Nearing the End

“For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3).

This verse came to mind as I was thinking about what it would be like to face an imminent death. We all know that death is a certainty unless Christ returns first. We just don’t know how soon our end will come. You’ve probably heard some variant of the question, “If you knew this was your last day on earth, how would that change your priorities?” But the Apostle Paul puts a different spin on it, because he says we have already died and our remaining days belong entirely to Christ. He uses the same reasoning in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

How should it shape our priorities and daily lives if we remembered that in Christ we have already died to the things of this world? The first thing that comes to mind is that I would care a lot less about what people think of me. It wouldn’t matter so much whether I am accepted, appreciated, or adequate, because I’m already fully loved and accepted by the only One whose opinion really matters. For some, the first thought might be a different definition of success—no longer striving for perfection or achievement, but focusing on sharing the gospel with those we love and want to be with for eternity. For others, it could be a realization that the things we depend on for safety and security in this life are not going to matter in eternity, and therefore they don’t require as much attention or effort as we might otherwise dedicate to them.

I was introduced to the 7 Primal Questions concept from Mike Foster. I find the psychology of it interesting, but from the few videos I watched it sounds like his primary advice is to turn each question around:

• From “Am I safe?” to “I am safe.”
• From “Am I secure?” to “I am secure.”
• From “Am I loved?” to “I am loved.”
• From “Am I wanted?” to “I am wanted.”
• From “Am I successful?” to “I am successful.”
• From “Am I good enough?” to “I am good enough.”
• From “Do I have a purpose?” to “I have a purpose.”

For the Christian, every one of those questions is answered “yes” in Jesus Christ. We have all the security, love, and purpose that we really need because we are children of the Heavenly Father. Admittedly, that doesn’t always feel like enough when we’re living in a broken world. We’d all like to have people around us who will affirm those truths frequently, and the Church doesn’t always do a good job of that. That’s one reason we need to remind ourselves that we have died with Christ, and we now live in and through Him.

People will always disappoint us one way or another, and we will disappoint them too. But our Father is never disappointed with us, because He knows us better than we know ourselves. And there is coming a day when we will see our Savior face to face and we’ll know the full depths of His love, acceptance, and forgiveness. Until that day, we can remind ourselves and one another that this life is far shorter than we can comprehend and we should order our priorities accordingly. By doing so, our lives will probably start to look more like the Beatitudes—meek, merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers, seeking righteousness, etc. (Matt. 5:3-12), because we know that the promised blessings are already ours in Christ.

“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12:2 BSB).

© 2023 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV and all images copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

Six Feet Under

A few years ago I wrote some thoughts on cremation and burial for my pastor. I was reminded of that by a recent podcast from Russell Moore and Stephen Prothero, which I would recommend. My own views have changed over time. I once would have preferred cremation, largely because of the lower cost involved. However, now I would press for burial so long as it can be done simply and as inexpensively as possible.

I have read arguments both for and against cremation. In some cultures, cremation is tied to pagan religions. But how a body is handled after death is less important than how the person lived. This is not an essential point of doctrine. Faithful Christians can come to different conclusions. I agree with Russell Moore’s comments in this article:

“We are put away in sleep in order to be awakened, in order to see the resurrection of the entire body one day. And so, it’s not so much about what happens to the person as it is what we are communicating. And we care what we communicate about death because of the very high view that the Bible has of the body. The body isn’t just a disposable container of the person.”

The physical body when we are alive is important. We (collectively) are in fact “the temple of the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 6:19) and should treat our bodies accordingly. Joseph made provision for his bones when he died (Ex. 13:19, Josh. 24:8). This may say more about his faith in God’s promise of a new land than it does his theology of the body or eternal life. The Bible speaks often of burial; however, the bodies of Saul and Jonathan were burned and their bones were buried (1 Sam. 31:12-13). When Jesus was put in the tomb, the women intended to honor Him by anointing the body with spices (Mark 16:1). The bodies of the dead were treated with the honor or dishonor due to them from the way the people had lived (2 Chron. 28:27, Jer. 16:5-6, et al).

