To start this post a need to make something very clear: Christians still sin
When you become a Christian, you are still imperfect, still a sinner, still guilty of going against God's laws and still worthy of punishment and unworthy of grace.
BUT because you acknowledge your sin, realise that it is bad and put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, you receive his forgiveness even though you are unworthy. At that point, you still deserve to be sent to Hell, but you have accepted Jesus paying that price for you and thus you will not go to Hell.
Still with me so far?
This doesn't mean however that Christians can sin as much as they like because they'll still be saved. This is wrong and means you're living in sin. Christians still sin but they do not live in sin and there's a difference.
If you sin against God knowing it's wrong and doing it anyway (we all know what is right and wrong in God's eyes because he has given us a conscience) or pretending it's not wrong and doing it. You're living in sin. When you do these wrong things, maybe it's stealing, maybe it's lusting, maybe it's having sex outside of marriage, maybe it's getting drunk, you deny God and choose your own selfish desires instead of doing what He asks.
At this point you are delighting in your sin. You are not trying very hard not to do these things and slipping up every now and again. You are fully getting involved in sin, without trying to stop yourself, without feeling bad about it, without regret, but instead with actively enjoyment in the sin(s).
Christians however, do not live this way. Christians (and if they are living in sin, it shows that they are false converts and only fooling themselves) acknowledge that sin is sin. This means they don't fool themselves into pretending something is right. They know what is right and wrong and acknowledge which action goes in which category. In light of knowing what's a sin, they do everything they can not to do these things.
Because we are all born with sinful natures, we are all imperfect creatures, which means we will inevitably sin our entire lives. This won't stop. But Christians make a conscious effort to stop as much as they can. The new desires God gives us mean we no longer want to live in sin when we're Christians (Ezekiel 11:19). Then, when Christians do slip up they repent - genuinely.
Genuine repentence involves 6 steps:
1. Recognition of your sin - you know that what you did is wrong
2. Sorrow - you feel sad that you committed a sin
3. Shame - you are embarrassed that you committed a sin
4. Confession - you admit to God that you committed a sin
5. Abandoning sin - you give up that behavior and turn from it
6. Hatred of sin - you hate the sin that you've committed
And there you have a key difference between being a sinning Christian, who is saved, and being a fake Christian or non-Christian who chooses to live in sin.
For more on this topic from the Bible, please read Romans 6:12-23
If you're a Christian and you're reading this and really struggling with a sin right now, I recommend you read this verse: Romans 7:14-25
When you become a Christian, you are still imperfect, still a sinner, still guilty of going against God's laws and still worthy of punishment and unworthy of grace.
BUT because you acknowledge your sin, realise that it is bad and put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, you receive his forgiveness even though you are unworthy. At that point, you still deserve to be sent to Hell, but you have accepted Jesus paying that price for you and thus you will not go to Hell.
Still with me so far?
This doesn't mean however that Christians can sin as much as they like because they'll still be saved. This is wrong and means you're living in sin. Christians still sin but they do not live in sin and there's a difference.
If you sin against God knowing it's wrong and doing it anyway (we all know what is right and wrong in God's eyes because he has given us a conscience) or pretending it's not wrong and doing it. You're living in sin. When you do these wrong things, maybe it's stealing, maybe it's lusting, maybe it's having sex outside of marriage, maybe it's getting drunk, you deny God and choose your own selfish desires instead of doing what He asks.
At this point you are delighting in your sin. You are not trying very hard not to do these things and slipping up every now and again. You are fully getting involved in sin, without trying to stop yourself, without feeling bad about it, without regret, but instead with actively enjoyment in the sin(s).
Christians however, do not live this way. Christians (and if they are living in sin, it shows that they are false converts and only fooling themselves) acknowledge that sin is sin. This means they don't fool themselves into pretending something is right. They know what is right and wrong and acknowledge which action goes in which category. In light of knowing what's a sin, they do everything they can not to do these things.
Because we are all born with sinful natures, we are all imperfect creatures, which means we will inevitably sin our entire lives. This won't stop. But Christians make a conscious effort to stop as much as they can. The new desires God gives us mean we no longer want to live in sin when we're Christians (Ezekiel 11:19). Then, when Christians do slip up they repent - genuinely.
Genuine repentence involves 6 steps:
1. Recognition of your sin - you know that what you did is wrong
2. Sorrow - you feel sad that you committed a sin
3. Shame - you are embarrassed that you committed a sin
4. Confession - you admit to God that you committed a sin
5. Abandoning sin - you give up that behavior and turn from it
6. Hatred of sin - you hate the sin that you've committed
And there you have a key difference between being a sinning Christian, who is saved, and being a fake Christian or non-Christian who chooses to live in sin.
For more on this topic from the Bible, please read Romans 6:12-23
If you're a Christian and you're reading this and really struggling with a sin right now, I recommend you read this verse: Romans 7:14-25
No comments:
Post a Comment