“If we walk in the light as He is in the light…the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” —1 John 1:7
“The evidence that
I have been delivered from sin is that I know the real nature of sin in me. […]
And it is not until we truly perceive the unrivaled power of the Spirit in us
that we understand the meaning of 1 John 1:7 , which says, “…the blood of Jesus
Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” This verse does not refer only to
conscious sin, but also to the tremendously profound understanding of sin which
only the Holy Spirit in me can accomplish. I must “walk in the light as He is
in the light…”— not in the light of my own conscience, but in God’s light. […]
On the conscious level it produces a keen, sorrowful knowledge of what sin
really is. The love of God working in me causes me to hate, with the Holy Spirit’s
hatred for sin, anything that is not in keeping with God’s holiness. To “walk
in the light” means that everything that is of the darkness actually drives me
closer to the center of the light.” Oswald Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest
People often mistake
freedom from sin with freedom to sin. Another
mistake we make is thinking that “hating” sin means that we must hate the
person who is sinning as well. We throw the baby out with the bath water, if
you will. Then on the other hand, the temptation
is to embrace the sin as well as the sinner. That, it seems, is the easier path
that many Christians travel. Particularly
if they struggle with their own sin. If we
love our culture. If we embrace what our
culture offers or promotes as truth and right, even though the Word of God says
it is a lie and wrong, then that is exactly where we are. It is not a function of what we have but what
has us. Listen, freedom from sin is not
freedom to sin. It is really not
OK. The problem is, so many “Christians”
are in love with the world and the things of the world. If we look at other Christians and not Jesus, we
can find justification for what we do and don’t do very easily. We are not to love our neighbor and then love
for God will result. It is the other way
around. Love God and then you will love
others because of our love for God and His love for us. (1 John 4:19)
Jesus was called a
friend of sinners and was criticized for it by the religious elite. The same ones that Jesus said were “whitewashed
tombs filled with dead men’s bones.” I want you to think about where your heart
is and where your priorities are. Jesus
said to the adulteress that he did not condemn her but that she should go and
sin no more. He called her to repentance.
That is loving her and hating her sin.
It is an attitude of love that dwells in the heart that loves God. Loving God and not loving the natural world
is not an option, it’s a command. Just
like the fish swimming in the sea, we can live our lives in a sinful world and
not have what is in the water change us inside. Think about Jesus eating dinner
with sinners and tax collectors – the very ones He came to save. Oh, but that
was Jesus you say – that is not in my power to do that. You are correct. But
the power to do that is in you if you have been born again by the Spirit of God
through faith in the One who did. And if
in the oft chance that you think I am making this up – read this
“I (we) have
been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me;
and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God,
who loved me and gave Himself for me” – Galatians 2:20
Oh – it is
possible but only by the power of Jesus in us – the world needs to see Jesus
and the way it will is by seeing Jesus expressed by the way we live our lives.
Let your light
shine and give God the glory.
By Faith Alone By
His Grace Alone And For His Glory Alone
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