The Basics of Christian (cont. 2)

This is the third in my series based on the New Members' class I teach in my church. It is not meant to be a theological course. Rather it is an introduction to some of the basic issues facing a new Christian or one who has not been a member of a church before.

We are still on the section that asks the question, "What does it really mean to be a Christian?"

I. Who is this Jesus? We took a look at S.M. Lockridge's timeless sermon, "He’s My King"

II. What did I do when I accepted him? We looked at the steps taken to become a child of God. (We recognized that all the "doing" is God's.)

Now we will address the question, What if I sin?

I speak for myself (but I suspect this is true for others, too) when I say that I commit sin daily. The reason I know that is several fold.

First, I am a recipient of the "sin gene" so graciously passed on to me by Adam.

Secondly, since any thought or deed that is not in the exact center of God's will for me at a given moment is sin, I must not only admit to sin, I must be in a constant state of repentence...not repentence for salvation, that was pre-salvation, but repentence as a Godly sorrow for the sorry messes I keep getting myself into.

So what do I do about it?

The scriptures that seem to put all of this in perspective for me are:

I John 1:8, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us."

This is quite serious, because the truth is a who not a what, and His name is Jesus ("I am the way, the truth and the light..."). So if we say we have no sin, Jesus is not in us.

I John 1:10, "If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us." Uh, I don't think we want to be in a position of calling God a liar.

Ah! But there's the in-between verse that says, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

The word, confess comes from the Greek homologco "to speak the same thing." That could be translated agree.

So, if we agree with God that our missing His mark is sin, we can depend on Him to forgive our sin. It is just for Him to do so because His Son, Jesus, paid the price of sin at Calvary.

The same word homologco is used in Romans 10:9. We agree with God that Jesus is Lord. It is also used in Matthew 10:32, "Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess before also before my Father."

The answer, then, to our ongoing daily sin, is to be in a constant state of agreeing with God that we are completely dependent upon Him for our salvation, because otherwise our sin would not have been forgiven by Christ's finished work at the cross.

If, like Paul, we die to self and for Christ daily, remain in a constant attitude of prayer and submit to Him every day, we will sin less (although we will never be sinless), and that sin we commit will have been taken care of by the shed blood of Christ.

Next time we will wrap up part one of this six part series.

Be blessed!