Painting over the brown paint on the wall in our guest room appeared daunting to me. “A lighter color won’t do it justice,” I thought. So, I decided to paint it navy blue. As I painted, I watched the old brown color give way to the newer navy blue. I had to brush over the wall a few times to get the brown to disappear completely, but the instant satisfaction felt good. In that moment, I thought to myself, “how many times has this wall been painted since the house was first constructed?” Nine times perhaps, even more maybe. Yes, I was painting a fresh blue coat over the wall; but I also knew that the brown color, the color it replaced, and the ones painted before it, were still there. They never left, they could not be removed. They were simply painted over.

 

Painted Over Sin Still Stinks
It’s like using the blood of goats, doves and sheep to paint over sins as was the case in the old testament. The sacrificial lambs could not take away the desire to sin. Everyone went right back to their sins again after the atonement service was over. But the blood of Jesus Christ, in the new testament, obliterated sin once and for all. There is no trace of it. Sin is not just simply painted over, it is forever removed. Just like a drop of paint dropped in a bucket of bleach, that paint is gone and can never be traced. Because chemically, it has been dismantled.

 

Not Just Painted Over
You now have a new perspective of the words Jesus said: “thy sins be forgiven thee.” No condemnation, just freedom to live victoriously for Jesus Christ. The old is gone. You are a new creature. There is a bounce in your step now that you have been forgiven by a touch, your sins have been thrown into the depths of the sea. And that your sins have been obliterated, not simply painted over. Glory!

…Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. – John 1:29