Grace Trumps Sin 70x7

Sin Is Just Lawlessness On A Personal Level

In our local church sin is still an OK subject for discussion. People recognise that sin is still a very present aspect of their life (Romans 7:14-25) and we are ever-so-grateful that day-by-day the sin is dealt with and that year-by-year there is less of it. Some people compare this to peeling an onion; you take off the outer skin and it's gone, but there is another layer there waiting to come off, and another after that ..

Seventy Times Seven

Fortunately with Jesus as our Saviour God, He will peel away more than “seventy times seven" layers of sin (Matthew 18:21-22), and be happy about it. His happiness comes from our repenting and this comes from our knowing that we're loved and accepted into the family of God, and this translates as faith. The sin comes from living in the world; from the "spirit of this world" (1 Corinthians 2:12, Ephesians 2:2).

A favourite Bible verse for me is Galatians 5:1 "For freedom Christ has set us free .." I absolutely know this to be true for me.

Jesus wakens our spirit so we know to avail ourselves of the power and liberty of repentance and asking for forgiveness, this makes room for us to be free. A conference speaker once spent three days talking about his restoration from a terrible fall he had taken. He was a leader in one of the big world-renowned churches; whatever he did was so bad he had to resign from all his roles. The church was gracious enough to continue his salary and to work with him to re-establish himself as a Christian, a husband and a father. He learned to "keep short accounts with God"; to quickly respond to his conscience by repenting and seeking forgiveness when he found himself in any kind of lawlessness. He concluded that there is no trivial sin that we can just let slide because nobody cares about it. All sin is offensive to God and is in opposition to His rule and lordship. The fact that we're not an axe murderer and don't rob banks counts for nothing if we sin in another way, and we all do (Romans 3:23). This guy had a big impact on me, I've never forgotten his counsel: "keep short accounts with God"; I daily work towards living so.

Sin comes from Satan. He was one of God's great angels who chose to set himself above God and to subvert His rule. Satan mostly uses people as his instruments in the world, he even got the first humans, Adam and Eve, to persue his evil goals which brought about the great Fall. This caused separation of humankind from God; before that Adam and Eve were on intimate terms with Him, they worked with Him during the day and fellowshipped together in the evenings; I bet they called Him "Abba", as Jesus does. Sin brought a massive change: separation, guilt, shame, even death (Romans 6:23, Proverbs 10:16). Sin can only be paid for with blood (Ezekiel 3:18). Jesus gave His blood for me, for us all.

Here are some of the sins we see in the Bible, Jesus said: "What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person's heart, that evil thoughts come - sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly" (Mark 7:21-22). 

Paul wrote about the godless: "They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, coveting, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no loyalty, no love, no mercy" (Romans 1:29-31). 

I guess axe murders and bank robberies are included somewhere here with all the other mean-ness and wrong we are tempted to do (Micah 6:8, Matthew 23:23).

Some ways I see sin at work in the world are with globalisation of businesses where they are now more powerful than sovereign governments; they are rapacious in the marketplace and with their employees; they avoid paying their taxes, (though their advertising always shows them as "good neighbours" to all). 

Slavery too is now a profound evil and a vast international trade; there are more slaves in the world today than at any time in history. Today slaves do not grow cotton and sugar, they are mostly used for sex (endless rape) and make their "owners" millions, probably billions.

But sin is close to home for all of us, like privilege where the rich and powerful, and their children, get the best jobs and the best education opportunities, and bullying where the strong pick on the weak (but only when they are sure they won't be caught).

Political correctness is everywhere in our societies, particularly in the media; lies are spoken as truth while truth is ridiculed and called a lie (Isaiah 59:14-16, Jeremiah 9:5). Words like "inclusion" and "tolerance" are used to cut people out and denigrate them as haters and beyond acceptance; these people are often then persecuted for their beliefs and that is the opposite of freedom of speech and tolerance. All this is sin, it all shows a lack of love, or even care or respect, for our neighbour. You probably have your own list of present day sins which is as sad as mine, and also seemingly impossible to combat, except in our-self!

