This is something that I wrote at the beginning of last year right before the wreck. I wanted to share it.
Romans 6:14 14For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
I have a question that has been on my mind today; what’s a deeper purpose of not sinning then what the majority of people would tell you (things others may tell you: because it’s not the right thing to do. The bible tells us not to. We won’t have as many blessings if we sin. Etc.) Some of the answers people will give you are great answers but they are the basic answers. They don’t go very deep unless you put forth the effort to really search them yourselves. These answers won’t keep ME motivated for the rest of my life if I don’t really search and find out why I do what I do… or why I don’t do what I want to do.
So, why shouldn’t I sin? Sometimes I have a desire to, but why shouldn’t I? To tell you the truth, I’m not writing this because I know the deep answers that I’m looking for and I’m not writing this for the specific reason to inform you of my beliefs. I’m writing this to see what God will reveal to ME because in all reality I’m not sure what the answers are. I do believe God was telling me to write this to really search what I believe and what God wants me to act upon. I could be writing this because I don’t have the patience to sit there and think all this up. It could be that I’m writing this because God knows that if I just thought up answers I would say to myself, “Oh, this is the reason, it has to be because this is what I’ve always been told” and God knows, for me, that wouldn’t be enough…that wouldn’t help me for any period of time. However, if I really search God’s word and really try to find out what I believe, then write it down, that would help me for the future. That would help me “the rest of my life”.
But what do I believe? So, back to my initial question, “What’s the purpose of not sinning? What’s deeper than what everyone says? What hits a home run in my heart?”
Let’s find out. “God, I pray that you would speak to me as I search your word to find what I believe. I pray that you would find glory in what I chose to believe and that your word would be my foundation. I pray that you would help me take to heart what you speak to me. Help me find you. Amen.”
What I believe
I do believe in the Bible that it was written by men but inspired by the one and ONLY God. I do believe that what it says is how we as believers are called to live by.
Now after saying that, I would like to focus more on sin and why we as followers of Christ shouldn’t sin. I searched “sin” in the bible and found this: Romans 6:2 “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?” Now, I have asked Jesus to forgive me of my sins and to be the boss of my heart and life. I believe that Jesus has saved me from hell because of the faith I have in Him and the choice I have made to be a Christian (a Christ Follower). As a Christ follower I have chosen to “die to my sin” and now I am called to live in it no longer. I should never continue in sin with the defense that God’s grace is sufficient and that He will forgive me. I say I have died to my sin; therefore, I should not participate in it.
The bible says in 1 John 1, “5This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.” Okay, that lays it out. God is light. In him there is no darkness AT ALL (which means he does not know or participate in any sin at all, PERIOD.) Then it basically says that no matter how much you say to yourself that you have fellowship with God, if you are walking in your own ways, which is naturally sin, then you lie to yourself if you say you have fellowship with God. There is no way you can have fellowship with God and walk in sin, PERIOD.
When Jesus died on the cross, He took all of our sins upon Himself so he became “sinful” and was in darkness. God turned His back on His very own son. Jesus suffered more than any one of us could comprehend and He did it for His father’s creation, and His Father turned His back on Him. (Mark 15:33-34 33Now when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. 34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which is translated, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”)
Pause for a second and think about all this. Jesus suffered, hanging on a cross for our sins. On top of all the physical suffering Jesus endured, God the Father forsook Jesus. Jesus spent His entire life with a purpose to proclaim the name of His Father, but then God forsook Him because He took my sin…He became MY sin. It makes me angry. Not particularly that God forsook Jesus, but that I choose to sin and live in darkness. Jesus was forsaken by God because of my choice to sin. When I sin, I am choosing to be forsaken by God, and I am the reason Jesus was forsaken by God.
In the bible I have found that it does say how we can have fellowship and a relationship with God. This is how. 1 John 1:7-10 “7But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”
Walking in light means to reflect God’s perfection. If we “walk in the light” the results will be fellowship and communion with God and progressive cleansing from all sin. The devil or the world may contribute to us sinning, but in the end each person bears responsibility for his or her own sin. As followers of Christ we MUST confess our sins to receive salvation and to have fellowship with God. God is “slow to anger and is abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression”. Basically God will forgive us if we ask Him to; however, we can’t use God’s grace as a way for us to fulfill the lusts of the flesh. We may have heard the gospel message (the good news of Christ) and may have even acted upon it, but until we have truly acknowledged that we have sinned, it hasn’t really taken root in our heart.
So I have written all this as a deeper reason that I shouldn’t sin. As Christians we are called to stay pure and to stay in the light. We must walk in the light to have fellowship with God.
I want to have fellowship with God. I think this is why God wanted me to write this; because I have thought that I could have fellowship with God and do some of the sins my flesh desires...then ask for forgiveness. That’s using God’s grace as a way to do what my flesh desires. That is wrong. I now know why I can’t have fellowship with God AND fulfill the lusts of the flesh. That would be serving two gods. It’s either one god or the other: the god of lies or the God of truth. So we have a choice to make. Which one will we choose? Will we choose to live in the light and have fellowship with God, or choose to live in darkness and fulfill the lusts of the flesh? I know that when I find fulfillment in life it’s only when I am living in light and when I have fellowship with God. I also know by experience that the lusts of the flesh will NEVER be satisfied.
This is a deeper reason why I shouldn’t sin.
Romans 6:14 14For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
Many Blessings!
