
was advertised as easy, guaranteed, just pour some in your hand and
smooth over your body and you would have an amazing tan. What a great
idea I thought, I'll look great Easter morning with my new tan!
The first
clue should have been the directions to use a gloved hand to apply it,
but I passed that off as for sissy's. The second clue should have been
the warning that it might turn people with light complexion orange, but I
reasoned I didn't have THAT light of a complexion. Apparently I was
wrong.
This
was after all, the early 1970's and I had my Easter suit all set -
white turtle neck sweater and a bright blue jacket. I mean the bright
blue a televangelist might wear on TV - and as it turned out, a face as
orange as an Oompa Loompa in the movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate
Factory. I was 13 or 14 and to this day it is the most
embarrassing moment in my whole life.
I had
no choice as it wouldn't scrub off. And unfortunately that day was
cloudless with the sun at a perfect angle to highlight my orange face
against my white turtle neck sweater at the after service meal on the
front lawn. I was always a big kid, so I was a giant Oompa Loompa at
that.
I
tried to reason the stares I received as admiration for my sharp look,
but when that little kid ran away from me screaming I knew it was no
good pretending. So I swallowed my pride and just told the truth to my
friends and anyone who would listen - it was an accident, really! A
horrible industrial accident! I didn't know what I was doing, really!
I
couldn't apologize enough for my orange face as every time they turned
to me to say something, they burst out laughing and had to turn away to
collect themselves, then turn back to me to start to say something only
to turn away in laughter all over again. I just wanted to go home and
lock myself in my room.
Orange sins?
And that is so often the way church culture teaches about our sins when it should be teaching how Jesus took away the sin of the world.
Understanding the difference changes everything. We are told we are
like I felt - permanently stained and a laughing stock to God, that even
though we are with Him now and our sins are forgiven, they are still
somehow stained into our being and marking us until we get to heaven.
I
imagined that as I committed a sin there was some sort of heavenly
court, and as I asked one more time for forgiveness the Father would
lean on His elbow towards Jesus and ask: "What do you think Son; should
we forgive him again or make him sweat a bit?" and Jesus would answer,
"He's done this before Father, lets make him sweat, let's give him half a
day and then we'll forgive him."
Until one sunny day early in 1985...
I
was driving north on I-25 through Denver with the Subaru's sunroof
open, the sun was shining off the snow capped mountains on my left,
and in contrast to the beautiful day, I felt horrible. I had done or
said something that I needed to ask forgiveness for, and felt like a
repeat offender coming before the judge for the same crime for the
hundredth time to beg forgiveness I had no right to. So I put on a brave
face saying:
"Thank
you Father for your grace, thank you for your mercy and forgiveness,
thank you for I John 1:9 that says if I confess my sin you are faithful
and just to forgive my sin, and not just that, but it says you cleanse
me from all unrighteousness. Thank you for your faithfulness to me to forgive me..."
And
at that point the Father interrupted my prayer with a loud voice that
seemed slightly exasperated and slightly indignant: "I'm not being
faithful to YOU, I'm being faithful to the work of my Son on the cross!"
An
image of a tree came before me and I could suddenly see the root
system. Across the root system normally out of sight but visible to
me was the label 'Sin of the world', and up the trunk was the word
'Death', and in the branches and over the many fruit on the tree was the
label 'Sins'.
Suddenly
I got it - Jesus killed the root! Individual sins flow from the root of
the sin of the world through death to individual sins, meaning all sins
would have their eventual conclusion in death.
Once
the sin of the world was taken away, what remains is the withering
leaves and fruit with no more life left in them. I was free! Jesus'
focus on the cross wasn't on me, but the sin of the world, which was a
much more efficient way of handling it rather than a heavenly court
flipping a coin about forgiving me each time I sinned.
Nothing left undone
By
taking away the sin of the world it meant there was no sin I could sin
that wasn't already forgiven and taken out of the way. That said let me
qualify the statement - Jesus did not die for Himself therefore the one
sin not covered was rejecting Him. That is what it means to blaspheme
the Holy Spirit who is the agent of salvation - He didn't die for
Himself so to reject Him is to reject the work of the Holy Spirit which
is salvation.
But...I
do not reject Him so therefore when He took away the sin of the world
all sins up on that tree, are dead, have no power. That is Paul's point
in Romans 6:11 that we are dead to sin because sin is dead to us.
Battle from a position of having won
There
is a stream of the faith that makes God our adversary and that if we
get enough people praying the sheer numbers may persuade Him to act.
That if we get enough people fasting their sincerity and sacrifice may
impress Him enough to move Him to act. If we can gather enough people in
one place to scream and shout and call down heaven then we can move Him
to bring revival in the earth. He isn't our adversary.
Ephesians
1:3 says as a result of Jesus having taken away the sin of the world,
the Father has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the
heavenlies. Ephesians 2:4-7 says the Father brought salvation and has
seated us in Christ next to Him at His own right hand for the purpose
that in the ages to come He (Father) can continue to show us the riches
of His kindness towards us.
We
have been given the right to use the name of Jesus to command evil
spirits away from us. Jesus never prayed for anyone to be delivered, He
commanded spirits out and away. The apostles never prayed the Father to
stop demons from harassing them, they commanded them out. We battle from
having already won! We don't pray about demonic assignments, we use the
name of Jesus to command them away!
Sinners sin because it is their nature to do so; Christians sin by choice
Ephesians 2:3 says before Christ we 'were by nature children of wrath'.
That means our nature was to sin. But our nature has changed, we have
been born again, sealed by the Holy Spirit. We are in the process of
renewing our minds to think as God thinks, which means when we sin we do
so by choice, not by nature.
We
don't have an orange face anymore, stained by sin. "You were before
darkness, but are now light in the Lord; Live as children of light."
Ephesians 5:8
Jesus
took away the sin of the world. Your individual sins, your past sins,
today's sins if there be any, next years' sins - were all taken away in
the sin of the world. That root is dead therefore the fruit that came
from that root is dead. You and I are free to live FOR Him, using this
amazing grace as empowerment to live holy and godly lives.
And that's where we'll pick it up next week, until then, blessings,
John Fenn
www.cwowi.org and email me at cwowi@aol.com
New CD/MP3 Series
The
'curse of the generations' is generally regarded as demonic influence,
sickness, disease, or sins which have traveled down family lines to
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