That Post About Sin

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Let’s talk about sin. I know, it’s uncomfortable. Why don’t I just write about God’s love or amazing grace? Well, I do love writing about all that, but it’s kind of hard to get a grip on how unfathomable God’s love is for us until we realize how much we really don’t deserve it. 

That last sentence hurts, but we have to remember that Jesus didn’t die for perfect people. He died for murderers, liars, gluttons, adulterers, and selfish people. He died for you and me.

The good news of the Gospel is because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, we can be forgiven of all of these sins. We can go to heaven. We can know God and have a personal relationship with Him! And you know what? We can be free from the chains of our sins. 

You heard me, we can be free from the destructive clutches of our past! But in order to become free from our sin, we need to understand what sin is. In a nutshell, there are two main “groups” of sins:

The first group of sins are the things that are not God’s will. They go against everything He is, and were never things He intended for us to have. They are sins like anger, jealousy, greed, and perversion. These are sins of the heart and can be very had to “weed out.”

Again, the good news is that God can work in us and turn these sins into good fruits that are a part of His will–things like joy, contentment, love, and purity.

The next group of sins are the thing that are of God’s will and plan for our lives, but that the devil twists for his evil purposes. Basically, anything can turn into a sin. Food is good, but eating way too much of it isn’t. Sex is good, but not outside of marriage. Beauty is good, but not when we become obsessed with it.

 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies (Matthew 15:19 NKJV).

These two groups of sins go hand in hand. The heart sin plants a seed, and what manifests is the “twisted” sin. For example, we can become obsessed with competition or material items. This is the outward sin (behavior), and the heart sin would be jealousy.

In order to stop the outward sin and bring good fruits into our hearts (such as contentment and a normal attitude toward others and material goods), we must root out the impurity that is causing us to sin. This is how we find balance. 

This method works with any type of sin. A lot of people have sex before marriage because we all want to be loved. The heart issue can be solved when we spend time with God and realize that He loves us more than anyone else could.

This is why the Bible tells us to examine our hearts.

Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test? (2 Corinthians 13:5 NIV)

The best way to kick sin in the butt is to get in touch with our hearts and ask God to show us what’s chaining us down. Once we surrender our sin to God, the chains can be broken. 

There is no sin that is too great for the Lord to forgive. Some sins may have more earthly consequences than others, but all of them can be forgiven through the blood of Jesus. All you have to do is search your heart, ask for forgiveness, and watch the chains fall off.

 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9 NKJV).

Thanks for reading! Please feel free to comment and share 🙂