FAITHFULWORD.ORG | TEACHINGS

Matthew 1:21; John 3:16-17; Romans 10:9-10, 3:22-25; Luke 12:6-7; I John 1:1-9, 3:19-22; Psalms 103:1-14; Proverbs 24:16; Galatians 1:3-5; Romans 8:28-29

Sin-consciousness is not good. It keeps us from receiving the tenderness God so desires in a love-relationship with Him, and cuts off our line of communication. When we have sin-consciousness, we cannot have faith, because we doubt God’s desire to answer our prayers.

How does God regard sin in our lives? The Word tells us that He knows we are dust, and understands the frailty of our flesh. For this reason, He offered His Son, not just for our salvation, but also for the reinstatement of our fellowship with Him when we sin after being born again. While this is not a license to sin, we must acknowledge that no matter how much we pray, study, read and fellowship, we are still going to commit sin from time to time. When this happens, we can go to God in prayer, seeking His forgiveness with meekness, and trust in His love to bring us back into fellowship with Him. We then endeavor to correct the problem and walk with great joy and enthusiasm.

Christ did not come to condemn us, but to save us. He did not spend his time with the Pharisees and religious leaders, but with sinners, publicans, those who knew they needed God’s help. A legalistic attitude blocks the fellowship and love-relationship He would have with us. Those who would project legalism on others should remember that

Jesus was not sent to condemn the world, but to save it, as John 3:17 tells us.

“No more sin-consciousness” is a truth we can digest because we all under-stand it. All of God’s truths are that simple, including the change from death to life when we confess Jesus as Lord and believe God raised him from the dead. This enables us to receive righteousness, “the God-given justification whereby you may stand in the presence of God without any sense of sin, guilt, or shortcomings.” We will never live sin-free, so the real question is, are we going to take God at His Word, receive His forgiveness and mercy and upon being reinstated in that perfect fellowship with Him, get back to serving God with great joy? The alternative is to allow the sin to drag on us, because we have not accepted God’s cleansing.

God desires a family upon which He can lavish His limitless resources. We have been given all these things freely, starting with the new birth. So why, having begun in grace, do we think that as Christians we must now earn God’s forgiveness and blessings? All we have to do is realize how much God loves us. Luke 12:7 says He cares enough to know how many hairs are on our heads! God is in the business of forgiveness, so rather than live guilt-ridden lives as the devil would have us do, we must accept God’s forgive-ness, love as He loves, rise up and be about the Father’s business.