Jesus Dealt with Sin

John 1:29
The Testimony of man.  All of us are sinners and we need to fight sin in order to be right with God.  Yet, even though we try we will still sin.  What we have to do is read the bible, pray, avoid the evil world, and if we falter ask for forgiveness.  Therefore our lives are filled with frustrating failures and futile attempts at being holy.  We make promises to God and resolutions every year to be better than what we were before.  Only to come crashing down soon after we have confessed our resolve.  But there is a different way; a way that was carved out for us by Christ.  John the Baptist declares it and we have a choice to believe it or the testimony of modern evangelical reasoning. 
"Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world."
This is revolution to the world of religion.  Everyone is trying to deal with the evil of the world and in themselves.  One "solution" is to make laws to try and keep men from evil.  Yet, we have learned that no one can keep the whole law perfectly.  If a man eskews evil in his word and deed; his mind can be full of evil thoughts and intents.  Man on his own armed with only religion cannot deal with sin.  It will master him.
Jesus however, comes along and defeats sin with His life and death.  John testifies that He is the Lamb of God that takes sin away.  In order to understand this we have to go back to Old Covenantal sacrifice.  The lamb (perfect and innocent in every way) was brought by the sinner to be inpected by the High Priest.  Then the sins of the man and nation where confessed over the lamb.  The sin of the offerer was TRANSFERRED into the body of the lamb; and the lamb's innoncence and perfection were transferred into the body of the man.  The offering would become sin and the man would become perfect.  All the sin of the man was punished in the body of the lamb; all the righteousness of the lamb became the offerers.  It doesn't sound fair but that is how God set things up.  So when John says that Jesus is the lamb of God he is saying that Christ became our sin so we could become His righteousness.  It was transferrance. 
Christ took our sins.  This is the first part of our victory.  Think about the reality that Jesus took every sin that plaques humanity and became those things as and for the world.  He took our sins away from us.  All lying, stealing, cheating, and killing were seized by Christ and removed from us.  The Psalmist says that God "removes our sin from us as far as the east is from the west."  Our transgressions are removed from us.  How?  First the Father deemed Him a perfect sacrifice at His baptism (This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased).  He gathered up sin on the cross and it was condemned in His flesh. Then and there my sin and the sin of the whole world was dealt with in one fell swoop.  He conquered it for me in His body.  And my rap sheet was nailed to the cross (And I bear it no more....). 
He takes AWAY the sin of World.  Jesus taking our sins is an amazing thought but combined with the word away empowers the reality that our sin is gone.  He systematically took it and cast it away from humanity.  We keep trying to do what has already been done by Jesus.  He procurred my sin and died with it; it died with Him.  When Christ was buried the sin of the world was buried as well.  And when Jesus descended into Hades my sin was consumed in the fires of everlasting judgment.  Praise the Lord.  Jesus is risen; my sin is not. 
What now?  The testimony of man teaches us that in order to beat sin one must pray, beat the body, and use the Holy Ghost to combat the devil and sin.  John testifies that Jesus took away the sins of the world.  All our self-efforts even combined with the power of the Holy Spirit are not enough to defeat sin.  But faith in what Jesus did does.  I need to confess belief in the work of the Cross as my power over temptation and sin.  Paul said that we need to "reckon ourselves indeed dead to sin, but alive unto God."  Sin no longer shall be your Master; because Jesus took it away.  We must trust absolutely and only in Jesus' victory over sin and not look to ourselves to try.  Confess your freedom.  Declare His righteousness. 
If you are struggling with certain sins know that your efforts will not bring you victory.  There is no will power nor program of man to help you stop.  You must first recognize what Jesus did and believe the testimony of John even when you don't see the evidence.  Keep on confessing the truth.  Look to Jesus who TOOK AWAY your sin.  It is no longer yours; it has been removed.  It is hard to reverse ways of thinking that have been ingrained into our heads.  But God's revelation of Jesus is what we should be trusting in.