Returning and knowing
There are unique lessons learned in making mistakes. So often we learn by doing wrong, from a simple error in math, to a project gone wrong, to sinning (im)morally. If we are paying attention those experiences are opportunities that can be invested for our benefit.
When it comes to our relationship with God, we must strive to remain in thriving fellowship with Him. (We are not alone, for He is in fact seeking us, so our seeking Him is a response to His initiation, and certainly not the other way around. By way of analogy, when we run to him we then realize that the treadmill is already on, and He has been drawing us.)
Perhaps some Christians struggle with feelings of condemnation when they sin. Okay, perhaps most Christians struggle with feeling inept and worthless and condemned. This is in fact a healthy thing, for conviction is from God and for our good. What would it be like if we never felt bad, never had remorse, and were not able to will to do better next time? But condemnation is different than conviction. Condemnation is a legal guilt before God where His wrath justly abides. For us in Christ there is no longer any condemnation (Romans 8:1). Period.
But what about conviction? Ah, there is the needed thing, for our loving Father convicts and comforts. He seeks after us by His Spirit and reveals the false motives and depraved thinking and actions in our life. His conviction is with a purpose in mind: our growth and His glory. The more we yield to His convicting touch and are aware of our need of Him, the more grace He pours out. This motivates us to life holy lives, for grace motivates far better than fear. And a holy life magnifies God, for we reflect His character in all of life (inwardly and outwardly) in a more increasing measure.
So, then, how do we get from sin to glory? Apart from Christ, there is no way, for we have each in our depraved state exchanged God’s glory for (and preferred) the glory of our own lives and creation around us (Romans 1). Trust Christ and He will make you new! God will exchange your sin and shame and His wrath for the perfect righteousness of His Son Jesus, credited to your account. Washed, renewed, forgiven, redeemed, saved. (The list of our benefits goes on and on.) The key: in coming to Christ, we get GOD. He is the Gospel.
A new relationship with God at the center and us absorbed into Him becomes the living, dynamic reality of our lives. We are His. He opens His life to us, and we can now enjoy God. In fact, this enjoyment becomes a primary way of glorifying Him, for our entire heart, mind, soul and strength is doing that which we were created to do, namely, love and enjoy God.
So sin for the believer in Jesus does not destroy this relationship (as in reverse all that God has done). Rather, it negatively impacts fellowship. Something must be done, and the wrong has been wrought by us and not God. He has open hands, but we must confess our sins to Him.
First John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
This is not mere theological nor theoretical jargon. Re-read it, in parts:
- If we confess our sins –
- … He (God) is faithful –
- … and just –
- … to forgive us our sins –
- ... and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness – in case we think of our “sins” as merely outward (doing bad things) and not the inward reality of ourselves, we are assured of a cleansing that washes away the impurities our our hearts.
Is this once-and-for-all? Believing in Jesus is a first-time event, but what is written about here in 1st John is for believers who sin. It is a continual reality, not just a one time event; one of repentance (turning), confessing (agreeing) and walking in this new cleansed life. (Repeat.) More than just “daily” and certainly more than just recited as a prayer at church on Sunday. This is the very lifeblood of a living and dynamic relationship with God in Christ — we can be near to Him and must endeavor to rid our lives of any obstacle that does not gain us the most possible enjoyment in God. Do you feel conviction from sin? Agree with God on your current state, press in to seek His forgiveness, know it will be given on the grounds of God’s own promises in His Son who died in our place. That is the faithfulness and the justice. God is not soft on sin and has not turned a blind eye. Every sin, evil and selfish and wicked, has been meted out to its depths. Just that the wrath for it is no longer on me, but Jesus took it instead (in my stead).
Hosea 6:1 “Come, let us return to the Lord;
for he has torn us, that he may heal us;
he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.
2 After two days he will revive us;
on the third day he will raise us up,
that we may live before him.
3 Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord;
his going out is sure as the dawn;
he will come to us as the showers,
as the spring rains that water the earth.”
Notice the third verse: “Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord.”
Return and be actively knowing Him.
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