~ William P. Young, The Shack~
I've often wondered if faith was enough of a motivation for me to live my life the way the Lord desires me to. Faith that, in the end, I will make the right decisions in regards to my behavior. Faith in knowing that despite my best efforts to the contrary, God has provided for my eternity with Him. Is that enough of a motivation to carry on a christian centered life? Perhaps, but others take a more underhanded approach. There are those who would use fear to keep us in line. Fear of, as christians, what we are most afraid of. What is it that we are really afraid of? Being apart from our heavenly Father, that's what. Think about it, we toil through our lives as we try our hardest to make Him happy. Because, everyone knows what God is like when He's not happy, right? Fire, brimstone and wrath surely await those who fail to walk in line with what God has planned. Worse than that is our own fear of that firey eternity in the lake of fire known as hell. Such is the fate that awaits each and every sinner. So, to avoid this fate we toil to make sure our sins are forgiven. Did you get that? WE work hard to make sure our sins are forgiven. It is one of the worst hypocracies I've ever seen in the institutional church, and it's caused many a christian to toil way in a life of fear. It's well known that Jesus became sin on our behalf on the cross {2 Corinthians 5:21}. He did this that we would not know sins terrible punishment. Yet, there are those in the faith who continue to advocate that we should seek our Fathers forgiveness each and every day for any sins we may have commited. Really? What part of "It is finished" do you not understand? For as He died on that cross these were the final words of Christ Jesus...it is finished. What's finished? Sin, that's what. Few christians will fail in their attempt to understand the real truth of sin in our lives. It wasn't the desire of God that Jesus should give Himself for a partial sin debt. If that were the case then there would certainly be more sacrafices needed. No, in order to tackle the sin issue, sin needed to be put away once and for all.
6knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be adone away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.7For he who has died has been freed from sin. 8Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. 10For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6: 6 - 11 NKJV
The apostle Paul tells us that we were joined with Christ in His death. Well, our old sin nature was there with Him {Romans 6:6}. In order for sin to be put to death, He who knew no sin at all would need to be put to death as well {Romans 3:25-26}. So, what is it in the finished work of Christ Jesus that tells us that He forgave some sins while ignoring others? Were there sins which even Jesus could not cover? I doubt it. As I said, the sin issue needed to be dealt with once and for all...and it was. It is finished! The trouble for most people is that they don't believe that their sin issue is dead and gone, never to return. This simply doesn't fit into the institutional church narrative. I firmly beleive that were we as christians to realize the truth about sin it would certainly reduce our fears about life. The truth is, we no longer need be in fear of our Heavenly Fathers firey judgement and retribution. He has already provided for our eternity with Him. The only advantage to mentioning sin these days is to control the lives of well meaning christians. There is now NO condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus {Romans 8:1}. So, tell me again why you feel that need to continually seek forgiveness for something that is dead. As I said, far too many people simply do not realize the truth of the death of sin. For knowing this can be a tremendously liberating experience. No longer are we bound by the shackles of judgement. No more do we live in fear of our heavenly Fathers wrath. All that remains is the love through which He provided for our salvation. It is finished!
30So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.
John 19: 30 NKJV
~Scott~
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