How many of you like math in school? Maybe it is one of your favorite subjects, or maybe it is the one you dislike the most. Addition, subtraction, multiplication and division are very important skills to learn, as we continue to use them all through life. Now, we would like to ask all of you young students a question. Can the answer to this little math problem we show here ever be zero? Can you think of any way that we could end up with a big 0 at the end? As you read on, you will find out that it can be done!
God has told us that we are ALL very good at adding and multiplying. In the Old Testament He said that the children of Israel had multiplied all kinds of awful transgressions and sins, that they had added sin to sin and iniquity to iniquity. In 1 Samuel 12:1919And all the people said unto Samuel, Pray for thy servants unto the Lord thy God, that we die not: for we have added unto all our sins this evil, to ask us a king. (1 Samuel 12:19), the Israelites confessed that they had added to their sin by asking for a king.
Don’t you agree that it is very easy to add to our sins, and to multiply them too? For example, most of us have told a lie and then told several more to cover up the first one.
But we cannot subtract them. No matter how sorry we may be for the sin we have done, there it stays. It cannot be undone. But hear the good news! God can subtract! Subtract means “take away,” and the Bible tells us in 1 John 3:55And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin. (1 John 3:5) that Jesus came to take away (subtract) sins. John the Baptist recognized who Jesus was and said, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away [subtracts] the sin of the world!” (John 1:2929The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. (John 1:29)). Jesus became the sin-bearer for all who accept Him as their very own Saviour, and where there is true repentance for sin, God delights to subtract. I can come to the Lord Jesus and tell Him that I am a sinner with a great number of sins and that I need His forgiveness. What will He do? Let us suppose that those figures in our math problem are the sum of my sins. The Lord Jesus will do His work by writing “minus 430” under my total, and my answer will be ZERO! Is the answer to your sin total zero?
What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
So that not one spot remains?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
ML-04/24/2005