Don’t let their sin become your sin. Jesus touched it last.

“Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” “Once bitten, twice shy”. Have you heard those? Have you said those? Yes, me too.

I thought that way at the moment I made a conscious decision to defend myself against someone else’s hurt and deception, gossip, or their abandonment. I’ve said those in anger. I’ve quoted them as the pain kept me awake. I’ve kept my promise to myself not to be vulnerable anymore by saying those phrases or something like them.

It’s not only children that pout.

1 Corinthians 3:3 talks about how the local church (Yes, even Christians!) had jealousy and envy among them. Strife. (You should look up what strife does. The Bible says it brings confusion and EVERY evil thing.)

That same chapter says that those Christians, with those attitudes, are acting like “mere mortal” people, not as people filled with the presence and Persons of the Godhead: The Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit… when we’re in Christ, we’re crowded.

Has someone sinned against you? Have they lied or failed to keep their promise? That hurts. Do you know what holding on to that does? It hurts worse. And it grows. And the enemy of our soul, the accuser of the brethren, has just been handed a lightsaber (credit to RB) in the form of unforgiveness (your own) to torment you with and to hinder your God encounters, and your prayer requests.

The sin they sinned against you has now become your sin. A choice to walk toward anyone in unforgiveness is a sin. As an honored child of God, sin is not acceptable. Theirs. Or ours. Jesus Himself touched all sin. He bore it in His own body. Their lack of love. Their lack of truth. Our lack of forgiveness, no matter someone’s motives.

Should we sin now that Jesus has paid its price in His own body? Romans 6 says, “God forbid” “Certainly not” or “Absolutely not”. We are dead to sin if we are born again. We died with Christ. As Christ was raised from the dead by God’s glory, we should also walk in the newness of life. Forgiveness is freedom. For us. It is a choice to surrender our fleshly thoughts to His holiness. His holiness, if we’re born again, is now our holiness.

If we only give grace when someone “accidentally” wrongs us, then we are choosing what is worthy of grace. We don’t have that right. We didn’t provide grace. To others or for ourselves. Because He became sin Who knew no sin, we (even “they”) might become God’s righteousness.

Jesus’ life, His sacrifice, His beating, His blood. His death. His trip to hell where He defeated sin in all its forms. Only He has the right to hold on to sin. And He cast it off in hell. And came out of the grave victorious. Without it.

He touched sin last. Sins before He was born. Sins after He went to heaven. Sins 2,000 years old or sins 2 minutes old. Yours. Theirs. Mine.

Forgive. Live. Free.