It's For Your Own Good: Day 4

… in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me, in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father… in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.

John 16:8-11

We are standing on the other side of Easter, so we have a perspective that the disciples did not possess. (Although they would soon.) Jesus did not claim to be the latest in the long line of prophets who brought God’s message to His people as many thought. Jesus wasn’t even rallying followers in a bid to be Israel’s promised Messiah, as some hoped. Jesus claimed that He was God (Luke 22:70).  

A thousand years before King David had defined sin in Psalm 51, which he wrote after Nathan the prophet confronted him regarding his sin with Bathsheba.

For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me,

Against You, You only have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight.

If we believe that there is a God who made the world and everything in it (including us), then He must acknowledge His ownership which includes the right to say how things will operate. When we break or ignore those rules, then we commit something Scripture calls sin. Therefore, all sin is first of all sin against God. If Jesus is God then it is His viewpoint that prevails.

Ultimate sin is finally rejecting Jesus’ sacrifice for the sin at the cross. Ultimate righteousness is found alone in the righteousness of Christ, and it is the only kind that can gain us heaven. The ultimate judgment is that sin, death, and Satan, himself, have been defeated.

In Christ, the Godhead provided the final Word on sin, righteousness, and judgment. Our good works, even our good intentions, will never be good enough to satisfy God’s standard (the bad news), so He substituted His righteousness for ours and enabled us to have a righteous standing with God (the good news). All we have to do is accept it (the best news of all).  

Nancy Shirah