He Makes Us New
I hear a lot of people feeling pressured to have their life cleaned up before they can come to Jesus, but that is not how the Bible displays the grace of God.
On this recent Sunday, the pastor read from the story of the sinner on the cross.
This man, told about in Luke 23:38-43, recognized that Jesus did not deserve to be on that cross beside him, but that he himself definitely did. He acknowledged his own sinfulness… he did not deny it.
But what that robber also didn’t do was have opportunity to clean his life up before having any chance for heaven. He had no right to heaven & no more time left to prove himself worthy for it going forward. He was already at the end, time was up.
But yet, Jesus verbally welcomed him into heaven.
… Not based on this sinner’s deserving (he had none)… not on his work to make up for it or change (his time was already up)… but based on his belief on Jesus as the One Whom he needed to save him from his deserved wrath.
I know a lot of us know this, & yet, we can get so caught up in judging someone else’s faith or place in heaven based on their weaknesses & past. God cleans us up through our faith on Jesus Christ to pay for our sins–we don’t do the cleaning up–He does.
I STILL Don’t Deserve Heaven Sans Jesus Covering My Sins, Even All These Years Later
I don’t know about you, but I, being saved now for almost 40 years, understand very clearly how undeserving I STILL am.
God is a faithful Vinedresser. (John 15:1-8) He is still weeding those things out of me. He is still cutting off things that distract me from getting properly nourished through Him & from being the most fruitful I can be.
God is faithful in tending to how my heart needs to change, how I need to be renewed & molded to be more in the likeness of His Son, Jesus Christ. Infinitely being gently corrected & changed, beyond what I deserve.
I see this a lot with sins that are embedded in a person’s perceived “identity.” I have heard people say that those who struggle presently with it cannot be a Christian while still believing those things or living in them.
But I challenge them on the power of the Gospel.
I still have seasons where I am foolish & allow myself to be deceived, where I have excused circles around my sin habit. But God is always gentle, forgiving, & faithful to continue pruning my heart, just as God got David’s attention through a prophet He sent to confront David near a year of David having deceived circles around his own quite major sins. (2 Samuel 12:1-8)
Despite our facing of the natural consequences of our wrong choices, how merciful God is to us.
We Are Naturally Often Afraid of Seeming Like It Means We Are Excusing Our Sin in Mentioning God’s Ever-Gracious, Merciful Nature
The fear we may face of talking about the possibility of being saved while living in sin is usually wrapped around the thought of it being an EXCUSING of sin, as if, “well, it IS paid for, so stop making a big deal about their sin… stop making that a deal-breaker.”
There is no way I am saying that. Sin matters. Your choices matter. Your obedience to God MATTERS.
Sin still causes damage. Sin still hurts us, others, AND God. Sin still tests & angers God, because God knows the damage & hurt it causes & tells us not to engage with it… & when we instead trust OURSELVES—we are then putting our own limited “wisdom” above the God Who made us & the world & everything in it. It is severely insulting to Him. It still has a cost. And sin still makes a mockery of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on that cross for our sin.
So sin still very much matters.
We Still NEED to be Seeking God WHILE Letting Him Prune & Change Us from the Inside Out
Pursuing holiness & obedience to God, living as a testimony of His truth & living FOR HIS glory—STILL MATTERS.
There are so many verses that attest to the opposite of living apart from regular, repeated sin is what allows you to be truly saved.
But by Christ alone.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9; Romans 4:3; Romans 10:9)
“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?” (Romans 6:1-2)
“… for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:12-13)
Even the prodigal SON passage displays this. (Luke 15:11-32) This story is not one of a stranger becoming a son, but rather a son making a mockery of his Father’s great generosity, WASTING it, & the welcoming grace that awaited him upon his humbled return.
I Didn’t Get Cleaned Up All at Once… But I am Failing Forward with God’s Working in Me
And then, there’s my life. Almost 40 years of mistakes, of failures, of wrong beliefs that were not called out or righted right away. Living sinfully because I was convinced I was doing nothing wrong, or that it “wasn’t really that bad.”
The gentle guiding, teaching, convicting of my heart throughout my life.
I was deceived. I let myself be led astray. I was foolish.
God kept weeding things out of me that shouldn’t be there. Ever faithful, ever working on my heart, ever making me more like Jesus.
God kept leading me & bringing sin to mind so I could lay it down. Sometimes I fought Him, but He kept working on me until I finally obeyed Him over trusting myself. It wasn’t all it once, it wasn’t always a willingness, but knowing it was a necessity, that God knew better than me, even when I didn’t want to believe that.
Only God Knows–Speak Truth, in Love–Warn of the Consequences–But Mostly, PRAY for Them
Is it hard to watch someone proclaiming Christ to be living in sin? Yes.
Does it make it seem like they’re not really saved because they’re not CURRENTLY living like it in this season? Yes.
Will that sin harm them & bring them destruction? Yes.
Does God still HATE our sin while still loving us? Yes.
Ought we warn people about their sin? YES.
Ought we turn away from our sin, even if we enjoy it, believe in it, & have been deceived over it, understanding that God ALWAYS knows better than we do & because obedience to Him still matters more than getting to live the way we want to live? YES.
If what we desires contradicts God’s Word—we’re the ones who are wrong, not Him.
He must be heeded.
We must obey His Word over our desires.
He is in charge, He knows everything—NOT us.
Sin (Doing Opposite of What God Commands or Says Is Right) Destroys. PERIOD. Don’t be Fooled!
But when we see someone proclaiming Christ while living in sin that they have convinced themselves is just fine, we need to warn them not to choose themselves over Christ… of the destruction, deception, & dishonor to God that it brings… while loving them anyway.
“But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not eat from faith; for whatever is not from faith is sin.” (Romans 14:23)
BE CAREFUL.
God says that if we don’t HATE everyone that matters to us compared to our LOVE for HIM–in other words that we need to make Him FIRST above ALL ELSE in our lives–that we’re not worthy to be His disciples. (Luke 14:26) If you are choosing yourself or anyone/anything more than you are willing to love & obey Him, you are living in a way that dishonors Him. You are living in sin.
“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?” (Romans 6:1-2)
If you even have an INKLING of a thought that maybe you are wrong about what others call sin… AND you proclaim to trust in Christ… you MUST be willing to defer to Him & His Word over yourself. You must be willing to ask God to examine your life & weed out what He wishes.
Your sin may be your security blanket, but that particular security blanket it eroding away at you, eating at you from the inside out, destroying you. DON’T TRUST IT.
God Cleans Us Up–Come to Him First
God’s Word brings LIFE. Sin DESTROYS.
Every time. Every SINGLE time. Do not trust it.
Lay it down. Let Him have it. Turn it over to Him.
If you are living in sin, it doesn’t necessarily mean you are not saved, but it does mean you are actively making a mockery of the sacrifice that was offered in the life & death of Jesus Christ our Lord…. GOD FORBID we mock His sacrifice for our lives & our forgiveness before God!
Shine HOPE by not determining FOR God the eternal standing of anyone… by refusing to inaccurately represent the need for our goodness to accompany the grace of God in being allowed admittance into Heaven, by warning against the destruction brought on by trusting self over God Almighty, by refusing to make a mockery of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ by living our way over His… by living ALL you do for the glory of GOD.
“Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” (1 Corinthians 10:31)
***He is waiting for you… will you come?:***
***(Romans 3:23; Romans 5:8-10; Ephesians 2:8-9; Romans 10:9-10; John 14:6)***
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Have a wonderful week living for His glory in all that you do!
