Sin part 1
Let's talk about sin. This is something I don't really do very often. Because it causes quite a controversy. Same thing if you try to talk about hell. Religious folk get all up in arms about it. Which is odd to me when John 1:29 says, "The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." Or a passage like Romans 6:20-23, "For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life." To me it's pretty clear that sin has been dealt with. Taken away. We've been freed from it. So I constantly question why we're still so hung up on it. And the answer is the sin consciousness. Which I'll get to. Today I just want to say loud and proud, "Whoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the trangression of the law. And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin" (1 John 3:4-5). See, we need an understanding of what sin is. And, in a nutshell, it is the trangression of the law. But what law? The law of Moses? A law that was given specifically to the people of Israel under an old, obsolete covenant? Or, perhaps, the perfect law of liberty. I'm convinced that "sin" is simply unbelief. Believing anything other than the ultimate truth of the universe that God is love and He loves you. The only way we can fall from grace is by putting ourselves under that law. The law, by the way, that Jesus fulfilled in order to put it away and bring forth that new law which is, again, the perfect law of liberty. Not the ten commandments that were given in order to show us that we can't keep them... but the New Commandment for the New Man. Loving one another as Jesus loves us. Receiving and releasing His love. That's the law. That's what we are commanded to obey. You are loved... love. Give what you've got. Let what's inside come out by knowing and believing that it's in there. Don't struggle with things that are not an issue any longer. Don't beat yourself up or disqualify yourself when you mess up. Just learn from it and move on. When you were servants of sin you couldn't be righteous if you tried. But where sin abounded (before the cross) grace did much more abound (on the cross). Then we were planted as trees of righteousness. Sin was taken out of the equation. A "sinner saved by grace" is not a sinner anymore. Can't be. A transformation took place. The scales fell off of our eyes so that we could see things clearly. The light of the world shined so that we could stop stumbling around in the darkness. It absurd to me when people talk about grace as "license to sin." Because that implies that our whole goal is getting away with stuff we shouldn't be doing. And if that's your goal... find a new one. Our goal should be living life to the fullest. Which means loving people to the fullest. Because living and loving aren't just connected--they are the same thing. To live is to love and to love is to live. If you're always preoccupied with sin you're missing out on the gift of God. Which is life, and that more abundantly. Transgressing the law is simply believing anything other than that still, small voice deep inside you that says, "I love you." Our heavenly Father's voice saying, "You are my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." When we hear that voice, and know that voice, and believe that voice... that's when we can truly live. By being who we truly are! By laying aside the sin (unbelief) and the weight that so easily besets us and walking in newness of life!