The Remedy for Sin
The Remedy for Sin
John Newton, who wrote the much-loved hymn “Amazing Grace,” was earlier in his life a slave trader and even captain of a ship transporting captured Africans to America. For medical reasons, he left the seafaring life, became a customs officer, studied theology, and eventually became a minister. However, even as a minister, Newton never forgot the horrible nature of his sin as a slave trader. At the end of his life, Newton said to a friend, “My memory is nearly gone; but I remember two things: that I am a great sinner, and that Christ is a great Savior.”[1]
Centuries before, Saul of Tarsus, who became the apostle Paul, was also guilty of grievous sins. Acts 7:54–8:1 describes his complicity in the stoning of Stephen; then in Acts 9:1-2, we read of his personal involvement in persecuting believers. Toward the end of his life, Paul described himself in those earlier days as “a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent [of Christ]” (1 Timothy 1:13). But in that same context, he could also say, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost” (verse 15).
Both John Newton and the apostle Paul saw themselves as great sinners with a great Savior. Most believers cannot identify with either John Newton or the apostle Paul in the gravity of their earlier sins. We may not have committed adultery, murdered anyone, dealt drugs, or embezzled from our employers. I myself, reflecting back on my life, can say I was usually an obedient child, a model teenager, a trusted employee, and a conscientious husband and father. In fact, I’ve been on the staff of a Christian ministry for more than fifty years.
However, though I have not committed any of the big scandalous sins, I have gossiped, spoken critically of others, harbored resentment, become impatient, acted selfishly, failed to trust God in difficult issues of life, succumbed to materialism, and even let my favorite football team become an idol. I have to say with Paul that I am the foremost of sinners. Or to paraphrase John Newton’s words, “I am a great sinner, but I have a great Savior.” That is my only hope. That is the only remedy for my sin, and it is your only remedy as well.
Both John Newton and Paul spoke of themselves as sinners in the present tense. Neither of them said I was; they said I am. It’s clear in the context of Paul’s statement that he was reflecting on his earlier sins as a persecutor. Likewise, we know from Newton’s own reflections that he never got over the fact that he had been a slave trader. In fact, with each passing year, he became more horrified at his former life.
Does that mean, then, that though describing themselves as sinners in the present tense, they were referring only to their past sins as a persecutor and a slave trader? It is hardly possible that they would think that way. We know, for instance, that several years before writing 1 Timothy, Paul referred to himself as “the very least of all the saints” and as a minister of the gospel only by the grace of God (see Ephesians 3:7-8). In fact, there seems to be a downward progression in Paul’s self-awareness from the least of the apostles (see 1 Corinthians 15:9, written in AD 55) to the very least of all the saints (see Ephesians 3:8, written in AD 60) to the foremost of sinners (see 1 Timothy 1:15, written about AD 63 or 64).
We can be sure that over the years from their conversion to their death, both Newton and Paul grew in Christlike character. Over time, both of them acted more and more as the saints they had become at conversion. But that growth process involved becoming more aware of and sensitive to the sinful expressions of the flesh still dwelling within them. And so John Newton could have easily said, “I was and still am a great sinner, but I have a great Savior.” And if you and I are to make any progress in dealing with the acceptable sins of our lives, we must say the same.
The remedy for our sin, whether scandalous or acceptable, is the gospel in its widest scope. The gospel is actually a message; here I am using the word gospel as a shorthand expression for the entire work of Christ in His historic life, death, and resurrection for us, and His present work in us through His Holy Spirit. When I say the gospel in its widest scope, I am referring to the fact that Christ, in His work for us and in us, saves us not only from the penalty of sin but also from its dominion or reigning power in our lives. This twofold aspect of Christ’s great work is beautifully captured in Augustus Toplady’s great hymn “Rock of Ages,” with these words:
Let the water and the blood,
From thy riven side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure,
Cleanse me from its guilt and power.[2]
We need to take a good look at the gospel. We need to do this for several reasons.
First, the gospel is for sinners. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners (see 1 Timothy 1:15). Most Christians tend to think of the gospel as applicable only to unbelievers who need to be “saved.” Once we trust in Christ, so the thinking goes, the gospel doesn’t apply to us anymore, except to share it with others who are still unbelievers. However, though we truly are saints in the sense of being separated unto God, all of us are still practicing sinners. All the ethical commands and exhortations addressed to believers in the New Testament assume there is still sin present in our lives that needs to be addressed. Among the four uses for which Scripture is profitable, as described in 2 Timothy 3:16, are reproof and correction. Again, these uses assume that we still have sin that needs to be reproved and corrected.
