Look Back to Move Forward

"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."

Simultaneously we are sinners (guilty!) and justified (declared not guilty!). The verse quoted above is so intruging to me. It seems like we can break the verse into three parts:

1. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree
2. that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.
3. By his wounds you have been healed.

The perplexing and yet delightful draw to this passage is that the first and third parts present a unified message that appears at odds with the middle portion.

On the one hand, we have been given the sacrificial lamb on whom the sins of the world have been placed, allowing us to stand before a holy God who declares us not-guilty forever. Having been purchased by the beautiful blood of Jesus, we stand blameless. Out sins have been blotted out.

And yet, on the other hand, we have an exhortation to die to sin and live to righteousness. We are blameless, but told to stop doing blame-worthy acts! We are declared not-guilty, but exhorted to stop breaking the law! We are healed, but taught to stop the sickness.

The truth is, the battle is over; the war has been won. Satan and death and sin and hell have been conquered once and for all. In one swift blow, Jesus has put an end to all our adversaries. There really is only one question left: are we going to live in a way that reflects this or are we going to continue with life-as-usual, as if this great victory had not been secured?

What must we do?

We must continually look backward, seeing Christ's death for us, in order that we might move forward living our life for Him. And this we will do, by God's grace and through the transforming work of the Spirit.