It is important, as it always has been, that we live our lives in truth and justice (Micah 6:8, Matthew 23:23), and that we use our every influence to encourage our leaders to improve things at their level. Our silence is our consent to the wrong that we see in our communities!

Forgiveness

Forgiveness comes from Jesus. One of God's unchangeable (immutable) qualities is that He is just. He cannot tell a lie or do a wrongful deed; "God is love" (1 John 4:8, 4:16). He wants the same for us; indeed we are made in God's image and have inbuilt knowledge of right and wrong and a desire for justice. This is our conscience. Since the Fall every person's conscience has been awakened (Hebrews 10:22).

Jesus Rescues Us

To bring humanity back into right relationship with Himself, God sent His firstborn Son Jesus to shed His blood and die for all sin for all time. Jesus is more than a man, He is God who came to Earth as a human being; one of His names is Emanuel, "God with us". He's the only person to have lived a sinless life, so His is the only blood able to pay such a huge price. It was an amazing act of humiliation and courage for Jesus to submit in innocence to prosecution and execution. We often hear of war heroes; I used to equate this kind of sacrifice with Jesus' death. But the outstanding thing about Jesus is that He was raised from the grave, defeating both death and sin (Romans 8:2). This was a great victory from which we benefit every day.

Jesus ascended to Heaven and now rules and reigns and will do so for ever! Jesus victory brought in the New Covenant where His sacrifice pays for our sin, by grace, and we can reckon ourselves as righteous and live free (Romans 5:17, 6:11, Titus 3:5, 1 Peter 2:24). It is God's desire, and His plan, that as many as possible live in right relationship with Him and with one another, indeed His desire is that "none should perish" (John 6:39).

This is really profound. God gave fully of Himself so that we could live free .. It's a pretty sweet deal; that someone you've just offended should give you forgiveness just because you ask for it! This is our God. He's called the God of grace, and of love, peace, kindness, justice, family .. We can always rely on Jesus to come and help us when we ask.

Grace Trumps Sin

Grace is what brings the changes; we haven't actually done anything to earn forgiveness or release or a new chance at a life, free from guilt and shame. It is a gift from Jesus for us, for every person, so that we can be re-united with Him as was His plan when He brought life to the Creation.

Do you remember when you became a Christian that you felt "different"? I've heard people say that they "feel lighter", or that everything "looked clearer", or that now they knew "they belonged to someone", or that they could now "realistically hope" .. Well it's all true. Our spirit is quickened, given new life. The most important of our three components, spirit, soul and body, is now beginning to work correctly and this influences everything in us and how we see everything around about. We truly do "become a new creation" (2 Corinthians 5:17). Amazing. This is God's grace at work in you and me.

So for us Christians this all works by faith; faith in Jesus and faith in His Gospel which is the good news about his victory over death and sin for us. My faith is that I believe what Jesus tells me through His Word, the Bible, and through His actions and His Father's Kingdom responses. My testimonies, and those of hundreds of others, show me that what is said about God and Jesus is true. I believe in miracles and in the power of prayer because I've seen them in action time and again!

It's so simple really. We recognise and acknowledge our sin and ask God to forgive us, and He does, immediately and forever! Sometimes we may think our sin was so bad that we do not deserve forgiveness, or that God couldn't possibly forgive that sin. These are wrong thoughts and will cause us to carry the weight of sin which is no longer there. Sure, we'll remember how rotten and hurtful we have been, this will help us to improve our behaviors in future and our relationships with others. We also learn to forgive our-self.

Scripture makes it very clear; we are "free to be free" (Galatians 5:1)! We are not free because we are perfect, but because God makes us righteous in Jesus (Romans 8:2, Acts 13:39).

Thank you Jesus, " .. the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:6). 

"Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits - who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's” (Psalm 103:2-5).

Amen.

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Praise Jesus.