Fixing the Problem of Sins Starts with Humility

We are sinners and sinners cannot forgive sinners.  We are spiritual criminals against God and no criminal can write his own pardon.  We freely got ourselves into this mess but we cannot get ourselves out of it.   We sinned against God and only God can forgive us and set us free from condemnation.   We broke our relationship with God and he is the only one that can restore it.   

Jesus told about two men who went into the temple to pray.  One man told God how good he was, what all he had done that was good and right, and that he was better than others because he was not a sinner like them.  The other man realized his sin and would not even look up toward God in heaven.  He stood in a corner, saying, “God, be merciful to me a sinner” (Luke 18:13).  Jesus said that this last man went home forgiven and right with God but the first man was still in his sins.  Jesus concluded, “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted” (18:14).   

God hates pride.  It is an anti-god state of mind that trusts in self.  The Bible commands, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you” (James 4:10).  God desires a humble heart that acknowledges sin and turns to the Lord for forgiveness.  Psalm 51 is a beautiful prayer of David confessing his sin and calling on God for forgiveness and restoration.  In that prayer he names the type of sacrifices that God accepts: “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise” (51:17). No one can be forgiven by God who does not recognize his sin, humble himself before God, and sincerely and genuinely call on God for forgiveness. 

God hates sin but he loves sinners so much that he sent Jesus into the world to be our savior.  God did for us what we could never do for ourselves.  Jesus is the “lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).  On the cross, he poured out his blood for us for the forgiveness of our sins (Matthew 26:28).  Immediately following the verse that says that we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God, the Scripture says that we are all made right with God by his grace. This is a free gift. They are made right with God by being made free from sin through Jesus Christ.  (Romans 3:24-25, ERV)    

The Apostle Paul says further in Romans, chapter 5: 

 God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.  (5:8-11) 

Jesus, and Jesus alone, is “the way, the truth and the life” (John 14:6).  “There is no other name under heaven given among men by whom we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).  At midnight when the Philippian jailer asked what he must do to be saved, the Apostle Paul answered, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved” (Acts 16:31).  On the Day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2 when the people were convicted of the sin of crucifying Jesus and asked what to do, the Apostle Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (2:38).  It was Jesus that they crucified and it was only Jesus that could save them.  Salvation is only in and through and because of Jesus. The Apostle Paul wrote,  

 If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. (Romans 10:9-10)  

Earlier in Romans, Paul had written that this faith in Jesus and confession of him were expressed when they were baptized into fellowship with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.    

 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. (6:3-4) 

Only Jesus can fix our sins.  He does that when we call on him in faith and repentance and are united with him by baptism.