Sin part 5
I think it's funny (in an ironic, not in a haha, sort of way) that people seem to think there is a big struggle between God and sin. Or God and the devil. Or, really, God and anything. Like the Creator of the universe would (or could) ever struggle against anything. Kind of absurd. And Jesus showed us this when He cursed the fig tree (the tree of death, the tree of knowledge of good and evil). He didn't struggle with it. Fight with it. Mess with it. He simply saw that that tree could not produce any fruit... and got rid of it. He spoke, and it withered and died. There was no cosmic battle. The war to end all wars was fought on the cross, but even that one was never in doubt. When it looked like things were at their worst, and the literal Son of God was being hung on a cross to die... things were actually at their best. God was bringing us out of the old and into the new. I love the verse that says, "Morever the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound" (Romans 5:20). Gives us the point of the Law--condemning us all as "sinners" so that we could ALL be transformed into saints by the redemptive, finished work of the cross--and points out, in the past tense, that sin only abounded until grace did much more abound. Sin was the rule of the day... before the cross. Then Jesus came and took it away. If sin is the ticket to the "eternal fires of hell," and Jesus took away the sin of the world, then... if that version of hell does exist, wouldn't it have to be empty? How do you get there if Jesus asked His Father to forgive us... and our heavenly Father DID? But I digress. Hell as a destination is not my theology. I think in a lot of ways hell can be a present reality. But even more so... the days of heaven on earth can be our present reality. It all depends on what you know and believe is inside you. Because what you believe is inside WILL come out. It has to. It's too big not to and your faith in it is too powerful not to force it out. What you believe WILL manifest in your life (either the lie of the world or the report of the Lord). So sin is not the problem. Sin was dealt with. Grace obliterated sin. Jesus took away the sin (unbelief) of the world by giving us something (someONE, Himself, LOVE) to believe in. Have faith in God. That's what Jesus said. And that's what we CAN do now that the light of the world, the light of life, the light of love, is shining. We can experience everything Jesus's everlasting, abundant, eternal, Resurrection Life of love had to offer. Because we are no longer slaves to sin. We are no longer bound under that bondage. We are free FROM sin, and we are free TO love. To live. To experience Jesus's life by letting Him live it in us, and through us, and as us. We are free to be who we were created to be. No longers slaves, but Sons! No longer in bondage, but free. And, again, freedom CAN be abused. But only by people that don't truly understand it. You can do whatever you want, but that doesn't mean you should, and that doesn't mean there aren't consequences to your actions. So use your freedom FROM sin... as freedom TO love! That's what this life is all about. It's all about love. Receiving and releasing the love of God. Letting God love you and loving Him back by loving each other. Sin isn't even in the equation!