If you know that you are not going to commit a particular sin any more, you can move on to works that justify your innocence in that regard (selah)

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Gottservant

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Hi there!

So as Jesus said "Wisdom is justified by her children" and there is the child who is faithful and the child who is diligent. Now having been faithful, there is always the temptation to sin and sin gets in the way of diligence, but if you have acknowledged your conscience that what you did was wrong, and that now you want to be innocent, you can exercise that innocence by being diligent - in the spirit your conscience gave you, when you realised it was wrong. This is called conversion by faith, from dead works, to living works. You will be tempted to remove the sign of your sin, and get caught up on the question of how innocent you truly are, but if you trust in faith that you are innocent enough, it won't be a question.

Again, you might be tempted to determine ahead of time, what works of faith you will attempt, in your diligence and that may cause some confusion, but if you assert that you have both the innocence and the diligence in the conviction of conscience that you had, then what works you specifically do will remain in faith, from now to the end. This means keeping your silence about your works, until you do them; but it also means, being able to speak up for the Holy Spirit, in the midst of temptations like the one you had when you first started to sin, in this way. There are sins that are not to death, therefore I said if you can speak up for the Holy Spirit, you may live without temptation to sin or do worse as a slave to sin.

Lastly, you might be tempted to sleep on your sin, and fall into temptation in general, to give up on the good fight, the true race, because it seems like you will never escape this past sin or its reputation; you will be tempted to look for a sign that you no longer need to bear the burden of this past sin, because you have done something in your own strength (that you have worked enough, for example) or you may just get frustrated with the beginning and the whole process with it, these things are natural, but you must keep on guard. If you can stay strong in this, you may be able to share your works with the world and be confident that the condemnation behind your past sin, will be forgotten by the world. There are things you can do to strengthen your bond with the Holy Spirit in His work through the inspiration and strength and righteousness of your confession, too.

You may want to write your past sin down; you may want to go to a confessional; you may describe a fiction that reflects the temptation you faced and failed to address and then overcame; you may just sing a song of repentance; you may cry; you may pray. The point is, there is an end, to your confession and if you understand that this past sin has not killed you and you are able to work in the faith, with reason, the Holy Spirit Himself will justify you, that you not return to past vexation, that the paths of temptation to this past sin are cut off and you, at long last, are able to rejoice in the Lord and your rejoicing will guide you.

I hope you have found this both instructive and helpful.

God bless.
 
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