“Whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one
point, he is guilty of all.” —James 2:10
Understanding sin in the context of a holy God. Until a person comes to the point of
conversion .. coming under conviction by the Holy Spirit and having a sudden
awareness of who they are and who God is, they will never experience a sense of
guilt before God and their need for salvation.
Many people are more sorry they got caught than the fact that they did
something wrong. They doing something
wrong is an attempt to satisfy some need they have. Physical or emotional. Sin is an act of
desperation. Man trying to be his own
god. It all started in the Garden.
“’You will not certainly die,’ the serpent said to the
woman. ‘For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and
you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’” – Genesis 3:4-5
The Law brings an awareness of what is necessary to “be like
God”, and it is impossible for sinful man, by himself, to be like God. Recall that Adam and Eve were already created
in God’s image and likeness. (Genesis
1:26) But they wanted more than
that. They wanted to be equal to God.
They wanted to decide what is right and what is wrong. (Sound a bit like our
culture?)
So what about today .. for you and me. Does becoming a
Christian make you sin-proof? No, but it
does make you Hell-proof. As you know, sins
are internal, but most manifest themselves by some action on the external. Jesus taught that. We tend to focus on the external and try to
manage those sins .. to keep them under control. What goes on inside our hearts and minds, not
so much. But, that is not good enough!
If you compare what you do plus what you think to the
holiness of God, you will quickly realize that you are not so “holy” as you
hoped. If most of your sinning goes on –
on the inside, you may fool people around you, but not God, who sees the
heart. The Law and our sin is a constant
reminder that we need a Savior because we cannot be holy on our own. We need a little – well more correctly – a
lot of help. God does not want you to
live a life of guilt because you struggle with sin and the flesh .. He wants
you to confess and repent. But
repentance is more than trying harder .. it is trusting more … it is submitting
more … it is “faithing” more. I don’t expect to be perfect in the flesh … but I
also know that I cannot ever be satisfied with my sinful nature. Some people say “That is just the way that I
am!” in response to some attitude or action that does not glorify God and is
hurtful to other people. As if they can
blame their sin on heredity … well they can, but then again, they can’t. Adam and Eve may have started it, but we are
each responsible for our own sin. So we need to own it, confess it, and repent
of it. Today would be a good day to get
started.
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