Recently, I was looking at our church vinyl banner noticing it had some old duct tape stains on it. It was suggested that I use fingernail polish remover to get them off. I attempted to do this but found myself scrubbing with little results.

Some of the glue-like stain came off but it didn’t quite do the job. I thought about another product that might work, which happened to be paint thinner. When I applied this to a rag and wiped across the stain, to my amazement it removed it immediately.

I was done in a matter of seconds, verses spending hours and not really getting the job done.

This reminded me of how mankind tries to deal with our sin problem. We try human effort but end up falling flat on our face. We address some sins by deciding not to call them sin anymore, thinking the issue is solved.

For most dealing with sin is a losing battle so they just give up. The scriptures, however, give a remedy that actually works, for God has provided a plan.

In Romans 8:3 we are told that “what the law was powerless to do ... God did by sending his own Son...” In other words, even making laws against sin doesn’t prevent people from committing them – it has no power to change us.

But Jesus came giving himself as a sacrifice for our sins, giving of his own blood offering us forgiveness and transformation. His blood not only offers us forgiveness but cleansing, it actually changes a person from the inside out.

1 John 1:9 tells this truth when it says, “If we confess our sins he is faithful and just and will forgive us of our sins and purify (cleanse) us from all unrighteousness.”

We can spend a lifetime trying on our own efforts to get rid of our sin problem with no results. But by humbling ourselves before God, confessing our sins and our need for deliverance, we can receive forgiveness as well as the freedom from the power of sin in our lives.

This doesn’t mean that we will never sin again, but we will not make sin as a practice. Jesus really works in dealing with the sin problem.