The full impact of what was accomplished on the cross at Calvary is often not fully understood by many Christians. We all know that our sins were washed away, but many assume that now any sin they commit is automatically forgiven. Some continue to keep one foot in the world and others don’t realize who Christ is in them. We need to dig into the scriptures and learn about our sins and the cross.

Jesus was the Lamb of God

When God created Adam and Eve, they were one with God—not in superiority or authority, but as a family. He was their father and they were His children—literally. The spirit within them was pure and holy because they were made by God and in His image. Sin was not present and, therefore, there was no law needed because there was no sin to cause them to rebel against God or His way of life. But then Eve was deceived by the devil, and sin entered her and Adam, which caused God to separate Himself from them. Why? Because God is pure and holy and cannot be in the presence of anyone or anything that is tainted with sin or it will be instantly destroyed. And God loved His children and didn’t want them to perish so He withdrew His presence from them.

Sin then spread rampant as the first families began to grow, and many turned away from God. So God gave Moses the “The Ten Commandments” as laws to guide His children, and then He established animal sacrifices as the atonement for sin to be offered up to God so He would forgive their sins. But these sacrifices were very temporal and needed to be constantly repeated because, as we know, it’s impossible to live even a day and not break the tiniest part of at least one of these Commandments.

But God had everything well planned and He sent Jesus from Heaven to earth to take on an earthly body and become the ultimate sacrifice for our sins. So now, no one has to sacrifice anything anymore to be forgiven. But what we have to do is accept and believe that Jesus is the ultimate Lamb of God who sacrificed His body as an atonement for our sins.

• The next day John (the Baptist) seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, ‘Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world’.—John 1:29

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• For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.—John 3:16

We are now under grace

We are now forgiven for breaking God’s laws. Jesus gave His life as a ransom for ours and we now belong to Him, not to the devil or to this world. We are no longer under the curse of the law—Genesis 3—because Jesus died on the cross and bore the curse and all of our sins and paid the punishment for those sins.

• Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.—Galatians 3:13

And we are no longer under the law, but under grace. The law is no longer the authority that imputes sin on us because Jesus set us free from the law and from the penalty of death for breaking the law—Romans 6:23. We will no longer be judged BY the law on Judgment Day because we have been set free FROM the law. We have been redeemed back to God through Christ.

• For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.—Romans 6:14

We have been bought by the blood of Jesus

When we accept Jesus as our Savior, we are taken out of the sinful world and the spirit that was in us dies and we receive God’s spirit—the Holy Spirit. We become part of God’s family just as Adam and Eve were in the garden. We are a new person and we are not ruled by the law, but we live under God’s grace, which is given to us by the shed blood of Jesus. And our lives now belong to Him: body, soul and spirit. We have been bought through His sacrifice.

• Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.—2 Corinthians 5:17

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• What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?—1 Corinthians 6:19

We are still sinners!

Many people think that once they become a Christian they are no longer a sinner. But the Bible says that we are all sinners who are saved by grace and that we have all sinned. We have been redeemed back to God and are no longer under the judgment of the law, but we can all still sin. And anyone who says they don’t sin is a liar.

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.—1 John 1:8

Apostle Paul tells us that we are all still very capable of sinning—Romans 7:19-25. While it’s true that the Holy Spirit in us will convict of us any sin right away, it’s still possible to ignore Him and do it anyway. And we all do things periodically that we know we shouldn’t— we slip a swear word, lose our temper, gossip, watch TV shows that are wrong, don’t help others when we should, don’t read or pray when we know we ought to, don’t support a Godly ministry, put our own desires above the needs of others, take things home from work that aren’t ours or tell little “white lies”. We live in Satan’s sinful world and it’s not difficult to still fall into his temptations.

The Laws of God

The laws of God are still effective and we still have to obey them—we’re just not judged BY them. We are under grace and so we have the privilege of coming directly to God and repenting for every sin we commit by asking for forgiveness in Jesus’ name. Even though we are born again, we are still capable of sinning and are still required to repent when we do.

This “grace” does not give us a licence to willfully sin as we are told to come out of the world and follow Jesus. But in those moments of temptation, especially when we’re new or young Christians, old habits do at times come through. But as we repent for each, study the Bible and spend time in prayer and worship, we will fall into sin less often.

And when we leave earth, we will all stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ, and those people who are not born of His Spirit will be judged by the law that they broke and they will each be required to pay the punishment of their own sins. But those of us who know Jesus will not be judged by the law because we are free from the law, although, we will be accountable for the sins we’ve committed since we were saved and haven’t repented for.

• For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.—2 Corinthians 5:10

At the cross we were bought back to God through the shed blood of Jesus who was our ultimate sacrifice—the Lamb of God. And we belong to His world; we are no longer of this world. We are members of God’s kingdom and Jesus is our King. The kingdom of God is in us! This is what the redemption of the cross is about. This is the truth of the cross—for God so loved us that He died on the cross for us and redeemed us back to Himself. And we need to walk in God’s light and not allow ourselves to deliberately participate in sin.—Galatians 5:1