9-10-2015

        Good Morning All!!                 

         John 1:29; “The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

    I remember listening to a group of firemen talk one time about having to assist the sheriff in cleaning out a house.  It seemed that the person who lived there had dozens of cats in the house and never let them out.  They removed the cats, some dead, some barely alive in the house that was filled with stench.  They said the ammonia smell that hit you when you opened the door almost knocked you out.  They wore their full turn our gear and even then had to rub mentholated petroleum jelly under their nose to be able to stand the smell.  Even then, they could only be in the house for a few minutes at a time or else their eyes burned and they got headaches.  In the end, the house was destroyed because it could not be cleaned or repaired.

    If you have never experienced something like this, it can be very difficult to imagine.  The overpowering stench can literally take your breath away.  It can actually cause you to pass out and maybe even die.  Most of us cannot imagine this much less ever experienced it.  A stench that drives you away; a smell that does not even allow you to enter the building is beyond our comprehension.  Yet this is how God views our sin.   

    Sin is what separates us from God.  It is not God’s anger at our sin that drives us apart; rather it is God’s total revulsion at the smell and the stench of the sin that drives us from him.  This is part of why the sacrifices in the Old Testament were often times burned in an attempt to dilute or mask the stench of our sin.  Imagine; burning oxen and ram flesh smells better to God than our sin does.  Yet God loves us completely and does not want to stay separated from us.  His desire is for a loving relationship with us.  So he designed a plan that would remove the stench of our sin by removing our sin from us.  He sent Jesus to be covered in our stench and our sin in order that you and I could be saved.

    This is why John called Jesus “the Lamb of God.”  His sacrifice was to be pleasing enough to God to remove the stench of sin and corruption from us so that we might stand before his presence.  Our sin was enough of a stench to drive God and Jesus apart and cause Jesus to lament when God had forsaken him in the terrible stench of mankind’s sin in the stench of our sins. 

    So as God cries against our sin, it is not out of anger but out of sadness.  His desire that we live without sinning is not for vengeance but for a desire to have a meaningful relationship with us.  His desire is that we live in his presence and we can only do this if the stench of sin is gone.

Father of mercy, in your great love, you have freed us from the disgust and the stench of our sin.  Keep us in your great grace and guide us by your Spirit that we may turn from sin and follow you completely.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret