All tagged forgiveness
When we open ourselves up 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 cleanses 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 we ready to be changed?
Our bodies are constructed for an amazing purpose, they are designed to not only maneuver the physical world, but to praise and worship God. They are also built to contain not only our conscious self, but our spirit, soul, the Holy Spirit, Jesus, and God as well. We like to think that our body is ours alone, but it isn’t, even physically it is not, and scripture tells us that when we marry, or have sex, we become one flesh with that person... our body is truly an incredible creation in which we live, and is often misunderstood.
What do we do when we recognize that we have been wrong in a biblical practice or belief? Perhaps we find that we have made a liturgical practice out of something we have considered to be the Word of God that was actually of man, and not of God after all. What should we do? How should we face this and admit our failure or address something we find to be a material heresy? Are we brave enough to face our mistake before God and man or are we doomed to a life of spiritual suffering in false worship? Friends, in such cases we must gather bravely in contrition as a church and pray for God’s forgiveness.
When we look around the world today we see such an overwhelming mess; killing, hatred, carnal sins of every description... the list seems to have no end, and its depth bottomless. Becoming overwhelmed by Satan’s handiwork is easy, and letting it make us despondent or allowing ourselves to be caught up in it can be equally easy. Is this world’s fallen state too big for God’s love and forgiveness? Is what we see too much for Jesus to carry within Him to the cross? Let’s delve into this today.
We are professed Christians, and yet are we still nervous about entering into the presence of God? Do all the sins in our lives come flooding back, and beads of sweat pop out on our foreheads at just the thought of meeting with the Creator of the Universe? This was the kind of concern the Jews who served in the temple had, and so much so that the priests who were tasked with going into the Holy of Holies would have a rope tied around them... just in case they were struck dead and their body had to be recovered. Yet we are told not to fear because we are cleansed in the blood of Christ; the perfect sacrifice... the Lamb of God. So why are we so nervous?
Have we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, but find that we continue to sin on occasion? If so, do we do this with great regret, remorse, tears, and sweating, or freely as if we hold the king’s pardon in your hand and feel immune to any penalty? How does Jesus expect us to treat our sin once we have come to Him and been healed of it?
Are you a sinner of the worst kind? Do you think that there is no way that someone like you can ever be washed clean, and forgiven? Well, if so, you are not the first to have felt this way, and as a matter of fact, the Apostle Paul felt just as you do. To say that you are too far gone to be saved is to deny the saving grace of God in His Son Jesus Christ. So, listen to me today…
Are we worthy? Are we worthy of the Christ Child’s birth that we celebrated yesterday? Are we worthy of the sacrifice that God made by giving His only begotten Son to die for your sins? Are we worthy of an audience with the creator of the universe? Are we worthy of His forgiveness? There are so many questions like this that most of us would answer with a resounding “NO!”, but is that really true? Do we even know what it means to be worthy?
Have the things of the world died to you? Are you a different person today than you were the day before you first believed? Have you asked the Lord to forgive you for your sins today and then taken a deep and refreshing breath of relief once they were lifted from you? Or do you ask for and receive His forgiveness only to neglect the fruit of that redemption, which is the peace, joy, and rest He means for you to be blessed with? Let’s look at this dastardly ploy of Satan who attempts to steal the heavenly peace and joy of God away from us by keeping us spiritually bound to sin and our continued focus on another one of his lies… which is the need for our ongoing spiritual regret and conviction for previously forgiven sins long after the Lord our God and Savior Jesus Christ have cleansed us of them
As we move towards a godly state of righteousness we shed one sin after another until at last we are down to our pet sins... those that give us personal pleasure or reduce the pain of living in some way. When we reach this point, and we refuse to let these sins go, then our relationship with God stalls, and we feel a growing separation from Jesus. This can happen early on in our walk of faith, but usually it occurs once all the low hanging sinful fruit has been plucked from us. These deeply rooted personal sins require a specialized spiritual surgery to extract them.
We can’t enter into heaven and live an eternal life because we deserve it. That kind of thinking is based upon our own vanity and arrogance. Our salvation and everlasting life is sealed by covenant alone, and that covenant of grace comes only by our belief in God’s acceptance of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as our blood sacrifice and atonement for sin. Only through Jesus can we be redeemed, forgiven, perfected, and sanctified. Only through Him can we truly claim the covenant of God’s grace.
Are you in a covenant relationship with God? Have you accepted the blood of Jesus Christ as affirmation of that covenant? Has God’s grace and forgiveness of sin through the sacrifice of Jesus become your blood offering that has signed and sealed this covenant? We see the cross and say “this is the covenant”, but it is only a sign. We see the rending of the temple curtain and say “this is the covenant”, but it is only a sign. We see the empty tomb and say “this is the covenant”, but it too is only a sign. The covenant is forgiveness, and the blood of Jesus is the offering that inaugurates it. Is the blood of Jesus upon you as God’s seal?
Do you have your body under control? Have you let yourself separate your spirituality of nature from the physical manifestation of that faith within your body itself? By this I am not asking if you treat yourself as a narcissist, but if you do those things that are godly and good with yourself, and treat your body as a temple of the Holy Spirit? Our spiritual and physical selves walk hand in hand with our faith, and it is by God’s will that we find the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit within our physical bodies.
What sins do we have in our lives that have enslaved us? Do we have an overriding desire for something that drives us to commit sin, or a need in our life that makes us complicit or vulnerable to sinful things? Either way, we have been enslaved, and our sin will rule us until we can find emancipation from it. Sexual predators are in the news again right now... let’s take a look.
We have been purchased with the blood of Jesus Christ and are privileged to know Him personally. We have been baptized in water, and then again in the Holy Spirit as they were poured over and into us, having been born on the wings of grace and carried within the sweet breath of Christ Himself. Yet despite this, we find that the allure and temptation of sin can be too great for us to resist. How can this possibly be? How can we at one moment be declared the temple of the Holy Spirit and in the next find ourselves in a pit of raging lions… which are our sins.