Last week we unpacked the spiritual truth that if you have placed your faith in Jesus for salvation that you are not a sinner saved by grace but rather a saint who sometimes sins.  And the difference between those 2 statements is huge. 

If your identity is that of a sinner, then again the most natural thing in the world for you to do is sin…but if your identity is a saint then you are able to walk in the freedom of no longer being in bondage to sin and experience victory over sin in your life.

But as we said, that certainly does mean that we are going to be perfect.  While we no longer have a sin nature, and are no longer slaves to it, we will still step out of character every now and then and make mistakes, live less than who we really are.

And for a lot of us, when we do step out of character with who we are, we feel the guilt…the condemnation…the shame that comes with a decision to sin.  And it can be crippling for a lot of us. 

We were experiencing that freedom and joy of living in victory and then we fall and start thinking, “How could you do that?  Here you go again, just right back to your old ways…You call yourself a Christian?  Oh my gosh, God is so disappointed in you…you let Him down and you are giving him a bad name in front of others.”  And the bondage and chains just begin wrapping themselves right back around you.

And I’ve noticed that when this happens, we tend to deal with this in 1 of 2 ways…Some of us say… “Well, I failed again…I thought I was made a saint, but I guess I’m really not…I am just a sinner…And then we step into that sin again, and the cycle continues…and we fall into this period of running from God b/c we know that He is just absolutely ashamed that one of his so-called saints could just act like that.  And often during this time, many of us find excuse after excuse not to come to church, b/c we are running and trying to hide from God and the disappointment we feel when we think about being in His presence.

And that’s how some of us respond when we feel the guilt of sin, but others of us will try to make up for it…And we do that by 1 of 2 ways…We either start trying to show God how sorry we are for it by begging for forgiveness and trying to say it as heartfelt as we can, maybe even trying to produce a few tears…and we are promising Him that we will never do it again while we are apologizing and begging for Him to forgive us.

But the other thing many of us do to try and make up for it and take the feelings of guilt and shame away is to start doing stuff for Him.  We read our bible, we go to church, we listen to only Christian music, or we try to share our faith with someone…

That’s usually what I would do, start with the begging and heartfelt apology and then get to work doing something. Sometimes it wasn’t even just the religious stuff, but it was performing well in practice for my sport or my job b/c that would show God that I was giving my all for Him in what He has called me to do.

And a lot of times I’d start to feel a little better about myself because of what I was doing and I’d be like, “this time things are going to be different.”  I’m really going to follow Jesus and be obedient to Him this time…but at some point I’d fail again and the cycle continued

But this is what many of us do…we either run from God and we drown in the sin or we try to make up for it in some way…we think that we have offended a holy and righteous God so it just makes sense to have to make that up.” 

I mean, that is what happens in this world…you break the law and there is justice…you have to make up for what you did – PAY THE PRICE – earn your way back into the good graces of society and those you have wronged…But is this biblical?  Is your identity a saint until you fall and then only given back once you’ve said you were sorry and paid the price and earned it back?   Let’s look at what Scripture does say…

Let’s start with something that Paul says in Romans 8:1,

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus

 Now this is a pretty well-known verse…a lot of us know this statement that Paul made in his letter to the church at Rome.  We know that he says there is no condemnation for those in Christ…so why then do most of us act out in one of the ways I just talked about when we do sin?

Why do we start saying things like “How could you do that?  You call yourself a Christian?  You are such a disappointment to God.”…OR Why do we start trying to make up for our sins in some way if there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ?

Well, I think the reason is that many of us don’t really understand what happened to our sin on the cross…we don’t really get the sacrifice that Jesus made for sin on our behalf. 

Well, let me tell who did get the sacrifice that Jesus made for sin…and that’s the author of the book of Hebrews.  They wrote extensively on sin and the difference between the way it was dealt with in the Old Testament and the way it’s dealt w/in the New Testament.

And one of the things that this author makes clear is how in God’s economy, only one thing could pay for sin…and that was blood.  Look at Heb. 9:22

Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

So again, in God’s economy, the only thing that pays for sin is blood.  And in the Old Testament after sin entered the world, God gave Moses a sacrificial system in which animals were sacrificed so that the blood could cover their sins…but the author of Heb. also talks about how these sacrifices were insufficient to deal with sin for good and had to keep being offered over and over… Hebrews 10:1

1The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship.  Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins.  But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins.

So picture being an Israelite living under the Law.  All year long God is keeping a record of your violations of the law, and the entire nation’s as well.  All year long you feel guilty of your sins; you live in fear of God’s punishment, which was threatened for transgressions of the law. 

But finally, the great Day of Atonement comes…the annual day of fasting and praying and confessing your sin.  The day each year when the perfect bull is sacrificed on behalf of the nation.  The one and only time that a single mortal man, a priest, representing the whole nation, can enter the most holy room of the temple, the Holy of Holies, which represents the very presence of God. 

