by: carole l. haines
Our Pastor asked us to do a rather strange thing during his sermon yesterday. He asked us to imagine ourselves as a person who does not know the Lord. He asked us to name all that was different. What did we really own, as unbelievers? People called out things like, “A House, A car, etc.” All debunked and clearly shown not to be owned, but actually very precarious situations. We can lose cars and houses etc., right? But he then said, “What about your sin? Before you became a Follower and Believer in Jesus, you owned your sin.”
This all made me think very deeply about just how much it means to have my sin washed away by the blood of Jesus. No one else could take my sin away, nor would they want to. They have enough of their own. You can’t scrub it off, cut it off, wear it off. It doesn’t scrape off, either. No stain remover could clean it up. Like a ball a chain around my neck, I began to picture what it would be like to carry my own sin. I pictured Jacob Marley, in that famous scene from Charles Dickens, “A Christmas Carol.”
“You are fettered,” said Scrooge, trembling. “Tell me why?” “I wear the chain I forged in life,” replied the Ghost. “I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it.”
― Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol (goodreads)
Yes, truly, I am fettered. Apart from Jesus Christ delivering me from my sin, I am fettered. Tears began to well up in my eyes, as I realized just what a heavy weight Jesus has lifted off of me. What a high price he paid, too. So let me encourage you today, “Lose that weight!” If you have not trusted Jesus as Your Savior, you are carrying a heavy weight beyond your own ability to bear. Jesus died to take our sin away, but we must put our trust in Him. So, I plead with you, dear friend, lose that weight. Put your trust in Christ today.
If you already have, spend a few minutes pondering just how great a weight He has lifted off of you…and thank Him.
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. (John 3:16 NASB)
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