Just One Word- No... Just One Letter

No, Just One Letter

Lora Parsons

The Ashland Beacon

If you’ve read these thoughts I’ve shared before, you’ll know that generally I focus on one word. That usually looks a little like breaking it down into its word parts or bisecting a compound word into the two base words it’s created from.  I also often try to connect the word to some other source beyond that word to give the thoughts about the word a place to land.  They need a little bit of common ground in writing a whole article about one tiny word.  This, month, though, I want to drill down a little further and really focus on one letter:  i…and I don’t mean the whole word by the same name.

The thought that sparked this idea was a song that I’d love to give credit to.  Problem is, as usual, I can’t remember which song it is.  It’s played on K-Love presently, so maybe someone will know it and send it to me on Facebook. This song says something about trading our sin for the Son. It’s, of course, talking about the fact that Jesus’ whole purpose in coming to earth was to die on the cross to save us from our sins. And, knowing that He is the Son of God, means the S-O-N washes us clean of our S-I-N.

If you’ve ever had kids play any sort of competitive sport, you’ve likely heard a coach say to them, “There’s no ‘I’ in team.” And, that’s absolutely true. The best teams utilize the gifts and abilities of all their players in order to maximize the collective goal of victory. They are greater than the sum of their parts, because no one is concerned about self-promotion or individual standing. They play together, win together, and know how to rebound when they lose together. There really is no “I” in team.

  Conversely, there really is an “I” in “sin.” There is obviously a literal letter “I,” but I believe it is the tendency of us to put our own desires for our life ahead of what God designs as the best for us that leads us into the ditch.  We think we know better or we decide we want what we want when we want it and put our desires above His.  Galatians 2:20 says: “I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Proverbs 3:6 says: “In all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight.”  When we accept Jesus into our heart, we have a loving savior whose path we can trust.  We know He is good and that He promises that His plan is to prosper and not harm us.  We can trust Him to lay out guidelines that He can work good into.  That doesn’t mean we don’t encounter heartache along the way, but we can trust that He has the wisdom and power to get us through those uncomfortable moments and work in us some good that will glorify Him.  When we submit ourselves to His good will, the “I” has been crucified.  The “I” no longer lives—no longer is “I” my number one concern.  Our priority is following His will.

John the Baptist perhaps said it best when it comes to this desire to lay down our will and instead pick up the will of the Father.  In John 3:30, he got straight to the point—“He must increase; I must decrease” in the ESV, or “He must become greater; I must become less” in the NIV.  Regardless of how we word it, or which verse we use to support the idea, it’s clear that the Lord wants us to remove ourselves and focus on Jesus.  When we accepted Him as our Savior, the S-I-N was absolved by the S-O-N.  Wiped clean.  Forgiven.  We traded our sinful nature for the divine nature of Jesus.  We got to trade our shame and guilt for His grace and mercy.  We turned in condemnation and received freedom.  No other offer stands up to that.  There’s no accruing interest on this deal.  There’s no loan-counseling paperwork.  There’s not a dotted line to sign.  We just ask Jesus to forgive our sins, and He stands in their place, the willing sacrifice.  The SON takes the place of our SIN.  Thank you, Jesus, for the enormity of what it has meant over the course of my life that You’ve traded out just this one little letter.