Why Jesus Died

By Rev. Ernest O'Neill

Now, loved ones, you are the same and I am the same. We have bits of fluff that we keep trying to get off our hands. We have sins inside us that we keep. We brush it off that hand, and it catches on the other hand. We try to brush it off that hand; it catches again on the first hand. We have sins that are so much part of us that we cannot get rid of them. That's why Isaiah cried out, "I am a man of unclean lips." He didn't say, "I speak unclean things."  That's putting the blame where it ought to rest squarely. Not on the unclean words but on the lips and on the man behind the lips. It's the same with you and me.

We're nowhere near solving the problems in our lives until we admit, "Lord, I am a man of unclean lips. I do not just feel a little criticism and resentment toward my friends. I am full of it, full of it. I am criticism myself. My heart is criticism and I need to be separated from the sin that has become part of me." Loved ones, that's why Jesus died. That's why the Bible says, "He made Him to be sin who knew no sin." He took your sin that is part of you and He put it into His Son. He couldn't do that without taking you with it because you stick to it. You're part of it (sin). He put both you and the sin into His Son and He destroyed it there and raised you up new.