Romans – The Play Part 2

I’m going to go a little bit further, and I know this is incredible, but listen to it. You have never been punished for your sins. Who was punished for your sins? Tell me. Jesus Christ was punished for your sins. Now that’s true, and you are not punished for your sins. Nonetheless, you were so one with Him that it is indistinguishable. The punishment was done and taken so that God, your Father, cannot even distinguish as to who took the punishment. You were that identified—so that much, that close, that totally one with Him. Now, I’m not talking to you about salvation by works here, that you took your own sins. I am telling you that the identification—that is more than identification—the identity of the two was so one, that when the punishment was done in Him, it was done in you. When it was done for you, it was done in Him. It was so utterly done that it was done totally and completely, that God can’t separate as to who got punished and who didn’t get punished.

Praise the Lord. How one with Him are you? So one, that when He went into death, you died. You have to die when He dies because you’re so inseparable. So, He was punished for your sin. He went into death carrying your sin—not His, but yours. He died with sin, to sin. He took it to the grave with Him. You died to sin.

Now all of you listen to me—and listen to me carefully. I want to settle this tonight. I don’t ever have to face it in any of your lives again. You live in an age, and you live in a world in which a lot of emphasis is put on sin in the Christian’s life. And you get the feeling that you are just constantly sinning and that you’re just a terrible sinner. I’ve met and talked to enough Christians, enough believers, to know that you’re out there thinking that nobody else in the world is as terrible a sinner as you are. And you’re trying to keep this a secret. Everybody else looks pretty good.

Well, first of all, that’s not true; we’re all in the same mess. You never had a thought I haven’t had. You never had a temptation I didn’t have. And how many times have I looked in the face of believers, and their faces just lit up. “You mean the rest of you have problems like this? I thought I was the only person who had problems like this. I can’t believe it when I hear that!”

No, you’re not alone. The boat you’re in carries every Christian who’s ever lived. That’s right. But I want you to know something. Just get out here on a limb: there is too much sin emphasis and too much sin consciousness among believers. Too much. Way, way too much. Way, way too much. Let me tell you something. Those things you feel so badly about: much of it is the accusation of your enemy. And much of what he’s accusing you of has got nothing to do with sin at all. It’s got to do with weakness. It’s got to do with need. It’s got to do with problems. It’s got to do with damage. And it has nothing to do with sin.

There may be someone in this room who recently committed adultery. But most of you have not recently committed adultery. I want to tell you that. It’s really true. You may not know that, so I’m informing you: most of you have not committed adultery recently. Do you know why you haven’t recently committed adultery? “Because I’m trying so hard not to.” No, that’s not why you’re not committing adultery. You’re not committing adultery because you died to sin. That’s why. That’s why. Very little effort on your part is keeping you from committing adultery. Something incredible happened. You were taken into the grave inside of Jesus Christ, so totally one with Him that when He took sin in there, sin died to Him. Sin died to you.

Now, the question is: how could sin die to Him? He has never had sin in His own life.

I’m going to try to explain that in just a moment. Brothers and sisters, are you clear on a couple of things? One of them is: too much emphasis on this sin, which leaves you with general guilt. Now, he’s not a colonel, he’s not a major, he’s a general. General guilt.

“I must have done something terribly, terribly bad today.” Have you ever had the feeling, “Lord, just forgive me for everything”? You just feel so unworthy. Have you ever prayed a prayer like that? “Lord, just forgive me of everything.” You can’t sin that broadly to be forgiven of everything. You can’t live long enough to sin everything. Let me give you a word that should be very, very helpful to you. It’s been helpful to me. It’s something that every Christian ought to hear. Every believer ought to hear:

If it’s not specific, it’s not the Holy Spirit.

If it’s one of these general “ache-all-over” sins—one of these very general “ache-all-over” sins, “I’m such a terrible sinner, general ache-all-over sin…”—it ain’t sin. It may be depression. You’re eating too much white sugar. You and your husband had a big fight. You don’t like your job. That’s not sin. That’s humanity. You’ve got an ugly face. There’s nothing you can do about it. You wanted to be pretty. You’re getting bald-headed and wrinkled, but that’s not sin. It may be depression—but it’s not sin. If it’s not specific, that’s not the Holy Spirit. If it’s specific, it’s the Holy Spirit.

Your relationship to sin so utterly changed when you got converted.