“This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.” – 1 John 1:5-10 (NKJV)
We might not be following the real Jesus if we’re not regularly being convicted of our sin.
The reality is there are many gospel messages out there that aren’t actually the true gospel – they’re messages that leave people wandering in darkness, leave people complacent and apathetic to the ways of Jesus that are written in His Word. The true gospel says it will cost us, and cost us everything. (ref. Luke 14:33)
We are all sinners. Plain and simple. We are all in need of a Saviour, Jesus… daily! His grace is absolutely beautiful, looking straight into our heart and forgiving those who come to Him in repentance. Truthfully, I’m not sure where in Church history, but somewhere woven in time there was a lie that took root, where the concept of the “sinner’s prayer” became a one-and-done thing. In the “seeker-friendly” movement, such a focus is often placed on the numbers of church attenders, but is the same energy and focus directed at people’s lives actually changing? Perhaps this is just my perspective from the church circles I’ve been in, but it appears to me to have created a church culture that wears the title of Christianity, taking on the name of Light, while still very much living in darkness.
The Christians we read witness of in The Bible, are people that had encountered the powerful, real, love of Jesus – but it often left them unsettled. The exposure of their sin convicted them of their need for Jesus. Over and over again, Jesus said the words, “go and sin no more.” Yet we all know that we will never achieve perfection… we are sinners. We sin daily – hence the need for repentance daily. Not out of fear, but out of reverence and awe of the One Whom we’re bearing name of. That we would grasp the fact that our sin grieves the Holy Spirit when it goes unaddressed in us. I’m convinced that what will bring about the greatest change in others around us, is when they see us boast about our need for Jesus. We don’t boast in our sin, but we need to share the why behind our need for Jesus… and that is our sin. If we don’t acknowledge the existence of sin and it’s every-day role in our lives, we extinguish the need for Jesus.
It is my prayer that we are uncomfortable when we sin. That we would heed the presence of the Holy Spirit when He calls us to repentance and that we would respond quickly - desiring to live lives worthy of the calling that has been entrusted to us. (ref. Ephesians 4:1). May Christ’s love be the source of our desires. May we recognize our daily need for Him as our Saviour, the gift that we have in repentance, and the beauty of His grace that continues to say, “Daughter, go and sin no more.”
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