The free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification.
Loving Father, though my sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool. You, Lord God, are He who blots out my transgressions for Your own sake; and You will not remember my sins. So I put You in remembrance; let us contend together; I state my case, that I may be acquitted. You have blotted out, like a thick cloud, my transgressions, and like a cloud, my sins. I return to You, for You have redeemed me.
God, You so loved the world that You gave Your only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more Your grace and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many. I was washed, I was sanctified, I was justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by Your Spirit, Lord God.
From now through eternity I will be praising You for the gift— the grace—of justification and cleansing from my sins. Thank You, Lord God!
ROMANS 5:16; ISAIAH 1:18; ISAIAH 43:25–26; ISAIAH 44:22; JOHN 3:16; ROMANS 5:15; 1 CORINTHIANS 6:11. - Dr. David Jeremiah Life-Changing Moments with God
In more than a few posts I have referred to "Spiritual Surgeries", those operations on the spirit and soul that God has determined are necessary to make us more like Christ.
There's been a few as well where I used the illustration of Jesus standing before a child wanting them to give Him what's in their hands, their prized possessions. His hand is behind His back with something greater in mind.
Both are at work in our lives. Both aspects happen in the life of a Child of God.
God loved you and I enough to die for us so that we may live, but also enough not to leave us as He found us.
We are indeed like the story in which a person was found by someone and he took pity on him. Took care of his wounds, put him on his own animal, took him to a place of safety to heal all on his own dime. Jesus told that story. Luke 10:30-37 NASB
Jesus replied and said, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he encountered robbers, and they stripped him and [d]beat him, and went away leaving him half dead. And by coincidence a priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan who was on a journey came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion, and came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them; and he put him on his own animal, and brought him to an inn and took care of him. On the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I return, I will repay you.’ Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers’ hands?” And he said, “The one who showed compassion to him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do [g]the same.”
Note how the prayer that opened this post starts out. Taking note of sin in the life of the one praying. Do you?
Do you, in your praying, take note of your own sins?
Do you consider your ways? Scripture tells us to do that.
The degree and severity of your own Spiritual surgeries depends greatly upon how you respond to the changes the Spirit is intending to do in your life.
I don't like to do the same repair on the same thing over and over on something that I own. At some point I either consider an upgrade or to redesign it.
In my life God has effected many upgrades to my way of thinking. He's redesigned aspects of me that were incompatible with a Christ-follower.
I am ever aware of my sin. I am often angry at me for falling for the same temptation over and over again. Sin bothers me. Does it bother you?
My Dear Reader, if you are claiming to be a Christian, your sin should bother you. If you aren't a believer, look at your life. It's not gone the way you think your life should because of sin. People go on about evil in this world, that's the result of sin. That's where evil begins. It begins in sin.
Praying for forgiveness should be as often as breathing. We get Spiritually dirty easily.
We need a cleansing that we ourselves cannot do. Like in that story in Luke, we aren't able to cleanse ourselves. No amount of "doing good" erases 1 sin. Countless billions in Hell considered themselves to be "good" people. They cannot see how their "good life" caused them to go to Hell and not Heaven.
It can be estimated that nearly 100 billion people are in Hell. Likely over 8 billion before the Flood in Genesis and the billions who have died since that event who refused to come to Christ for salvation. Millions per day enter into Hell. Sin that is not covered by the blood of Christ stays with you. In coming to Christ for salvation your sins are washed away.
We by no means have arrived when we came to Christ. We began the healing that only He can do. We began the transformation that He said would come to be more like Him. We can ask for forgiveness from our sins. He promised to remember them no more. They do not count against us who are in Christ. If you do not have salvation in Christ Jesus your sins remain. You deal with the consequences of that. In Romans its explained that the wages of sin is death. You will be held accountable for your sins and the sentence is death, eternal separation from God. It only starts in torment in Hell. At the final judgment Hell is cast into the lake of fire. A place worse than Hell is.
Sin put Jesus on the cross. Even if it were only 1 sin it would have been enough to require a perfect sacrifice in Christ Jesus to cover it just as it happened in the crucifixion.
When you pray this day be aware of your need to ask to be made clean. In your praying ask forgiveness for your sins, the ones you are aware of and those you are not. Be thankful that you have a God that doesn't leave you as He found you.
If you long for your sins to be forgiven, but haven't come to Christ for salvation, make that happen today. Look at the graphic that is accompanying this post. Take care of it today.
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