So he takes the sacrificial blood, and fearfully enters behind the veil and sprinkles the blood which covers the nation’s and your sins for the previous year.  Two goats are sacrificed as well, one is slain at the altar and the other is called the scapegoat.  Then the Elders of the nation place their hands on the head of the goat, symbolizing the transfer of the nation’s sins to the animal.  Then, before thousands of witnesses lining the streets, the scapegoat is driven from the city, out into the wilderness, symbolizing the removal of your sins.

And as you watch there’s finally some relief, my sins for this year have been covered!  And you go to bed and sleep well that night, BUT THEN you wake the next mng and your sins are starting to adding up again…more guilt, more fear…and you have to wait until next year for the Day of Atonement to cover your sins again…and the same will be true the next year and the next and every year after that!

Listen, God graciously gave this system to Israel as a means for man to experience relief from the guilt he experienced under the law, and while it did do that, the author of Hebrews says that the sacrifices were “an annual reminder of sins.”  They just kept coming and they always had to be dealt with…

Listen, here’s the deal: The Old Testament sacrifices would cover their sins, but they could not take them away!  Look at the very next verse in Hebrews 10:4

It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

Could it cover sins?  Yes!  Could it take them away? No!  But then 2,000 years ago Jesus shows up on the planet, and do you remember how John the Baptist introduced him when he saw him by the river?  In John 1:29, we see that John introduced him by saying…

“Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

Not, “hey, here comes the lamb of God who would cover up your sins again just like the sacrifices in the old testament”…NO, he will TAKE THEM AWAY!  And this is exactly what the author of Hebrews said happened after he died on the cross and rose from the grave…Heb. 9:28

Christ was offered once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people.

Jesus, all throughout the book of Hebrews is presented in total contrast to the Old Testament sacrifices…a better sacrifice.  The sacrifice that would end all sacrifices.  Look back at the way the author of Hebrews says it here…

And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,

Guys, sitting down is a position of work being finished.  The work required not just to cover up sins, but to take them away has been completed.  So Jesus is sitting in a position of rest knowing that all sin has been taken away.  So let’s get back to Romans 8:1…

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

So why is there no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus?  Because there are no sins left for him to condemn.  The cross has obliterated them!  Your sins have been blotted out.  He doesn’t even remember them.  Hebrews 10:17 says…

“Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.” 

So think about this for a second.  A lot of us put our faith in Jesus for salvation, and then we become totally preoccupied with the thing that God is finished dealing with in our lives– sin!  He is already finished dealing with it…Jesus has taken it all away, and we are placing ourselves under condemnation for things that He doesn’t even remember.

Steve McVey, in his book titled Grace Walk, unpacks the idea of knowing his identity as a saint and being completely forgiven and shares his personal experience with this by saying…

“In no way do I intend to convey the idea that understanding my identity caused me to live sinlessly.  However, I have found that when I do sin now, I soon see it as foolish because I know that a sinful attitude or action contradicts my new nature.  Before understanding my identity in Christ, I experienced condemnation when I sinned.  Yet the Bible says there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.  All the condemnation of God against our sin was poured out on Jesus.  So now, I don’t feel condemned, but am simply made aware by the Holy Spirit of the foolishness of what I have done.  I am reminded of my identity in Christ and sense a desire to forsake the sin and get on with living who I really am – a totally forgiven, redeemed saint!”

And that is what I really want you to see, that your identity is that of a saint who is completely forgiven…completely forgive for all of your past, present, and future sins…

And that allows you when you do sin, as Steve McVey said to “be reminded of your identity in Christ and sense a desire to forsake the sin and get on with living who you really are – a totally forgiven, redeemed saint!”

So let me just spend a couple of minutes talking about what this looks like practically…

Let’s go back to some of the examples we mentioned earlier. You sin and start to feel like God is disappointed in you.  You don’t want to face Him because of that so you are tempted to run from him and just continue to sin. 

What if instead, when you sinned and you started to feel like God is disappointed in you, you went to Hebrews 10:17… “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.” 

“Oh, God doesn’t even remember what I’ve just done…He is not disappointed in me…He loves me…Jesus has taken away this sin.”  “Thank you Jesus for your complete forgiveness in my live.  I stepped out of character with who I am, being a saint.  I put my heart and mind back on the life I find in Christ and surrender myself to how you want to work in me and through me.”

Or, let’s say you sin and you are tempted immediately start trying to make up for that sin…you’ve got to do your penance.  But instead of beginning to make sacrifices for the sin you just committed, you remember Hebrews 9:22 which says “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness!”  You remember that your penance will not make up for sin, only blood will do that…and then you remember Hebrews 9:28 which says, “…Christ was offered once for all time as a sacrifice to take away sins.”

So you drop to your knees instead of doing penance and pray, “Thank you Jesus for the one-time sacrifice you made for my sin.  Thank you for your forgiveness in my life and that I don’t have to do anything to try and make up for what I just did…I make myself available to you to express Your Life in me and through me.

Guys, knowing that we are a completely forgiven saint IN CHRIST allows us to get rid of the bondage of sin…the condemnation that comes when we step out of character temporarily.  It frees us to live who we really are (A COMPLETELY FORGIVEN, REDEEMED SAINT…which frees us up to experience the life of Christ in us and through us every moment of every day.