THOUGHTS

April 17, 2020

A reprint from Facebook jail from 2013

A PRIMER ON SIN

Things are different than when I grew up.  Sin was black and white, conviction sent people to the altar to cry out and pray for forgiveness, and repentance meant that you had changed the direction of your life.  When was the last time you witnessed or experienced that?  Is there a disconnect with our head knowledge and our heart, or is it a lukewarmness which permeates our society which the majority of whom has been taught that we sin every day in thought, word, and deed, and will until we die.  Have we settled for living in sin and calling ourselves Christian?  Spittle.

One day after church years ago, my little preschooler Laura and her best friend Emily decided to wait for us on the hood of our car where buckles on their shiny black shoes were scratching the paint.  When reprimanded, they slid off with Emily saying, "I wasn't up there.  You didn't see me up there!"  Denial.

As a little child, I fell under conviction.  I knew I had sinned.  After all, hadn't I stolen a pack of gum right under the nose of my visiting godly grandfather at the corner market?  He probably would have gladly bought it for me; but being too shy to ask, I simply did what I knew was wrong.  I stole the gum.  I was under such conviction that I threw the pack away without chewing it.  Later I wanted to be free from that heavy guilt and tried to find forgiveness at the altar.  Since I was unable to shed tears like the others there, I thought I remained unsaved.  I would go in the bathroom at church afterwards and try to jump up from the procelain sink to look at my reflection in the cloudy mirror to see if I had cried any real tears.  Nope.  I was still condemned.  It was hard to receive the free gift of salvation.  Instead, I prayed He would not come back again before I got it right and would lay awake wondering if this was the night my family would be taken up, and I was left behind.  Finally, I understood and acccepted His forgiveness by faith, not by emotion.  Later, I settled the battles of sin and fully surrendered.  Then I grew in grace by a constant surrender to His will and way.  I am not perfect, but I am perfectly content in the will of God.

The altar is not the only way to be made right with God, but it is an opportunity to humble yourself and go forward to become the Bride of Christ without spot or wrinkle; yes, right there at the altar.

Sin is an act of sin as well as a sin nature, a bent to sinning since the Garden: the Bible says, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Romans 3:23

Sin is going against the known will of God, a shaking of your fist in the face of God.

Sin is separation from God.

Conviction is by the Holy Spirit, the Hound of Heaven.

Repentance is sorrow for sin, not just sorry for the consequences or sorry to have been caught.

Forgiveness, grace, undeserved favor.

Justification is just as if I did not sin, sin thrown into the deepest seat of His forgetfulness.

Redemption, "without the shedding of blood, there is not forgiveness." Hebrews 9:22  It is being made right with God at a great cost, Jesus' death on a cross.

Sanctification, being cleansed, a total surrender of the will from the constant fight of the sin nature against God.  It is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, a second work of grace as well as an ongoing growth in grace by entering into His rest.

What if the Body of Christ all repented of our sinfulness and chose to obey God and His Word?

Can you imagine the difference that would make in our church and in our witness?  Instead it is easier to do as Adam and Eve did in the garden.  They hid.  But they knew  When we hide or deny our sin, we are not walking in the light as He is in the light, and there is not fellowship, forgiveness or cleansing.  "But if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from ALL sin."  I John 1:7.  

Jesus often asked those He healed, "Do you want to be made whole?"  Do you?  Do you believe that He can do as He has promised?  Easter is celebrating the newness of life as radical as Christ walking out of a tomb!  Or do you prefer Jesus on a cross where you might still need Him in a pinch?  Are you afraid he might get down and find you in your sin?  No, we need a risen Savior who has the power over sin and death!  That's victory in Jesus!