Last time I completed the little simple definition of sin that my wife and I used to teach our children. It is very simple, but very scary! It is “Sin is any thought, word, or deed that breaks God’s law by omission or commission.” In thinking about that definition and its far-reaching implications, I am faced with the realization that I am, indeed, a sinful person.

Now what? What is my recourse? What can I do to remedy this situation? I have sinned in the past, and I continue to fall short of God’s commands. What can I do?

Well, one of the great undergirding messages of the New Testament is that God moves into our lives and does for us what we cannot do for ourselves. Our sin problem is too big for us to fix. Instead, we must accept the fixing of the problem that God has done.

One of my favorite verses is 1 Peter 2:24. It says,

“and He Himself [i.e. Jesus] bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.”

Our spiritual healing is a result of His work, not ours. He substituted Himself for us. He “bore our sins,” which means that He stood before heaven’s court and received from it the justice of God, the punishment of God, that we deserved. He did that in our place. He took the punishment so we could be forgiven.

If God counts me as being in Christ, then I have forgiveness. If God sees me as being outside of Christ, then I do not have forgiveness.

How do I get counted into Christ? Well, Peter wrote about that a little bit before he wrote the verse I quoted above. He said in 1 Peter 2:7,

“This precious value, then, is for you who believe…”

Belief. Faith. That is the ticket, and only that. If you or I believe in Jesus Christ we have forgiveness with God because of what Christ did for us on the cross.