Nail Your Sins to the Cross

By Hannah Goodwyn
CBN.com Producer

CBN.com – The best way to understand God’s magnificence is to experience it firsthand. My God moments are when He speaks to me in moving pictures. They’re almost like video playing out in my mind. He’ll show me a scene or two and then, He tells me what it means.

Recently, I had an episode, if I can call it that. Over the past few weeks, God has continually poured His truth and explanation to it, so that now I am able to share what He has shown me.

Rage Against the Enemy

Jael is the She-Woman of the Old Testament. As far as I am concerned, she’s one cool chick. What guts it took to do what she did.

She was the wife of a friend to King Jabin of Canaan. This guy ruled over the People of Israel, until one day God told Deborah to rally against his oppressive power. Battles were waged, and Sisera, the king’s commander, lost his army. In search of safety, the commander enters Jael’s home. Bad idea!

He said to her, “Please, a little water. I’m thirsty.”

She opened a bottle of milk, gave him a drink, and then covered him up again.

He then said, “Stand at the tent flap. If anyone comes by and asks you, ‘Is there anyone here?’ tell him, ‘No, not a soul.’”

Then while he was fast asleep from exhaustion, Jael, wife of Heber, took a tent peg and hammer, tiptoed toward him, and drove the tent peg through his temple and all the way into the ground. He convulsed and died. (Judges 4:19-21, The Message)

Vision Becomes Clearer

The vision God gave me starts with Jael. I saw her standing over Sisera’s body. I could hear her courage as she hammered that spike into his head. How gruesome a scene it must have been.

After focusing on this scene for a few moments, the picture dissolved into another time and place. It was the hill at Golgotha. The cross came into view as I felt a spike in my hand. Suddenly, I had this feeling I should nail it to the cross -- with Jael-like force.

The vision played on, and the Lord began to minister His truth about sin to my heart. Instead of just laying my sin at His altar, He told me to hammer it into the cross.

Then, I began to notice older nails already in the cross. I could hear Him speak sins through me that need to be nailed to the tree. With each atrocity recalled, nails were deeply implanted into the cross – never to be taken up again.

Hate… (Clank!) Pride… (Clank!) Idols... (Clank!) Greed… (Clank!) Lust… (Clank!)

There was finality to nailing my sin to that cross. I felt God’s freedom in that moment, freedom from sins that had clouded my spiritual walk for years.

Hammer Away!

As I held my sin spikes, wanting them to never leave that place of surrender, I felt Jesus speak another word of Truth to my heart.

“I’m not hanging there anymore. You will not hurt me. My suffering is already complete. Drive your sin in the timber of my sacrifice. Do not hold back. Do not hold onto your sin. You will not hurt me.”

It was an amazing revelation. Jesus isn’t bearing our sin anymore. His hard part is over.

So Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. (Hebrews 9:28, NIV)

I’m learning that He hurts more if I hold onto it than if I just openly show Him my weakness. The fact is that we waste Jesus blood by not releasing our sin and accepting God’s full forgiveness.

Jael nailed God’s enemy to the floor, and we can do the same. As we commit to our repentance and nail our sin to the completed cross, we are fulfilling God’s will in two ways. First, we are defeating God’s enemy -- sin. Secondly, we are being redeemed to God through Jesus’ sacrifice.

He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. (Romans 4:25, NIV)

Take Control of Your Sin

Unless we turn against our sin, it will lord over us.

Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.” (John 8:34, NIV)

We must learn to detest sin as much as He does. It’s hard, I know. God knows. Certain sins cause each of us to stumble. But, God is faithful. He has a way out for me – and you. The first step we must take is to confess our sin, and then we can start working on changing how we react to life in a way that is honoring to God.

[Jesus] himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness. (I Peter 2:24a, NIV)

Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, we can walk this life blameless. As we take that step lean into His grace, God forgets about the warrant against us and leaves it hanging on the cross.

God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. (Colossians 2:13b-14, NIV)

It's finished!

Hannah Goodwyn serves as a producer for LivingTheLife.com and CBN.com. She also writes for these sites. For more articles and info, visit Hannah's bio page.