The source of guilt

Guilt is often presented as a good thing among religion. Many see guilt as a sign of sensitivity towards sin and the first step towards repentance. I think the church teaches from a wrong premise that the ministry of Holy Spirit is about convicting believers of their sins. Thus, as a result of such conviction, according to them, it is good that people feel guilty, so they can repent, ask forgiveness and get back into the fellowship with God.

People sit in pews Sunday after Sunday waiting for the bashing statements from the preacher so that they can feel guilty about their wrongful actions of the previous week; and they kind of feel good when they feel guilty. Then at the end of the sermon, the preacher usually throws an invitation for people to come forward to confess their sins and 'restore' the relationship with God. And it is commonly understood that the people who are 'sensitive' to sin would go forward and confess it. But the rigid, insensitive, rebellious ones sit back and spectate. Or may be the preacher did not use enough law to effectively stab their heart that they aren't bleeding yet. Well, may be, next week he can do a better job!

I think, the source of guilt is self-righteousness, pride and a faulty understanding of the ministry of Holy Spirit in a believer's a life.

When I sin, why would I feel guilty?

Its either,

• I do not believe that Jesus took away all my sins at the cross.

Or,

• I had always thought I would never do that sin. (self-righteousness)
  

Lets say, you did the worst possible sin imaginable. The sin which you thought you would never do.

Well, there is the problem!

Why did we even think that we would never do a particular sin? When I think or say that I would never do a sin, what I am saying indirectly is that Jesus didn't have to take that sin away for me, thereby devaluing His superior act on the cross. Out of my arrogance, I thought I could abstain from it by the energy of my flesh. No wonder that I am surprised when I do it, and plunging myself into guilt, shame, self-pity and condemnation.

A person who has a grasp of the 'finished work of Jesus' and the 'finality of the cross' do not have to feel guilty when he/she sins. They doubtlessly know that all their sins are behind the back of God, never to see them again. Its a message which humbles us, and enables us to say 'Thank you, Jesus' when we sin. It is not about being insensitive to sin, its not about seeing the unconditional forgiveness as a 'license' to indulge in sin. It is an understanding that, we are capable of doing any sin under the sun, but we don't have to lose heart when we do it, because all our sins are forgiven at the cross once and for all, and rejoice in the fact that God's power rests upon our weakness.

The Spirit of Jesus, who took away the sins from the sight of God, would never ever bring up the already forgiven and forgotten sins back again to condemn us and put us into shame and guilt.

Holy Spirit is not oxymoronic!

He is/was one among the Triune God, "who was in Christ, reconciling us to Himself, not counting our sins against us" (2 Corinthians 5:19). That being an accomplished fact, Holy Spirit would always point us back to the cross, and to the fact that we are perfectly righteous because of what Jesus did and thereby reminding us our need to stand on His grace alone every single day of our life.

It wasn't oxygen!

"And the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being" - Genesis 2:7

What was it God breathed into Adam's nostrils? Have you ever wondered? Was it the 'air' we breath? Was it oxygen? Check this excerpt from 'In His Image' by Dr. Paul Brand:

When I heard that verse as a child, I imagined Adam lying on the ground, perfectly formed but not yet alive, with God leaning over him and performing a sort of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Now I picture that scene differently. I assume that Adam was already biologically alive - the other animals needed no special puff of oxygen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide to start them breathing, why should man? The breath of God now symbolizes for me a spiritual reality. I see Adam as alive, but possessing only an animal vitality. Then God breaths into him a new spirit, and infills him with His own image. Adam becomes a living soul, not just a living body. God's image is not an arrangement of skin cells or a physical shape, but rather an inbreathed spirit.

We know the rest of the story, that Adam sinned and lost what was inbreathed into him and became dead spiritually (the wages of sin is death). The Life of God went absent from him. He was no more bearing the image of God.

Fast forward to the New Testament, the last Adam (Jesus) came to earth to give us what we lost in the first Adam. Acting out of His unconditional love and grace, He resolved the cause of death - sin, once and for all and made the entire world capable of receiving the Life through simple faith.

Do we realize that it is the very Life raised Jesus from the dead is what raises us from the state of spiritual death, when we simply receive Him by faith?

• "In him was life" - John 1:4

• "For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it." - John 5:21

• "Whoever believes in me has crossed over from death to life." - John 5:24

• "For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." - John 6:33

• "I am the bread of life." - John 6:35

• "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you." - John 6:53

• "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." - John 8:12

• "I have come that they may have life" - John 10:10

• "I am the resurrection and the life." - John 11:25

• "I am the way and the truth and the life." - John 14:6

• "By believing in the Son of God, you may have life in his name." - John 20:31

By faith, we receive the very inbreathed spirit (Life) what Adam had before the fall and we now become a living spiritual being. Alive to God! And now, God want us to give flesh to that spirit, to live out the image of God here on earth. We have His very own likeness! It's mind boggling!

