The Babylonians were
sent to punish the Israelites for their sins.
God had had enough. His people
had worn out His patience. They went
through the motions of allegiance to God but their hearts were far from
Him. They claimed to be His, but did not
live like it. They expected the Lord’s
favor upon them, but did not humble themselves before Him or obey Him.
God cannot allow sin
in any form. We must understand this
profound and all important truth. There
is no sin in the presence of God. Ever. Sin must be dealt with before one approaches
God or He will be denied access to God.
God is holy and hates all sin. In
order to approach God, we must be made righteous in Christ. As much as we may not like it, we must
confess our sins before Christ and seek His forgiveness. There is no other way to draw near to God.
We don’t stress this truth much anymore,
but I believe it is a critical truth. We
must preach and teach it until we believe it.
God is sin intolerant. He will
not overlook sin in any form. He will
not let sin anywhere near Him. No one
will make it to heaven with a sin problem hanging over their soul. Repentance is for Christians too! In fact, I believe that it is even more
important for the believer than the non-believer because we are held
accountable for what we know. The
sinner’s prayer for forgiveness is just the beginning of a lifetime of
forgiveness. We all sin and come short
of the glory of God.
I believe it is
dangerous for us to assume that once we are saved we are no longer in need of
repentance. How can sin go away without
it? Does the righteousness of Christ
guarantee our acceptance by God regardless of our sins? All I know is that the Word calls us into a
confession of our sins. God commands
holiness in the heart of His children and dealing with sin through Christ is
the only way it is going to happen. He
IS our righteousness and holiness before God.
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