There are usually two extremes when thinking about our sin. We either think it is too great for God to forgive (it’s not) or we think too little of it and justify it, knowing it’s forgiven anyway.
Just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.
Romans 6:19bc
I suspect we normally fall into the latter camp of thinking.
We usually think too little of our sins, or think of them as too little. We minimize them. We excuse them. And we keep engaging in them.
Jesus tells us in Matthew that if a hand or foot or eye causes us to sin, we should cut it off.
That sounds pretty serious!
He says that is we temp others into sin, it would be better to be drowned in the depth of the sea.
That sounds pretty serious!
Yet we usually gloss over those words and get right to forgiveness. Right to mercy. Right to the Gospel.
‘Let’s not dwell on the sins,’ we seem to be saying. ‘Give us the Gospel and forgiveness and let me move on (and keep on sinning).’
Certainly there is forgiveness through faith in Jesus. That is beyond dispute and should never be minimized. Yet if we belittle the sacrifice of Jesus in accomplishing our forgiveness, we belittle the true measure of Grace we are really receiving.
We constantly seem to live in our old ways, presenting our bodies for ‘impurity’ and ‘lawlessness.’ But that should not be!
We need to humbly ourselves like a child; truly repent in sorrow of our hearts, doing all we can to change our ways from this time forward with the help and guidance of the Holy Spirit; and then in His mercy and grace, joyfully stand up in His forgiveness to new life and new living!
If our actions don’t change, our heart probably hasn’t either. If our heart hasn’t changed, our faith is either stagnant or diminishing. If our faith is stagnant or diminishing, we are in danger of heading to a time when we lose it altogether.
Take your sins seriously. God does. Move to amend your sinful ways. God will help you. But do not lose faith or hope. Rather, take even more seriously God’s grace through faith in Jesus.
“The wages of sin is death. But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord!” (Romans 6:23).
“Lord, forgive. Lord, help. Thank You in Jesus, my Savior. Amen.”
Scriptures
- Matthew 18:1-10
- Romans 5:20–21
- Romans 6:19, 23
