What to do with sin.

I was just thinking…
Sin? What does Jesus’ incarnation have to do with sin? Everything! That’s why He came. Though He was a convincing teacher, a compassionate healer, a concerned humanitarian, and more, that was not His primary mission. There had been those, and more would follow Him. Some would even become founders of well-known religions. None but He could offer a legitimate solution to the problem of human sin. He came to deal with sin. Not His-for He had none, but ours.
His mission? He “came to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). That’s all of us. All of humanity has lived in alienation and lostness since the fall into sin by the first of humankind-Adam and Eve. Paul’s summary of Jesus’ purpose in coming to earth is stated in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 “I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,.. .”
That’s the gospel. It is life-changing when we accept the Gift, Jesus. We receive full forgiveness, a clean slate, a new beginning; it’s just as if we had never sinned. But,
what does a believer do, following conversion, when he knows that he has again sinned (He will sense conviction and know it, if he is truly a child of God).
A believer may sometimes engage in actions that are not consistent with the Father’s ideals. Nonetheless, such believers do not cease being His children, any more than our less-than-obedient child ceases to be ours. The life process of being born and experiencing growth opens the possibility for sinning. Likewise, being “born again” does not make us immune from sin. (Consider Simon Peter, devoted disciple who made the “rock-solid” confession-“You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God”-upon which the church would be built” and who, just before our Lord’s crucifixion, cursed and denied that he even knew who Jesus is).
Obviously, we need to come to the Lord asking forgiveness as we are overcome by sin at points in our Christian growth journey. (Consider Paul’s struggle with the sinful nature, as described in Romans 7).
The New Testament makes it clear that Jesus cleanses the repentant believer when he confesses his sins. For many years we took the church youth to the beach for a retreat during the summer. The first night at the beach, we would go to the water’s edge after receiving instructions to spread out and provide some privacy. Each person was requested to write in the sand while the tide was out any sin in their life. Then, we were to claim the promise of 1 John 1:9-10 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Of course, once the tide came back in and covered the area where our confessed sins were previously written, the writing was removed and the area was smooth and the writing removed.
The broader context, in 1 John 1:7-10, reminds us that the Agent of our cleansing is the sacrifice of Christ at the cross. “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
What do believers do when they sin? They confess their sins to the Lord. His sacrifice for our sin, proves again and again to be fully adequate to cleanse us. That ancient truth is still “Good News” for all of us!