Sins & Repentance – Act Now

The Bible’s vocabulary around evil influence sounds unconventional to modern people, using words like, Sin, Iniquity or Transgression which discourages many readers from continuing in their journey to follow and better understand God and his plan for all of humanity. Consequently, the Bible’s perspective on the human condition is often ignored or treated as ancient which is unfortunate because scripture offers us a deeply profound diagnosis of human nature. Iniquity describes behaviour that is crooked, whilst transgression refers to breaking trust. ‘Sin’ is the most common of the old words in the Bible which translates the Greek word ‘Hamartia’ and the Hebrew word ‘Khata’ meaning ‘to fail’.

Bible Scripture Definition
Sinning is defined as any decision, speech, action or thought that does not treasure God above all other things, with the root of all sinning coming from hearts and minds that do not treasure God, first and foremost.

Sins Against God
– Glory of God Not Honoured – Holiness of God Not Respected – Greatness of God Not Admired
– Power of God Not Praised – Truth of God Not Sought – Wisdom of God Not Esteemed
– Beauty of God Not Treasured – Goodness of God Not Savoured – Faithfulness of God Not Trusted
– Promises of God Not Believed – Commandments of God Not Obeyed – Justice of God Not Respected
– Wrath of God Not Feared – Grace of God Not Cherished – Presence of God Not Prized

The arrival of Jesus Christ on Earth demonstrated to all people that he did not fail to love God and others and did not Sin. Yet, he took responsibility for humanity’s historical and future failures, he lived for others and he died for their Sins. He was then raised from the dead to offer everyone the gift of his life to vanquish everyone’s failures. Or in the words of the apostles, “He committed no Sin, yet he carried our Sins in his body on the Cross so that we might die to our sins and live to do what is right” (1 Peter 2:24). This is the story behind the biblical word for Sin.

In Genesis 3, we read about a Beast, the Snake, who didn’t want to live under God’s wisdom and authority because he wanted to be, God, who is actively rebelling, on a mission to ruin God’s creation. This is the Bible’s first example of evil because it distorts what God intended for good, corrupting the minds of Adam & Eve, causing chaos, disobedience and leading a human rebellion which is interwoven with the Beast’s spiritual rebellion against God.

Over millennia, this beast has been at work animating division, pain, suffering and hatred amongst humans, tempting people to Sin, challenging God’s instructions as a sign of its captivity to this spiritual evil. There are countless instances of where people have become emotionally and morally enraged over poverty, exploitation, prejudice, abortion and the infractions on religious liberty, yet they feel no remorse when God is disregarded, disbelieved, disobeyed, dishonoured and belittled, by millions of people around the world? The reason is Sin.

The Apostle Paul clarifies what the essence of Sin is and calls out the magnitude of its power in us. He speaks of Sin
– “Enslaving like a slave master (6:6) – “To whom we have been sold” (7:14)
– “As a force that produces other sins (7:8) – “As a power that seizes the law and kills” (7:11)
– “As a hostile occupying tenant that dwells in us” (7:17, 20) – “A law that takes us captive” (7:23)
– “The mind of flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot” (Romans 8:3)

So, if you think that your Sin is mainly what you do or don’t do, think again. It’s mainly who you are, until you are reborn in Christ and even then, it’s an ever-present, indwelling enemy to be put to death every day by the Spirit (Romans 8:13). The reason Paul says that “whatever is not from faith is sin” (Romans 14:23) is because faith, is the receiving of God in Christ as our Lord, Saviour and supreme treasure. This means that actions which don’t come from faith, not treasuring God above all things, preferring anything more than God is Sin. Many Christians struggle with ‘Nagging Sins’, that often tempt our thoughts and hamper our efforts to follow Christ with all our hearts and minds, but the gospel gives us hope that all Sin can be forgiven and subdued, which is why we need to be vigilant in our struggle against it.

Sin is a failure to love God and our fellow humans unconditionally all the time in all of our actions as well as our thoughts. A list of very clear and specific instructions from God, given to the Israelites several thousand years ago, known as the Ten Commandments were intended to guide all of humanity towards living honourable lives. Five of the commandments articulate ways in which we can fail at loving God whilst the other 5, state how we can fall short in loving other people. The fact that both kinds of failure are combined shows that failing to honour God, is intrinsically connected to how we fail to honour people which is why Sin against others is seen as Sin against God.

