Faith and Sin...How to recognize it.
Faith
"The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there
is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."
Romans 3:22
What this
means to me: God has a set a standard. He is holy, we are not. It’s our sin
that separates us from God’s blessings, and keeps us away from what God wants
for us. But, because He still loves us
despite our sinfulness He gave us His Son, Jesus to pay the cost for our sin.
Romans 10:17
What this
means to me: We grow in our faith in Christ by being in His word, The Bible. We
can’t see God. But He want’s us to know Him, and that’s why He gave us the
Bible and people that know how to teach from it.
Hebrews 11:6
What it
means to me: We need to believe in Christ and who He is. Now, the Bible also
tells us that the angels of hell believe in Christ. I define belief as learning
to know Him and most importantly to trust Him.
Sin
"Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry,
sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions,
factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which
I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of
God."
Galatians
5:19-21
What it
means to me: When we ask Christ into our lives, He will give us His Holy
Spirit. As we grow in our relationship with Christ our sin becomes more
apparent because the Spirit will make us aware. When we are told “those who practice such things” seems to talking to those who make these
behaviors a life style. Everyone gets angry, and jealous. We will always have a
natural fleshly nature. But God uses this verse to make us aware of such
behavior. You know as well as me that immorality and impurity, as defined by God, is
easy to fall into. But God doesn't want us to sin. That’s why we are
given the Holy Spirit. The Spirit makes us aware of our sin, and can strengthen
us to turn from sinful behaviors.
"God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood,
we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we
were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more,
having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life."
Romans
5:8-10
God knows us.
He knows our sins, and He knows our hearts. God see things in us that I don’t
think we’ll see until that day we meet Him. God has given us freedom from sin.
When we recognize all that He has done for us, giving us His only Son to die on
the Cross, we should want to live for Him.
"Do not be
deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.
For the one who sows to his own flesh
will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will
from the Spirit reap eternal life. Let us not lose heart in doing good, for
in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary."
Galatians
6:7-9
What this
means to me: God loves us, and Jesus died for the forgiveness of our sins. Does
this mean we can just go on knowingly living a sinful life because we know God
can forgive us? God is not a fool. I don’t think God wants to offer His gift of
salvation to those who purposely and deliberately go against His word.
"If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving
ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our
sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him
a liar and His word is not in us."
1 John
1:8-10
What this
means to me: God knows we will sin. We all fail at some time. He just wants us
to recognize those times and know that we can come to Him and ask for forgiveness and He
will forgive. Now, that doesn't mean there won’t be circumstances we’ll have to
face. If you’re in prison because you robbed a bank, God can forgive you. You
won't be getting out of prison, but God will still forgive our acts, or
behaviors.
"Don’t you know that those who do wrong will have not share in
the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, who are idol
worshipers, adulteries, male prostitutes,homosexuals, thieves, greedy people,
drunkards, abusers, and swindlers – none of these will have a share in the Kingdom
of God.
There was a time when some of you were just like that, but now your sins have been washed away, and you have been
set apart for God. You have been made right with God because of what the
Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit of our God have done for you.
1 Corinthians 6: 9-11
I wish that when we
asked Christ into our lives, and we begin to follow Him, that all our desires
for sinful behavior would be taken away. It doesn’t work that way. But there is
something called sanctification. Many people don’t come to Christ because they
don’t feel worthy. None of us are. God wants us to come to Him just the way we
are. And He knows how we are, all our faults and all that is good. But when we
come to Him he can start to work on us to change our lives and behaviors to be
more Christ-like. This is what sanctification is. It’s a daily cleansing from
God. Its God helping us grow and to be more like Him.
So, without faith,
believing and trusting God, He cannot nor is He under any commitment to bless
us or to listen to our prayers.