Thoughts on Forgiveness of Sins, and God's Cleansing

I thought this would be a good follow up to my previous note. So many people believe they are condemned when they sin, not so, but at the same time there are so many that consider it a freedom to sin, also not so.

First we'll start with why we shouldn't sin even though Christ has forgiven us of our sins. The main reason to not sin even though we have God's grace is this. To receive this thing called 'Grace' it says that we must repent of our sins. This doesn't sound difficult, and like most Christian lingo it has been twisted over the years. People believe that all it means is to say, 'I'm sorry'. Let's look at Wikipedia and what it says...

Repentance is a change of thought and action to correct a wrong and gain forgiveness from a person who is wronged.

This means that we work to not commit this wrong again. We strive to take ourselves out of this situation. We flee from it. In doing so God gives us forgiveness of our sins, and in this new change found from repentance we now take one step closer to Jesus, and through him eternal life.

19Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord,(Acts 3:19)

This is all why we shouldn't sin. I'm not going to say you should sin, I will never suggest that, but sometimes we mess up, and afterwards forget that we are forgiven. We need to live in that forgiveness.

1But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" 6They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." 8Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. 9At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" 11"No one, sir," she said. "Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."(John 8:1-11)

A bit of a long passage, but I needed you to know this. Christ doesn't condemn you. He doesn't condemn you. So many times after we have sinned the devil will lead us on a guilt trip(By the way, in my experience guilt seems to be something satan loves to manipulate). He makes us believe that God can't love us because he has no part in sin. The truth is though that Christ loved the sinner, he came for the sinner, for the sick and not the healthy. We must learn not to listen to satan and let him gain the upperhand in our lives.

Now that I've said all of this you must learn to walk the line as the Lord is teaching me. To live in Christ's forgiveness, but not to disrespect that grace by blatantly returning to the sin you just repented of. But when the you are overcome by sin, know that you are forgiven, "Go now and leave your life of sin."