The early church had to refute the claims of the Gnostics who said in part that our goal is to get rid of our physical bodies. Gnosticism has gained ground in recent years. Prothero makes the comment that the increasing frequency of cremation even among Christians may be an indicator that we are adopting our culture’s view that the body is not essential to who we are. If the body is merely a temporary container for the soul, then it doesn’t really matter what we do to it either in life or in death. But that is counter to Scripture. The fact that Jesus became incarnate reflects the high value God places on our human bodies. If the body is irrelevant to who we are, then the idea of a bodily resurrection is absurd.

First Corinthians 15 reminds us that the perishable must put on the imperishable. Our final bodies are not dependent on the continuing existence of our earthly bodies. Those believers whose bodies are lost in fire or ocean are still eternally secure. The atoms that make up our bodies today have dwelt in other humans, animals, and plants before us. God can make new creations by His Word. He needs no existing entity.

Some of our modern “traditions” may reflect a fear or denial of death and an idolatry of life, though there are legitimate concerns for health and the time needed to gather family together. Draining the fluids and pumping in unnatural chemicals (that are bad for the environment) is an attempt to delay God’s natural process of decay. It’s ironic that Scripture states “the life of flesh is in the blood” (Lev. 17:11ff), and yet we try to preserve an imitation of life by removing the blood. Sealed caskets are another invention to slow natural decomposition, perhaps trying to avoid seeing the “great equalizer” that death really is. “They lie down alike in the dust, and the worms cover them” (Job 21:26, cf. Eccl. 3:19-20).

Burial expenses often seem excessive, which leads many families to choose cremation. A sealed casket and vault may not be essential, though some cemeteries require a vault. Embalming may not be necessary depending on timing of services and whether or not there will be a public viewing. Churches might consider ways to help people with limited finances, whether through financial assistance or directing them to lower cost alternatives like natural caskets.

While the word cemetery comes from the Greek for dormitory, cemeteries tend to exist more for the living than for the dead. It is a place to visit and remember their loved ones. For Christians, the cemetery should also be a reminder that this life is temporary but eternal life is coming. Churches should consider carefully what message is communicated by providing a columbarium or, conversely, by refusing burial of ashes. How can we best promote a scriptural view of the value of the human body and of the coming resurrection?

The day will eventually come for each of us unless Christ returns in the near future. Funeral planning is important, but it’s even more important to be prepared for eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ. Are you ready?

“Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed” (1 Cor. 15:51-52).

© 2022 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV and all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

Life in God's Image

In April 2021 our denomination passed a new resolution (#21-08) on Human Dignity, specifically addressing prior resolutions regarding abortion. The new resolution says in part:

“Be it, therefore resolved that this delegate body affirms that all human beings are made in the image of God and thereby possess unassailable dignity and worth according to the design of their Creator, irrespective of their race, gender, abilities, age, social class, or the circumstances of their conception…

“Be it further resolved that we mourn the loss of any human life, especially under murderous circumstances, and that we mourn all suffering caused by unjust discrimination…”

If we are to take this resolution seriously, I believe we also need to apply the same reasoning to the topic of capital punishment.* Many Christians justify the death penalty based Scriptures such as Genesis 9:6, “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in His own image,” and Romans 13:4, “But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.” At one time, I would have counted myself among them; however, further study has changed my mind. In particular, I found the arguments in Shane Claiborne’s book, Executing Grace, to be compelling. Although I don’t have room to include all the pages of quotes I pulled out, here are some of his points.

