One of the greatest mysteries in recent archaeology history is a structure found buried for centuries in southeast Turkey. Gobekli Tepe is a twenty-acre site constructed around 9500-8800 BC and abandoned about 8000 BC. No one knew of it until 1963. Where’d they all go?
In North America we wonder about the Anasazi cliff dwellers and ask, “Where’d they all go?” A more important question must concern us: When you read in your Bible that God forgives all your sins, where do they all go?
Under God’s new covenant with mankind, “The person who sins will die…the wickedness of the wicked will be upon himself. But if the wicked man turns from all his sins…and practices justice and righteousness, he shall surely live; he shall not die.
“All his transgressions which he has committed will not be remembered against him…he will live. Do I have any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, rather than that he should turn from his ways and live?” (Ezekiel 18:20-23)
God wants all people to repent of their sins. The apostle Peter said that God “wants everyone to find room for a change in their hearts. He doesn’t want anyone to be lost” (2 Peter 3:9). The apostle Paul emphatically states that “Christ died for our sins” (1 Corinthians 15:3). But where’d they all go?
When Paul was baptized the water didn’t get dirty. In Acts 22:1-21 he retells his conversion story. What was your conversion like? He told of a man by the name of Ananias coming to him, and told Paul how to be saved, forgiven by God, to have his sins removed: “Now, don’t wait any longer. Rise up, get yourself immersed and get your sins washed away, trusting in his name.”
Before Paul believed in Jesus, he was a fierce persecutor of the Lord’s church. He even approved of killing a faithful Christian. He was there. He saw the murder happening, but did nothing to stop it. Please read what he said in the Scripture mentioned above.
Paul had many horrific sins for which he needed forgiveness from the Lord. His sins were washed away, but where’d they all go?
In this Scripture we see how, by whom, and what happens when sins are washed away. It isn’t the water that absorbs sins, it is the cleansing power of the blood of Jesus (1 John 1:7-9). This is an ongoing occurrence. Baptism isn’t a ritual, but an act of obedience, as Paul was told to rise up and get himself immersed.
“He is faithful…to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us…” Please read this (1 John 1:7-9) in your own Bible, and learn more about having your sins washed away by God.