by Pastor Kenny Innes

We know that God is gracious, loving and merciful. We know that God forgives sin. Does that mean that God doesn’t care about our sin, and therefore, neither should we?

There is a false grace movement on the fringes of our faith which says that we can sin all we like because God will forgive us anyway. This “grace” of God “frees” us to indulge our sinful desires, safe in the knowledge that God will forgive us for it all. This is an evil thought.

God hates sin, and wants people to be free from the sinful desires that separate them from Him. Furthermore, God says that He will judge all sin, and the consequence of an unrepentant life is death and eternity in Hell. To those who repent, He offers forgiveness.

The forgiveness that God offers us is not free. It was bought with a price. Jesus, God’s Son, became a man to live the perfect life that we cannot live, to die the death that we deserve to die, and to rise again to offer us new life. God poured out all of the wrath and judgment for our sin onto His own Son. When we believe and trust in Jesus, His righteousness is given to us. Our forgiveness is very costly indeed.

The cross shows us another very clear thing about our sin – we are not able to pay for it ourselves. It takes action on God’s part to remove the stain of the very sin that we commit against Him. All of our good deeds are not enough to satisfy the wrath and judgment of God towards our sinfulness. We need to throw ourselves on His mercy, confess our rebellion and wrongdoing, and surrender ourselves to His forgiving, healing, changing power. Only then can we gain any power over the sin that holds us back.

This is what David recognized in Psalm 51. He couldn’t appeal to his own goodness as a basis for forgiveness. He could only appeal to God’s merciful character upon those who sincerely repent and desire to be changed. So David, distraught by his own sin and unable to see a way to change within himself, cries out to God to rescue him.

Many church members forget that God is the only source of change and forgiveness. Instead, they try to hide their sinfulness under an outward appearance of godliness and good works. This works-based righteousness leads to a life of defeat, guilt, and shame. No matter how hard they work to cover their sin, they still have no power over it.

What God desires is for His Church to conquer their sin by depending on the work of His Son upon the cross to forgive them. Every one in the church will battle the sinful desires of the flesh. Those who hide it from God and from others will struggle in their faith. Those who confess their sins and cling to the cross will have victory after victory over sin as they experience the sanctifying work of God’s grace in their lives.

Trusting in Him alone,

Kenny