But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. And have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.-Jude 1:20-23
The last few days, many, many conversations have been ringing in my ears. And I’ve come to realize, to varying degrees, most of us do not understand sin, and its deep seeded hold on the majority of us. Some of us hold to a notion that “sin is bad, and I do good, so my bad can outweigh my good.” Some of us in that line of thought think that we’ll never be able to make up for it! Some look at sin like it’s a spectrum, there’s good, there’s bad, there’s worse, and we all fall somewhere on that line. Others, say “Well, I sin, and there’s nothing I can do about it, so I just shouldn’t talk about it.” Folks, simply put, as Scripture outlines it, sin is anything that is outside of the will of God and it ALL leads to death. God hates sin, because Sin separates us from God and each other. That is not how He created things! If I am seeking Christ, I should hate it too, beginning with my own sin.
I know this is an uncomfortable and unpopular message these days, but I cannot be proud of, or at the very least, ignore what God hates. I need to hate sin, and I begin with mine. I HATE my sin. I hate that I do something that God hates, which in the beginning, separated me from Him (thank you, Lord, for Grace which saves me!). And God hates it so much, He sent His son to die for it! Our sin makes us dead. It’s literally what Scripture says: “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1), and if sin is not dealt with, we face the permanent death of God’s wrath and judgement eternally in hell. Jesus lived, died in our place, and rose again that we might be reconciled to the Father and be with HIM forever. Why should we, then, not hate what God hates? So I am going to continue to call out sin, beginning with my own, that all may see the goodness of God through Jesus Christ, and come to Him that He might save them, as He has saved me.
Ephesians 2
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
One in Christ
Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
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