Saul2paul said:
I hear pastors all the time talk about forgiveness for past sins if you give your life to Jesus. "There is nothing in your PAST that can't be forgiven. This translates in my head that once you accept it is complete. I sin everyday! May sound crazy but I REALLY struggle with this. Like if I sin I must have never accepted his forgiveness or I wouldn't sin anymore.
Thoughts?
The issue for this particular thread isn't forgiveness.....it's REPENTANCE.
If a struggle with sin continues, then repentance hasn't happened or it wasn't sincere, or the person isn't seeking God's help with removing it.
Flirtation with sin, under the assumption that salvation is a license to sin, is dangerous. Dangerous in the extreme. Did the reader get that?
DANGEROUS !!!
Forgiveness isn't what a lot of folks think it is. When the adulterous woman was caught in her sin, Jesus invited the first person who hadn't sinned to strike her. Nobody did, but that wasn't the end of the story by a long shot. A lot of folk who like to flirt with sin stop reading at that point - under the assumption that they've got a blank check to screw around all they want. Not true. Not at all.
God watches and God is no fool.
The adulterous woman was forgiven by Jesus, but the Master added a caveat to her attitude. He told her to go and sin no more. That's not the only such incident either. Over and over forgiven folk were told to sin no more. Why? Because if they continued to do so SOMETHING WORSE WOULD HAPPEN.
The OT is full of spiritual patterns laid down in the historical record of actual lives. The NT is more abstract. Either way, the principle is the same. Forgiveness means the Christian is now the slave of RIGHTEOUSNESS, not sin. And
righteousness is VERY jealous of the right.
BEWARE O MAN - the second birth is not a license to sin.
What happens when a man continues to sin? Eventually God will abandon him to his sins and allow it to destroy him, sometimes to the point of death before his time.
NOBODY GOES BACK TO EGYPT.......EVER
Have you not read that judgment begins in the House of God? It does, and the Christian is MORE under the gun than any secular man. The Bible speaks of being 'cut off' early. The OT talks of wandering in a spiritual and physical desert until death. Want blessing from God? Put the damn sin away.
Why not hedge your bet and simply not become a Christian if such a person is more likely to be judged?
The first answer is easiest - eternal salvation isn't lost when a Christian sins, just ease upon the earth and possibly life itself.
The second answer requires faith - that life isn't easy for anybody and its always better to have a friend on the journey. There's no better friend than Jesus.
The third answer is greatest of all - sin creates a separation between the sinner, the sinning Christian and God.
No man can love sin and God at the same time.
Either he will love God and put the sin away - living in the blessings of God's grace.
OR he will flirt with sin and suffer the tortures of divine punishment in this life, right here and now and risk early death.
The forth answer is the saddest. The Christian who sins misses the sweet spirit of fellowship with God. It has nothing to do with worldly prosperity, self-image or popularity among men. It has everything to do with knowing the delicious whispers of the Holy Spirit and His companionship.
Choose wisely, Christian.
Repent and bury your pet sins. Do it today. The time is short and sin waits eagerly to destroy you. Why waste such a great salvation?
and that's just me, hollering from the choir loft...