No More Sin Consciousness

Let's think about this idea of sin consciousness. And y’all forgive me, I’m just being myself here, like we’re sitting out on the back porch talking. I’m not trying to put on airs for anybody. Not pretending I have all the answers and am certain we can learn from each other if we are willing to ask questions and have a discussion.

While reading in Hebrews about how, after Jesus had made purification for our sins, He sat down. I began to ponder the reality of Him sitting down.

There’s a passage that talks about how God finished His work before the foundation of the world. Then in Genesis, after the sixth day, it says He finished His work and rested. God has completed His work.

That’s really my point. We got off track when we started with Adam and his sin that’s where we usually begin the story. But we need to go back further, to where God started, before time, when everything was set in order, purposed according to plan.

Jesus purified our sins. He removed them. And then He sat down. Hebrews 10 says Christ came into the world saying,

“Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me.” Then He says, “Behold, I have come to do your will, O God.”

The writer explains that Jesus does away with the first in order to establish the second. It’s done. It’s established. And by that will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Now when did that offering take place? It was revealed in time, yes but it was established in eternity. Jesus became a man to work it out and reveal what had always been true. Every priest in the old covenant stood daily, offering the same sacrifices again and again sacrifices that could never take away sins. But when Christ offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, He sat down at the right hand of God.

There it is again, He sat down. The very throne He sits on is established in our redeemed innocence. It was after the purification of our sins that He sat down. And now He waits, not anxiously, not reactively but waits until His enemies are made His footstool.

This isn’t about God getting fed up and coming back in anger because people have rebelled too long and refuse to do right. That’s not what this is saying. His enemies are subdued through the truth of the gospel.

And what is that gospel?

That God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. The reconciliation wasn’t needed on God’s side it was needed in our minds and hearts. We believed a lie about who God is. But God has already reconciled us to Himself.

This is what it means for His enemies to become His footstool. This is the outworking of what God is doing in the earth, even now. A footstool is a resting place for His feet. And the Lord rests in you.

If reconciliation was needed on God's part He never would have sent His Son. The very fact that He gave His Son in order to reconcile the world is proof of His love and forgiveness and mercy and grace. It is because of His great love that He gave His Son!

Philippians 2 says:

"that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." NLT

This confession isn’t forced. It’s not God overpowering someone and making them confess. That would be against His character. It’s a joyful, glad-hearted confession that Jesus Christ is Lord.

The word translated confess "exomologeó" means to confess, to profess, to acknowledge openly and joyfully. Is rendered in the KJV as confess, profess, promise and the NASB as confess, confessing, give praise, praise, confessed, consented. To the glory of God the Father. KJV: dignity, glory(-ious), honour, praise, worship NASB: glory, glorious, approval, majesties, brightness, glories, honor

God has reconciled us to Himself, and now we carry that message: be reconciled to God because He has already been reconciled to you.

God doesn’t have a problem with you. The problem has been in our thinking, in the way we’ve understood Him.

But there is a promise: the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

This is a glad submission.

A joyful confession.

A willing bowing of the knee.

God is big enough to work in every circumstance, every situation, every life to accomplish His purpose. And yes, it may be after this life for some, those under the earth, but they will confess. And it will be joyful.

Jesus Christ is Lord.

He has dealt with your sin. He has dealt with my sin. He has dealt with the sin of the world.

And in Him, all have been reconciled.