When I was 6 or 7 years old my mother took us grocery shopping at the local A&P. Sometimes Mom would give us a nickel to buy some candy but on this particular day, I had no money and today Mom said "no" to my inquiry for candy. I remember standing in the checkout line, smelling the fresh ground coffee and looking at the Life Saver candies just inches away from my eyes. As I gazed longingly at that multicolored package I could almost taste that wonderful sweetness. The temptation was too much to bear and since my mother was chatting with the checkout lady I reached over, grabbed the candy and quickly stuffed it in my pocket.
In the Bible sin literally means “to miss the mark”. God has set a standard and anyone who does not meet these standards “misses the mark”. You see, we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23). Sin has consequences, including opening ourselves up to the influences of the evil one. Sin gives satan access to our lives and he will take our sin and our guilt and shame and use them as a weapon against us. All of us have sinned and fallen short of God's standards. But the good news is that God sent his Son Jesus Christ to accomplish what we could not; to live a perfect sinless life. For us to be forgiven of our sins, we need only ask Jesus to take our sins, ask forgiveness and give our lives to him.
However, and this is a huge "however". We must not dwell on our sin. Sadly, much of the Church's focus has been on how bad we are and not on what Jesus has done for us. There are those in the Church that teach that even born-again Christians are still held in the bondage of sin. But this simply is not true. Yes, we still sin, but sin no longer controls us. We no longer have to sin. In 1st Peter 2:24 we read:
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. ( 1Peter 2:24)
We cannot be in bondage to something that is dead. Jesus died for us to live in freedom; freedom from fear, sin, oppression, discouragement, etc. He died so that we could live a life of victory. So instead of looking at our inability to live the perfect Christian life we need to look to Jesus. Looking inward and focusing on our failures only produces self-condemnation and unworthiness. Instead we look at Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith. Looking at him and what he has done is what changes us, for we become like what we gaze upon.
So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image. (2 Corinthians 3:18 NLT)
We must look to Jesus, not to ourselves. He is the one who changes us. He is the one who made us worthy to stand before God untainted by sin.
Looking back I have to say that my mother handled this incident exactly the way she should have. Her actions had a profound impact on me. Thank you Mom, but more than that, Thank You Jesus!