Living life without sin-consciousness…

It seems nowadays that many people equate any type of relationship with God with fears about their own sins or inability to somehow live up to what they “think” God requires of them.  I have often wondered how some folks get offended if you even mention God to them, like it somehow is an indictment regarding how they have been living.  My children used to tell their friends that I was a Minister and then their friends would get all weird on me, or start apologizing for saying a swear word or something.  Even though I’m not technically a Minister, it still made me think about how people must view God and how far different God really is in comparison to that mindset.  This may come as quite a surprise to you but God actually invented people.  Being all-wise, all-knowing and everywhere present, do we really think that God is somehow shocked or surprised by human behavior?  Is it plausible to consider that God could know everything there is to know, yet be freaked out every time a person went off track; zigged when he should have zagged; went down the wrong path etc. etc. etc.?  Surely being God He could do better than that!  The truth is that God knows all about us humans.  He knows our weaknesses, our faults, our failings, our insecurities, our foolishness, our frailties, yet still loves us.  What do parents do when their kids make mistakes (large and small)?  They fight like hell to get their kid out of trouble and do everything within their power to make them okay again.  Oh sure we may recognize that they “should” have done what we said, yet our love for them tries to refrain from saying it.  We fully recognize that the particular consequence they find themselves in more than makes the point we were thinking.  So, wouldn’t it be silly if God had less love than parents did?  God, unlike parents, has access to every single thing that goes through a person’s mind.  He sees everything that we do.  He knows why we did it, when we did it.  He knows everything! 

So then, what about this whole sin thing?  Sin is defined as things that are in opposition to God’s heart for us.  Sin dates back first to the angels that disobeyed God, then to the first man, Adam.  (Here’s a fascinating fun fact side-note:  God also has foreknowledge which means He knows what is going to happen before it happens.)  God already knew Adam was going to disobey Him, yet He made him anyway!  From that day to this present day every person born into this world is born with a sin-nature, a nature that sins.  It is called in the Bible the old man nature.  God being completely aware of this knew He had to make a way for man to fellowship with him without being dominated and overcome by sin.  You see, the whole reason God even created man was to have fellowship with him.  God wanted someone who would love Him of their own free-will choice, not out of fear or dread, but out of love.  Much the same way parents (and grandparents) bubble over when they receive heart-felt expressions of love from the children, without it being solicited (or coerced).  Haven’t you heard a parent say, “My eyes welled up because he told me he loved me so much, right out of the blue!”  God wants the same from His children.  He wants to have a relationship based on and formed out of love.  He wants the opportunity to save His children from the dilemmas they have usually brought upon themselves.  He desires the best for His children and is grieved when His children don’t come to Him.  So, what stops us from coming to Him?  Sin-consciousness!  Crazy I know, but oh so true!  Somehow that old adversary that had a hand in getting us to go off track, condemns the bejesus out of us after we do it.  So, it becomes very clear that God had to do something about this whole sin thing. 

The plan that God devised was almost unbelievable.  (Ha I guess that’s what you can do when you know everything!)  He knew through the ages that man would constantly be under the thumb of sin and made a way for man to escape sin and even the consciousness of it.  He did it through Jesus Christ.  God had his son, who was born without sin in his blood or a sin nature, to live a perfect life.  Jesus Christ was the first person who even had the potential to live God’s Word perfectly.  (That should make you feel a little better 🙂 ) Then, God asked him to make the ultimate sacrifice for mankind….to die for us.  Then, as promised, God raised him from the dead when WE WERE JUSTIFIED!  Do you see it?  Once we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and that God raised him from the dead, we become forever sin-free in God’s sight.  God simply does not hold us accountable for our sins.  Now sure we can still sin (we already know that, right?) yet the point is those mistakes, those errors, our weaknesses, our faults no longer hinder us from having that sweet relationship with God.  It’s really hard to believe that God will rescue you from some terrible situation if all you can think about is how “bad” you’ve been.  So now you are free from having to think that way.  Jesus Christ was our perfect substitute and God laid on him the iniquity of us all. 

It’s really awful that when God is mentioned the first thing people think about is sin!  I can assure you that God doesn’t think that way.  God devised a flawless plan because He already knows in great detail how us humans work.  He knows our frame and remembers we were made from the dust of the earth.  He wants you to be free to love Him because you want to, not because He will punish you with disaster if you don’t.  Shoot, God doesn’t do that stuff anyway because He is light and in Him is no darkness at all.  (no darkness at all means no darkness at all)  So do yourself a huge favor this week.  Don’t think of God in terms of sin, think of God in terms of great love, great power and a desire for great fellowship with you.   When it comes to sin, just let it go man…God already did!