Sin #2

By Oscar M. Baker

REDEMPTION (cont’d): The trespass offering had to do with evil acts of sins. The exodus aspect given for us today is in Eph. 1:7. This is being set free from sins. Eph. 2:13 is the eisodus aspect, “But now in Christ Jesus…made nigh…”, as Israel was made nigh to God at Mt. Sinai. Because God is a moral agent, sins cannot be excused, at least in that relationship. Sins cannot be excused because they are a blot on God’s creation; they go into the record in red ink, as we say. To have perfection, those will have to be taken care of. So now here we have God, a great moral Ruler, and man a responsible moral agent, and sin has come in and it can’t be excused. So for that we have such words as ransom, atonement, sanctification, and the like.

JUSTIFICATION: Romans 3:26 is the key to the whole book of Romans. How can God be just and at the same time justifier of the ungodly? With a pardon the sins still remain, but God manifested in the flesh took the place of the guilty sinner, taking the penalty upon Himself. So Christ at Calvary took the punishment upon Himself. How did He take away the sin of the world? 2Corinthians 5:19 gives the answer. This reconciliation doesn’t save, only makes the approach to God. Reconciliation comes by the blood of Christ, salvation comes by His death and resurrection. To say Christ atones for sin is entirely wrong. Atonement only pointed to what he would do, it was only temporary, but He took away the sin of the world. So today in the church which is His body, we find that the Father forgives for Christ’s sake (Eph. 4:32), and for that reason we are to forgive each other.

TO REVIEW: Sin is the opposite of righteousness. It is a crime with a penalty. There’s court and a judge involved, and there’s either acquittal or condemnation. The acquittal can only come on this one condition---that he is innocent, and he is innocent if he’s been justified, isn’t he? JUST AS IF HE’S NEVER DONE IT! Now that’s hard for us to understand; that we can live a sinful life, and in God’s eyes, it’s just as if we’ve never done it. Well that’s the love of God. He’s done everything He possibly can to save us, excepting to save us by force, and He can’t do that being a loving moral Ruler. Sin is the opposite of holiness. It has with it defilement, thus not access. We have an Advocate in this age who knows the sins we commit from day to day as believers, and we can rest that He is taking care of it. We can, also, rest assured that every time we commit one of these sins it is spoiling our fellowship with Christ and with God---we can bank on that! If we want to live the victorious Christian life, we’ll have to put away the things of the flesh, and follow after the things of the spirit.

[5/15/79 tape.]