Luke 24:46 “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that the remission of sins should be preached in His name to all the nations.”

In flesh we say, “On the cross with Jesus we are dead to sin.” In the spirit we say, “We are alive in Jesus Christ and sin is dead.” Jesus took us to the cross with him and took our sins to the grave. When He walked out of the earth, our sins did not walk out with Him. They were dead and remained in the grave. Jesus died and carried away our sins into death with Him. Jesus raised from the dead and did not resurrect sin. Jesus died that we might have life. We all say this but then say we are dead to sin. We in Christ are not dead. WE ARE ALIVE IN JESUS! That which remained in the grave is dead.

Is it easier to say the old me is dead and a new me is alive without sin, than to say that sin is dead. Am I without sin? I am only because Jesus has taken sin to the grave. I am only because of grace, unearned forgiveness. The sin, that brought with it the penalty of death, has been forgiven. It is as if I died and am now alive without the penalty of death. We are truly the body of Jesus Christ and were on the day He died and was placed into the earth. We are truly the body of Jesus Christ and were on the day He walked out of the grave. We are truly the body of Jesus Christ and were on the day that He went to be at the right hand of God the Father. We died with Jesus and the penalty of death was on the other side of the grave. The sin, regardless of when we sin, was left in the grave.

It is the commission of the ones that have come to realize that they are alive in Jesus to preach the good news of the kingdom of God. The good news of the kingdom of God is unearned forgiveness. The good news of the kingdom of God is grace. The good news of the kingdom of God is the remission of sins to be preached in His name to all the nations. Remission is defined as the act of remitting. The act of paying. That is what Jesus did for us. He paid for our sins. The charge for sin is death. The payment was His death. No one took His life He gave it for the remission of sins. That is the good news. It has been done. The penalty has been paid. We are alive, without sin.

We must start seeing each other the way God sees us. God sees us in grace, without sin. When we see the sins of others and not the person that Jesus died for, we are missing the good news of the kingdom of God. We when feel inferior because we know our sins, we are missing the good news of the kingdom of God. When we allow mistakes, other’s or our own, to overshadow the grace of God, we are missing the good news of the kingdom of God. Unearned forgiveness is freely given to us and it is what we must freely give to others. We are not peddlers of words but teachers and preachers by example of the grace of God.

We are without sin by the grace of God, not just us that realize that we have been forgiven but we are all without sin. Not realizing God’s love does not mean that God does not love. It is not that our realization is truth but that the realization of God’s grace is truth. When we call on Jesus and accept Him in our life, we are attempting to realize God in our life. It is the life and death and life of Jesus that reveals God to us. It is unearned forgiveness that unites us with God. It is in the body of Christ that we are at God’s right hand. It is in the glory of Jesus that we are the children of God. In the spirit we are alive in the glory of Jesus Christ.

© 2002 Tim D. Coulter Sr