How Spiritual Math Really Works
You + Sin = Death
You + Jesus = Life
That’s basic spiritual math.
But some people want to rewrite the equation like this:
You + Sin + Jesus
and they hope to get
= Life
on the other side.
But this doesn’t work, and I’ll explain why.
Sin is a package deal. It creates three realities in our lives:
Sin creates damage
Sin creates corruption
Sin creates death (spiritual)
Let me briefly explain.
Others sin; we get hurt, sometimes for life. That’s damage.
We sin. By doing so, we become less than God intended. We become carriers of hurt rather than carriers of healing. That’s corruption.
Our sins separate us from God. Without a remedy, that separation is permanent. That’s death.
Example:
Someone told me the story the other day of a young man growing up on a farm whose father deserted the family every day to go fishing. The full load of responsibility for the farm fell on this boy. The son carried the load the best he knew how, but every night when his father got home, he found fault with his son and beat him mercilessly. As a result, this boy grew up to be a bitter and angry man who took refuge in an alcohol addiction and wanted very little to do with God.
Jesus came to fix things like this in our lives. He came to set us free.
But some people look at these spiritual realities and hope to create a new kind of spiritual math, a math that doesn’t work:
You + Sin + Jesus
They want the freedom to keep on sinning without incurring the penalty (spiritual death). They want Jesus to come between them and the penalty, but they don’t want Jesus to come between them and their sin. They want to be forgiven for all sins past, present and future, without allowing Jesus to make any changes in their lives.
Throughout the Bible, it’s made clear that this does NOT work. Romans 10:9, Luke 6:46, John 8:11, 1 John 3:9, 1 Corinthians 6:9, and so on. Jesus does not coexist with sin. Sorry. It doesn’t work that way. The presence of Jesus eradicates sin.
Now many people are confused at this point because they misunderstand intent, identity and process. Let me explain.
Our intent is to welcome Jesus into our lives, and let Him do what He wants to do.
That’s how we enter into this equation:
You + Jesus = Life
When we invite Jesus in on those terms we receive a new identity.
“For if a man belongs to Christ, he is a new person. The old life is gone. New life has begun.” 2 Corinthians 5:17 NLV
We were sinners (people identified by their connection to sin); we became saints (people identified by their connection to Jesus—not “saints” in the specialized Roman Catholic tradition, but saints in the more general New Testament sense).
But what gives? If we’re saints, why are our lives so messed up? Why do we still sin? Why do we still hurt?
Here’s where the process comes in.
Inviting Jesus into your life is something like inviting a house cleaner into your home. The house doesn’t become instantly spotless the moment the house cleaner steps across the threshold. No. It’s a process. One room at a time. Each little closet. Each little cubbyhole.
So yes, we are saints, and yes, we still sometimes sin because we are a work in progress. Jesus isn’t finished with us.
A final note: Sometimes people who want nothing to do with Jesus are much better behaved than some who have welcomed Jesus into their lives. Why is that? Everybody has a different starting point. What matters most is not where you are, but what direction you’re moving. Are you moving toward God or away from Him? And all of us, regardless of our beliefs and behaviors, have equal worth in God’s sight. How much is that worth? More than the wealth of the entire planet. (Mark 8:36-37)
Hope this helps. Remember, you are designed to make a difference!
Dwight
PS. What kind of world changer are you? Two simple questions reveal the answer…
