What a litany! Sin, like fractions, seeks the lowest common denominator. It weighs you down, It drags you down. It matters little whether one is guilty of one sin or the whole list, a corrupt tree can only bear corrupt fruit. It's destiny is bound up in it's corruptness. The thing many simply refuse to acknowledge is that one sin is enough to receive sin's penalty, (wages,) which is death! Most of us are guilty of way more than just one. Since you can only die once before facing eternity, how in the world can one person pay the penalty for multiple sins? Of course, the answer is... it's impossible... and that leaves us in an awful mess! But God! It's in the midst of this dither, this heavy load of condemnation, that Jesus comes, bringing hope and salvation!
"And you hath He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in time past ye walked acccording to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace are ye saved;) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: that in the ages to come He might shew the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus." (Ephesians 2:1-7)
John said, "God so loved... that He gave..." Our sins branded us as ruined, worthless. But God's plan was a sinless substitute, Jesus Christ - the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world! Under the law, the blood of bulls and goats could only roll man's sins ahead another year, But God, knowing the need, was already pointing the way to Calvary and the sinless, spotless sacrifice that would once and for all cover all sin - backward to the dawn of man's existence and forward to eternity. Isaiah saw how the heart of God yearned to reconcile sinful man to Himself... "Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before Mine eyes; cease to do evil... Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow: though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." (Isaiah 1:16, 18)
No matter how bad it was... no matter how low... no matter how far... But God, who is rich in mercy and grace is still reaching. Repentance and remission of sins is the way He chose for us to come to Him. (See Acts 2:37-38; 3:19; 22:16.) Based on John 3 and I John 5, G.T. Haywood penned these words...
"In sin I wandered sore and sad,
With bleeding heart and aching head;
Til Jesus came and sweetly said,
'I'll take your sins away!'
I gave my heart, my life, my all,
To Him who drank the cup of gall,
In saving sinners from the fall
And took their sins away.
The Water, Spirit, and the Blood
Agree if we but understood,
In making sinners pure and good,
And take our sins away.
Thank God for the Blood!
Thank God for the cleansing flood!
Thank God for the Blood!
It washes white as snow!"
With bleeding heart and aching head;
Til Jesus came and sweetly said,
'I'll take your sins away!'
I gave my heart, my life, my all,
To Him who drank the cup of gall,
In saving sinners from the fall
And took their sins away.
The Water, Spirit, and the Blood
Agree if we but understood,
In making sinners pure and good,
And take our sins away.
Thank God for the Blood!
Thank God for the cleansing flood!
Thank God for the Blood!
It washes white as snow!"
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