10/07/2025
How big is the passion and sacrifice of Jesus Christ? How complete the grace of God that this represents? Do we find ourselves praying for the individual sins we have committed but neglecting God’s amazing forgiveness of the overarching concept of sin? So, how great is the passion and sacrifice of Jesus Christ? Have we ever stopped to consider the unfathomable depth of what was accomplished for us? Maybe we can get a glimpse of it in a mother’s loving eyes.
“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV
I was reading Pastor Oswald Chambers several years ago and he made a statement about Christianity that I hadn’t previously stopped to consider. I thought I had mulled over most every major aspect of our faith, but this was a new thought to me. Here is what he said:
“Other religions deal with sins; the Bible alone deals with sin.” - Oswald Chambers
This thought swept me into the very sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the enormity of what He did for us. While other religions are looking at each individual sin a person commits, Jesus died to remove the heredity of sin, the very institution of sin, from us... and more.
What does this mean to us? Well, it tells us that we have been set aright in the eyes of God and that the choice of committing sin or not committing sin has been returned to us... not born into us. Certainly He has provided for our forgiveness for the individual sins we choose to commit, but much more than that he has removed the underlying burden of Adam’s loss of mankind’s innocence.
There was a boy who was given a hand me down shirt from his older brother. The shirt was supposed to be white but had yellowed over time and had several very bad stains on it. The boy brought this to his mother’s attention and told her that he was embarrassed to wear it. The mother took the shirt and began to work on it. She soaked the stains in a concentrated stain remover and let the shirt sit overnight in a bleach solution. All the stains didn’t come out easily so it took a great deal of time and effort before at last the shirt was bright white and without blemish. It was as if it were brand new.
The boy was more than pleased, he looked forward to wearing that shirt to school, and the next day that was exactly what he did. He told everyone who would listen about the shirt. He told them that it was his brother’s, and about how his mother had transformed it from a yellowed mess to the bright white they now saw! The shirt was his pride and joy.
During recess the boy was extra careful not to get any dirt on his shirt, but despite his best efforts he was hit in the face with a kickball and blood spurted from his nose onto his shirt. He was devastated. Arriving home he walked into the house expecting to see disappointment on his mother’s face, but instead she hugged him and said, “Let me have the shirt.” The boy moped around all afternoon and evening, and as he prepared for bed he prayed that God would forgive him for ruining his shirt after his mother had worked so hard to clean it, and that the stains could somehow be removed from it once more.
The next morning he heard his mother calling him to breakfast, so he slowly rolled out of bed, and headed towards the kitchen, but when he turned towards the door there hung his shirt... bright and clean; without a spot on it. His mother had worked through the night to remove the blood stain, and now there was no sign of it. The shirt was once again like new.
This is what God has done for us through Jesus Christ. He first cleansed the age-old stain and blemish from us and returned us to bright white by the passion of Christ. And then He made provision for any new stains we might put on our shirts by applying the memory of that same act of grace and love to remove them.
“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.”
Romans 3:23-25 ESV
Jesus didn’t give Himself on the cross to save us from individual sins... he gave himself to conquer sin in its entirety. Will we lead a sin free life? I doubt that very seriously, but through the application of Jesus’s blood, and the grace of the Holy Father, our shirt will never be ruined beyond God’s ability to repair. Each morning, we will rise to find a spotless and perfectly clean shirt to wear.
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
1 John 1:9 ESV
Prayer:
Father I thank you for the grace you show us through your Son Jesus. I thank you for not only cleansing the ramifications of Adam’s sin, but for forgiving each of the sins I commit individually thereafter. Holy Father your will is perfect and your intentions for us always good. Like the mother in my example, you have returned the shirt of Adam’s sin to perfection, and now that it is mine, you have made provision for any new stains that I might place on it. Thank you for your mercy and I thank you for the grace that you apply to me each day. There is nothing I can do to cleanse myself from sin, but through Jesus Christ I am washed clean. I love you Father, and when I am embarrassed to reveal my shortcomings to you, you lift up my face and seeing my sorrow and contrition your Son Jesus says, “Let me have the shirt.” I cried Father as the blood spilled onto my shirt, but not for my own pain, but at the thought of disappointing you... thank you for loving me despite my sins, and for dealing not only with them individually, but with the overarching concept of sin in its entirety. You have chosen to forgive the unfathomable release of sin into the world that Adam and Eve brought forth, and each day you forgive me for my sins. Praised be your name, and Holy, Holy, Holy are you! Your mercy and grace know no bounds, and your love for me overwhelms the entirety of sin in the world!
Amen!
“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV
Rich Forbes