Sin Boldy, Enjoy Christ

This past years has been one of the greatest years of my life. I've struggled more in this past year than at any other point in my life; but God has been so good to me. I know people are very aware of many of my failures, but there are far more than they see. Truly I am the chief of sinner; I am no better than the murders, rapists and child molesters in our prisons. I have fallen so short of what I should be and my sin grieves me greatly. I am constantly reminded of my failure many times every day. But Praise be to God who continues to love me.

The story of my life is a sad one, but praise God there is Good News! It finally hit me and I realized that my sin, my failures, regardless of how great they are or how often they come can never separate me from the love of God that was shown to me in the person and work of Jesus Christ. They can never cause me to loose my salvation; they can never condemn those who are in Jesus Christ. It is not the sinful acts, or the abominable things I struggle with daily that separate me from God; they will never cause me to loose my salvation. The only thing that separate me from God is when I choose to reject the righteousness offered too us through faith alone in the person and work of Jesus Christ, and attempt to do good and earn my own righteousness through my own effort.

I don't like who I am, or what I've become; I don't like my sin. I know I do thing I shouldn't and it seem as if I am never able to do those things which I know I should. I am always doing those things I don't want to do. I know my flesh loves to sin, my human nature constantly desires to do evil things; but my spirit does not. This controversy, this war between my flesh and my spirit can become very exhausting. It will cause you to want to give up in surrender. If, there is an "if" in this reality; if you attempt to overcome those sins and struggles. This does't make sense humanly speaking. This idea that you should make no attempt to overcome your sin just doesn't make sense. Humanly speaking we say, if you are struggling with a sin then do everything you can to stop. If you struggle with alcoholism then don't go near bars, don't go in the isles where they sell alcohol and join an accountability group. If you struggle with pornography then get rid of your computer, use internet filters and stay away from porn shops. We have all kinds of ideas of how to deal with this or that sin. We try and memorize scripture, we try and read our bible more, we try and become more involved in church in an attempt to overcome the sins that plague us so that we can become more like God; so that we can become righteous. The problem is that at the end of the day we say, "I overcame this or that sin by reading my bible more and praying more and avoiding this or that place. I over came my sin by becoming apart of an accountability group and confessing my sins." In short, we became righteous or at the very least more more righteous by doing those things. This is where the problem is at because God will share the Praise, Glory and Credit due Him with no other. It must be all about the work of Jesus and nothing else. It is all about what Jesus did with no exceptions to that word all. Is all about Jesus and when all is said and done, it's still all about Jesus.

So what does all this mean? It means this, stop trying to overcome your sin; stop trying to overcome your arrogance, your temper, your addictions and do nothing. Again, this doesn't make sense. How can it be possible that God doesn't want us to make an effort to overcome our sins? What are we suppose to do then? The answer should be Good News to everyone struggling with sin. The answer is to do nothing and believe that even as you are, even with all you daily sin you are righteous because of what happened about 2000 years ago when a sacrifice was made for your sins. When Jesus, the Lamb of God was slain for your sin. It doesn't matter if I never overcome my sin and continue to struggle with them until the day I die, I am still righteous. It's not something I'll become or am in the process of becoming, it's something I already am.

This is why Martin Luther said:

Be a sinner and sin boldly, but believe and rejoice in Christ even more boldly for He is victorious over sin, death, and the world. As long as we are here in this world we have to sin. This life is not a dwelling place of righteousness.

The good news is do nothing, rest in Christ, sin boldly knowing the price has been paid and enjoy life in Christ. Enjoy living at the foot of the Cross where there is no longer any condemnation.

12-22-2008 03:54

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