I got a good question the other day that I think is a good question and it’s probably a question many of us have asked, and that question is, when we repent ae we sinlessly perfected or do we continually repent, are we just quick to repent to get that sin our of our life? Because it’s a bit of a paradox. Jesus says things like; “Go and sin no more”, which infers that we CAN be sinless, that we can stop sinning, but also, we know that no one is without wrinkle, no one is without spot or blemish… so which is it? Are we without spot or blemish? Or do we continue to sin and repent, continue to sin and repent? Well, the truth is, it is actually BOTH. When we repent do actually change.
JESUS GIVES US A NEW LIFE, WE ARE BORN AGAIN, and those sins we KNEW that we were in, we ask for forgiveness and then with all our might we turn against those sins WE WALK AWAY FROM THEM, and Jesus DOES give us the power to overcome ALL OUR SINS! When I repent, every single sin that I new of that was in my life I turned away from. Things that I KNEW were wrong. Impure relationships, sexual perversions, things like pornography, things like listening to music that is ungodly… anything and everything that I KNEW was sin I turned away from. And when I repented, I just gave all of that up to follow Jesus and to this day I haven’t turned back to those things, however there have been other things in my life that at the time I didn’t know was sin, or things that are relational with other people where I may have upset them and it was my fault so I had to go apologize. Those kinds of things always come up in our life because we are not perfect, we are human, HOWEVER, we do need to confess and repent, we need to stay as best as we can in right relationship with all people and always in right connection with Jesus. I want to read to you what Jesus said about this in John chapter 3, I’m going to start in verse 14-21; “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to CONDEMN the world, but that the world through Him might BE SAVED. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. AND THIS IS THE CONDEMNATION, THAT LIGHT HAS COME INTO THE WORLD, AND MEN LOVED DARKNESS RATHER THAN LIGHT, BECAUSE THEIR DEEDS WERE EVIL.” See, the condemnation is not that men were not “perfect”, it’s not that God is just condemning us for every little spot and blemish in us, but it is that we love DARKNESS MORE THAN LIGHT.
Why people are condemned to hell is because they love their SIN and they don’t really want to repent of it, and they go around making excuses saying; “I can’t repent. God will forgive us because we are JUST HUMAN”. If you start making all those excuse why you can’t give up pornography, the lusts of the flesh, pride… then you are not truly repenting AND THE LORD WILL NOT FORGIVE YOU. But when you REALLY chose to OUT of darkness and into the light of the truth THEN Jesus will forgive you. That does not mean that you become without wrinkle, and that you are not totally perfect, and there is NOTHING more you can learn, absolutely NOT, we are constantly being purified and changed to be in the image of Jesus. You know, He molds us all the time into His image. BUT THAT DOES NOT MEAN WE GO ON SINNING IN WILLFUL SIN. In Verse 20, Jesus says; “For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, least his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in GOD.” When I repented about 8 years ago ALL the things that I new were evil I REPENED OF and to this day, PRAISE JESUS, I have never gone back to those things.
But there have been other things that I had to repent of that were things that were relational, or just things that I didn’t know, that I had to apologize for, and I want to give an example of that. Some years ago, not too long ago, we had compassion on a homeless person and invited that homeless person to, well, to come live at our house, and for some time he was living at our house and some situations with that homeless person living at our house led us to be very angered at one another, and to become bitter at one another just within our family. And after, after the homeless person left, we had to basically regroup and apologize to one another, to confess what we had done and to continue walking with the Lord. If we were not able to confess what we did to one another as wrong, we wouldn't have been able to continue to walk in the purity with Jesus. in a relationship relationally we will always make mistakes, and we will have to confess our mistakes to one another in order to continue to walk in purity with each other. if you are married, you know what I mean. just because you're in a good relationship with your husband or wife, doesn't mean that you sometimes step on each other's toes. but that doesn't mean, you're committing sins against one another, like going out and committing adultery sleeping with a prostitute and then every night coming back and saying "sorry, honey, that I slept with the prostitute, will you receive me back?"
if you're in a right relationship with your spouse, you love your husband or your wife and you continue to work on that relationship in love. you forgive one another and you continue to stay connected to one another. it is the same with our relationship with Jesus. we don't do anything that we know would offend Jesus. but that doesn't mean we're ever going to make a mistake if we do make a mistake. it's true that we do quickly repent of that and we continue to walk in the truth.
but the big things that we repented of we need to make sure that we don't go back to those sins like a dog back to its vomit.
you know, a lot of Christians they think they can just repent every night of pornography. they think they can repent every night of adultery. and all the sins they do they think they can just commit those against God and go back every night and say "sorry, Lord received me back" and that the Lord will just continue to receive them back time and time again. basically they don't really want to repent if it wouldn't work with your wife to continue to sin against her like that. it will not work with a holy God. we have to really make sure that we stay in right connection with Jesus, that we stay in right connection with our spouse, and with all people that we really value a good relationship with.
so to answer the question: do I think I am sinlessly perfected? no. but have I repented of my sins for real? yes, and I haven't went back to those sins. and each of us do have to really repent and all the things that are in our life, that we know are evil. we have to get those things out of our life in order to really follow Jesus. if we don't those things become like a parasite things such as TV pornography, friends that are bad influences partying, a foul tongue you know gossiping telling jokes that are perverted, just hanging out with people that cause you to sin. all those things that you know are evil you have to get out of your life in order to follow Jesus. and count the cost you cannot have a foot in the world and be holding on to Jesus at the same time.
either you leave the world leave all the lusts of the flesh and start following Jesus for real. or you slowly drift away from Jesus thinking that you're still a child of God which in reality you're following Satan and thinking you're going to heaven because of God's forgiveness. Jesus knows if your heart is serious to follow him, if you love him, and if you're obeying him, or if you're just doing everything by your own might to try to get to heaven, just trying to sin a little bit less but really just doing your own thing living into sin.
so really confess your sins, repent of them, and come out of everything that you know is not right, and Jesus will quickly and easily forgive you. but then work your hardest to live in the newness of life because you love Jesus not that you're earning your way to heaven by merit or by works. but because you really love Jesus you're abiding in him and Jesus will give you everlasting life if you continue in him. those who endure with Jesus to the end are the ones who will be saved. I hope this answers anyone's questions out there who is really earnestly looking for the truth. and I hope that you're not just trying to accuse other brothers and sisters who are trying to live holy, saying, "you think that you're just sinlessly perfected, you think this, you think that. it's not about what we think. it's all about Jesus and really getting sin out of our life.
do you really want to go on the straight and narrow path with Jesus? do you want to serve Him and obey Him? or are you content with those sins in your life and trying to justify them? may the grace of Jesus be with you!
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