"For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved."

John 3:17 

Happy Easter everybody!

I hope everybody has a blessed day and celebrates the day that our Saviour rose from the grave.

Today I want to speak about a topic that a lot of Christians don't seem to understand, or rather, don't apply to their lives. I too am among these Christians but God is currently teaching me this lesson, which I would like to share with you. 

We are under grace, not condemnation.

What does this mean? You may ask. To explain this I must firstly briefly talk about what Jesus did for  us. When Jesus Christ was on earth, he was a perfect human being. He never once sinned and he lived a life that pleased God. Us human beings, on the other hand, were full of sin. We were slaves to sin, whether we realised it or not, and lived a life of rebellion to God. Our sin prevented us from having a relationship with God. Why? Because what is pure (God) and what is impure (sin) cannot cooperate. However, God still loved us. Even in our sin and rebellion against him, he loved us. So he chose to give up his Son to save us from the penalty of our sins. If not for Christ's sacrifice, we would face the punishment for sinning - which is death and hell. (The Bible makes it clear that in order for sins to be forgiven by God, a sacrifice must be given). Jesus Christ was the only sacrifice that could make up for the sins of the world because he himself was God, and there is nothing better than God, therefore he was the perfect sacrifice. He was the greatest sacrifice that could have been given. But Jesus' death and shedding of his blood was a seal to a new covenant (promise) between human beings and God - a covenant of grace and not condemnation.

What is grace? Grace is when we don't deserve something but God gives it to us anyways - out of his great love and mercy. Christ Jesus died so that humans could now have a relationship with God again. This act was done out of the grace and love of God. We did nothing to deserve Christ dying for us. We deserved death, we deserved condemnation. But God decided to treat us otherwise. Our sins originally distanced us from God but his sacrifice caused a reconciliation and restoration.

"And since we have been made right in God's sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God's condemnation. For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God."

Romans 5:9-11

God wants us to embrace his new covenant of grace. Because of what Christ did for us, we no longer are condemned for our sins. ("So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus" Romans 8:1). Okay Sophie, but what does this actually mean..why is this important..you may be thinking. What this means is when you sin now, you are not condemned (given that you repent).  (Take note that this applies to those who are in Christ, who are genuinely saved). A lot of people misunderstand God for this person who is very strict and you must obey his laws or else you will die and no no no, that is not who God is. God is a God of love and patience and mercy. He WANTS to forgive you when you sin. He does not want to condemn you!

A lot of the time, when we sin, we feel extremely guilty. We feel like we have disappointed God. Well I do anyways. Sometimes when I mess up, I get so discouraged and angry at myself that I feel too embarrassed to approach God. I feel too ashamed of myself to even ask for mercy. I say to myself "Ugh, I keep saying I will stop with this sin, yet I keep finding myself doing it. God can't keep forgiving me because I am making a fool of him.". God has been showing me recently that this is wrong wrong wrong. This is the wrong mindset to have. God is a God who is FULL of forgiveness and mercy. When we mess up, he WANTS us to come to him. It is totally against human logic. In our minds, when we do something wrong to someone, it's better to leave them alone for a while. For example, if you steal money from your mum and she finds out, the chances are that you will not approach her for money for a while. The chances are that you will keep your distance from her for a while because you believe that she is still hurt and is not ready to forgive and accept you yet. But God is not like human beings. He behaves opposite in this sense. When we sin, God especially wants us to approach him. He wants to forgive us and help us deal with it. You must understand that God himself came as a human being and was tempted too. He understands what it is like to be tempted by sin (Hebrews 4:15). He knew how to overcome it therefore he wants to help you overcome it too.

When you sin, don't drown in a sea of guilt. Rather come to God and admit to him that you are helpless and unable to fight sin by yourself. Admit to him that you need him. Repent of the sin and BELIEVE that he has forgiven you. Many of us unnecessarily live in guilt because we don't think we are forgiven. We think that our sin is too bad for God to forgive us. We think that we have sinned so much that God has run out of patience and no longer wants to forgive us. All of this is wrong. God loves us and if we confess our sins to him, he will forgive us (1 John 1:9).  Although we deserve condemnation, his grace says "no condemnation, I want them to have eternal life through me". Do not live condemning yourself because you have done wrong. God still loves you and his love for you can never run out, no matter how much you sin (Romans 8:38-39). So believe that you are forgiven. However that does not mean you can continue to live in sin with the idea that God's mercy will always be available to you. Living in such a way proves that you don't love and fear God, and someone who doesn't love God cannot enter heaven.

The more you come to God in prayer and worship, and the more you spend time with him by meditating on his Word, you will find sin leaving you. Your desire for sin will start going away because your love for God is growing bigger. Being a believer does not mean you do not struggle with sin anymore. You are being transformed daily through Christ and he is helping you overcome sin because he lives inside of you and he himself has overcome sin. So be encouraged.

Thank you for your time reading this today, I hope you can apply this message to your life.

But remember, you must be saved in order to be under the covenant of grace. You must have accepted Jesus Christ into your life for these things to be a reality for you. If you have not, I have another blog post titled "I'm too broken for God" (http://okaysophie.blogspot.ie/2015/08/im-too-broken-for-god.html) I hope you can read this.

Have a lovely day everybody.

Jesus loves you.

"So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most."

Hebrews 4:16