The Old Testament law was actually a limit

“Here’s the key: the ‘eye for an eye’ law was intended to be a limit to retaliation—not a license for it. The goal was to stop the cycle of violence rather than validate or escalate it. Prior to the Old Testament laws and the guidance of God, there was unregulated violence… There are laws of mandate and laws of limitation. Mandate means you must; limitation means you can. …The punishment should never exceed the crime… The fact that it’s legal doesn’t mean it’s right” (ch. 4).

Scripture moves us toward life and love

“Throughout the Bible there is a movement away from violence, toward ‘beating swords into plows’ (Isa. 2:4), transforming the instruments of death into tools that can cultivate life. The climax of this is the cross” (ch. 3).

“Jesus takes us even farther. Return evil with good. Do not fight fire with fire. Jesus admonishes us not to engage in retaliatory violence at all—not to take an eye or a tooth or a limb, ever. In essence, Jesus brings us a new law… and he does it without negating the old law, but by moving beyond it. In replacing ‘an eye for an eye’ with ‘love your enemies,’ Jesus teaches us to wear evil down with love” (ch. 4, see also John 8:1-7).

The early church was against death in any form

“[Ron Sider in] The Early Church on Killing… points out that the early Christians had a consistent ethic of life when it came to abortion, capital punishment, military service, and other issues. For the early Christians, people were created by God, made in the image of God, and no mortal had the right to kill another person; not even Caesar had the right to take life… No Christian writing before Constantine in the fourth century argued that there is any circumstance under which a Christian may kill” (ch. 6).

The death penalty is racially biased

“Eight in ten lynchings that occurred in the United States from 1889 to 1918 occurred in the South. Now (since 1976) eight in ten executions are in the South. In other words, the places that were most inclined to unofficial execution by lynching a hundred years ago are drawn to official execution today… To this day, even though African Americans make up only 13 percent of the nation’s population, 42 percent of death row inmates are black, and 34 percent of those executed since 1976 have been black” (ch. 8).

Wrongful convictions and executions are more common than you may think

“[About] one person for every nine executed has been proven to be wrongfully convicted, sentenced to death, and later exonerated and released from death row… A recent study estimates one in twenty-five folks on death row has been wrongly convicted and is likely innocent, reminding us undoubtedly that innocent people have also been killed” (ch. 11).

There are better ways to deal with violent crimes

“The U.S. legal system is designed as an adversarial one… prosecution versus defendant. The model seen in scripture and attempted in many communities throughout history and around the world is, in contrast, communal… Restorative justice is… about humanizing harm rather than systematizing punishment. It is about being concerned for all people—victim, offender, and community” (ch. 13).

“It is a well-established fact that it costs more to kill someone than to keep someone in prison for life” (ch. 14).

Christians and others are working for change

“In 1996, 78 percent of Americans were in favor of the death penalty for people convicted of murder… A 2013 Pew study shows that that number had dropped farther, to 55 percent” (ch. 7).

“Pope John Paul II [revised] the Catholic stance on the death penalty to say even more strongly that in contemporary society we have sufficient ways to render someone ‘inoffensive’ without executing that person and ‘without depriving him definitively of the possibility of redeeming himself’” (ch. 10).

“[In 2015] the National Association of Evangelicals… issued a new resolution on capital punishment. Their pro-death penalty statement had not changed since it was written in 1973—until now” (ch. 14; see NAE site).

From my perspective

Jesus did modify the application of the Old Testament law, but the question is how much? Did He intend for death penalties to be entirely removed? Does the role of governing authorities sustain the right to put people to death for the lives that those people have taken? Even if they have that right, is that the best solution available?

One thing that is alarming to me is that the United States is one of only a few First World nations (along with Japan and Singapore) that has not abolished the death penalty, and in 2020 ranked 6th in the world in the number of executions—behind China, Iran, Egypt, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia (per Wikipedia). In many countries, religious activities are reason for capital punishment, and yet Christians are often strong supporters of the death penalty in the U.S. That is incongruous to say the least.

