Sunday, May 22, 2011

Take Sin Serously

John 5:36b-46 The Father gave me these works to accomplish, and my teachings and my miracles prove that he sent me. And the Father who sent me has testified about me himself. You have never heard his voice or seen him face to face, and you do not have his message in your hearts, because you do not believe me—the one he sent to you. “You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me! Yet you refuse to come to me to receive this life. “Your approval means nothing to me, because I know you don’t have God’s love within you. For I have come to you in my Father’s name, and you have rejected me. Yet if others come in their own name, you gladly welcome them. No wonder you can’t believe! For you gladly honor each other, but you don’t care about the honor that comes from the one who alone is God. “Yet it isn’t I who will accuse you before the Father. Moses will accuse you! Yes, Moses, in whom you put your hopes. If you really believed Moses, you would believe me, because he wrote about me.

Jesus Christ is life. In John 14:6-7 Jesus told Thomas, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” If you had really known me, you would know who my Father is. From now on, you do know him and have seen him!” Not just the breath of life in our mortal being (Job 33:4 The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life), but in our immortal being for eternal life (John 3:14-16 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.)


Far too often, we forget about the seriousness of sin. That the Holy Scriptures, the moral compass that God provided us in the Bible, tells us in Proverbs 10:16 The wages of the righteous is life, but the earnings of the wicked are sin and death. Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We tend to think in human and earthly terms that we aren’t too bad compared to others, but fail to see sin in our lives as God sees sin and who we truly sin against. The Word of God says in Isaiah 42:24 “Was it not the LORD, against whom we have sinned? For they would not follow his ways; they did not obey his law.” Psalm 143:2 “Don’t put your servant on trial, for no one is innocent before you.” Romans 3:19-24 Now we know that whatever the law of God says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin. But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in[a] Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.


By our Creator Father God’s Plan of Salvation, His Son the Lord Jesus was sent from Heaven to live a sinless life in order to be the perfect sin offering for all sin, past, present and future. The only One not deserving death for sin, died for our sins that we may live – not experience ignorance of the Lord’s ways or spiritual blindness any longer, nor eternal separation and torment in the ‘second’ death in the fiery lake of Hell, but spiritual life today and eternal life in Heaven forever. Redemption, forgiveness, salvation, regeneration, restoration and eternal life. It's a big deal; rejoice in it!


How serious did our Lord Jesus take sin? Christ tells us in Mark 9:43-48 “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands, to go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched— where ‘ Their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’ And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame, rather than having two feet, to be cast into hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched— where Their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’ And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire— where ‘ Their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’” Yes, the Lord understands that if you remove one hand, or one foot, or one eye that you still have the other one to sin with. His point is the seriousness of our sin and the sense of urgency that we need to have in both consciously monitoring and policing our sinful flesh desires, the schemes of Satan and the temptations of this God rejecting world upon ourselves, and telling those in our sphere of influence that they may come to a “saving” knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to experience life in Him, that only He gives through Himself; spiritual life and life eternal. Let us never take sin lightly for our Lord died for our sins!

In Christ, Brian

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