The Most Urgent Social Issue

“Sins overwhelmed me, but You atoned for our transgressions.” [1]

Our adversary, the devil, wants us to sin. He says, “It’s all right. Nothing bad will happen to you. It will be our little secret.” His goal is to capture and enslave us with chains of sin. After he is done with us, he says to us, “You are a worthless criminal. God can never forgive you.”

Sin IS bad. It’s like the COVID19: an invisible killer. We tend to take sin lightly. We think we can erase it by doing a good deed or by putting on a good performance. But sin is still there. There is only one antidote for sin. His Name is Jesus Christ.

The Psalmist said that the Lord atoned for his sin. To atone is to cover. To remove it from sight! To erase it!

In the Old Testament, animal sacrifices were made to atone for sin, but the sacrifices had to be done repeatedly because sinners commit sin repeatedly. The animal sacrifices pointed to a Lamb that God was going send as an atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world. Lamb is another name for Jesus Christ.

“The next day, he [John the Baptist] saw Jesus coming to him, and said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.’” [2]

Jesus is the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

“In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.” [3]

“And He [Jesus] is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.” [4]

Jesus didn’t atone only for the sins of “good” people. He atoned for the sins of the world. He even atoned for the chief of sinners. “Chief of sinners” is how Paul the Apostle introduced himself.

“If I cherished sin in my heart, the Lord wouldn’t have listened. But most certainly, God has listened. He has heard the voice of my prayer. Blessed be God, who has not turned away my prayer, nor His loving kindness from me.” [5]

A key point here is not to cherish sin. Sin is not a friend. It is a fiend. Left unforgiven, it will torture a person’s undying soul for eternity. But when sin is confessed and forgiven by God, a person senses God’s presence. We can pray to Him. We can feel His loving kindness. Through Christ’s forgiveness, our names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. We enter heaven’s holy gates.

“Riches don’t profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death.” [6]

We need to be clothed – covered – atoned for by the blood of Christ shed for us on the cross to be rescued from everlasting death. This world’s currency is worthless when we die.

Let us confess our sins to God and ask Him to forgive us.

There is no greater or more urgent social issue today than to prepare to meet our Maker.

“Prepare to meet your God.” [7]

[1] Psalm 65:3
[2] John 1:29
[3] 1 John 4:10
[4] 1 John 2:2
[5] Psalm 66:18-20
[6] Proverbs 11:4
[7] Amos 4:12