As you have read so far, if you have been following my articles, we have been discussing SIN. One of the main reasons I have chosen to write on this topic is because SIN comes in so many different forms and sizes. The Bible is very specific about SIN:
James 2.10: “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.”
As followers and believers of Jesus Christ, we KNOW one SIN is enough to keep us out of heaven. It is by that SIN, we are separated from God the Father. Yet it is through the precious blood that Jesus Christ shed on the cross, which is the ONLY saving grace we have when we deal with SIN. In other words, every SIN we commit MUST be covered by HIS blood on the cross, otherwise there is no relationship with HIM.
Simply being human, we know SIN will exist in our lives. Hence the reason for a “relationship with Jesus Christ” in the first place! One SIN is so big as far as God the Father is concerned, we as humans are not able to get over it, under it or around it. In which case we must deal with our SIN in the most direct manner there is:
Declare our SIN and ask the Lord to forgive us of our SIN and that means each and every one of them. You can say all the “Hail Mary’s” or “Our Father’s” that you want, it will NOT work! You must see your SIN individually, you must state to the Lord, that this SIN is mine, Father, would you forgive me of this?
Romans 3.9-10: “What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one!”
Romans 3.19-20: “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”
Any commandment given in the Bible─which is the Word of God─is the Law of God! To break any one of them, you have broken all of them! And again, there is NO way around SIN. Again, you MUST come to God the Father in prayer and ask for HIM to forgive you of your SIN. SIN is the direct disobedience to the Lord God Almighty and that, HE will NOT tolerate!
Now this is the point where we must also say, each and every person must come to the cross of Jesus Christ. Each one must ask for the forgiveness of their SIN against God and themselves, this is the acknowledgement of your SIN in your life. This one thing must be done with all the earnestness one is able to experience in life, otherwise it is nothing. In other words, this prayer must be said with every fiber of your being! Trust me when I say that the Lord will know whether you truly mean that prayer or not (and so do you).
1 John 1.9: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us [our] sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
We as humans, have become so flippant about almost everything!
“Well…it’s just a little white lie!”
There is NO such a thing as a “little white lie or gray area!”
It is either a lie or it is not, and a lie is a SIN. It is an endeavor to misrepresent the truth. To misrepresent the truth by deception to any degree, is a LIE, it is simply NOT telling the truth. And the Bible says, “Don’t do it!” It used to be a pillar of individual integrity to always tell the truth, at least most of the time.
Now days, that is far from anyone’s mind. Trust me, personal degradation begins with the first step, after that, where does it end? If we all stop to remember, this is exactly what Satan did to Eve in the Garden of Eden; he simply bent the truth a little. “Are you sure God said, that if you eat of that tree…you will die?” Here read it:
Genesis 3.1-5: “Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”
Well…we most certainly know the difference between good and evil, but we are far from being Gods! Then again, maybe some people just don’t know what, “shame” is all about! All Eve had to do was to say, “NO” and walk away, but she didn’t. So here we sit, covered in all of our own SIN and the only way to get rid of it, is by the blood of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary!
That my friends, is the only reason Jesus Christ sacrificed HIMSELF on that cross to begin with, because HE had NO SIN and HE had to become SIN for us. We should be bathing in HIS blood on a daily basis if not more often, because all of us are SINNERS from beginning to end.
With as many people that have gone to the cross of Jesus Christ and hung their old lives there on the cross, you would think the place would be totally covered in bodies. Every single time a person is saved by Jesus Christ, there is only one cross and nothing else. That cross is the beginning of our new life and it is the end of our old sinful selves.
Each and every time, Jesus Christ simply wipes the place clean with HIS blood.
Having said that, I am always amazed at how the following Scripture makes more and more sense! It literally jumps off the page and renounces itself; this is how the Bible literally moves in your hand.
John 15.3-7: “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.”
It is an awesome thing to KNOW Jesus Christ, and that underlined part of the verse above means you can’t even take the next breath of air without the benefit of HIM. If nothing else is understood here, it must be this: YOU are in control of nothing! Every thing and every second of our lives are in the capable hands of God the Father! God is omnipresent and omnipotent.
HE knows everything, is everywhere all at once and is all Powerful. HE is the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last, the Alpha and the Omega. In the vernacular, HE is everything, everywhere, for all of time, without end─HE is God. This IS my Lord and Savior…How happy and overjoyed I am that HE loves me, because I would hate to be on the bad side! Amen?