Last week we learned that we are
the temple of God. We are the residing place of the Lord Almighty.
He lives within us and we need to radiate His love to all we meet.
We need to lure people closer to God. Because we are His temple, we
can talk to God at anytime. We can fellowship with Him, because
Jesus was our ultimate sacrifice. And because Jesus was our
ultimate sacrifice we have forgiveness of sins if we accept Him
into our lives. Let us have a look at a couple of Scriptures
confirming this:
"In Him we have redemption
through His blood, the forgiveness of sins,
according to the riches of His grace." Ephesians 1:7
"He has delivered us from the
power of darkness and conveyed us into the Kingdom of the Son of
His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the
forgiveness of sins." Colossians 1:13, 14
"And you, being dead in your
trespass and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive
together with Him, having forgiven you all
trespasses." Colossians 2:13
"I write to you, little
children, because your sins are forgiven you for
His Name's sake." 1 John 2:12
Isn't this wonderful news? Our sins
have been forgiven us. All our trespasses have been
forgiven, past tense. It is not something that must happen on a
regular basis, but something that HAS happened already. Jesus took
all the penalty of our sins on Him. He took it all. All the curses
and all the wrath of God. Read Deuteronomy 28:15-68 of what would
happen to you if you do not follow the Law. It is really a scary
passage to read, it is horrific what would happen. But Jesus came
and freed us from it all. He took it all upon Himself that we do
not have to bear it. That is grace, that is unearned, unmerited
favour that He has bestowed upon us and all we need to do is to
believe on Him. Wow.
We needn't ask for forgiveness
anymore, we needn't plead with Him to please please forgive us. He
has already. Our new born spirit is perfect in every way as we have
seen in past weeks. Our new born spirit is like God in every way,
holy and sinless. That is why John says that God's children cannot
sin anymore:
"Whoever abides in Him does not
sin. Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed
remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of
God." 1 John 3:6, 9
God's Spirit united with ours
cannot sin. And God wants us to live in the spirit. He wants us to
live in the new creation. He wants us united with Him, abiding with
Him and walking this earth as His sons, representing Him in every
way. If a Christian continues to relish in sin, he doesn't fully
understand who he is in Christ. He doesn't embrace the new creation
that he is. It is when you come to the full realisation of who you
are in Christ that you start walking in it. Day by day, as you
focus on Christ and use the Bible as a mirror to learn who you
truly are, you will feel all inclination to sin fade away. You will
start to walk more and more as you truly are in the spirit, you
will start to walk as God sees you, His beloved son. There will
come a day where you truly can walk away from all sin. Impossible
you say? That is not what the Bible says. Paul says in 1
Corinthians 11:1:
"Imitate me, just as I also
imitate Christ."
Paul told the Corinthian church to
imitate him. In other words, he was like Christ, imitating Him in
every way. And Paul is no better than you and I, he said it
himself. He had the same Spirit within that you and I have. He had
the same newly born spirit that you and I have. If Paul can grow
and ultimately walk a sinless life so can we. The more we enter
into God's Kingdom, the more we focus all our thoughts on what goes
on in Heaven, the more we will be inclined to act like Him. The
more we renew our minds to think like His Word, the less we will
sin. It is a fact. What you think about you become. Christians and
non Christians agree on that. Your thought life, as we have
discussed, is vitally important.
Christ has forgiven all our sins.
When we ask forgiveness today, it is not to obtain forgiveness from
Him (as we have it already), it is more to acknowledge that what we
have done is wrong and to move in our mind renewal process towards
Kingdom living. It is all about standing up in who we truly are.
And if acknowledging our sins and moving away from them helps us,
then you must do it. But I prefer thanking God for His forgiveness,
to say that I know what I have done is wrong and to ask Him to help
me in living closer to Him and not to do it again. I find the less
I focus on sin, the less I do it. I rather choose to focus on Him
and His ways, His goodness and His grace, because then, before I
know it, I am living His Godly way.
Thank you Father for forgiving all
our sins, past, present and future. Thank you so much for pouring
out Your judgment of all sin upon Your Son and not upon us. Thank
you Jesus, thank you Father and thank you Holy Spirit. You are the
most wonderful Most High God. We adore You and praise Your Name!
Thank you that You are never angry with us and that You will never
punish us. We glorify You! Amen