To know thy enemy is to know thyself. I have found the enemy and he or she is me. In my flesh dwelleth no good thing. I’m not a sinner because I sin, but I sin because I’m a sinner ... it is the nature I inherited from Adam’s fall. I cannot help but sin because in my flesh there is none good, no not one – sin did that. In my flesh there is pride and self-centeredness. The devil tempts me to sin and then accuses me when I do. He deceives and tricks me into this viscous circle of degradation, depravation, disgust and self-destruction. This viscid cycle separates my heart from God’s heart ... so that I cannot do the things I woulda, shoulda and coulda done. It’s these sinfully “subjunctive moods” of life that separates my heart from God’s heart. The greatest sins are sins of omission... things I should have and could have done but didn’t. The first and great sin is counter to the first and great commandment. The greatest sin is not loving God above all. My sin hardens my heart by loving myself more than I love God. Sin is disobedient, ungrateful, brutal, conceited, self-serving and self-gratification. Sin focuses on myself and makes me become a victim of my own selfish lustful heart.
What shall wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Only Jesus Christ has the power to overcome sin. The solution to sin is to love God above all ... for love covers a multitude of sins. Who loved whom? He loved us first ... not because of who we are but because of who He is. Unconditional love is the nature of God himself. In that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly. We could not love God unless He first loved us. It’s not the wrath of God but the goodness of God that calls a man and woman to repentance. Jesus Christ did not come to judge the world guilty of sin. John 3:17-18 “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
In order to approach a holy God, we must approach His throne of grace on His terms not ours. Salvation is a gift, but acceptance of His gift is according to His terms. How do we accept his gift? Accepting His gift is according to His terms of salvation in Romans 10:9, confessing that Jesus is Lord and believing in our hearts that God has raised him from the dead. Remember, Sin separates our hearts from God’s heart. Repentance returns our heart back to God. As David prayed, search my heart O God and see if there is any evil thing in me. For there is no peace without the Prince of Peace – Jesus Christ. Peace reconciles our heart with God’s heart, making of twain, one new Name ... for there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
When we approach His throne of grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, then we can rejoice with the angels who proclaimed the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ: Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will to men, that we may praise God together in thanksgiving for his gracious gift of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ!
Your brother in Christ, Michael
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