Sin: Of Believers and Unbelievers

SIN: Of Believers and Unbelievers

 

Every object is somewhere; no material thing can be nowhere. 

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Object Lesson Illustration: A book.

If I take this book in my hand and want to lay it down I cannot lay it nowhere. I must lay it on a table, or a chair, or on the floor, or on something. I cannot just let it drop to nowhere! (As you speak do these different things. Let it drop but call attention to the fact that it lands somewhere.) The same thing is true about sins. They are either on you, or on someone else. You cannot wish them away to nowhere, as perhaps you would like to do.

 

We know, because Gods Word says so, that all are sinners (Romans 3:23). We know, too, that every sin must be punished, because God is perfectly holy, and so cannot just forget all about sins. But God did not want to separate us from Himself forever. He loved us, even when we were sinners (Romans 5:8). So He made a way to take our sins from us, and yet be perfectly just. He found a place to put our sins. It was on the Lord Jesus Christ. He was willing to take a human body and a human nature in order to die for our sins.

 

You remember that when Jesus hung on the cross, there were two thieves crucified with Him, one on either side. At first both of them were cursing and swearing, but after a while one of them became very silent. He knew that he was a sinner, and that he deserved to be punished. He knew too, that Jesus had never sinned, and so he turned to the other thief who was still cursing, and said to him, “Do you not fear God? For we indeed deserve to be punished. but this Man has done nothing wrong.” Then he turned to Jesus and said, “Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy Kingdom.” What he said showed that he truly believed in the Lord Jesus. And Jesus turned to him and said, “Today shalt thou be with me in Paradise.” At that moment something happened to the sins of the thief who believed. Until then they had been on himself. He had carried them all his life, but when he believed in Jesus, God took them from him, and put them on Jesus. That was why Jesus was on the cross. He was taking the punishment, not for His own sins (for He did not have any), but for the sins of that thief and of the whole world. The other thief did not believe. His sins remained on him. They could never be put on Jesus. So the unbelieving thief died in his sins.

 

Which one of those thieves do you want to be like? Let us bow our heads and shut our eyes, and tell God, each one for himself, which one of those thieves we want to be like the one who believed and was forgiven, or the one who did not believe and carried his own sins, and is still carrying them today.

 

God says some terrible things about the sins of those who refuse to believe in Jesus. He says they shall die in their sins; that their sins will follow after them; that they have no cloak to cover up their sins; that their sins remain on them. Here are some verses about these terrible things. (Here study the verses under 1.)

 

Those boys and girls who have believed in the Lord Jesus can be very happy though, for God has taken their sins away. They have been blotted out forever. (Here study the verses under 2)

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