Our legal system has many problems. Wrongful convictions and racially biased sentencing are significant. We live in a culture that is increasingly anti-authority, and laws are broken with impunity. We need law enforcement (and Christians serving there) to deter the increasingly anarchic atmosphere. But the death penalty is not a solution. Killing people in order to prove that killing is wrong is not going to lead to a more righteous or just country.

I don’t believe Christians should be involved in seeking or carrying out the death sentence. We of all people should realize that as long as there is life there is hope for repentance and salvation of all men. Some of those executed have become our brothers and sisters in Christ before they died. To claim we are pro-life should not simply mean that we are anti-abortion. Every person is created in the image of God, and therefore denying anyone the right to live is an affront to God. If those who conduct executions are, in Claiborne’s words, “haunted” by the requirement to take lives, shouldn’t Christians also be haunted by supporting such a system? Death originated with Satan’s deception of Adam and Eve. Should we not be instruments of life in any way we possibly can?

“For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one Man Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:17).

“The last enemy to be destroyed is death” (1 Cor. 15:26).

*A.C. Resolution #81-35 on Capital Punishment concluded, “A study of the Bible does not resolve the debate, thereby leaving the issue to individual conscience and interpretation.” Considering that our Declaration of Principles has a statement that “our influence should be used against” war, I would contend that we should also be using our influence against capital punishment.

© 2021 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV and all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

In Triumph and in Death

 A Bible search for the word “always” led me to see to a curious juxtaposition of verses in 2 Corinthians. On one hand we have the victorious image of 2:14 (ESV):

“But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of Him everywhere.”

That’s the kind of verse everyone would like to claim. We’d all like to feel triumphant over sin, adversity, and death. And we often seem to think that our faith will be easily shared with others, like a fragrance wafting across the room with no real effort on our part. But then just two chapters later the Apostle Paul writes:

“[We are] always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh” (4:10-11).

That picture isn’t so pleasant or desirable. We don’t particularly want any form of death, whether it is the daily death of our own selfish desires or the death that comes from persecution for our faith. Christianity would be so much easier and more appealing to the world if it were obviously victorious and comfortable. If it were really about health and wealth, it wouldn’t be hard to convert people. There would be no need for evangelistic crusades or prayer meetings or hard conversations. In fact, it wouldn’t even require the work of the Holy Spirit.

But from the beginning faith has required death. When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, death was introduced into the world (Gen. 3). The curse included the death-like futility of toil, physical death, and spiritual death. God’s first action after pronouncing this death was to kill animals in order to make garments of skins to cloth Adam and Eve (v. 21). It wasn’t long until the Old Testament sacrificial system was enacted as a temporary substitutionary death that pointed ahead to the Messiah who would “give His life as a ransom for many” (Matt. 20:28), and “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” (Heb. 9:22).

We must first put our faith in the One who died in our place, but it doesn’t end there. As we put on our new life in Christ, it requires the death of our old self—we can’t put on the new without putting off the old. “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God… Put to death therefore what is earthly in you” (Col. 3:3, 5). We won’t be conformed to the image of Christ without sacrificing our own wills to His (Rom. 12:1-2). We won’t “spread the fragrance of the knowledge of Him everywhere” unless His life is being lived out day by day. “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him” (1 John 4:9).

In this age of self, this is not a popular message. Everyone wants to live their own life, follow their heart, and fulfill their own desires. But for those who claim faith in Christ, it is not my life but His, not my desires but His, not my will but His. “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body” (1 Cor. 6:19-20). This message is repeated in various ways throughout the New Testament, so anyone who believes that they can be a Christian and yet live however they please is sadly deceived.

“For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?” (2 Cor. 2:15-16).

May we be a fragrant offering, broken and poured out for Him.

“It is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death” (Phil. 1:20).

© 2020 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer. 

Where's Your Hope?

“But you shall cling to the Lord your God just as you have done to this day” (Joshua 23:8 ESV).

