A Simple Equation

Any number X 0 always = 0, huh!

As a third grade teacher, I often found myself making up silly chants like the one above. While chants are great for instilling one message in a child’s mind, they are also really great for getting kids to line up quickly and in a somewhat fashionable order. Admittedly, the latter was my cherished result, but I’m glad that my third-graders-turned-college-students-overnight still know the truth about multiplying numbers by 0.

Unfortunately, in our spiritual lives, we forget this very basic equation:

ANY SIN (even your 1,893,423^rd one) X CHRIST (zero sins) always = RIGHTEOUSNESS (zero sin)

1 John 1: 9—“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Psalm 103:12—“…as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.”
Hebrews 10:17—“…I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”

It doesn’t matter how large the first factor gets, the answer is always ZERO sin! Christ knew before He died 2,000 years ago how many sins we would commit, and He forgave all of them on the cross. When we add variables to Christ’s work on the cross, we change the equation!

There is NOTHING else needed, no additional confession, no additional penance, no additional good works to cancel out the bad.

Nothing.

Zero.

That makes me wanna say, “Huh!”