Deuteronomy 6:3-5 (HCSB)
Listen, Israel, and be careful to follow them, so that you may prosper and multiply greatly, because Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has promised you a land flowing with milk and honey.“Listen, Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is One. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
faithful-in-christ
faithful-in-christ
God made the human race perfect and pure but the devil through his deception has corrupted us and ever since Adam and Eve we live in the shadow of that original act of rebellion and disobedience, and the fall afflicts us all ever since. We are perfectly made, made by His own hands (Psalm 139:13) but because of the deception of the devil at the Garden we now know sin and sin is in us attempting to control us. You’re not without sin, but neither am I, nor is anyone else alive.
We are now “sinful at birth” as Psalm 51:5 tells us, and with that comes the appearance of being born into a condition which is pleasing to God, after all we were all “born that way” when in fact we were born not to let that sinful nature overtake us. As the Bible says, “sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”
People are so quick to accept many types of sins as the new norm in society, and yet if someone is born with the desire to kill and maim others we’ll quickly tell them that such a thing is not okay. It boggles the mind how we can know one sin is not okay and yet other sins are of little to no importance to God.
The truth is that God absolutely loves every single one of us. God loves us so much that He died on a cross 2,000 years ago for you and for me and for every sinner. He loves us as we are, for the Bible says “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” That is some very powerful stuff right there. He died for the sinners like you and me BEFORE they could ever have had a chance to repent.
Jesus demonstrates His love towards us sinner in a great way, He died while we were yet sinners and before they could repent, and we demonstrate our love towards Him through repentance. The apostle Paul made it incredibly clear how that goes:
1 Corinthians 6:9-11
Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And SUCH WERE some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
The apostle Paul is telling the Church of Corinth that some sins will keep us from going to Heaven but at the same time he’s saying that those who REPENTED and didn’t go with the “follow your heart” mentality, but rather REPENTED of their sins, have had their past sins washed away by the blood of Christ. Some of those people in that Church WERE like that once but not anymore.
Once you accept Christ and you repent of your sins those old sins won’t condemn you anymore. As Romans 8:1 tells us, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who DO NOT WALK according to the flesh, BUT according to the Spirit.” The Church of Corinth accepted that they were born sinners but they gave up chasing after the sins which have been a part of their lives since birth. As Paul wrote later on to the Church of Corinth, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”
Some people think that repentance is mostly about feelings, especially feeling sorry for your sin. It is wonderful to feel sorry about your sin, but repent isn’t a “feelings” word. It is an action word. Repentance, as John the Baptist told his listeners, is about making a change of the mind and not merely to feel sorry for what they had done. Repentance speaks of a change of direction, not a sorrow in the heart. The Bible tells us that true repentance will result in a change of actions (Luke 3:8-14; Acts 3:19). Acts 26:20 declares, “I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds.” The full biblical definition of repentance is a change of mind that results in a change of action.
Jesus stood by the sinners and protected them. We are told in the Bible that Jesus stood by Matthew - the tax collector, which was a horribly corrupt job as they didn’t just collect tax but they also collected an “extra” on top of the tax to make it a profitable job - and He also defended the woman caught in adultery and yet He told her “go and sin no more.” Jesus stands by us as we are and we go to Jesus as we are, but once we get to Him then His words to us are “go and sin no more.” We are to prove we have changed once we accept Him into our lives:
Matthew 3:8
Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God.
Make no mistake, Jesus Christ loves you. He died for you and now the question is, will you live for Him? As our Lord Jesus Christ said:
John 15:14
You are My friends IF you do what I command you.
