Jump Start # 202
1 Peter 2:24 “And He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.”
Here in this passage Peter shows the saving work of Jesus Christ. Christ died on the cross for us. He bore our sins. He did this so we could be healed. There are many contrasts layered throughout this verse.
- The sinless Christ carried our sins. Paul said, “He became sin…”
- He died and we were healed
- We die so we can live
It is that last contrast that I want us to think about today. We die…we live. There is an order here. Death then life. Remember, Paul said, “I have been crucified (DIE)…Christ lives in me (LIFE). The Romans were told, “We have become united with Him in the likeness of His death…we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection” (6:5). The Colossians were told, “Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire and greed…” Later it says, “Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices; and have put on the new self…” (Col. 3).
Old and new….death and life. These are running themes throughout the New Testament. Our problems today are sins. Marriage problems are sin problems. Relationship problems are sin problems. Faith problems are sin problems. Church problems are sin problems. And the problem with sin is that we just haven’t put it to death yet. We know we should pull the plug. We know that it is the right thing to do. Sin isn’t helping things. Sin holds us back. We must let it go. We must let sin die, but we just can’t do it. So it lingers. It holds on. It hangs around. And we struggle. Guilt problems. Shameful feelings. Regrets. We think, more verses. More church services. More prayers. More doing. And off we go. It works for a while. We feel good. Things are turning around and then, sin rises up again. It’s the same thing again. Gossip…lust…pride…Why, we wonder? We do we keep going backward rather than forward? Why do we not conquer these sins?
Do you know the answer? Peter tells you. We haven’t killed sin. We are wanting to live in righteousness without having to kill sin. That won’t work. It never does. Sin will always keep us going backward. We must put to death sin.
That’s hard, really hard. And the reason is, because sin is so easy. You don’t have to think about it. Sin is comfortable and sin is fun. Sin, from our perspective, isn’t disgusting. If we saw it as God sees it, we’d have a different heart about it. But as it is, sin is fun. It’s wrong. We shouldn’t be doing it, but we could be doing worse. Right? That’s the way we tend to think. But sin is the worst. It ruins a good soul. It cripples opportunity and it limits our faith and spiritual growth. There is nothing good about sin. It needs to go away. It needs to die.
Do you know anyone with cancer? My wife is a cancer nurse. My dad had cancer. My mother died from cancer. My mother-in-law is a hospice volunteer to cancer patients. I’ve known many people who had cancer. I have seen the destruction, damage and tears caused by cancer. I’m not a fan of cancer. I don’t know any worthwhile thing that it does. I’ve come to hate cancer. I wish the world was cancer free. Every time I hear of someone that I know getting cancer, I just sigh. Not another one. You may understand my feelings about cancer. Now, can I feel that way about sin? Can I hate sin? Can I despise sin? Can I get to the point that I feel that there is nothing worthwhile about sin? Do I get to the point where I wish the world was sin free?
This is where putting sin to death begins. It may be that too many of us haven’t gotten there yet. We were baptized into Christ, but we buried a live man, not a dead man. We were raised, not a new man, but the same man. We’ve added church services to our schedule, but we are no different. We’ve remained the same.
Peter tells us to die to sin! Kill it! Don’t let it linger…don’t watch it. Let it go. And then start living to righteousness.
It’s hard…but you can do it! Peter said so.
Roger