The Bible is trying to tell us that failed human behaviour and our tendency towards self-deception, runs deep and it’s rooted in our desires/urges that compel us to act for our own benefit at the expense of others. It’s about more than just doing bad things; it describes how we easily deceive ourselves and spin illusions to redefine our bad decisions as good ones which is why in the New Testament, the apostle Paul describes Hamartia as a power or a force that rules humans. In his words, “We are slaves to sin.” He even says, “Sin lives in us so that the things I don’t want to do, that’s what I do.” This is a description of the human condition; in that we all fail to be humans who fully love God and others.

Warning – We Don’t Have Much Time
Whilst a lot of people identify as being religious and interest themselves with End Times Prophecy from the book of Revelation in the New Testament section of the Holy Bible, they have deluded themselves into thinking that they need to prepare themselves for what is going to be fulfilled in the coming years. Namely, a one world government, a cashless society, a one world currency and digital implants into the human body that will restrict everyone from buying or selling anything, unless that have this implant, known as the “Mark of the Beast”.

What these people don’t’ realise, is that they need to reconcile themselves with God through Jesus Christ as part of a conscious daily effort to:
1) Acknowledge their Sins and regularly pray to develop spiritual strength to reduce their Sinful incidences
2) Pronounce their love and give thanks to God for Jesus Christ as our Lord & Saviour
3) Better understand God’s plan by reading both the Old & New Testaments of bible scripture regularly
4) Love their fellow humans unconditionally

These are the primary ‘Prepping Techniques’ required and doing these regularly will make us right with God through Jesus Christ and save our souls into eternity – Terminating Sins is a foundational step for us to focus our efforts on.

Acknowledging Our Sins Repeatedly
Persistent, ‘Nagging Sins’, like sexual lust, hatred, fear, envy (to name a few) need to be referred to Scripture as a way of acknowledging and aggravating our awareness and personal guilt. We must then reflect and pray to Jesus and ask for his help in changing our Sinful intentions. Acknowledging what we have done every single time we do it and asking Jesus’ forgiveness, will, over time, progress from repeated offences, to fewer, then occasional and eventually to permanent victory over our Sinful practices.

If we don’t feel the magnitude of our Sin, if we don’t have feelings of regret, if we cast it away as unimportant or insignificant, we’ll most likely never get around to the serious vigilance required for putting a stop to it. This is especially important with persistent Sins, those that we’re most likely to become numb to, where we need to show mental strength to continually re-sensitise our consciences to them. Often this means taking the time to reflect on our actions and examining our principles, values and moral standards. Defeating Nagging Sins often requires this uncomfortable, honest reflection and acknowledgement on what the Sin is doing within us.

Restricting Reoccurrence
The more we indulge in Sin, the more of a grip it gains over us, but, as with any addiction, the less we feed it, the weaker it becomes. We all need to make the decisions of not allowing our sinful desires to take hold of our thoughts and actions, instead we must strive to starve them of our attention to weaken and eventually overcome them.

Sin, like any other enemy, thrives in environments that foster Lust, Hatred, Jealousy, Discouragement or the Disbelief that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Saviour. To wage an effective war against Sin, we must constantly resist the thoughts, opportunities and occasions that present themselves to us. One way of doing this is to regularly reference bible scripture in our minds or spoken out, either whispered or out aloud, as a direct rebuke of the thoughts that tempt us towards a Sinful outcome. This action will reinforce our stand against the evil influence of Sin and hopefully prevent us from committing new and/or repeating previous Sins.

Example
Temptation: The thought of killing someone frequently engages your mind
Action: State God’s Law – Thou Shall Not Kill – Do this repeatedly every time the Beast infiltrates your thoughts

One way of mitigating our tendency to repeatedly Sin, is to think about the specific triggers that drive us to commit Sin in our lives. Another way is to change our environment by surrounding ourselves with kind and forgiving people that espouse a positive mindset and influence in our lives. God has provided us with very specific instructions and resources that he has availed to us through Bible Scripture, namely, Patience, Pardon, and Power. God has “perfect patience” (1 Timothy 1:16) for us even amid our struggles with Sin and we need to know that he has not given up on us. Even when we’ve lost patience with ourselves, he is still there for us.

The gospel conveys that God pardons our Sins. “Where Sin increased, grace abounded all the more” (Romans 5:20). Only when we see our Sins through the gospel, before they are subdued, that they are forgiven in God’s sight, will we make true progress against them. The gospel states that God provides us with power, that we might overcome Sins. His Spirit gives us strength beyond ourselves with which to fight, and his all-satisfying presence gives us the promise of a superior, lasting joy. Irrespective of how strong our Sins may feel, it is truly possible in Christ to “not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21). Christ’s blood is the greatest remedy for Sin aggrieved souls, so if we live in this belief we can and will overcome the temptations of Sin.

