For Us All

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. 1 John 2:1-2

It was a tough choice this week--deciding what I would be writing about. What with Duke winning the South Region and making it to the Final Four and all... But given it's Holy Week, I felt that I should probably demonstrate some discipline and offer something a little more universally applicable. The number of folks out there excited about the Blue Devils heading to Indianapolis is fractional even among the handful of people who read this blog. But those who have a stake in what happens to Jesus this week... The interest here extends from one end of this world to the other, at least according to the writer of 1 John.

The generic version of this message is pretty familiar: Jesus died for the sins of the world. This is great news. And sometimes, it is enough to break through and give us the peace and the hope to carry on. But sometimes, we need to hear the full meaning of this message with a little more oomph. Sometimes we need to hear it as it relates to us and sometimes we need to hear it as it relates to others. I am thinking here especially of those people who like to fence-off the grace. Sometimes people want us to fit a certain model before they are willing to allow us into the fellowship of the saved.

There are, of course, all kinds of problems with this. First, we need to remember that our salvation does not rest on what the neighbors say! But what might be the biggest problem with this kind of thing is that it fails to fully honor what is accomplished in the life, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. When we fail to see our neighbor's redemption, we indirectly deny the saving work of Christ. Although we may not mean to do so, refusing to accept Jesus' capacity to redeem others is a refusal to accept Jesus capacity to redeem us as well.

Now that is mostly a sermon consideration. And sermon considerations are often just that--they are considerations that are considered but not necessarily heeded. So we will not want to leave this up to that neighbor of ours who always seems to be looking down at us. That is, we don't want to leave the condition of our soul up to people who hold it in doubt. So this is something that we probably will want to take on personally. Sometimes we have to assert our inclusion in the message. Sometimes we have to say, this promise belongs to me too!

And it is not just that annoying neighbor who looks down on us. Sometimes, we are telling ourselves that we're not worthy or that there is something about us that makes it impossible for our lives to be reclaimed. And it is the same thing here... We may have to assert the Gospel message even to ourselves, even against our own experience or to the demons inside of us telling us that we're irredeemable.

The Scripture teaches that Jesus has died for our sins--and not for ours only but for the sins of the whole world. This is a monumental claim--a claim that might make all the difference in the life of someone. Just remember... that someone is you too.