The Threefold Problem of Sin

"Ye were redeemed . . . with the precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, even the blood of Christ" (1 Pet. 1.18f).

Sin poses for God a threefold problem. Entering disobedience, it creates first of all an estrangement between God and man. God can no longer have fellowship with mankind, for there is something now which hinders. Thus it is first of all God who says, "They are all under sin" (Rom. 3.9). Then second, that sin in man which constitutes a barrier to his fellowship with God gives rise in him to a sense of guilt. Here it is the man himself, who with the help of his awakened conscience, says, "I have sinned" (Luke 15.18). Nor is this all, for sin also provides Satan with his ground of accusation in our hearts, so that third, it is the Accuser of the brethren (Rev. 12.10) who now says, in effect, "You have sinned."

To redeem us, therefore, and to bring us back to the purpose of God, the Lord Jesus had to do something about these three questions of sin and of guilt and of Satan's charge against us. His precious blood, shed for many, was alone sufficient to meet this problem, satisfying God, covering our sinfulness, and wholly discomfiting (defeat utterly) our great Accuser.