A Christian’s Response To Sin
What’s The Goal?
With our final post of the month, I want to focus on the application of what we’ve discussed when it comes to sin. We’ve discussed what sin is, where it all began, how God views sin, and even the different effects sin has that we might not have been aware of. But even with all of that knowledge, this whole study can become useless if we don’t apply what we’ve learned. So with everything that we have learned and gone over this month, how should we respond? What should be a Christian’s response to sin? Do we just lie down and accept defeat because we know our human souls are no match for the powers of sin? Do we just say ‘God will handle it’, and live our lives as if nothing has changed? As R.C. Sproul writes, “Are you concerned about righteousness? That is, do you want to be a righteous person? That has to be the controlling motivation of the Christian life, not consequences, not expediency, not profit and loss, joy or sorrow, but what is the right thing to do.” A Christian’s response to sin should be to turn from sin and pursue the opposite of sin, which would be righteousness and holiness. Let’s turn to the scriptures to see how our Lord says this should be accomplished.
Repentance
For starters, one cannot pursue righteousness if they are living in constant sin. You cannot claim to want to be more righteous and holy all while pursuing the desires of the flesh and missing the mark. This is why the very first response that a Christian should have to sin is repentance. Look at what Proverbs 28:13 tells us, “One who conceals his wrongdoings will not prosper, But one who confesses and abandons them will find compassion.” It doesn’t get much more clear than this. If we want to prosper in the end, we must be able to repent of our sin and pursue the holy things in this life like God has ordained for us. This is why repentance isn’t just a key in overcoming sin, but it is a foundational principle for accepting the gospel. All throughout the gospels and epistles we see Jesus and His disciples saying, ‘Repent and believe the gospel!’ That’s because this is the essence of salvation. We must believe that Jesus Christ came to this earth to die for the penalty of our sin so that His righteousness would be imputed unto us. But is this enough to just believe this story and call it a day? Absolutely not! We must repent! In fact, one of the main reasons we know if someone truly believes in the gospel is by seeing if they’ve truly repented. The two go hand in hand. If we ever expect to stop pursuing the constant desires of our flesh, we must repent of our sin and ask the Lord for His Spirit to guide us in our journey towards righteousness.
This is also why 1 John 1:9 says “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous, so that He will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Repentance from our sin doesn't just lead Christ to forgive us of our sin, but He cleanses us of it. And not just some of it, all unrighteousness. This is the greatest news in the world to one who has never heard the gospel before and it’s still the greatest news in the world to those who have! No longer do we need to rely on our own strength to overcome our sinful habits that seem so impossible to defeat. All we need to do is repent of our sin and know that Jesus is faithful and righteous enough to forgive us of this sin. This shouldn’t just be a one-time event, this should be the heart of a Christ follower whenever they sin. I’m not saying this in a salvific sense, I’m saying this in a born-again sense. In other words, I’m not suggesting that the reason we should repent every time we sin is because we lose our salvation, I’m saying that every time we sin we should be reminded of what Jesus has eternally saved us from and repent of our wickedness so that He may be honored through our lives once more.
Seeking Christ
Furthermore, our response shouldn’t just include how we act once we’ve sinned, our response as Christians should include how we act once we’ve been forgiven. Look at what Jesus says in Matthew 6:33-34 “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided to you. “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” This passage is used in multiple ways to address anxiety and the moments in our lives when our hearts are full of worry. And while this passage still applies to those situations, I would argue that overcoming sin fits right in with this passage as well. If someone has truly repented of their sin, chances are that one of the biggest worries they’ll now have is falling back into that sin. And what does Jesus tell us to do in order to combat this worry? Seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness. As simple as repenting and seeking out our Lord seems, it is unfortunately not the response of many people today. We would much rather think that God will forgive us no matter what we do and abuse His grace rather than turn from our sinful lives and seek Him in our day-to-day lives. I can’t think of a better way to end this series than with Paul’s words in Romans 6. Paul notes in verse 15 “What then? Are we to sin because we are not under the Law but under grace? Far from it!” Just because we are no match for sin, doesn’t mean we continue on sinning. God has made a way for us to not be entangled in this mess any longer. Which is exactly what he says next. Romans 6:17-18 “But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were entrusted, in, you became slaves to righteousness.” Praise God that we are no longer slaves to sin, but slaves to righteousness.
Sources
[1] Blue Letter Bible. (n.d.). Blue Letter Bible. https://www.blueletterbible.org/
[2] Do you want to be righteous? | Ligonier ministries. (n.d.). Ligonier Ministries. https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts/ultimately-with-rc-sproul/do-you-want-to-be-righteous
Comments