Part 2 of 4: We're All Wheelie Bins

We’re All Wheelie Bins![1]

Let us talk about wheelie bins. You actually can have someone come and clean out your wheelie bin. I don’t know how they do it. They scrub them clean inside and out, and they smell like roses at the end of it. So, keep in mind wheelie bins as we look at the following portion of Scripture.

On Good Friday we acknowledge Jesus being nailed to the cross. What was Jesus doing on the cross? That is what we’ll be looking at.

“And they asked him, saying, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” John answered them, saying, “I baptize with water, but there stands One among you whom you do not know. It is He who, coming after me, is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose.” These things were done in Bethabara beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing. The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” John 1:25-29.

We’ve already talked about the Commandments and what sin is. Sin is the breaking of God’s commandments.[2] There’re ten of them.[3] And we considered a little illustration of the 7^th Commandment, not committing adultery[4] and being on a beach in sunny Queensland when there’re scantily clad females and you’re trying not to look at them with longing, or with lust, as we would call it. You’re sinning in your heart if you are lusting after another human being who is not your husband or wife.[5]

In the following I want to show you what wheelie bins are all about. According to the Bible, and bringing it into modern terms, you and I are essentially wheelie bins.[6] We are wheelie bins full of what? Well, I usually tell people that my head is full of broken bottles and Irish fiddle tunes! But really, I’m full of broken commandments.[7] I’m walking around like a wheelie bin full of broken stuff, rotten fruit, fish and other dead things and what have you. That’s what Jesus came to take away. He came to take away my broken Commandments.[8] Because, on Judgment Day,[9] God is going to judge me against His Commandments.

Jesus is God’s Law with arms and legs.[10] Jesus kept God’s Commandments perfectly, as my representative.[11] Therefore, I don’t have to represent myself before God, because the sinless Jesus represents me before God.[12] He kept the Ten Commandments perfectly in thought, in word, and in deed, in everything He did[13], unlike me, unlike you.

Let’s take the 9^th Commandment.[14] “Thou shalt not lie” is the way we usually say it. Have you ever told a lie? Be honest now. Have you ever told a lie? You’re going to have to say yes, otherwise you’re telling a lie, you’re lying. Even the least little sin is enough for God to justly throw us onto the dump, the eternal dump, the scrapheap, Hell.[15]

He made us.[16] We rebelled against Him.[17] That’s what sin is. It’s rebellion against God.[18] How do we know we’re rebelling against God? By breaking His Commandments. We tell lies. We lust after each other, and all that kind of thing. So, you’re a wheelie bin full of broken Commandments. What’s Jesus doing on the cross? Well, He’s doing what the wheelie bin cleaner does. He’s taking away your sins.[19]

During the coronavirus, the COVID-19 scare, we we’re all scared of each other, trying not to get too close to people and all of that.[20] For a bit of fun, I mentioned to my friends on a Facebook post that I think I got away with putting my wheelie bin out to the kerb with my pyjamas on! People on social media were saying left, right, and centre, that their wheelie bins were getting out more during the coronavirus than they were!

You put your wheelie bin out to the kerb and what happens? A big contraption comes along, a truck with big arms. The arms grab your wheelie bin and dumps its contents into the back of the truck. Essentially that is what Jesus is doing on the cross with your sin.

God takes your sin, my sin, yeah let’s talk about me, because I’m a sinner. You may not yet admit to being a sinner. So, He takes my sin, my sins, and puts them onto Jesus.[21] And what does God do to Jesus? In the lead up to Easter it is also Passover week for those people who still haven’t recognised Jesus as the Messiah. Well, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” He is like the garbage truck taking away our garbage, taking away our broken Commandments. That’s what Jesus is doing on the cross.

What was happening with John the Baptist, was that all of Israel was going out to the Jordan to be baptised by him.[22] So, he’s basically cleaning their bins, at least on the outside. That’s what baptism is. It is the washing with water that is cleansing you.[23] It’s a picture of what God does to you internally. He cleanses you of your sins.[24] He takes away your sins. And once He does that, you come up smelling like roses before God!

However, you’re still checking in the nooks and crannies of your own heart, and you see that sin is dwelling in there.[25] So, you need to daily confess your sins to Jesus.[26] Because He’s the One who takes away your sins.  

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[1] Galatians 3:22.

[2] Romans 4:15; 1 John 3:4.

[3] Exodus 20:1-17; Deuteronomy 5:6-21.

[4] Exodus 20:14; Deuteronomy 5:18.

[5] Matthew 5:27-28.

[6] Matthew 15:18-20.

[7] Romans 7:22-23.

[8] Romans 4:25.

[9] Psalm 96:13; John 5:28-29.

[10] Acts 17:31.

[11] Romans 8:1.

[12] 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 John 2:1.

[13] Hebrews 7:26-27.

[14] Exodus 20:15; Deuteronomy 5:19.

[15] Matthew 12:36; Revelation 20:15.

[16] Genesis 1:26-28.

[17] Genesis 3:6; Romans 3:9-19.

[18] 1 John 3:4.

[19] John 1:29.

[20] Psalm 91:6.

[21] Isaiah 53:5-6.

[22] Mark 1:5.

[23] Ezekiel 36:25.

[24] 1 John 1:9.

[25] 1 John 1:8.

[26] Matthew 6:12.