Are you a sinful person? No? Well—are you competitive to the point of being resentful when another does better than you? I’ve seen that I am, at times. Are you greedy—do you grab the best or most for yourself? Yes; far more often than I realize. What about boastful—do you always tell others who you or your family are, or what they’ve done? Anyone who’s ever read my Facebook page or worked with me knows more about what my kids have done than they probably know about anyone else’s. Or stingy—maybe not specifically toward those in need, but have you budgeted your finances so tightly that there’s no margin for helping anyone else? Yup; that’s me.
“These things happened to them as an example and were written as a warning for us to whom the end of time has come. So those who think they are standing need to watch out or else they may fall. No temptation has seized you that isn’t common for people. But God is faithful. He won’t allow you to be tempted beyond your abilities. Instead, with the temptation, God will also supply a way out so that you will be able to endure it.” (1 Corinthians 10:11-13 CEB)
We are sinful; it’s not a justification but we cannot help it. We’re born with this infection and it is something we’ll take with us to the grave. In some way we cannot quite wrap our minds around it is intertwined into our DNA so that we cannot extricate it from our humanity—even though it makes us less than human. And the only cure is not a good cleansing or even an extrication of the infection, but a covering.
My mother was a big proponent of washing walls. When they got dirty she would tell me to get a bucket and clean; even before repainting she wanted me to wash them down. But when things get dirty—that dirty that the filth permeates the surface—washing is ineffective; whatever you clean is a drop in the bucket—you’ve worn yourself out and it’s still ugly.
The only solution is covering it completely with a good quality paint. Not some bargain basement knockoff that’s been diluted so much that it fails to do much of anything, but a real deal high-quality thick paint. One swipe of the roller and everything underneath is gone.
Of course, it’s not really gone; it still exists beneath. But it’s covered; when I look at the wall it’s completely beautiful and perfect, without any grime or flaws.
That’s what Jesus’ death on the cross did for me and you, and anyone else who accepts this truth. He—the only human ever without the guilt of His own sin—paid the penalty for everyone else’s sin.
Christmas just passed; one of the most famous verses children quote in Nativity plays is, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel [God with us].” (Isaiah 7:14 NIV)
That’s why He had no sin of His own. His human origin within her body was divine; it was not a typical conception. This is significant, because if His was a human conception He would have had the same sin infection everyone else has. This is why His death meant more than anyone else’s death—why He was qualified to take humanity’s guilt and pay its penalty of justice on our behalf.
And even though God Word clearly spells this out, in a backward way of reasoning this is also why Jesus is not just another human—He was (and still is) God’s Son, eternal from before Creation—who become human. He was God’s plan from the beginning.
So what’s the covering in the allegory—the “paint?“ It’s Jesus’ blood on the cross. We still inadvertently sin—we recognize it’s evil, we don’t want to, but we still do. Yet, if we are Jesus Christ’s—if we believe He is God’s Son who paid for my sin—my heavenly Father sees Jesus’ holiness when He looks at me. My sin is covered, completely forgiven and obscured, by Christ’s blood.
That’s why I love the Old Testament feast of Passover, even though I’m not Jewish ethnically. God commanded the Israelites to forever celebrate this feast, but it is for more than just those who are Jewish; it is for all who understand the concept of being covered by Jesus’ blood.
You see, during the Passover, when God worked to supernaturally bring the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt millennia ago, right before the end He commanded them to kill an unblemished lamb and smear the blood over the entry to each of their homes. Those homes covered by the blood of the lamb were passed over when God’s angel brought death of the first born son to all the other homes.
The prefiguring of being covered by Jesus’—identified in the Bible as the Lamb of God’s—blood is unmistakable.
We who are covered by the shed blood of Jesus—who believe in Him; who cling to Him and remain in Him—will also be passed over by the angel of eternal death. Why? Not because we no longer are capable of sin, but because the sin we hate that we still somehow end up doing is covered by the blood; it’s forgiven, forgotten, not seen by God when He looks at us.
So, are you a sinful person? Do you still sin? I know I still do. I don’t want to; God say “be holy because I am holy,” and Christ gives me the heartfelt desire to do so. Instead of being God’s enemy and being opposed to and hating Him, I love Him from the bottom of my heart. But I still live in this world and even though my heart is changed, there are times I sin without even realizing it—I’ve got to keep cooperating with Christ’s Spirit in me, helping me follow Him.
Yet when I do sin, I have the inexplicable comfort of knowing I am forgiven; that I am—forever and always—covered by His blood; that I am “accepted in the Beloved [Jesus]” by God!
Dear Jesus,
Cover me with Your blood; holy heavenly Father, see Jesus’ holiness in me! Amen.
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