10/18/2018
When we open ourselves to Jesus Christ and allow Him to enter into us we not only become a new person internally, but also externally. Ezekiel recorded how God transforms us in wonderful fashion, and the New Testament contains many references to how Jesus cleansed us and allows for this same transformation. The sin that we have spoken of in past days is now forgiven, and we are refreshed. Are you ready to be changed?
“I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”
Ezekiel 36:25-27 ESV
Jesus cleanses, not with just water, but as the Sacrificial Lamb cleanses... by His blood, and not every year as was done in the temple, but once... and for always. We are changed forever, but we have to accept Him in the same way that God told Ezekiel... “and be careful to obey my rules.” Listen to what Jesus said...
“But he said, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!"”
Luke 11:28 ESV
And
“Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, "See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you."”
John 5:14 ESV
When my two sons were young boys they liked to watch cartoons on television, and one of their favorites was one called “The Transformers” which was about living machines that could transform themselves from airplanes, trucks, and cars, into human looking creatures. They sat for hours in front of the television, and even had little transformer cars that they could change back and forth. The imagination of children is strong, and fun, so my boys played with their transformer toys until at last they outgrew them, and they were put away forever.
We are not meant to be like the transformers that my sons fantasized about. We are meant to be changed irreversibly... once and for all. When we grow up we can never return to our childhood selves. When we have done something in our time-bound world, it is done, and we can’t turn back the hands of time and change it. Our lives as human beings are a one way street that is constantly changing and moving ahead. Our faith plays by this same rule... we believe, we are cleansed, we grow in faith, we obey or disobey, we either become righteous, or yes... we sin. But, in all of these things there is no going back once they are irreversibly done.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV
This is a scary proposition when it comes to our faith. We believe in God, and He has paid a price through Christ to redeem us... to reconcile us to Him. We have become His children, and our bodies are His temple.
“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 ESV
But the fear we all have is in sinning again... in doing so are we doing the unnatural and making ourselves what we once were? No... we are still controlled by This continuum of life, and so the sin, although it might look like the old one, is new, and now we must face the fact that we have moved forward to a new place of unrighteousness, and somehow we must deal with who we now have become. Is this possible? Can we be cleansed again?
God, through His Grace, and the Blood of Jesus Christ, has made provision for us, but we must be willing to step into the cleansing blood once more. We can’t do this in an attempt to become a “transformer” but with a sincere desire to be righteous from that moment forward.
“For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,”
Hebrews 10:26 ESV
This verse doesn’t mean that once you sin again you are lost forever; it means that until you stop doing this thing willingly, and come before God in honest contrition, He will not view your intentions as truth, and will not apply the blood of Jesus to it. An example would be someone who asks forgiveness for a lie in their life. They ask for forgiveness, yet they have no intension to cease telling it. So every day they ask forgiveness, and then the next morning tell it again. In sins such as this there is no truth in their contrition, and so forgiveness is not forthcoming. When Jesus said “Go and sin no more” He wanted that person to go forward with every intentional and desire to succeed at sinning no more.
So how do you approach sin? Do you leave your prayer closet with optimism and the belief that you are not only forgiven, but will live without sin, or do you leave it in pessimism expecting to sin again momentarily? Do you put that often repeated lie you have told behind you forever, or do you step right back into it once again? How tragic it is when we doubt the power of the healing blood of Christ, and deny its ability to transform us. God forgives and doesn’t remember our sins, so we too should put them behind us and mirror His forgiveness, even as we forgive ourselves and others. We need to step into a new day, a new life, and find ourselves washed clean of the old sins, and resolved in spirit and flesh that no new ones will replace them.
“Through Jesus Christ, God will so cleanse you from all unrighteousness that day by day you may walk before God with a pure heart. What you really need is the discovery that He is prepared to work this change in you and that you may receive it by faith here and now.” - Andrew Murray
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for your Son Jesus Christ, and your grace that flows from Him. I thank you for being able to come before you in honest contrition, and ask for your forgiveness... knowing that you will grant it. I thank you Father for this provision that separates me from my past sins forever, and allows me to stumble, fall, and yet have you pick me up so that I might continue on. I thank you Holy Father for the confidence I have in the blood of Jesus, and your grace, that gives me the strength to step into a new day cleansed, and with confidence that I can walk with you through it sin free. Praised be your name Merciful Father, and great are you in your forgiveness, and patience. Never ending is your love for me, and firm is my desire to live each moment in righteousness. Help me Father to forgive others as you forgive me. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you my God who is forever faithful, and full of grace, for you have broken my bondage to sin... setting all who confess their faith, and obey you, free from the slavery to sin itself.
“Then Peter came up and said to him, "Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?" Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.”
Matthew 18:21-22 ESV
Rich Forbes