Not wishing to shock anyone and be black balled.
Today I have sinned. Without realising it I broke the speed limit. When I saw that I was 3 miles per hour over it I released the gas pedal. Oh and also I got annoyed at someone in Starbucks when they didn't make the coffee I paid for.
I could go on with what I have done today that has fallen short of the standard of God. I have my weaknesses that I struggle to overcome.
I used to be entangled in what I call the web of deceit. This web is that "I must not sin in order to show God I love him, if I do then I don't love him and if I do sin and have not confessed it before I die then I'm going to place where a hot poker is stuck up my bum"
What I find mainly is that people who say things like this mainly quote the words of Jesus.
Now the truth is that Jesus came to Israel, the Jews, he did not come for us Gentiles.
Matthew 15:24
But He answered and said, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
So when Jesus interacted with people they were mainly Jews, those under the Old Covenant. The New Covenant was not in place yet.
If memory serves me there were only two occasions when he interacted with the gentiles.
The verse I quoted above was concerning the gentile woman's daughter who was demon possessed and the Romans centurions servant.
I am open to correction here.
I may have digressed but what I fine intersting is that those who preach along the lines of the web that entangled me probably have taken it from what Jesus said to the community of Israel.
Firstly the adulteress woman
"Go sin no more"
and to invalid by the Pool of Bethesda.
See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you” (verse 14). It is clear that Jesus knew what had caused the man’s condition.
Jesus warned the man that he had been given a second chance and that he should make better choices. If the man returned to his sinful behavior, he would have wasted the opportunity Jesus gave him to live whole and forgiven.
So now we have go sin no more and if you do then I am sorry mate but your going to a place where I'm gonna stick a hot poker up your bum.
Really?
Jesus is not talking about sinless perfection here.
He is telling us as beleivers not to go back to the sinful lifestyle that he has set us free from.
If he knew we could be sinless based on his teaching then there was no need fo him to die
He knew that even after placing our faith in him we would sin, he also knew that we needed help to be like him. That is also why he had to die and go back to heaven so that the Holy Spirit would come.
The Holy Spirit as a deposit of our inheritance to conform us to the image of Christ. Don't reverse that. He conforms us, not ourselves.
We will sin, and if we are truly in Christ we won't want to sin but when we do we have a mediator,
Hebrews 9:15
And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.
I know I will sin tomorrow (sorry if that upsets you) but I pray I don't. I want to be like Jesus but I know I can't. Yes it hurts me but I strive to be. Not to earn his love but because I love him. I want to be like my brother and I need him to help me.
And when I get it wrong he knows and understands. He walked the walk and he will walk that walk with me, warts and all.
I will digress back to the gentile woman and what Jesus said to her
Matthew 15:28
Then Jesus answered and said to her, “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour.