Many Sins
Originally scheduled for September 27
“our sins they are many,
His mercy is more”
(lines above are from a contemporary Christian chorus.)
It is a common characteristic among Christians that we don’t want to
face our sins. This reluctance comes in a variety of flavors.
·
We certainly don’t want to face the ones that are frequent, or
common to us. If it’s something we do every day we tend to bury it
in our mind and hope that God doesn’t notice that we haven’t
changed.
·
Sometimes we ignore the ones that are the variety in our lives. We
may have one major besetting sin which disguises the fact that we
have a wide variety of other ones. We don’t see them as a web in
which one species of sin supports the others, but very often that is
what we really have.
·
If we are good at ignoring our sins in and of themselves, we are
even better at ignoring their effects. Sins, by and large, we
recognize as being our own fault somehow. But when those sins affect
others around us it is very convenient to blame the others for the
results.
Our Lord’s mercy responds to these things. One of the immense
advantages of Christ’s incarnation is that he understands what it is
like to be a human being. His understanding of our sins is not a
view from the throne of heaven as much as it is a personal
experience. He walked among us; he knows what we are like; he has
experienced the same temptations. Therefore, his mercy covers the
things that are real about our sins, not just theoretical.
·
Do we sin repeatedly? His mercy is new every morning. He instructed
Peter to forgive not seven times but 7 times 70. Surely his mercy is
greater even than that.
·
Are our sins widely varied? Are they the kinds of things you think
no one else in the world has ever done this? He has no list of sins
to forgive, but forgiveness is offered for all of them.
·
It is not just a legalistic “certificate of forgiveness” mercy. Our
Lord offers not just formal forgiveness but help in the healing of
the effects of sin.
Such forgiveness does not come without a price. The Old Testament is
quite clear; if there is sin, there must be atonement or there is no
forgiveness. It is also quite clear that atonement for sin is blood
sacrifice. To satisfy that law Christ needed to die on the Cross for
us. But such a sacrifice is also must be pure — “without blemish”,
as the Old Testament law as it. Therefore it had to be Christ who
paid this, for he is the only one among us who was without sin.
As we celebrate communion this morning, we are commanded to remember
that sacrifice. In the bread we see his body hanging on the Cross.
In the cup we perceive his blood. This is the price paid. The result
is what we started with:
“our sins they are many,
His mercy is more”
