Can we talk about sin? I ask because our song, “Joy Joy Joy“, raises questions.

In about twenty seconds, this song — a “kid’s” song at that — manages to CONNECT God’s revealed love, a ringing heart, a bubbling heart, a well-directed life heading ever closer to heaven and TEN joys ALL with THIS ONE THING:

“My sins are all forgiven.”

I tried to imagine how a “kid” could have managed to commit so many sins in his short life and to have gotten them so grandly forgiven that he was able to gain all these wonderful benefits. Please give the song a listen, then come back for some thoughts on sin, forgiveness and JOY! JOY! JOY!

Sin got here before you and I did

A dear nephew told me about a vacation trip their family took when he was a kid. He and his brother were enough of a nuisance in the car that Mom decided to cancel plans to visit the Florida attraction and, instead, just keep on driving. The price the kids paid for their shenanigans was that they missed out on whatever joys that day’s “promised land” might have given them. This kind of “sin and consequence” we can understand.

But what separates us from God cannot be understood ONLY like that, for at least these two reasons:

1) It is not our bad works ALONE that separated us from God.
The Bible teaches that we all inherited poorly from Adam. We started life pre-loaded with our oldest ancestor’s bad act (called “sin” in the Bible). How bad is that inheritance? Read it and weep: we were born into this world

dead in trespasses and sins,
without God and
without hope.

NOTE: I cannot leave you here in this state! Quick, go read Ephesians 2 and find the best “BUT GOD” section you will ever see. GO! While your are in that neighborhood, note Ephesians 1:11 that in Christ — the “last Adam” — we get a different inheritance – much better than the inheritance we all got from the first Adam! Let the truth, joy, and confidence from Ephesians brighten you up, then, let’s meet back here for a few more minutes — okay?!?

2) We have parts missing.
Not far from us in Florida, people get launched into space. Have you seen pictures of the equipment it takes to get them up to space and the protective gear they have to wear to survive there? It takes a lot of gear and effort to get them there and back home alive.

The astronauts could not go up to the realm of space without a LOT the rest of us don’t have. We do not have the ability to get up there and survive “naturally”.

It is like that getting to the realm of God. People are not born into this world with the natural ability to live there. For starters, God lives forever, and we do not. Even if we could visit His eternal realm, the brief flash some call “our entire life” would barely be enough time to say “hello” before we’d expire.We would not be able to stay long enough to be good company with the Heavenly Father. As with the astronauts in space — without the necessary equipment, we’d perish before our second breath in an environment we are not naturally equipped for.

“THAT’S NOT FAIR!”

Someone might say, “So, God, I understand I can’t go to space as I am, and I’m okay with that. But are you telling me I cannot go to heaven as I am, and it wasn’t even all my fault? THAT’S NOT FAIR. ARE YOU GOING TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT?!?”

Would you take THIS complaining kid to Paradise Park?
God would.
He sent Jesus Christ to pay for the sins we inherited.
Do you think THAT was fair?
He sent Jesus Christ to pay for the sins WE committed.
Do you think THAT was fair?
He does not make ANYONE live forever with Him.
He invites, we decide.
Is THAT fair?
Not really — this is love and mercy that goes WAY beyond “fair”.

joy … Joy … JOY!!!!!

This little song can help people warm up to some huge ideas. How does a person go from “dead in trespasses and sins, without God and without hope” to “on my way to heaven”?

God’s love to us is shown. Our sins have been forgiven through such abundant mercy and goodness that we also become equipped to live in God’s realm without end. We did not deserve it. We did not make it possible. Our ONLY part is to accept God’s gift of salvation wholeness made possible through Jesus Christ’s love and sacrifice. And when we do, what follows for us will probably be like this little song says:

Joy! Joy! Joy!
With joy my heart is ringing
Joy! Joy! Joy!
His love to me is known;
My sins are all forgiven,
I’m on my way to heaven,
My heart is bubbling over with His
Joy! Joy! Joy!

God bless you lots!
-Dale R.

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Download this music chord sheet

LYRICS: Joy Joy Joy

Joy! Joy! Joy!
With joy my heart is ringing
Joy! Joy! Joy!
His love to me is known;
My sins are all forgiven,
I’m on my way to heaven,
My heart is bubbling over with His
Joy! Joy! Joy!

Your thoughts?

Please jot a note in the “Leave a reply” spot below.

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