Recalling the Sacrifice

Psalm 130:3-4

If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, therefore you are feared.

Have you ever tried to sit down and think about all the things that you have done in your lifetime to sin against God? It can be quite overwhelming can't it? That little white lie you told your spouse when they asked you if they looked good in a particular outfit... that homework that you copied from your friend in middle school... the jealousy you felt when someone got something that you wanted... the lust in your heart when you see things you shouldn't. The truth of the matter is that we all have not merely sinned, we've sinned A LOT! It is a part of our nature. It is a part of who we are. We are sinful people.
Now think about what a list of your sins would look like? Is there enough paper? What about ink? Is there enough computer memory in all the world to hold it all?
Praise be to God that he doesn't keep a record of our sins. Through the offering of Jesus Christ, believers have their sins paid for and taken away. There is no more permanent record. God doesn't remember them, in fact, he removes them as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12)

How does God do this for us? The price is not cheap:

2 Corinthians 5:21

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Jesus Christ had done nothing wrong. He was able to accomplish what none of us have been able to do. He was sinless. Perfect. And it was upon this perfection that God laid our sins. All of them. All the little lies. All the cheating. All the murder. All the theft. Remember your list of sins? Compile that list with the list of all of the other human beings who have ever lived and God piled those sins on the shoulders of the perfect, sinless Christ.

I believe the prophecy found in Isaiah 53 sums up this sacrifice better than any other text in the Bible:

Isaiah 53:1-6

Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all like sheep have gone astray each one of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

The words pierced and crushed found in verse 5 are the strongest Hebrew words used to denote a suffering unto death. The word translated peace in the same verse is the Hebrew word shalom which more accurately translated means "completeness" or "wholeness." The death of Jesus Christ made us whole again.

If God kept a record of our sins, none could stand, and yet Jesus bore all of our sins in order that we might be able to have a relationship with God. How often do you remind yourself of the sacrifice that was made on your behalf? Do you live your life in appreciation for the salvation that you have through Jesus Christ's righteous suffering? Take time today to Thank God for the relationship that you can have and the life that you will experience because Jesus took care of your sin problem.