Jesus Christ has set you and me free as surely as He raised Lazarus from the dead, but we have to take off the grave clothes and let them go!
The writer to the Hebrews exhorts us to throw off the grave clothes and “everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”
Don’t wallow in your “whys?”
Don’t throw a pity-party.
Don’t remain in your misery.
Understand that you may not understand this side of heaven.
Trust God to sort it all out in the end.
In spite of the sin and rebellion that God knew lurked in the very next generation of Noah’s sons and would increase with every subsequent generation, God committed Himself to spare the earth His previous judgments. While He did not remove the curse He had placed on Planet Earth following Adam and Eve’s sin in the Garden, He vowed He would not increase the curse. And He promised that never again would He destroy all life on the planet as He had done during the Flood.
As evidence that He was good and would keep His promise, God pointed to the very cycles in nature. As you and I see the winter snows give way to spring flowers and the summer’s heat give way to autumn’s briskness, we are reminded that in back of the changes is the God Who never changes. The sun that rises every morning and sets every evening, the stars that come out in the night sky, and the moon that goes through its monthly phases—all reveal the glory of God, Who is good! How do your daily habits and lifestyle bear witness to the glory of God?
Wrong attitudes have enormous power in our lives. That’s why God has placed within each of us a conscience that begins to feel guilty when our attitudes and actions are wrong.
Many of the later-model cars are equipped with theft alarm systems. The more sensitive ones can be annoying to the general public as the least bit of motion by a passer-by or the lightest touch to the car body can send off an ear-splitting siren accompanied by flashing lights and honking horn. But that obnoxious sensitivity is purposefully designed to be a protection against unwanted entry.
God has built into each of us an alarm system to warn us of the unwanted entry of sin into our lives. The alarm system is called guilt. Guilt is our friend. Without it we would go on in sin until we were dominated and defeated by it. So . . . heed the alarm and repent of your sin!
In the Old Testament, when a person sinned, he was required to take the very best, blue-ribbon lamb he could find, one without any spots or blemishes, to the priest at the temple. There, in front of the priest, the sinner would grasp the lamb with both hands and confess his sin. His guilt was transferred to the lamb. The priest would then hand the sinner a knife, and the sinner would kill the lamb so that it was obvious the lamb had died as a result of the sinner’s action.
The pervasive misconception today is that since Jesus died as a sacrifice for the sins of the world, then we are all automatically forgiven. But we overlook the vital truth that we must grasp the Lamb with our hands of faith and confess our sins. We then must acknowledge that He was slain for our sins as surely as if we had plunged the knife into His heart. At that moment, the Lamb becomes our High Priest and offers His own blood on the altar of the Cross on our behalf. And, wonder of wonders! God accepts the sacrifice and we are forgiven!
Do you ever get frustrated with the habits of sin in your life? I do! Even though I have been to the Cross and received forgiveness for all my sin, I still sin. I don’t want to. I try not to. I hate sin! But I still sin. The reality of sin is the single most discouraging, defeating, depressing fact in my life. But I can look forward with hope. Because one day, when I get to my Father’s House, all of my sin . . .
my sinful tendencies,
my sinful thoughts,
my sinful actions,
my sinful words
my sinful feelings . . .
all my sins are going to fall away like a stinking garment that finally drops off and is discarded. What will be left will be the character of Christ that has been developed in me during my life on earth, and I will be like Jesus!
