The Removal of Sins

Psalm 103:12- He has removed our sins as far away from us as the east is from the west.

Grace did something to our past.

I was laying in bed realizing that verse, over and over again. Realizing the craziness of what is being said.

It's not that God made my sins better. It's not that He fixed them or simply fixed their ramifications. It's that He removed them from me. He took them away. He removed it from my past. It's like He did open heart surgery and took them out... Open life surgery... What a wonderful gift!

I'm reminded of the song "Jesus Paid It All"

Oh praise the One
Who Paid my debt
And raised this life
Up from the dead

When a debt is paid, the debt no longer exists. It can't exist. If a debt exists, it hasn't been paid. So if a debt is paid, it's gone! It's been removed. And the only thing that can exist is the gratefulness and full relief of the debt no longer existing.

Too often we receive forgiveness of sins without receiving complete removal in our heart's and minds. It's easy to say, "God forgives me" and maintain a fair amount of sorrow. It's supernatural to say "My past sins no longer exist" and shout for joy because of it!

Service Pro is a clean up and restoration company. Their slogan is, "Service Pro: Like it never even happened". That's how completely God removes our sins. That's how wild this thing is. We made a crap ton mess of our lives and Jesus is like, "NOPE. REMOVED. ALL OF IT."

What keeps us going back to our past sins is an attempt to find value in them. An attempt to make them into something that's useful to us now... to justify their existence in our past so that we can appreciate them in our present, instead of disdaining them. We want to value our past sins, not throw them away (a.k.a. not let God remove them). So we hold on. But God wants us to let go.

The reality is that there's nothing good except God's grace. Grace is the only productive thing. If you've come to Christ, it's not your struggle with sin that's made you who you are today. If you've come to Christ, your failures aren't providing you with any value, whatsoever. Plenty of people struggle and sin, and it hasn't brought them any benefit at all. The only thing that's made you who you are today... The only thing that's provided value in your life is God's grace. Don't blame your past sins for the good things you have in your life now. The sin did not, in any way, provide that. That's why God's okay with removing it from you. It's actually not useful at all to Him.

It's the removal that's valuable to God. The complete removal of any and all sins is the thing that gives God glory, not the sin itself. God's forgetting of your sin is the useful thing, not your remembrance of it.

So accept and allow God to remove all your sins from you and especially from your past. Don't get stuck trying to make them into something useful when God's looking to remove them from your life.

Be the Saxaphone Player. Be the real thing.

Me and my girlfriend were scanning the audience as the music started. It was a night of contrast. On one side of us, was a small group of teenagers who were all trying to impress each other and were a little bit annoying. (It's okay though, we photobombed them).

On the other side was a younger guy with his mom and they were both just genuinely enjoying the music.

One group was living real. The other was living fake.

As the night progressed, we saw this pattern unfolding. The real was contrasted with the fake. The heart was contrasted with the head.

The first band was a relatively newer, younger group (Judah the Lion). As they played, we felt the reality of their song. They were fully in. Their hearts were singing. They weren't performing. They were living and loving it. Their hearts were alive and as we listened, we noticed that the crowd responded with their hearts.

The second band (Parachute) had been around for a while. They did all the right things. They performed "well". They were "energetic". They didn't miss a note. They mastered the mechanics of the performance.

And nobody cared a lick.

Their hearts weren't in what they were doing and the entire crowd knew it. I don't know how we knew it, but we knew it.

See, we didn't go to the concert to hear music or see a performance. We went to feel alive. We went to be free. We went because we wanted to live from our hearts in that moment. And Parachute just wasn't doing it.

Except for that guy in the picture...the saxophone player. It wasn't just that he was talented. He was the only guy up there still playing from his heart. It was a beautiful thing. He didn't let his band hold him back from being free. He was living from his heart and letting it shine.

I realized in that moment, that I wanted to live like that saxophone player. Most of the world we live in can't do it or won't do it. But as someone who trust's in Jesus, I have that liberty. I know that God's grace has freed me from all guilt and all punishment for anything my heart does or has done; and in that freedom, my heart wants to live out love out loud! It's like God's mercy gave me a new heart (because God actually did!). A heart that's free and courageous in a world that's predictable, mechanical, and afraid.

So let me encourage you: Be the saxophone player in your Parachute world today. Trust Jesus from your heart and be free. You were made to live that way. And when people see it, they'll know that's the way they want to live too.

"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and honor your Father in heaven."