How To Deal With Sin

There is one thing that you have in common with a man drowning in the ocean. There is one thing you have in common with the student who hasn’t studied for his math test. There is one thing you have in common with the explorer lost in the desert. You need help. They all need help, they all need to be rescued from a hopeless situation, and so do you and I. That’s what these verses are about, remembering and finding grace to help us in our time of need.

But our need is much more desperate than the drowning sailor, or the poorly prepared student, or the wandering explorer. We need rescue from an eternal punishment, we need help in dealing with our sins. We need help to not sin sure but we also need help in the aftermath of our sin. What do I mean? I mean, we need help to deal with what happened on Saturday night when it’s Sunday morning. How will we deal with what we did at 10pm on Saturday at 10am on Sunday? How will we deal with what we did on Wednesday morning on Wednesday evening?

The answer to that question tells us a lot about our faith, it tells us a lot about what we hope in, and what we think saves us. I think there are three options before us when it comes to dealing with our sin the morning after.

The first is to ignore our sin. To tell ourselves that it was no big deal, that we didn’t mean it, that Jesus is ok with it really. We’re saved by grace through faith right? So nothing I do or say or think makes any real difference. Sin is no big deal we tell ourselves. That joke, that look, that smart off to the teacher that made everyone laugh, they don’t matter. I’ll just ignore it and carry on like normal. To not take sin seriously, to make light of it, to brush it off and ignore it is a terrible place to be. This is the way to a hard heart; this is the way to losing grip on Jesus and falling away from your faith. I’ve said before, but it’s true, no one wakes up one morning and decides to fall away, but over time, we sin and we sin and we sin, and we think it’s ok. And then we stop caring. And then we fall away.

The second option in dealing with sin has the same result, falling away, but it gets there differently. When we sin, instead of making a small deal of it, we make too big of a deal about it. We start thinking, ‘if I was really saved I’d never do that.’ We sulk and hide, we quit reading the Bible, we quit going to church, and we stop talking to God and to our Christian friends. We start hiding, and we fall away. We think that, somehow, our sin is bigger than Jesus death, we think that there’s no way we could be in a relationship with God now, so we give up. This is the reason that so many Christians disappear. They fall into sin and they have no way of dealing with it. So instead of ‘holding fast to their confession,’ they give up on Jesus.

Verse 14 tells us that we have a high priest. The high priest was the figure in the Old Testament who would represent the people before God. He was the one who made sacrifices in the temple and once a year and stood before the presence of God Himself to shed blood for His people. He was the people’s hope, they knew as long as he made his sacrifices every year that they would be able to have their sins forgiven. But he was just a man…our High Priest is Jesus! The Son of God! Who sits at God’s right hand! What a much greater hope we have in Him! 

But, this is only good news if He is on our side when He represents us. When we sin, the last thing we want is Jesus sitting there pointing it out to the Father right? Rolling His eyes at us. That’s why verse 15 is such good news, fresh air and cool water to the sin troubled soul. ‘for we do not have a High Priest who is unable to sympathize with us in our weakness, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.’

Jesus is a sympathetic High Priest. That is such good news. He knows our weaknesses, He knows our struggles and our burdens, He knows we’re weak, because He’s been there, so He sympathizes. When you come to Jesus for the 1000^th time over the same sin He doesn’t turn away, He helps.

How good is it that we have a God, a High Priest, a Saviour who has been tempted like us in every way, faced a greater temptation than you or I will ever know, and yet came through it all. And now this Son, this High Priest sits next to God, sympathizes with us, and represents us. His ear is turned towards you, and His arms are open to receive you, no matter what you’ve done. Or how many times you’ve done it.

How do we deal with sin? As Christians. We don't ignore it, but neither do we let it overwhelm us. Instead we let temptation drive us to Christ, and Christ drive us from temptation.