Last week we addressed the idea that though we do sin, we can’t just assume that it’ll continue and that God is “ok” with that reality. The goal each day is to need less of God’s grace (forgiveness) than we did the day before. To this end, John writes: 1 John 2:1-2 – My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you WILL NOT sin. But IF anyone does sin…
This appears to convey that sin IS NOT a foregone conclusion. Something we can’t stop. Just part of being a human. That would be a nice conclusion because that allows us not to get OVERLY concerned about it. After all, isn’t that what Jesus’ blood is for…to wash any and all sin away? The tone of John’s content here though is that sin can be curtailed. Even to the point that eventually we can cut back and eventually have very few active sins in our lives. Dare I say maybe none eventually? When do we sin? There are sins of what I call “surprise”. These are things that are offered to us even though we are NOT doing anything wrong or questionable. Just going about life. Temptation is so prevalent in the world that unless you are a hermit, there’s a good chance you’ll be confronted by it. Then there are sins of pre-meditation. These are temptations that present when we blatantly put ourselves into “likely tempting situations”. Hang out in bars…surround with drinkers…likelihood that we’ll get drunk is higher than if you are at a PTA meeting or Church social gathering or youth baseball game. Watching a movie with a questionable rating for sex or violence will put you in a mindset of more likely to do those very acts yourself. After all, we never played spin the bottle with the idea that it would STOP us from kissing another person. Violent video games DO promote violence acted out. A movie about someone having an affair DOES create the mindset that perhaps that’s the answer to OUR marital struggles. Or at least that we may have married the wrong person and the right person is out there (or right in front of our eyes). It is my contention that we CAN sin LESS by not placing ourselves in these circumstances that promote the desire toward those sins. But IF we slip up (perhaps when temptation is presented as a “surprise”…unexpected and unlikely), then John allows for that as he goes on – “But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous. He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world.”. Great news! But I remind you of last week’s text in Hebrews 6:6 about how our sin effects Jesus – “(we) are nailing him to the cross once again and holding him up to public shame.”. What would be a motivating reality is that IF we do sin, at that very moment we had Jesus’ crucifixion replayed in our minds. If that were to happen, perhaps we’d start being reminded exactly what Jesus experiences because of our sin. THAT might motivate us to curtail our lifestyle choices and deal better with those unexpected “surprise” temptations.
Bottom line is: we DON’T have to sin. Forgiveness is available IF we sin, not because we WILL sin. Make it your goal to need less forgiveness tomorrow than you needed today.
Leave a Reply