Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“Aaron shall offer the bull of the sin offering, which is for himself, and make atonement for himself and for his house. He shall take the two goats, and set them before Yahweh at the door of the Tent of Meeting. Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats: one lot for Yahweh, and the other lot for the scapegoat. Aaron shall present the goat on which the lot fell for Yahweh, and offer him for a sin offering. But the goat on which the lot fell for the scapegoat shall be presented alive before Yahweh, to make atonement for him, to send him away as the scapegoat into the wilderness.”
(Leviticus 16:6-10)

“This is the message which we have heard from him and announce to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in the darkness, we lie and don’t tell the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son, cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we haven’t sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us“
(1 John 1:5-10)

The high priest, Aaron, had to do a LOT to atone for the people’s sin. This was not personal sin or iniquity, it was Sin which had infected humanity and was throughout the nation. By going through this arduous process, that Sin was covered, dealt with as IF washed away, for another year. Aaron had to be thorough, had to make sure to do all the pieces of the process so that no nook, no cranny, and no corner of their spiritual lives was uncovered by the blood which symbolically was covering them. It was so important to separate the people from Sin that a goat was chosen, imparted with their Sin, led off into the wilderness, and pushed off a cliff so that it would NEVER be able to return to them. That was how separated they needed to be from their sin. They needed to learn that it was THAT important to have THAT kind of separation from Sin in order to be aligned with God.

John talks about the same thing. God has NO DARKNESS. John calls for us to put away sin ABSOLUTELY – in Jesus we have been made anew with a new nature (we no longer are sinners, but the redeemed). We need to ACT like it. None of us can live without choosing to sin in some way. But when we acknowledge that it WAS a choice, we then have the opportunity to CHANGE OUR THINKING (Romans 12:2). None of us has the right to give up the struggle to choose not to sin. Even when we miss it, we are to repent and turn back to following God’s instructions. Acknowledging our sins isn’t enough. We need to fully turn from them. Authentic repentance is neccessary if we are to expect true forgiveness – for without authentic repentance we are not truly asking for forgiveness, we’re instead just saying ‘sorry’.

Summary

We are not sinners (2 Corinthians 5:21). We were saved by Grace (Romans 8:1). Without Jesus, we cannot hope to operate without sinning (John 15:1-5). True repentance is accepting the TRUTH and the RIGHTNESS of God’s point of view. We don’t have to enjoy it. We don’t have to agree with it with our own human thinking. What we have to do is acknowledge that what we feel and our thinking doesn’t matter because HIS thinking is righteous. By getting into the Word, we educate ourselves about His thinking, about His character, and about the rightness of it. We renew our minds so that we AGREE with His point of view and treat sin like He does – separating from it in word, thought, and action. It takes Jesus’ finished work to do this. It takes His Fruit planted in our hearts. It takes the Word alive in our minds and consistently in front of our eyes. We will not always be perfect, but when we constantly seek to get into agreement with Him, Holy Spirit helps us rest in Jesus – which is where victory over sin resides.