For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23 HCSB
It was hard deciding the title for this blog because I could just as easily have said, “This one’s for me.” We are all sinners. But I must admit sometimes I look at other people’s sins and think it’s worse than mine which is not true.
I will also admit that I have at times listened to sermons or read blogs and thought, “Oh, I wish so and so could hear this or read this.” When the truth of the matter is that God didn’t put so and so there to hear that sermon or read that devotional or blog. If He put me there, obviously I needed to hear that.
Last night our pastor used the Scripture passage 2 Timothy 3:1-6 for his sermon. Someone asked is sin just sin period, or are there levels of sin? The Bible tells us in Romans 6:23 that the wages of sin is death. It doesn’t differentiate between one sin or the other it just says “sin”.
Now our Scripture passage tells us that we have all sinned. If the payment for sin is death, we are all doomed, right? Well, actually no. We are not doomed because God loved us so much, He sent His one and only Son to die on a cross to save us from our sins (John 3:16). Romans 5:8 says, “But God proved His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us!”
If we will just believe in Him and accept Him as our Savior and surrender to Him, we can be saved.
Now if we go back to the passage in 2 Timothy 3:1-6 it lists a whole bunch of sinful behaviors. These behaviors include loving ourselves, loving money, prideful, blaspheming God, being disobedient to parents, being ungrateful, being unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, without love for what is good, traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.
I can look at each of these behaviors and be convicted of a time in my life where I experienced them. I’m not proud of that, but it is what it is. I can admit I am a sinner. I’ve come to realize, however, since I surrendered to God, He helps me daily to strive not to do these things. But there’s that one that sometimes gets me.
The last behavior mentioned is holding to a form of godliness but denying its power. I would like to say that I used to do that, but not anymore. But I realized last night, anytime I have a sinful thought or exhibit a sinful behavior I am still doing that. In my sin, I deny God’s power. I guess I forget how powerful His wrath can be. Anytime I don’t have faith in Him to get me through a trying time, I deny His power.
God is a good, faithful, loving, merciful God. But when we do wrong, He’s a God of wrath. He will not let our sin go unpunished (Proverbs 11:21). Anytime we sin, we deny God’s power. When you fail to trust in Him, you deny His power.
Now, if you are familiar with the Roman’s Road to Salvation, then you realize we have covered 4 of the 5 verses in the Roman’s Road. As I said before, we must surrender to God. Romans 10:9-10 tells us, “If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”
There’s so much more I could say, but I will close by saying our sin of unforgiveness, gossiping, or whatever we do is just as bad as the sins of adultery or murder. Sin is sin and we all do it. This is why we so desperately needed that baby born all those years ago so He could grow up and give His life for us to save us from our sins. His sacrifice means nothing, however, if we don’t accept Him as our Savior and surrender our lives to Him.
Don’t worry about the sin others are committing, look at yourself and see where you are denying God’s power in your life. Correct that and surrender your all to Him. Trust in Him to save you from your sin and strengthen you against temptation. When you are convicted of your sin, confess it to God and repent.
In closing, I will leave you with Romans 5:1 which says, “Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
This one’s for you and me.
Have a great day!