Christians sin. As we grow in our faith and walk with Christ, while we still won’t be sinless, hopefully, prayerfully, we will be sinning less. We will start seeing our remaining sin with increasing distaste and disdain, as our understanding of the horribleness of our sin grows; that our own sin caused Christ’s death on the cross.
Still, as just stated, we do sin. If we didn’t there’d be no need for the admonition God gives us in Hebrews 12:1–2 (NAU): “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
We get entangled, don’t we?
Advent is time of preparation for the celebration of Christ’s birth during the Christmas season. While Advent can be in and of itself a joyful time of anticipation, it is also a time of repentance (similar to Lent), a time of getting ready for Christ. While non-Christians desperately need to come to faith in Christ, to turn to Him for salvation, both believers and non-believers need to repent.
We see the theme of repentance in the ministry of John the Baptist, who was sent by God ahead of Jesus. His purpose was to prepare the people for the ministry of Jesus Christ. Matthew 3:1–3 (NAU): “Now in those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ For this is the one referred to by Isaiah the prophet when he said, "The voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make ready the way of the Lord, make His paths straight!’”
We see the same theme in the early days of Jesus’s ministry. Mark 1:14–15 (NAU): “Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’"
The key: repent. Either we repent or we don’t. Our response one way or the other will determine not only our eternal destiny, but long-term, how we come to regard the Scriptures. In the next post we will look at two biblical characters who dealt with the exact same sin issue: one repented; the other did not. We will find that they came to very different ends.
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