"In this naked word sin, our Lord brought to my mind, generally, all that is not good, and the shameful despite and the utter noughting that He bare for us in this life, and His dying; and all the pains and passions of all His creatures, ghostly and bodily."
Julian of Norwich (Ch. 27)
What is this sin that Christ took away by His Passion? It is everything that is not good, anything that is not of God. God is love, God is good, and sin is what is not good, not of God, not sourced in God. Sin comes from being deceived into believing that God is not good and loving and that we are not good and beloved. It comes from fear of abandonment and fear of lack and fear of death. When those feelings and beliefs are present, people can feel so empty, afraid and unloved that they seek to meet their needs in all the wrong ways. They end up hurting themselves and others. So sin is all that's wrong and all the suffering that comes from wrong. It includes all the pain, suffering, corruption and death that comes to us. And that is what Christ bore and carried and took away by the Passion! In Christ, all that is gone and done away with. Sin and pain and suffering and death meets Christ and is dissolved into nothing by His indestructible goodness and life. And all the lies and false beliefs we have had about ourselves and God are also done away with by Christ, because He shows us a God who is such pure love, and a humanity that is so beautiful and precious, that God would rather die than be without us! Our fears of alienation, unloveliness, and death are defeated by Christ's passionate love shown at the cross and resurrection. And not only that, but in place of all the sin and pain that are removed, Christ own life and righteousness is given to us in their place. All that was wrong and 'not good' is replaced with all that is right and truly good. Deception, lies, sin, pain, suffering and death just don't stand a chance when encountering the One who is salvation, holiness, purity, love, light and life!
"Here it is in a nutshell: Just as one person did it wrong and got us in all this trouble with sin and death, another person did it right and got us out of it. But more than just getting us out of trouble, he got us into life!"
Romans 5:19 (MSG)
A Prayer: You took away from my life all that was not good, was not life, and You replaced it with Your own goodness, Your own life! Thank You, Jesus!