An important realisation is that whilst some Christians believe in, and act on the necessity of conscious effort in resisting sexual lust, that they rely solely on the unconscious work of the Spirit, but without any individual effort, it becomes increasingly clear during these battles of the mind, that the link between the cancelation of Sin on the Cross and the conquering of Sin requires a conscious effort on the part of all of us.

In the Gospel of Paul, he highlights 3 references on how the death of Christ cancels Sin and leads to effort.

(1) In the physical death of Christ, he put Sin to death, and we have been united with him in a death like his (Romans 6:5)
We also must consider ourselves dead to sin (Romans 6:11)
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body (Romans 6:12)

(2) In the death of Christ, we were bought, therefore, actively glorify your new owner
We are not our own, for we were bought with a price (1 Corinthians 6:19–20)
Therefore: Glorify God in your body (1 Corinthians 6:20)

(3) In the death of Christ, we were forgiven, therefore forgive. God in Christ forgave you
Therefore, be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another (Ephesians 4:32)

God intends that part of our experience of sanctification be conscious, willed opposition to specific sins in our lives.

That said, most Christians don’t understand that the link between the Cross and our conquered Sins, is our empowered will because, in each of the three cases above, Paul makes the statement of my death, my purchase, and my forgiveness the cause of a command addressed to my will. These commands are addressed to us so that we engage our will.

God’s Grace
We know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. (Galatians 2:16).

Interpretation:
“Works” refers to Charity, either donating money, gifts or one’s time to counsel and support others, which will not justify a person in the eyes of God and Jesus Christ. Rather, by Grace alone (essentially a gift from God) through the blood of Jesus Christ’s crucifixion on the cross combined with our individual acceptance that Jesus is our Lord and Saviour, will our sins be forgiven.

Jesus states that we are all guilty sinners not because we are victims of the darkness but because we are lovers of the darkness – “Light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light.” John 3:19. Knowledge of God is repulsive to Sin which is not just a hater but a lover as well because when the hated truth is suppressed, the loved lie is embraced, “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image” Romans 1:22-23

These days, we spend most of our leisure time looking at images which is causing us to suppress the true God because we are embracing replacement gods such as Television, Movies, Games and Social Media which distribute alternative messages that degrade the moral fibre of our society. The tsunami of dishonourable passions in the world, with all their behaviours, has root (Sin) which hates the truth about God and worships/loves God-substitutes. Without redeeming Grace through Jesus Christ, we are handed over to a mental depravity that does not want God.

In summary, the root of Sinful action is a Sinful nature and the foundation of our Sinful nature is that we:
… suppress the truth about God (Romans 1:18)
… don’t glorify him or thank him (Romans 1:21)
… exchange his glory for images (Romans 1:23)
… exchange the truth about God for a lie, we worship, we stand in awe of what God made, not God (Romans 1:25)
… disapprove of having the true God in our knowledge. We don’t want him. We prefer other things and other people more than God. We have come short of this: knowing, cherishing, prizing, loving, treasuring God above all things. That is the essence of our Sinful condition and that is the root of all Sinful action Romans 1:28.

We need to thank God every time we reflect on our lives, jobs, skills, blessings, husband, wife, children, parents, extended family and friends. We should also thank God for the good times as well as the bad times and think about the times we were tested, tried, challenged and experienced significant stress, thank God for everything, because what doesn’t kill us only makes us stronger, wiser, confident & gives us hope that we can continue to strive and keep moving forward.

Shrouded Sin
Sin never announces itself to us with its full intentions. It never says, “I am your deadly enemy, and I want to ruin you in hell forever”. It shows its pleasure, but hides its pain; shows its sparkle, but hides its death (Romans 6:23). This is not all that Sin fails to reveal to us in the moment of temptation, it also doesn’t disclose how it plans to harm others. It never introduces itself as your deadly enemy and the deadly enemy of everyone you know by informing you that it wants to ruin you and them in hell and use your Sins and theirs to do it.

One of the most treacherous lies we can believe about Sin, especially Sin we consider private or secret, is that we can keep its consequences to ourselves and that we will be the only ones that will be affected. We rarely consider how our Sin inevitably influences others in one way or another. Even when we Sin alone, meaning that although the eye of heaven sees us, no other human does, our Sin does not remain alone. It travels with us from the shadows into the world of our relationships. When we Sin, we do so as a member of a community, even when we Sin alone, instead, we each Sin as humans interconnected to other humans and we do so as Christians as members of the body of Christ.

