Overcoming Darkness by Absorbing the Sin of Others
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been looking at how Jesus handled his hardships and suffering so that we can learn how to handle ours. I’ve called this suffering our “darkness”. Today I want to look at how absorbing the sin of others can help us overcome our darkness.
Jesus is Our Example to Endure Suffering
The apostle Peter wrote to a church that was suffering persecution and he did exactly what I’ve done in these posts, he pointed to Jesus as the example that he wanted his readers to follow.
This is what I’ve been calling us to do… not just admire Jesus for how he handled his pain, or only thank him for suffering and dying for us, but to follow his example in the face of our suffering.
Lesson One: Don't Sin
Peter reminded the church of a few of Jesus’s steps. He started by saying:
Jesus didn’t use his suffering as an excuse to sin. Sometimes we do that. We think that when times are hard, we are entitled to sin. We feel justified, like we get a free pass to misbehave.
Jesus was careful with his words. He honored God by saying nothing, or very little, about his pain. We would be wise to do the same. God’s Spirit in us gives us the power to follow Jesus’ example. Dallas Willard put it like this:
Lesson Two: Absorbing the Sin
Peter goes onto say that instead of Jesus focusing on the problem… that is, his offenders, …committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; (vs. 23)
And because he was committed to do God’s will, it says that...
Let’s consider what it means that Jesus bore our sins. That means he took them on himself by absorbing the sin of others rather than recoiling and judging them.
And that’s what he calls us to do...with the offenses, and losses, and insults that come our way. We are called to bear them... absorbing the sin like a sponge absorbs water...not reacting in anger or bitterness, but absorbing the sin with forgiveness.
Lesson Three: Trust God
How is that possible? Peter said, we do that...by committing ourselves to Him who judges righteously, which means we trust God to rescue us, not our schemes. We stop complaining about our pain and we say to God:
“God, this really hurt, but I’m absorbing the sin, this hurt, by turning the other cheek, and I know I can do that because I trust that you will restore in me what was lost and work in my offender’s life.”
You see, Jesus bore our sins, so we can bear the sins of others. That’s what Peter meant when he said:
...that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness… 1 Peter 2:24
Living for righteousness means we follow Jesus’ example. We not only die to living our sinful life. We die to letting the sin of others affect us. Jesus set us free to absorb the sin of others.
Let me say this one more time, Jesus didn’t suffer and die just to get us to heaven. He suffered and died for our sin to show us how to suffer and die to the sin of others. He’s our model for living a life that honors God.
Lesson Four: Sunday is Coming
When we follow Jesus in his suffering, then we can follow him in his resurrection. There will come a day… a tipping point… when our suffering will end and we will be able to say with the psalmist that even though:
...weeping may endure for a night, joy comes in the morning. Psalm 30:5
But before the joy can come, we have to be faithful to follow Jesus all the way down the path of suffering.
Are you willing to follow Jesus in this way? Are you willing to trust that God can give you the strength to absorb the sin of others? Peter said, “by whose stripes we are healed.” That means that Jesus dealt with our darkness. Darkness doesn’t win. Jesus won. The resurrection proves that.
You’ll never walk out of your darkness and into the light if you think that darkness holds any power over you. So nail your darkness to the cross of Jesus and say with him:
“It is finished. I’m not going to give power to the darkness anymore. I won't react against the offenses done to me. I will absorb them by the grace of God. I’m going to follow Jesus into a life of resurrection.”
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