"He (she) that covers his (her) sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesses and forsakes them shall have mercy." (I added the parentheses.)
We find it easy to justify ourselves when it comes to our sins. Our sins do not look as bad to us as the sins of others. The first thing that a person has to realize before they can be saved is that they have “sinned and come short of the glory of God.” This includes all of us. Not one person has ever been able to say, “I have never sinned.” 1 John 1:10 tell us, “If we say we have not sinned, we make (God) a liar, and His word is not in us.” ESV This was, perhaps, the main sin of the Pharisees. They felt that they themselves were righteous, and would not own up to their sins. A good example of this is found in the Pharisees prayer in Jesus’ parable in Luke 18:11: “The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.” ESV On the other hand, the aforementioned tax collector prayed: “God be merciful to me a sinner.” (Verse 13) ESV Jesus declared that the tax collector went away from the prayer session justified because he did not exalt himself. We need to remember this example when we try to excuse our sins. This proverb reminds us that to cover our sins is to keep us from spiritual prosperity. As long as our pet sins come between God and us, we cannot draw closer to Him. We also cannot grow spiritually. We know that we are wrong, but we just do not believe that our sins are that bad. Like our title above we say, "Who me? A sinner?" “We tend to view our sins “as through a glass darkly…” (to misquote Paul) Sins that look so plainly wrong and destructive in other people do not look as bad to us as we view our sins “through a glass darkly.” When David was confronted by Nathan because of his sin with Bathsheba, he did not seem to recognize that he had done anything really wrong. When Nathan told him a story about a rich man, who owned many sheep, took the one ewe lamb that belonged to a poor man, David was furious at the rich man. David was brought to reality when Nathan said, “Thou art the man.” The result was shown in David’s prayer of repentance in Psalm 51. The Bible teaches that we are all sinners and need to be forgiven. We never grow beyond the need to be forgiven. The wonderful thing is that God has provided a simple way for us to be forgiven for our sins. 1 John 1:8-9: "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Instead of covering our sins, we need to confess our sins. The old saying: "Honest confession is good for the soul" is certainly true when it comes to confession of sin. Look at the promise. If we will confess our sins, He (Jesus) will forgive us. He will always be faithful to forgive us. If God has made it this simple to be forgiven, why would we not take advantage of it? Jesus shed His blood to make it Possible. 1 John 1:7: "But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin." The plan of forgiveness was simple, but it surely wasn't cheap. Jesus takes our forgiveness seriously. So should we. The next thing that we need to do when we have repented of our sins and sought forgiveness from Jesus, is to accept His forgiveness and forgive ourselves. Maintaining guilt from forgiven is as much a lack of faith in the power of Jesus to forgive as not asking for forgiveness at all. Anything that Jesus, in His great holiness, can forgive us for can certainly be forgiven by us. Accept that fact that you sin, and when you have asked forgiveness and received it, accept and go on with your life. Bro. Joe
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
All
Archives
September 2021
|