In suggesting that some Sins affect only us, Satan strips away the urgency from fighting private Sins of anxiety, envy, urges of watching porn convincing us that these behaviours will remain private with us, but they don’t. Hidden Sins, like hidden good works, “cannot remain hidden” (1 Timothy 5:25). In this, Satan (Devil/Evil Being/Beast) is a crafty spider, spinning a web of concealed threads sticking to those we never intended to hurt. His Sin was against God, but the consequences of that Sin did not stay with him alone.

Satan hides the consequence of how powerless Sin makes us when we lie to a friend or when the sewer of lustful images from watching porn linger in our minds hindering us from brotherly love in Christ. The devil doesn’t remind us of the side effects, including distraction, disinclination, and hardness of heart, that poison our love for God and good deeds toward those closest to us.

Sin’s effects are far more uncontrollable than we can imagine when tempted because Satan conceals the engulfing influence iniquity has on others, but he also hides the effects of what we too often consider common, hidden acts of faith, love and obedience because he wants us to think that Sin and holiness are both trivial that can vanish into irrelevance.

Terminating Sin
The key to a Christian life is putting to death the deeds of the body ‘by the Spirit’ or Terminating Sin ‘by the Spirit’.
“For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace, because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be, so then they that are in the flesh cannot please God”. In other words, one way to Terminate Sin ‘by the Spirit’ is to ‘set your mind on the things of the Spirit’. In other words, set your mind on the word of God in Scripture (Ephesians 6:17) where Paul says in our battle against evil we must “take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” (Ephesians 6:17)

The “sword of the Spirit” says that it is “the word of God,” which confirms that the sword that kills Sin is the word of God and the way we Terminate Sin “by the Spirit” is to set our minds on “the things of the Spirit,” that is, the word of God in Scripture, which then becomes the “sword of the Spirit”. The use of the word sword here is intended as a parable, meaning to put to death, to permanently restrain these urges and not to be ruled by them. The Spirit comes and works wonders in our lives, Terminating Sin, not just “by faith” but by “hearing with faith.” When the “word of God”, the “Sword of the Spirit” is heard and believed, the Spirit is moving to Terminate Sin.

“If you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” Translation: If you want to live, you need to stop Sinning or it will ruin your life and will ultimately cause you and those you love harm and bad outcomes. It’s a battle against the “flesh” or against “the deeds of the body”.

Being Saved
“By grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8–9). Faith, not works, is the way we are made right with God; and Faith, not works, is the way we engage the Holy Spirit to Terminate Sin.

To become a Christian you believe the promises of God, like, for example, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:12) and to fight Sin as a Christian (or as a new believer), you believe the promises of God, like, for example, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5). When Christ died for us, he bought with his blood both justification and sanctification and both are obtained by faith.

Everything we do should magnify Christ’s greatness – “For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us (2 Corinthians 1:20) meaning that every promise that you hear and believe, gives glory to Jesus Christ which also includes all of the promises of God because “All the promises of God find their Yes in him”. In other words, Jesus paid for every promise for those who trust him, so every promise that you hear and believe, gives glory to Jesus. If we merely pray and ask God to Terminate our Sin, without hearing/reading the gospel of Christ or any of its promises, Christ would not be honoured by our efforts.

God intended for his Son to be magnified in justification and in sanctification, meaning that he didn’t design sanctification to happen by prayer alone, but by hearing the Christ-exalting, blood-bought promises of God and believing them as we ask God to Terminate our Sin.
Jesus came to rescue us from the wrath of God against all that dishonours his glory through our Sins to change us into the kind of people who value the glory of God above all things and who live to show his worth (Matthew 5:16; 1 Corinthians 10:31; 1 Peter 4:11). To follow Christ means that every area of our lives is submitted to Him and as we surrender every part of ourselves to the Holy Spirit, we are cleansed of unrighteousness but we must consistently strive to demonstrate honesty, integrity, love, goodwill, kindness and live peaceably with one another.

Hypocrisy
A growing number of Christians are hypocrites who don’t live up to their worship principles. Being a Christian doesn’t mean we’re any better than unbelievers, rather that we are still just as sick as anyone, the difference is that we have found “the way” – “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me (John 14:6). It’s important to remember that Christianity is not about morality, it’s about Grace – we are all Sinners. Those of us who identify as religious may feel quite smug and self-righteous, and thinking that we don’t hate God, that we’re not full of conflicting actions, wickedness and evil schemes but it’s these types that often give Christianity a bad name.

Inhabiting an undeserved reputation can be a trap which propagates a delusional sense of pride and deadens our awareness that real spiritual vitality is flowing away from us. Research indicates that human beings are wired to say one thing and then do the opposite. Not practicing what you preach, lacking the willpower to live up to our own ideals and behaving in ways we obviously know are wrong, are all moral failings. People typically dislike hypocrites because their outspoken moralising, falsely implies that an individual behaves morally.