In this age of uncertainty and anxiety due to the coronavirus, what you are clinging to? News coverage? Cleaning supplies? Family members? Or to the Lord your God, the maker of heaven and earth? He’s not wringing His hands and saying, “Oh, I didn’t see that coming!” He knew it from the beginning, and it hasn’t changed the number of days any of us have written in His book (Psalm 139:16).

Statistics in 2019 showed about 41% of people are at least “somewhat” afraid of death. I suspect that figure is significantly higher when there’s a pandemic spreading. Christians need not fear death, though admittedly we might fear the process of dying as well as the impact that death has on loved ones. If we are in Christ, we know our eternal destiny is secure. We should pray that those who are not believers will give serious thought to what happens after death. The current proliferation of online church services should enable some to hear the gospel and respond if they have not yet done so.

After writing those two paragraphs I learned that someone I know died Sunday. Suddenly the pandemic had a face and a name. It was no longer just “something” out there. It ceased to be an inconvenient social experiment and became real people really dying. My prayers had been “Lord, give wisdom to the leaders and doctors and scientists to stop the spread of this disease.” Now they are more like the psalms of lament (see Psalm 13):

How long, O Lord?
Will You forget us forever?
How long will You hide Your face from us?
How long must we have sorrow in our hearts all the day?
How many people must suffer and die?
How many will be mourning loved ones?
How many will be lacking basic necessities of life?
Lord, please intervene quickly!
We are helpless without You!

I’m sure many are asking why God is allowing this to continue. The theological arguments for the effects of the Fall on the world are good, but they don’t really touch the broken hearts of those who have lost family members. We know that God can and will bring some good out of this evil, and I hope that many will turn to faith in Him in these desperate times. But that doesn’t necessarily lessen the pain of the suffering today. Walter Kaiser wrote, “Let us also bow before our Maker and recognize His infinite wisdom in His distinctive and numerous reasons for suffering. And when [no explanation] seems to fit our own moment of crisis, then let us return to the lodestone and central affirmation of the book of Lamentations: ‘Great is Thy faithfulness.’”

“Remember my affliction and my wanderings…
My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me.
But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning;
great is Your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’
says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in Him.’
The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.
It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord”
(Lamentations 3:19-26 ESV).

The song “In Christ Alone” is a good reminder of our source of hope as well as the gospel message. May we place our trust in the One who has overcome sin and death for us, and therefore we may truly find our hope in Christ alone and have no fear in death, because Jesus commands our destiny. “Till He returns or calls me home, here in the power of Christ I stand.”

“For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead… But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:22, 57-58).

© 2020 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

Arise My Love

Every now and then I have a moment when it seems like God pulls back the corner of the veil to give me just a glimpse of His glory and majesty. I was reading something that mentioned the song, “Arise, My Love” by NewSong, and I had to listen to it to remember all the words. It draws on imagery of 1 Corinthians 15:54-55 (ESV), “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” But the Apostle Paul didn’t stop there. He goes on to say, “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

As I read that, I realized that I’ve held an incomplete understanding of all that Paul is saying in these verses. My primary thought has always been that death is the consequence of living in a sinful, fallen world—in essence, that death is the sting of sin. But Paul said it the other way around. “The sting of death is sin.” In Romans Paul wrote, “We know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin” (6:6), and “now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code” (7:6). Then he pulls it all together in 8:1-2, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.”

Sin and death are intimately intertwined. The first sin brought death into the world—not just the death of the physical body, or even the eternal death of condemnation, but also the daily “walking death” of lives wrapped up in sin. But the death of Jesus on the cross freed us from all the reign and power of sin and death. We are no longer bound to that old master. Yes, physical death will still occur for whatever time remains for this earth, but it is ultimately conquered. Sin will also remain for a time, but its power is defeated. We are free to say no to temptation and freed from the daily death of sin.

