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Maswali ya kila mara juu ya Imani ya Kikristo

Somo la 1: Kuzaliwa mara ya pili kwa maji na kwa Roho

1-23. How can I say, “I’m righteous” when I am sinning every day?

We, as human beings, commit sins from the very moment we’re born until we die. As a matter of fact, this is due to our fundamental natures; that we are born with sin. So, the Bible says, “There is none righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10). That is why the Apostle Paul confessed in front of God that “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief” (1 Timothy 1:15). 
“But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:21-24). 
This “righteousness” of God means that John the Baptist baptized Jesus in the Jordan. Before He was baptized, He said to John, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). Jesus bore the sins of the world in the most just and fair way when John the Baptist, the representative of all humankind, baptized Him. Thus, John exclaimed on the day after he baptized Jesus, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). 
Then, what does “the sin of the world” here mean? It represents all the sins of all the human beings from Adam and Eve, the first human beings on the earth, to the last person who will live in this world. The past people belong to the world, the people of the present belong to the world, and those who will live in the future also belong to the world. Jesus, the Alpha and the Omega, had offered one sacrifice for the sins of all time, bearing all the sins of the world once and for all through His baptism in the Jordan and dying on the Cross. And ‘for thus’, we have been sanctified. 
The Bible clearly declares, “By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:10). Note that this had been written in the past perfect tense. We have been sanctified absolutely and sinless, from the very moment we believed in God until now and always will be. For the Lord is Almighty God, He has a bird’s eye view of the beginning and the end of the world. Although it was about 2000 years ago when He was baptized, He took away all the sins that human beings commit from the beginning to the end of the world. Therefore, before He died on the Cross, He said, “It is finished!” (John 19:30). He took away through His baptism all the sins of the world about 2000 years ago and died on the Cross.
We still sin even after we’re saved because our flesh is weak. However, Jesus has redeemed us from all the sins of the past, present and the future by bearing all the sins on His body through His baptism and being judged for them on the Cross. This is the complete and righteous salvation of God. 
If Jesus hadn’t taken away the sins that we will commit in the future, not a single human being could be redeemed from everyday sin, “for the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). When Jacob and Esau were still in their mother’s womb, God separated them into two nations even before they did anything good or bad, and loved Jacob but hated Esau and said, “The older shall serve the younger” (Genesis 25:23). This passage implies that the salvation of God has nothing to do with our own deeds, but is given to those who just believe in God’s perfect salvation in His baptism and crucifixion.
We human beings are destined for hell as sinful beings from the moment we are born until the moment we die, but God foresaw our sins at first sight, and washed away all our sins once and for all by Jesus’ baptism and the Cross because He loves us. We live in a blessed time. The prophet Isaiah said, “Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her, That her warfare is ended, That her iniquity is pardoned; For she has received from the Lord’s hand Double for all her sins” (Isaiah 40:2). The time of our slavery to sin has ended through the gospel of Jesus’ baptism and the Cross, therefore, anybody who believes in the gospel can be delivered from all their sins. ‘“This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,” then He adds, “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin’ (Hebrews 10:16-18). 
God does not judge us for our daily sins anymore because He has already washed away all the sins of humankind and judged them through Jesus. 
As a result, we can wait for the coming Lord and follow His Word, as the righteous without sin, even though we still commit sins in our lives.