I have finished the work
which You have given Me to do. —John 17:4
{CHAMBERS} “The death of
Jesus Christ is the fulfillment in history of the very mind and intent of God. […]
Never build your case for forgiveness on the idea that God is our Father and He
will forgive us because He loves us. That contradicts the revealed truth of God
in Jesus Christ. It makes the Cross unnecessary, and the redemption “much ado
about nothing.” God forgives sin only because of the death of Christ. God could
forgive people in no other way than by the death of His Son, and Jesus is
exalted as Savior because of His death. “We see Jesus…for the suffering of
death crowned with glory and honor…” (Hebrews 2:9). The greatest note of
triumph ever sounded in the ears of a startled universe was that sounded on the
Cross of Christ— “It is finished!” (John 19:30). That is the final word in the
redemption of humankind. […] Never allow yourself to believe that Jesus
Christ stands with us, and against God, out of pity and compassion, or that He
became a curse for us out of sympathy for us. Jesus Christ became a curse for
us by divine decree. Our part in realizing the tremendous meaning of His curse
is the conviction of sin. Conviction is given to us as a gift of shame and
repentance; it is the great mercy of God. Jesus Christ hates the sin in people,
and Calvary is the measure of His hatred.”
{ELGIN} The danger for many
Christians is the temptation to trivialize sin – after salvation. There are two camps in the thinking about
post-salvation sin. One is “once saved
always saved” (for which I am a proponent).
As a child of God, a new creation, I have been born again, saved once –
for eternity. What I am calling
post-salvation sins have the affect of building a relational wall between me
and the Father, but He is still my Father.
For Him to hear me to bless me, my heart must be clean – free of unconfessed
sin (1 John 1:9) and I must be walking in obedience to His word. The second camp is that you can lose your
salvation if you sin. Once saved, you
might have to be saved again, and again.
The first camp engenders a sense of freedom .. the second a sense of
fear. The danger of the first camp can be
that we no longer consider post-salvation sin as a big deal. I mean, after all, “we are in!” We made the cut. No worries about our eternal future. Well, Paul addressed this issue. (You can
always count on Paul!) Let me help you
get your Bible reading in for the day.
(Romans 5:8-21, 6:1-14) “Consequently,
just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one
righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. For just as through the disobedience of the
one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one
man the many will be made righteous. The law was brought in so that the
trespass might increase. But where sin
increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in
death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord. What
shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who
have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all
of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through
baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead
through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. For if we have
been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with
him in a resurrection like his. For we
know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin
might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because
anyone who has died has been set free
from sin. Now if we died with
Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death
no longer has mastery over him. The
death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to
God. In the same way, count yourselves
dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body
so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to
sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those
who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to
him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master,
because you are not under the law, but under grace.”
We have a choice .. give in
to sin or give in to God. In either case
you are offering yourself in submission to one or the other. How can we think it is of no consequence when
we sin in even what we might think is a trivial thing … knowing that Jesus went
to the cross for even that trivial sin.
Don’t quench the Spirit when He brings conviction .. but yield, confess,
and follow Jesus. Don’t be satisfied
with anything less in your new life. Fulfill
your purpose by being light and salt … bringing glory to God … just like Jesus.
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