I wish NewSong had written another verse to their song, because God didn’t just call Jesus to arise from the grave. He also calls us to arise from the grave of sin every day. He keeps saying, “Arise, My love, the grave no longer has a hold on you!” When temptation comes our way, “Arise, My love, and listen to the voice of your true Master!” When sin trips us up, “Arise, My love, you are forgiven!” When death darkens our door, “Arise, My love, this is not the end!”

My beloved speaks and says to me:
“Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away,
for behold, the winter is past;
the rain is over and gone.
The flowers appear on the earth,
the time of singing has come,
and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.
The fig tree ripens its figs,
and the vines are in blossom;
they give forth fragrance.
Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away.”
(Song of Solomon 2:10-13)

We no longer belong to the realm of sin and death, but we live in the kingdom of life. May we all hear His voice calling us to arise out of whatever grave we find ourselves in today.

“Thanks be to God for His inexpressible gift!” (2 Cor. 9:15).

© 2017 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated all images are copyright free from pixabay.com.

The Weight of Sin

In one of his messages this week Alistair Begg commented, “My sin must be absolutely horrendous if it takes the death of God’s only Son to fix it.” A couple different songs contain lines like “It was my sin that held Him there.” 

While we accept that to be theologically correct, I don’t think most of us really believe it. Part of our difficulty comes from our experience of the American system of jurisprudence. We believe in proportional punishment. A minor crime receives a smaller punishment than a major crime. However, that is not the case in all cultures or times. Remember that the two men crucified with Jesus are identified simply as thieves, although we don’t know the exact nature of their crimes. One of them stated clearly “We deserve our punishment” (Luke 23:41).

That doesn’t make sense to our modern ears. It’s natural to start comparing sins. Most of us aren’t guilty of any of the “big” ones. We might lie occasionally, steal a few office supplies, and get a little envious of our neighbor, but nothing worthy of death. Or so we think. It’s hard to even conceive how Jesus bore the punishment that we deserved, because we don’t really think we deserve it. Many who call themselves Christians would say that their salvation is because “I’m a pretty good person. I may not be Mother Teresa, but I haven’t done anything really bad.”

The problem is that God’s definition of sin bears little resemblance to the laws of our country. Many of our laws can be broken with very little consequence. (When’s the last time you exceeded the speed limit?) But God’s rule book demands absolute perfection, because He Himself is absolutely perfect. Anything less keeps us from even coming into His presence. The smallest of sins creates a barrier that we cannot cross, and therefore God had to create a way to cross it for us. David said in Psalm 51:4 (ESV): “Against You, You only, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You may be justified in Your words and blameless in Your judgment.”

The other piece of the puzzle is the question of why any death was necessary to pay for sin. Logically, it seems like God could have just said, “Okay, I’ll just write off the sins of anyone who repents.” The short explanation is that God set up the rules for this universe, and He decreed that sin must be dealt with by the shedding of blood. Hebrews 9:22 says, “Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.” Why He did so is a mystery, not unlike the question of why He allowed sin to enter the world to begin with. We can speculate, but only He knows the real reasons.

It seems to me that an awareness of the weight of sin is something that grows as we grow in relationship with God. Unbelievers can sin with impunity because they have no conviction of sin. I can remember a time when I didn’t particularly care about sin or its consequences. Now even small things bother me much more because I don’t want anything to interrupt that fellowship with the Father. The conscience is more easily pricked by the Holy Spirit when we are actively seeking His guidance. At the same time, the enemy turns up the heat of condemnation to try to distract us from growing in faith and turn us away from the ministry set before us.

A right view of sin is necessary if we are to truly understand the importance of Easter. If my sin is unimportant or inconsequential, then the cross is meaningless. If my sin does not deserve death, then Jesus’ death and resurrection are merely a dramatic end to His few years of teaching on earth. However, if I deserved death but received forgiveness instead, then Easter should be a day of great celebration. “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).

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

(Public domain)

© 2016 Dawn Rutan.