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.

More Than One Resurrection Going On Here!

Resurrection of Behavior

The verse in the header of this blog (Romans 8:10-11) has been a favorite of mine since I "discovered" it five years ago. It's a promise from God that, though our bodies still have a principle of sin in them, we, having been made alive to God, now have power at our disposal to choose not to sin and instead do right. What kind of power is that? Check it out in Ephesians 1:19-20. The power is the same that raised Christ from the dead! Wow! What power is greater than that?

Does sin have greater power than that? No. Nothing does. That's what I find encouraging. If we have a very small desire to rise above sin in our lives, all of God's power is available for us, and it is HE who wields it to a practical, day-to-day "resurrection" from sinful habits!

Resurrection of Blog

The other resurrection going on here is that of this blog, which I haven't used in about five years. As the Lord allows, I plan to post frequent, brief devotionals on Bible verses, applying truths of God's love to our day-to-day "striving against sin" (Heb. 12:4). This series will be called "Reasons Not to Sin."

I welcome your comments on the posts. Let us "exhort one another daily, while it is called "today," lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin." (Heb. 3:13)

If we set our minds on God's love for us in Christ, sin will lose it's appeal. I pray that the God will graciously  use the upcoming posts for your encouragement and growth. 

Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, [what kind of power? RESURRECTION power] to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. (Ephesians 3:20-21)

Clothed with Christ

It has been over a year since I last posted. God has been working in my life, growing me, and I have not been led to post anything. I am learning more to pursue God, and it is both trying to self and yet exciting to my spirit.

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"The night is almost gone, and the day is at hand. Let us therefore lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13 Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts." (Romans 13:12-14)

I am struck by the fact that wearing deeds of darkness is contrasted with putting on Christ, NOT putting on good deeds. This indicates not subjecting myself to a law resulting in slavery, sin, and death, but to the principle of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, a relationship with Christ (Romans 8:2,15). I could be tempted to turn to good deeds when "casting off" (ESV) the evil deeds of darkness, but good deeds are to be an outflow of my relationship with Christ (Romans 8:3-4).

Therefore, above all, to cast off my deeds of darkness I must maintain my personal relationship with God through Christ. I have been learning and proving the necessity of this in my own life the past couple of days. It is only by being clothed by the sacrifice (Gen. 3:21) that my sins are atoned. It is only with the blood of the lamb the high priest could enter God's presence. It is only by coming to God in the name of His Son--the Lamb, the Sacrifice on my behalf--that I can come to Him at all! And so I must come to Him very CONSCIOUS of the fact that I come only because of my position "in Christ," and not by my own merit.

Being thus conscious before God of my own WORTHLESSNESS without Christ and my redeemed position IN Christ is to "put on" Christ.

This is not limited to prayer, the allocated time when I "come before God," but ALL THE TIME. For all my life is lived before the Lord (Gen. 17:1).

Starting by remembering my relationship with God "in Christ," this becomes practical by the doing of the opposite of those deeds of darkness. In Ephesians 4:21-32 we see this very thing: put off falsehood, speak truth; cease stealing, work and give to the needy; speak not what is unwholesome, but edify with your speech. I must consider the specific sins, the "deeds of darkness," that I myself have indulged in, and ask the Lord, "What is the opposite of that sin, that, clothed with Christ, I may do instead?"

It is also important to note that verse 12 says I am to put on the armor of light. I have heard it explained that part of this is bringing my sins into the light, exposing them. Sin thrives in secrecy and darkness, and if there is any hope of being set free from its hold, I must confess it.

The Greatest Challenge to Doing What Is Right...

...Is doing what is hard."

This quote is from an article by Mark W. Gaither, published in Insights (Sept. 2007, p.2), the monthly newsletter from Insight for Living. I found it challenging to me, for, like in the life of King Saul, I find myself often doing what's right as long as it aligns with my comfort—or put another way: doing God's will when it happens to be mine as well. This is dangerous dealing and must be abandoned posthaste!

"Generally speaking, people have two important values they hope to preserve: comfort and integrity. And, more often than not, right choices are the best way to preserve both. Obedience to the law and honest dealings are not only right, but they pay good dividends—usually. However, doing what is right often requires as step of faith, and it may include a measure of suffering. That's when we come face-to-face with an ugly truth: We typically make decisions that preserve our comfort and then feel relieved when they also happen tot maintain our integrity. When doing what is right requires us to choose between comfort and integrity, the resulting crisis can be debilitating. Because the instinct to safeguard our comfort is so powerful, we will have to be deliberate about making integrity the primary value in every decision—even the easy ones."

Meditations from Chambers

My brother got me my own copy of Oswald Chambers' My Utmost for His Highest for Christmas, and the Lord has blessed me with very relevant meditations from the book every day.

January 28 — All I do should be based on a perfect oneness with Him, not on a self-willed determination to be godly.

January 29 — Have I been persecuting Jesus by an eager determination to serve Him in my own way? ...My way will not be to foster a meek and quiet spirit, only the spirit of self-satisfaction. We presume that whatever is unpleasant is our duty! Is that anything like the spirit of our Lord— "I delight to do Your will, O my God . . ." (Psalm 40:8).

January 31 — Our calling is not primarily to be holy men and women, but to be proclaimers of the gospel of God....And as long as our eyes are focused on our own personal holiness, we will never even get close to the full reality of redemption. Christian workers fail because they place their desire for their own holiness above their desire to know God. "Don’t ask me to be confronted with the strong reality of redemption on behalf of the filth of human life surrounding me today; what I want is anything God can do for me to make me more desirable in my own eyes." ...There is no reckless abandon to God in that.

I have been distracted by pursuit of holiness to the point of forgetting knowing God. After all, redemption is all about knowing God. Jesus said in John 17:3, "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." And redemption involves the fact that we are utterly sinful and helpless without Christ. No amount of satisfaction should be gained by how well we are doing or how mature we are growing in Christ. Focus should be on the Lord alone—His love while we were sinners, His grace in supplying salvation, His grace every step of the way.

Oh, the love that drew salvation's plan!
Oh, the grace that brought it down to man!
Oh, the mighty gulf that God did span
At Calvary!