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Pastor's Blog March 12, 2020
"How Sinful Is Sin?"
{Scroll over scripture reference to read the scripture or reference.
Ellen draws our attention to a necessary lesson about sin: be honest with yourself and open with God about your sin. In "Steps to Christ," she states that each person must honestly face their sin and decide whether or not they want to cling to their own evaluation of how sinful sin really is and how holy God's law really is (21; 1977 edition).
Adam and Eve apparently thought that partaking of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil wouldn't result in disaster; however, the results of their disobedience demonstrate that they were wrong in their estimation of sin and evaluation of God's law (19-20). In a similar vein, many people today fail to recognize that "every act of transgression, every neglect or rejection of the grace of Christ, is reacting upon yourself" (20).
Though most believe they have time enough to always choose the good after pursuing a path of wickedness, the truth is that each sinful habit they indulge and every wasted opportunity which the Holy Spirit gives them to respond to Jesus only reaps a continual harvest of a life that is lived farther and farther away from God and his love (20).
Jesus can and does liberate us from our sin and its power over our lives (21); yet, the longer we trivialize our need of God's redeeming power in our lives and deceive ourselves into thinking there is enough time for us to turn to God, the more numb we become to the Holy Spirit and the gospel, and thus the more dangerous the situation becomes for us (20). But Ellen provides an interesting solution to this dilemma: "Study God's word prayerfully. That word presents before you, in the law of God and the life of Christ, the great principles of holiness" (21). According to Ellen, we only come to take sin seriously as we let God tell us in the Bible how to take sin seriously; and we only find ourselves paying attention to the promptings of the Holy Spirit as we let God teach us through the Bible how to listen to the Holy Spirit.
Friends, if you have not made good use of the opportunities which God has given you to depart from sin and come to Jesus, do not be discouraged. Instead, why not begin this very day to pay more attention to what God lovingly says about you in the Bible and less time focused on yourself or your sin?
(*) Steps to Christ 1977 edition; Chapter 2, “The Sinner’s Need of Christ”
God Bless.
Pastor Nathaniel Gamble
