Monday, December 7, 2015

Making Sense Of Sinning, Forgiveness, and Repentance ..

My Utmost For His Highest
 
“[W]hen the Holy Spirit stirs a person’s conscience and brings him into the presence of God, it is not that person’s relationship with others that bothers him but his relationship with God— “Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in your sight…” (Psalm 51:4). The wonders of conviction of sin, forgiveness, and holiness are so interwoven that it is only the forgiven person who is truly holy. He proves he is forgiven by being the opposite of what he was previously, by the grace of God. Repentance always brings a person to the point of saying, “I have sinned.” The surest sign that God is at work in his life is when he says that and means it. Anything less is simply sorrow for having made foolish mistakes— a reflex action caused by self-disgust.  The entrance into the kingdom of God is through the sharp, sudden pains of repentance colliding with man’s respectable “goodness.” Then the Holy Spirit, who produces these struggles, begins the formation of the Son of God in the person’s life (see Galatians 4:19). This new life will reveal itself in conscious repentance followed by unconscious holiness, never the other way around. The foundation of Christianity is repentance. Strictly speaking, a person cannot repent when he chooses— repentance is a gift of God. The old Puritans used to pray for “the gift of tears.” If you ever cease to understand the value of repentance, you allow yourself to remain in sin. Examine yourself to see if you have forgotten how to be truly repentant.” CHAMBERS
 
When the Holy Spirit convicts you of some sin, be careful that you don’t misdirect your sorrow.  What I mean is that we sin against God, but often times, we turn that sin inward and feel bad about ourselves for ourselves and not God.  Still confused?  Forgiveness and repentance is not about feeling better about you and the hope of being a “good” person.  Forgiveness and repentance is the process of restoration to the Father and not merely re-affirming yourself as being a good person.  You see, that is the way the flesh is … something spiritual happens, and the flesh rises it up to snatch it and use it for it’s own benefit.  When David was confronted by the prophet Nathan, David looked up to God knowing that he, David, having sinned needed to be restored in relationship to the Father.  He didn’t think, “Oh what a terrible person I am, how can I ever feel better about myself.”  His desire to be one with the Father was primary in his motivation to repent.  And so it should be with us.
 
I have been thinking about this dynamic of sin, forgiveness and repentance a good deal of late.  Why doesn’t God just take our ability to sin, our desire to sin, away from us on the day of our salvation?  Wouldn’t life be so much easier?  And then I wonder what this world would be like without the testimony of the saints of God.  Imperfect people, loved by a perfect God, saved by the perfect sacrifice of the Son, inhabited by a perfect Spirit, shown the way to live by His perfect Word, demonstrating the love and power of God by living out our new lives in Christ in an imperfect world that is desperately in need of hope.  (2 Corinthians 4:7-12)  “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.  For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.”  ELGIN
 
Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)
 
Charley Elgin

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