So, to compensate, we try to stitch our identities together with chosen pieces of our own aspirations and the cumulative total of other people’s perceptions of us, our reputation. We use this reputation as a mirror to reflect to us who we are, and to project an image of ourselves that we want others to see but such an identity really is only smoke and mirrors. Our self-perception and other people’s perception of us do not reflect or project accurately who we are, rather, they are misleading images/imaginations. We aren’t who we want to think we are or who other people think we are – All we truly are is who we are before God.

Making a show of morality, a pretence of righteousness, when forgetting to show care and concern for others was utterly abhorrent to Jesus. Therefore, the Lord said: … “Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths and honour Me with their lips, but have removed their hearts far from Me, and their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men… (Isiah 29:13). Jesus spoke against hypocrisy often during his travels, note this excerpt – “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore, you shall receive the greater damnation” and again …”Even so you also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity…” (Matthew 23:28). Not only does this aptly define moral hypocrisy, it also shows how much God hates this attitude.

Repentance
Sin is often used to describe actions that miss the target God has asked us to aim for, living a life centred around loving God and others. Whilst there are universal actions that dishonour God, small acts of disobedience also pull us away from him. The apostle James wrote that “it is a sin to know what the right thing to do is, and then not do it.” In other words, if you know what God is asking you to do, yet you still decide to disobey Him, then you’re undermining God’s authority in your life. Sin entices us because it is self-gratifying, but it results in eternal separation from God and others.

The apostle Paul writes about a form of resistance that is common among those of us who are religious and who believe in the Bible as God’s word and who even have responsibilities to preach or teach. The resistance is the assumption that, having so much revelation and so much knowledge and so much truth, our business is to set each other right rather than to repent ourselves – This is a big danger because we are all Sinners.

While we were still Sinners, Jesus came and died for us. His voluntary sacrifice and separation from God led to our reconciliation with Him. None of this is because we deserve it, but because God always desired it. God wants to help us change because He knows we can’t overcome Sin on our own. So, if you don’t know Jesus, the first step you can take to overcome Sin is to invite Him to transform your life but if you already belong to Jesus, he has given you the Grace, strength, and forgiveness you need to live a life that honours Him.

As followers and believers in Jesus Christ we have all we need, in every circumstance, at every moment, to live a godly life … “God himself dwells in us…” (Romans 8:9–11) and “…is at work in us…” (Philippians 2:13). In Christ, we are powerful and we are finally free to conquer multiple Sins and to say NO “…to lying, stealing, and laziness…” (Titus 2:11–13). We’re not left helpless to lie around and do nothing all day, rather, we have the strength to renounce every and any temptation through the Spirit that dwells in us. We have the very weapon of God in hand, his word, the presence of God is also in us, his Spirit along with his church.

Christians should be distinct from the world in how we live. What we speak of is not perfection but a new power, a new purpose, and a new direction but even when the Christian stumbles, as we all do, we do not settle down in our Sins and we don’t dilute our transgressions by stating that ‘we’re only human”, because we’re not satisfied to wander from our Saviour, even for a brief moment. Instead, when we fall, we acknowledge our mistakes in prayer and plead for God’s Grace, pardon and power enabling us to move on with our lives.

What God leads us to is repentance, which means that you have a profound change of mind and heart so that you hate Sin and hate hypocrisy and turn to Jesus in humility and faith and trust him for all the promises of forgiveness, help and life that he bought when he died for us, which belong freely to everyone who believes in him.

When you find yourself making choices you later regret, here are some practical steps you can take. Keep drawing near to God every day because the more time you spend with God, the more you will want to honour Him and do His will, and this makes Sin less appealing. Over time, God will transform your mind and change the way you think. Guided Prayer is a great place to start – consider using the following Prayer each day and ask God to transform you:

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

God, I ask for your protection and strength to help me stop thinking Sinful thoughts and for my bad decisions and regretful actions that don’t align to your plans for me to live an honourable, peaceful and happy life.

Please guide my mind and heart to make the right decisions to love and praise you through Jesus Christ my Lord & Saviour and to demonstrate unconditional love for my fellow brothers and sisters.

I surrender my heart and mind to you In Jesus’ name,

Amen.

A regular pattern of praying to God, affects thousands of situations and people. When we treasure Jesus Christ above Sin’s pleasures and believe his promises above Satan’s lies, we flood our lives with waves of blessings.

May God Bless Us All

References:
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search
https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org
https://www.rcg.org
https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/kill-sin-with-the-word-of-god