I think much of
the problem today (specifically in America) is we have created this false Jesus
in our minds. He’s hip and cool and loves to make everyone happy and give them
things. Trouble is, he’s not the real deal. This false Jesus is what we cling
to in order to make ourselves feel better. “He says not to judge!” we yell as
we point to a cardboard cutout of a man with long-hair and pretty brown eyes holding
up a peace sign with a rainbow in the background.
No, the real Jesus
is many things, but one thing He is not is apathetic towards sin. After all, He
suffered the worst torture that ever has been and ever will be to free us from
sin. So why would He be okay with us living in it? Short answer: He wouldn’t.
He isn’t. He won’t ever be.
I’m going to try
and keep this simple and to the point, but I can’t make any promises. After
all, the pursuit of Christ is a lifelong journey and I think I’m just a few
steps in to discovering the greatness of who He is.
Before you check
out on me, I want to make one thing clear: Jesus does love you.
You who has
grown up in a broken home and walked a lonely path of depression. You who loves
the taste and smell of alcohol a bit too much. You who has struggled for years
with drug addiction. You who has stolen. You who has lied. He loves you.
Dearly. His heart aches for you to turn to Him and allow Him to tear down the
walls of sin that have taken residence in your soul. He wants to set you free!
I think this is
where the disconnect occurs. We love to hear that Jesus loves us! We long to be
accepted by someone and loved for who we are. Jesus loves us for who we are, but He does not love what we do when we are still in bondage
to sin. We can dance and sing for joy at the fact that Jesus loves us, but if
we never turn from our sin and strive to live in His holiness, then the day
will come when our bodies will die
and we will spend an eternity in
hell. We must be purchased by His
blood in order for our souls to be redeemed. And let me be perfectly clear:
being purchased by His blood will actually cost
us something.
Christians love
to throw out the phrase: “Accept the free gift of salvation! Just say this
prayer…..” We do you an injustice when we say that and nothing else. Because
although the price has already been paid for our salvation, saying the prayer
and living it out your salvation will
mean that you have to make sacrifices. I can’t say what those sacrifices will
look like for you specifically, because I do not know you. I can only say this:
following Christ means that we lay down whatever standards and morals we think
we should follow, and pick up the standards and morals that He has laid out in
His Word. In short: we can’t be okay with sin anymore.
Sin is not of
God. It cannot be in His presence in heaven. He is pure and holy, and sin is
everything He is not. This is why we must be saved in order to enter in His
presence. Are we going to be perfect? Nope. We are still human, and we will
likely mess up very often. But we can strive to be perfect and holy as He is
holy. We should strive to be perfect
and holy as He is holy. The beautiful thing is, when we mess up, He is quick to
forgive us if we confess that sin to Him. He picks us up, brushes our knees
off, and we keep on walking with Him. Our hearts are covered with His blood,
and our sins are forgiven. But we have to actually make a conscious effort to
not live in sin.
We can’t look at
the forbidden fruit, and think to ourselves “it’s okay, He’ll forgive me” and
then take a bite. And then continue to take bite after bite while saying to
ourselves, “Jesus loves me! No one can judge me for my behavior!” We have to
consistently keep our guard up and be in constant communion with our Savior so
that our feet do not stray from His path.
And let me be
honest: it can be really hard. It will be difficult to fight against what our
flesh wants. It will be difficult to choose His way over our own. We will
engage in a constant battle against what we want to do and what we should do as
long as we are breathing, but through Him we can prevail over sin.
How do we know
what sin is? After all, it’s pretty hard to strive for holiness when we don’t
know what holiness actually is. That is why God’s Word is so important to us.
His Word contains everything we need to walk with Him. He also sent His Holy
Spirit to us to lead us and guide us. The Holy Spirit is our constant comforter
and friend. He is quick to convict us when our hearts go astray, we just have
to know His voice and be listening for it.
Please
understand, this post is not me trying to parade how awesome I am or how much I
know about God. Truthfully, I feel like this post is pretty sucky and that I am
doing a terrible job explaining this to you. At the end of the day though, I
want you to have an understanding of who Jesus is and what following Him means…..not
because I want to heap condemnation on your head, but because I want you to
find Him and experience His freedom. At the very least, I want you to
understand that the Jesus who gets paraded around on social media as being lax
about sin isn’t the real thing. Chasing after our sinful desires will only
leave us feeling empty and useless, but chasing after God’s heart will bring us
more fulfillment and joy than you can ever imagine.
So if you ever
see me post something on Facebook that goes against your current behavior or
thought pattern, please know that I’m not being hateful towards you. I
desperately want you to see the light of Christ….so that you can turn from your
sin and be saved from it.
Jesus loves you
for who you are, but if you are living in sin you are still lost and on your
way to hell. I know it’s harsh, and it may not feel like it’s fair, but it’s
the truth. He’s calling out to your heart…..will you listen?
“For all have sinned and fall short of
the glory of God.” ~Romans 3:23
“What shall we say then? Are we to
continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin
still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into
Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him by
baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by
the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” ~Romans 6:1-4
“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by
the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and
acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this
world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may
discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Romans 12:1-2
No comments:
Post a Comment