So the first use of the gospel, as a remedy for our sins, is to plow the ground of our hearts so that we can see our sin. Stepping forward to accept our place as sinners in need of the gospel each day drives a dagger into our self-righteous hearts and prepares us to face up to and accept the reality of the sin that still dwells within us.
Second, the gospel not only prepares us to face our sin but also frees us up to do so. Facing our sin causes us to feel guilty. Of course we feel guilty because we are guilty. And if we believe, consciously or unconsciously, that God still counts our guilt against us, our instinctive sense of self-protection forbids us to acknowledge our sin and guilt, or, at the least, we seek to minimize it. But we cannot begin to deal with a particular manifestation of sin, such as anger or self-pity, until we first openly acknowledge its presence and activity in our lives. So I need the assurance that my sin is forgiven before I can even acknowledge it, let alone begin to deal with it.
By acknowledging my sin, I mean more than a halfhearted admission to myself that I acted selfishly in a given instance. Rather, I mean a wholehearted, defenseless admission, “I am a selfish person, and that particular act was only a manifestation of the selfishness that still dwells within me.” But in order to make such an admission, I need the assurance that my selfishness is forgiven —that God no longer holds it against me. The gospel gives us that assurance. Consider these words from the apostle Paul: “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin” (Romans 4:7-8).
Why does God not count my sins against me? Because He has already charged it to Christ. To the extent that I grasp, in the depth of my being, this great truth of God’s forgiveness of my sin through Christ, I will be freed up to honestly and humbly face the particular manifestations of sin in my life. That’s why it is so helpful to affirm each day with John Newton that “I am a great sinner, but I have a great Savior.”
Third, the gospel motivates and energizes us to deal with our sin. It is not enough to honestly face our sin. If we are to grow in Christlike character, we must also deal with it. To use a scriptural term, we must put it to death (see Romans 8:13; Colossians 3:5). But as has been well said, the only sin that can be successfully fought against is forgiven sin. We cannot begin to deal with the activity of sin in our lives until we have first dealt with its guilt. So here again we go back to the gospel and its assurance that God through Christ has dealt with our guilt.
The assurance that God no longer counts our sin against us does two things. First, it assures us that God is for us, not against us (see Romans 8:31). We are not alone in this battle with sin. God is not watching us from His heavenly throne, saying, “When are you going to get your act together? When are you going to deal with that sin?” Rather, He is coming alongside us, saying, “We are going to work on that sin, but meanwhile I want you to know that I no longer count it against you.” God is no longer our judge; He is now our heavenly Father, who loves us with a self-generated, infinite love, even in the face of our sin. That assurance greatly encourages us and motivates us to deal with the sin.
Further, the assurance that God no longer counts our sin against us, and that in our struggles with sin He is for us, produces within us a strong sense of gratitude for what He has done and is presently doing for us through Christ.
This twofold effect of encouragement and gratitude produces in us a desire to deal with our sin. Make no mistake: Dealing with our sin is not an option. We are commanded to put sin to death. It is our duty to do so. But duty without desire soon produces drudgery. And it is the truth of the gospel, reaffirmed in our hearts daily, that puts desire into our duty. It is the gospel that stokes the fire of our motivation to deal with our respectable and subtle sins. It is the gospel that motivates us to seek to be in our daily experience what we are in our standing before God.
We can see, then, that the continuous day-by-day appropriation of the gospel, as it assures us of the forgiveness of our sins, is an important part of our dealing with sin in our lives. It is not the only part, but for now, I urge you to commit yourself to a daily, conscious appropriation of the gospel.
The good news that God no longer counts our sin against us, that He has in fact forgiven us of all our sin, is so radical, so contrary to our normal way of thinking, that frankly, it seems too good to be true. Especially on a day when circumstances have made us vividly aware of our selfishness, impatience, or resentment, it does seem too good to be true.
Whatever Scriptures we use to assure us of God’s forgiveness, we must realize that whether the passage explicitly states it or not, the only basis for God’s forgiveness is the blood of Christ shed on the cross for us. As the writer of Hebrews said, “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” (9:22), and the context makes it clear that it is Christ’s blood that provides the objective basis on which God forgives our sins.
This, then, is the first part of the good news of the gospel: God has forgiven us all our sins through the death of His Son on the cross. To refer back to Toplady’s hymn “Rock of Ages,” this is the first part of being cleansed of sin’s guilt.