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Archive for September 2013

Confession of Sin

Quotes That Keep The Church In Bondage!

 Over the past 100 yrs the gospel has spawned a number of statements that people have latched onto. These statements or quotes have been picked up by people and passed around until they take on a life of their own and are taken as being Bible!

 In my view these quotes, rather than setting people free, have kept them imprisoned in their sin and in bondage. I would like to challenge these quotes and replace them with what I consider to be Biblical truths. The first one is:

 CONFESSION OF SIN

 LK 18:13 GOD BE MERCIFUL TO ME A SINNER (NKJV)

This quote suggests that when a person comes to Christ, they have to confess their sins and ask God to forgive them. This formula has to be continued throughout a Christian’s life, hence whenever they sin, they have to confess it and ask for God’s forgiveness. But let’s look at what the scriptures teach – in the New Covenant there are only 3 instances of people confessing their sins:

 1)    John The Baptist: John came into the wilderness preaching that all people should repent of their sins. The people responded to his call:  Mt 3:5,6 Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him (John) and were baptised by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins. (NKJV)

John the Baptist was still under the Old Covenant and was preaching an Old Covenant message of repentance that demanded confession of sin!

 2) The Pharisee and Tax Collector  This is a parable of 2 men who went to the Temple to pray. The Tax Collector prayed thus: Lk 18:13 And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner! (NKJV)

 Again this story takes place under the Old Covenant.

 3) The First Epistle of John The Apostle:

 1 Jn 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. (NKJV)

 In my view, John is writing 1 Jn Ch1 to Gnostic’s who held to the believe that sin wasn’t real or didn’t matter.

The word ‘confess’ in v 9 could equally be translated as ‘acknowledge’. Hence John is telling the Gnostics that if they will acknowledge they are sinners, they can receive God’s forgiveness, but they are to acknowledge not confess their sins.

 Let’s now look at 4 reasons why God under the New Covenant no longer asks us to confess our sin.

 1) All our sin forgiven: At the cross Jesus as our High Priest, offered up Himself as a once for all sacrifice and took the punishment for ‘all’ our sins, past, present and future.

 1 Jn 1:7 The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. (NKJV) (Heb 9:28)

 2) Sin Taken Away:

 Jn 1:29 “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”! (CEB) (Rom 11:27)

 Jesus became our scapegoat who carried our sins away never to be brought back again.

 3) Sin Not Remembered:

 Heb 10:17Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more. (NKJV) (Heb 8:12)

 Jesus as our scapegoat took our sins away never to be brought back to our remembrance, and God Himself says He will remember our sins no more. The word ‘no’ is a double negative in the Greek, strengthening the denial.

 It is God saying He will not, He will absolutely not, remember our sins any more.

 4) Sin not counted against us.

 2 Cor 5:19 God was reconciling the world to himself through Christ, by not counting peoples sins against them. (CEB) (Rom 4:8, 5:13)

 At the cross then, God forgave the sin of the world, took it away and has forgotten it. For good measure, He now says He will no longer count it against us. Sin is gone forever.

 Subsequently, whenever we sin, we are not to confess our sin, we are instead to receive His forgiveness which was freely given to us at the cross  2000 yrs ago.

Meditation Point: Ask yourself a question: If God forgave all my sin at the cross without asking anything of me in return except to receive His forgiveness – why am i spending all this time, energy and strength constantly confessing my sins?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Sep/13

9

‘Grace Waves Devotional’

GRACE WAVES DEVOTIONAL

No Regrets Pt 1

Phil 3:13 I do this one thing: I forget about the things behind me.

As Christians, are we still speaking the language of regret, past mistakes and failures: ‘my divorce, my bankruptcy, how I failed my children’?

When we mess up, do we recriminate and beat-up on ourselves? Do we spend hours replaying the tapes (CD’s) in our minds? Is our confession one of failure, defeat and remorse? are we constantly plagued with guilt and condemnation?

If so, I have Good News for you. Jesus Christ paid the price for all our past sins on the cross 2000 yrs ago. God in His foreknowledge looked up the corridor of future, saw all our mistakes and sins, and took out that punishment on His Son!

His shed blood is the price He paid that all sin might be forgiven and taken away.

Our part is to ask the Holy Spirit to help us see our sin forgiven and His blood washing it all away, leaving us with a clean conscience.

Rom 8:1 There is NOW no condemnation (no adjudging guilty or wrong) for those who are in Christ Jesus. (AMP)

Phil 4:8 Meditate (think) on these things.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

 

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Ps 8:5You have crowned them with glory and honour. (NIV)

When God created Adam and Eve, He clothed them with His own glory and light!

Ps 104:1,2  Lord my God, you are very great! You are clothed with glory and honour. You wear light like a robe. (ERV)

 It was this glory that allowed Adam and Eve to live in the immediate presence of God. But the moment they sinned, God’s covering or garment of glory broke off of them.

 Rom 3:23 All have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23 NABRE)

 Rom 3:23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, (Romans 3:23 NKJV)

 Adam and Eve for their own safety, and to prevent them eating the fruit from the tree of life were now locked outside the presence of God.

 Mankind could now only worship God from a distance!

 The Glory Restored In Christ

 Rom 5:14 Adam was a type (prefigure) of the One Who was to come [in reverse, the former destructive, the Latter saving]. (AMP)

 Christ took the punishment for our sin on the cross and died in our place and went down into the grave. But when He rose from the dead, the first born of a new creation, perfectly righteous, He ascended to heaven, sat down on the throne at the right hand of the Father, and there the Father crowned Him as a man with the same glory that Adam forfeited in the garden  . Praise the Lord!

 Now that you and I are, ‘In Christ’, we  have been crowned as Kings with the same glory as Jesus. This entitles us once again to not only go into the immediate presence of God, but to remain there for all eternity.

 Now, nothing, not sin, unrighteousness, failure or mistakes can remove us from God’s immediate presence. Why! Because the blood of Christ eternally flows down upon us like a fountain, cleansing us from all sin and preserving our righteousness and perfection before the Father.

 There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Immanuel’s veins,

And sinners plunged beneath that flood, lose all their guilty stains. (Hymn by William Cowper)

 Hence we no longer have to come into the presence of God because we have never left. Instead we come before His throne to receive His grace in a time of need.

 Heb 4:16 Let us, then, feel very sure that we can come before Gods throne where there is grace. There we can receive mercy and grace to help us when we need it. (NCV)

 Now we no longer worship God from a distance but live in His presence 24/7. He enjoys being with us and we can enjoy being with Him.

 The next time we sin or fall short, let’s not remain in the outer court of God’s presence as a form of penance but realise we are accepted as we are because of the cleansing blood of Christ.

 We can now come boldly before Him asking for His help and grace to overcome our weaknesses and sins. What a privilege!

 Meditation Point: I am crowned with God’s glory and live 24/7 in His presence!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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