Tuesday, March 27, 2018

Handling Your Day to Day Sin

“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (I John 1:8-9 NIV)

Many years ago, at a Fall Retreat, I had a student come up to me after one of the sessions and tell me she wanted to be re-baptized. As was my practice then, and now, I asked her to explain her reasons for such a decision. She explained she had committed a sin about which she felt very guilty. I empathized with her, but led her to this passage to explain what she needed was not another baptism, but rather confession of her sin to the Lord.

I think it is normal to become emotional in the midst of our guilt. We feel bad and want it to go away. This is why, often, a person who sins will often fall prey to the same temptation over and over because, in an irrational way, he will seek relief from his guilt through sinning again. Much like a drug, sin often offers temporary relief from guilt.

So baptism can easily become a means to assuage guilt. It is an attractive alternative to mere confession and repentance because it naturally provides an emotional “rush.” Like going forward at an altar call, baptism can call attention to us; people watch and pray for us, which feels very good. However, like the altar call, baptism is a “one-off” event. It happens and then it is over. Then what? 

Similarly to one’s decision to follow Jesus, baptism is designed to mark a beginning—a life once walking away from God to one whose sole purpose is to seek after Him until its earthly end. Confession and repentance are how we are to deal with the sin of our lives in between. 

By nature, we are impatient people. We can grow weary of sin’s hold on us and may seek to deal with it in one fell swoop. But what we must understand is that is one of the devil’s many strategies to derail us spiritually—tolerate sin in our lives until we become overwhelmed or desperate, and then seek out some magical moment where we can have it all go away. Of course, it might for a while. But it won’t last because, at the heart of the matter, we are all sinners (Romans 3:23) and we naturally sin. There is no escape from this reality.

So, we have a choice. Either we deal with sin each and every time we are overcome by it, or we tolerate it in our lives until we grow desperate enough to want to rid ourselves of the guilt it continues to bring. Which of these do you think is the more wise and helpful approach?

Today, recognize dealing with sin in your life is best done by repeated confession and repentance. You have the choice to hold onto it, but why would you want to do that when the Lord offers forgiveness each and every time you come to Him and confess?

© Jim Musser 2018

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