Monday, September 16, 2013

Reason Not To Sin - 1 Peter 1:3

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead...
1 Peter 1:3, NASB

Why not sin?
(1) God exercised great mercy towards us! Our sins incurred a debt and didn't we come to God for mercy? All of God's wrath was upon us, who were sons of disobedience and not of sons God. But, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner," we cried like the tax collector in Luke 18:13, and God forgave all our sins. How can we sin with God's great, unconditional love on our side? (See Romans 8:31-39)

(2) We are born again, no longer defined by our Adamic birth and corrupted flesh. This is confirmed for us eternally because Jesus still is risen from the dead. Romans 6 explains we were crucified with Christ—dying to the corrupt rule of sin—and we were raised with Him to walk in new life. 1 Peter 1:3 indicates Jesus’ resurrection also was the moment of a new birth for us, where we come into God’s world as His children, according to His nature instead of that of Adam. Psalm 2:7 was quoted in Acts 13:33, clearly meaning that when God the Father said to the Son, “This day have I begotten thee,” it referred to the resurrection from the dead. So it makes sense that, if Jesus was birthed from the tomb, going from death to life, thereby being proclaimed to be the Son of God and proving to be of a divine birth; so we too have gone from death to life with Christ. Thus we are children of God. As children, we have His likeness indelibly within us; yet we must grow into that likeness as a child, who, though he looks like his parents and has their genetic makeup, must be trained and raised to be conformed to their will through obedience.

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