WE MUST TURN back a verse: “You know that he appeared to take away sins, and in him there is no sin” (1 John 3:5, emphasis mine). “In him there is no sin”—that sentence could not be used of any being who has existed on this planet except One. “Since all have sinned” (Rom. 3:23). Jesus was the sinless exception to our common humanity. All human beings on our planet, if they pass on into goodness, have to pass out of a once broken, disrupted life through repentance and a new birth. All except Jesus. He told His disciples to pray: “Our Father . . . forgive us our debts,” but He never prayed that prayer. “When you pray . . . pray then like this” (see Matthew 6). It was their prayer, not His. On the cross He did not cry for forgiveness for Himself; He dispensed forgiveness: “Father, forgive them” (Luke 23:34). After two thousand years when we go to the account to pick a flaw in His moral character we go away smiting our own breasts and saying: “God, have mercy on me a sinner.” Into none of His words does there creep a sense of guilt or estrangement. He shares our temptations, minus our falls. He was acutely aware of sin, but not of any in His own life. “Which of you convicts me of sin?” (John 8:46). He asks, and the ages are silent. There was none.
In Him there is no sin. Sin and evil have met their match. His footprint is upon their necks—He has conquered them. He can and does conquer them in us. He came to take away our sins. My first sermon in India fifty-three years ago was upon this text: “thou shalt call his name J ESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21 KJV ). Not in their sins, but from their sins. He saves you if He saves you from your sins. If not, He is not your Savior. I call Him a Savior because He saves me from what I don’t want to be, to what I want to be. This is verified knowledge.
My Savior, I surrender the sins—You take them away. I consent. You give the power. Sin shall have no dominion over me, because You have dominion over me. I cannot save myself, but I can consent. You are the Savior. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: I am saved from sin if I remain in the Savior from sin.