The power of sin

I have dieted a lot in my life. My wife and I once tried 'Maker's diet'. This was before we came to an understanding of grace. We both were all excited about it because after all it is a 'biblical diet'. As Christians we always looked for the word 'biblical' or 'Christian' in front of anything- Christian handy man, Christian hair cut, Christian mortgage, Biblical eating habits, biblical way of losing weight and anything under the sun which says biblical or Christian. I think we were so much excited about 'Christianity' than Christ himself. What a tragedy!

Anyways, we tried that diet for quite a period of time. And you know what? It worked! We both started losing weight, people started noticing it and started commenting about our 'new' looks. We thought those comments paid for the struggle what we were going through. We acted as if it is not a big deal. Certainly there were many type of food we were giving up and the truth is, it was a big deal!

We went for about 30-40 days and finally we reached at the end of our rope. We slowly started giving up and started eating the things we enjoy eating. What a relief! The moral of the story is, I now weigh more than I weighed before I started that diet!

The attractiveness of law among Christians (or among any religious people) is that it works for a while. It does. It can give some wonderful results. But the truth is that while it's working, it is gaining all its power to fail you miserably in the future. Even the people who claim to be 'law keeping' Christians knows this truth, but they don't admit it. They hide it.

The sin itself has no power. Sin is just lying there, dead and powerless. It can't do anything by itself unless and until it is connected to its power source- the law. Sin gets all its power from the law. One of the verse which gave me a lot of revelation about the power of sin is found at I Cor. 15:56

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

Yes, the power of sin is the law. I do not need any explanation to agree to this point. My own life proves it to me over and over, even today. When we put a hole in the wall, no one really cares. But the moment we hang a sign there saying 'do not look through this hole', we all know what happens! Until I told my daughter 'do not touch the stove' she never bothered. But now that I told her and she wants to touch it.

Paul talks about 'the sinful passions aroused by the law' in Romans. Our sinful passions are aroused by the law. That very well is the purpose of the law, 'so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God' (Romans 3:19). This simple truth can save us from a lot of trouble. I praise God for law, without it, I would have never understood the significance of His grace.

The secret of not sinning is not the law, but unplugging it. Sin is always going to be with us till our last breath, but as long as it is unplugged from its power source, it will not take control over our life.

Freedom From Bondage

Have you been living in hopelessness, pain and rejection?
Have you been struggling with some worst sins in your life?

If there is anybody out there bound in any kind of sin, I have news for you: you cannot out-sin the grace of God no matter what...

But where sin increased, grace increased all the more (Romans 5:20)

I would like to share this true story I found on realanswers.net: (Please click the below link to read the story)

Freedom From Bondage

Get out...

Beleieve It and Be Happy!

According to this gracious covenant [New Covenant], the Lord treats His people as if they had never sinned. Practically, He forgets all their trespasses. Sins of all kinds treats as if they had never been; as if they were quite erased from His memory. O miracle of grace! God here does that which in certain aspects is impossible to Him. His mercy works miracles which far transcends all other miracles. Our God ignores our sin now that the sacrifice of Jesus has ratified the covenant. We may rejoice in Him without fear that He will be provoked to anger against us because of our iniquities. See! He puts us among the children; He accepts us as righteous; He takes delight in us as if we were perfectly holy. He even puts us in places of trust; makes us guardians of His honor, trustees of crown jewels, stewards of the gospel. He counts us worthy, and gives us a ministry ; this is the highest and most special proof that He does not remember our sins. Even when we forgive an enemy, we are very slow to trust him; we judge it to be imprudent to do so. But the Lord forgets our sins, and treats us as if we had never erred.O my soul, what a promise is this! Believe it and be happy. - Charles H. Spurgeon

Does Grace Encourage Sin?

An Excellent post by Steve McVey:

Does Grace Encourage Sin?

A question asked by the religious mind.

Two trees.

I think the most significant historic revolutions in this world started from two trees. Yes! Trees.

It is an undeniable fact that there is the existence of sin in the world. I don’t have to be spiritual to agree to that. Even atheists would agree to that (If you don’t agree just read the daily news headlines).
The simple logic to find what something actually is to find its origin. The only book in the world talks about the origin of sin is the Bible. Sin originated in the Garden of Eden as a result of Adam and Eve eating from the tree of good and evil. Yes it originated in their heart and came in to existence through that tree. The tree looked good and it was pleasing to their eyes. They ate from it, sinned (disobeyed God) and died (spiritually).

I have heard a saying - a thorn shall be taken by another thorn. Another tree was needed to rescue humanity from this cause of death (sin). This tree wasn’t that pleasing to eyes. The fruit on that tree was ugly.

There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance,
nothing to attract us to him…

He was despised and rejected…

But he was pierced for our rebellion,
crushed for our sins…

He was beaten so we could be whole.
He was whipped so we could be healed…

He was oppressed and treated harshly,
yet he never said a word… - Isaiah 53

He took away the cause of death (sin) on the tree for us.

“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” - 2 Corinthians 5:21

God judged sin on that tree. Can we fall at that cross and eat the fruit of it? It gives us back what we lost when Adam ate from the tree in the Eden.