KEEPING SHORT ACCOUNTS WITH GOD

 

Rom 4:8 Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord will never count against them.” (NIV)

When it comes to God forgiving all our sins, there are those who teach we must keep short accounts with God. By this they mean that any sin we commit we must confess and ask God’s forgiveness, because to them, any unconfessed sin will:

 a)    Break our fellowship with God – your sins have separated between you and your God.(Isa 59:2)

 b) God will not answer our prayers. (Isa 59:2)

So we must keep short accounts with God if we are to expect a continuing relationship with Him and His blessing in our lives.

Let’s look at how God dealt with sin under the covenants:

 The Old Covenant— Forgiveness operated on a  case by case model, hence every time a person sinned, the priest would offer an animal blood sacrifice and the person would confess and ask for forgiveness. (Ps 51:1-4)

 If a person failed to confess and forsake their sin they would not prosper:

 Prov 28:13 He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.

 Many Christians today use this Old Covenant model in dealing with their sin in relationship to God.

 The New Covenant— Forgiveness operates on a once for all time and eternity model!  Christ as our sacrifice offered His blood  once to obtain forgiveness and removal of all sin,  past, present and future! (Jn 1:29, Eph 1:7)

Heb 10:12 This man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sin forever, sat down at the right hand of God.

Under the Old Covenant it was man who had to take the initiative in coming to God to deal with his sin. But under the New Covenant it was God in Christ who took the initiative to come to man, removing his sin once for all time and eternity:

 2 Cor 5:19 God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. (NIV)

 Heb 10:16-18 “This is the covenant that I will make with them says the Lord: “ Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.

If God at the cross has already forgiven, forgotten and no longer counts our sin against us, all we need do is receive it, thank God for it, rise up and move on!

 This is the total freedom that God designed for man when He dealt with sin at the cross. At a stroke, it removes the vast amounts of time, energy and strength that we spend confessing and asking God to remove our sin.

 It also removes sin consciousness that forces man to continually look inwards and plagues him with guilt and condemnation!

 Take time to meditate on the verses below. Ask the Holy Spirit to open your eyes to the truth of forgiveness in Christ.

 Heb 10:1-4 For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins.But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. (NKJV)

 Heb 10:16-18“This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord:“Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin. (NKJV)

 Meditation Point: God has dealt with and removed sin completely from man’s life. All I needs do when I sin is receive God’s forgiveness, thank Him and move on without a backward glance!

 Footnote: If we sin against another person, we must still go to them and confess and ask their forgiveness because we operate with them on the case by case model.

 

 

 

 

 

 

God forgiving all our sins – there are those who teach -

 

We must keep short accounts with God – By this they mean that any sin we commit we must confess and ask God’s forgiveness- Because to them, any unconfessed sin will:

Break our fellowship with God – your sins hav

 

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