Why would God send His only begotten Son to bear our sin and become sin itself and then judge Him, without mercy for that sin if His sacrifice wasn’t enough? Yet, most believers act as though it wasn’t enough and continue to believe God is withholding His blessing because of their sin. It is time we knew the truth.
Gracetidings with Dr Doug Mamvura
I continue to encounter many people who just won’t let the Bible get in the way of their theology. Religious traditions and widely accepted teachings have become the basis of their beliefs, rather than the Bible. The results are obvious: Their relationship with Christ is profiting them little or at the very best, less than intended. I used to be like that as well until I decided to allow the Bible to cut through my own religious doctrines and traditions that I had become accustomed to.
My question to you is, “are your religion and traditional beliefs working for you?” If not, why hang on to something that is keeping you so miserable, depressed, broke, frustrated, fearful, hopeless and full of unbelief and yet you confess to be born again?
Don’t you know that Jesus came so that we would have abundant life? (John 10:10).
If you’re conscious of sin, then you truly don’t understand the grace of your salvation through Jesus. It may sound radical, but it is true. This is different from what most of us have been taught. I also used to struggle with the same so I am not saying this to hurt anybody. However, the truth has to be said.
The Word of God declares that God is not imputing or laying to our account, our sin: 2 Corinthians 5:19 states “..that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation”.
Sin consciousness has been ground into us. Grace is not the way of the world. Your employer doesn’t hire you by grace and promise to pay no matter what you do. They have expectations. In marriages spouses don’t always love each other unconditionally.
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Almost everything on this earth is based on performance and unfortunately, that performance mentality has found itself in church where we are taught to focus on our sin.
However, this is exactly the opposite according to God. Sin is not being charged to our account. Instead, it is being charged to Jesus’ account and He has already paid the bill in full.
Many churches would throw me out for saying this but that is what the Bible says. Let’s look at Hebrews 9:11-12.
“But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is not of this creation; Not with the blood of goats and calves but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all having obtained eternal redemption.”
Jesus entered once. It means He doesn’t do it over and over again. Every time you sin, the Lord doesn’t have to wait until you repent and then get that sin under the blood. He did that once and for all.
If sin meant loss of relationship with God and unanswered prayers, then God wouldn’t have had a single person qualify to receive answer to prayer or fellowship with Him. This is because there isn’t any person on this earth who doesn’t have either a known or un-confessed sin. So the question is, was Jesus enough or not?
This is where the crux of the matter is. It is the reason why many believe God isn’t healing them or prospering them. On one hand, they confess that God loves them and sacrificed His Son for their salvation and on the other, they say He is still judging them for sin. What a contradiction!
Hebrews 9:13-15 that:
“For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” And for this reason, He is the Mediator of the new covenant by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.
It isn’t God who is condemning us when we sin, it’s our consciences. We haven’t purged our consciences with the truth of what Jesus has done with sin. Satan knows this and is using this to condemn us and destroy our faith in God by reminding us that we don’t deserve God’s blessing.
Praise God, He isn’t giving us what we deserve. He is giving us what Jesus deserves. Jesus paid for sin one time, past present and future. Let’s use scripture to buttress this argument by looking at Hebrews 9:25-28:
“Not that He should offer Himself often, as the High Priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another, He would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world, but now once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this judgement, So Christ once offered to bear the sins of many”.
God knows the end from the beginning and He knew all the sins of the whole world. Jesus paid all those committed before His sacrifice and all that had not yet been committed. He made the payment once and it will never be made again. The price for sin, all sin has been paid. Thank you Jesus.
We have received an eternal inheritance (Hebrews 9:15) that can’t be taken away. Your inheritance is not temporary. It is eternal. You aren’t disinherited and you don’t lose the benefits of being part of the family because of sin. To understand this, you have to see yourself as God sees you. In your born again spirit, you are as clean and holy and as pure as Jesus is (1 John 4:17). Religion has made you look at your flesh. It has made you search the soulish realm of your thoughts, attitudes and feelings. But that is not what God is looking at. He is looking at your spirit, the part of you that has become a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17).
What part of you is new? It is not the flesh nor is it the soul. It is your born again spirit. When you go to God in prayer and say “O God I am so ungodly and so unworthy, create in me a clean heart, please answer my prayer”, you are not in the spirit, you are in the flesh. Your spirit is righteous, holy and pure. Sin doesn’t affect your spirit.
Your spirit was “sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise” (Ephesians 1:13). In layman’s language it was vacuum packed and nothing can contaminate your born again spirit; that is why as He is, so are we in this world.
When you sin, you give Satan an open door to the soul, your mind and emotions, as well as opportunity to destroy your physical body. It’s not good to open yourself up to the devil. The Bible is very clear that the wages of sin is death.
Some of us might still be thinking, well I know God died once for all men, but His sacrifice still must be applied whenever we sin, but Hebrews 10:10-12 and 14 say:
“By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this Man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.”
This is talking about your born again spirit, not your physical body or soul.
Maturity in the Christian life isn’t about trying to grow your spirit up. It’s trying to educate, or renew your mind to what you already have in your spirit. God loves you even though you’ve messed up. He loves you not because of your performance, but because of Jesus’ sacrifice. This revelation will transform your life as it did mine.
Dr Doug Mamvura is a graduate of Charis Bible School. Feedback: [email protected] or Twitter @dougmamvura
