June 28, 2018
And this is my
covenant with them, I will take away their sins. Romans 11:27
Our problem is often we
still want to hold on to some sins, instead of hand them ALL over to Jesus.
Our God is a God of Covenants. He makes promises based on His character
instead of our performance. When God
says He will do something, then He will do it.
God made a covenant with Adam to expand the earth through
him. God made a covenant with Abraham to
grow up a nation that would save the world.
God made a covenant with Moses to not only rescue the people, but bring
them to a promised land. God made a
covenant with David, to establish his lineage all the way to Jesus. And God made a covenant through Jesus, to
forgive and remove the sin of all people who follow Him.
If it were not for His character, our performance would have
long since lost all of God’s promises.
But that doesn’t match the covenant giver that He is. Covenants are not based on performance like a
contract, they are based on God. That’s
why when we enter a marriage covenant, we are not promising to be faithful to our
spouse based on what they do, but promise to be faithful based on who God
is. We are then accountable to God, not
to each other.
The problem with God is not his promises being broken, but
ours. God promises through Jesus to take
away every sin in our lives – past, present & future. He promises to remove the sins as well as the
sin nature. He made a covenant, but we
decide instead to only bring God some of our sins. We are glad to have him fix
our finances, but prefer to hold on to our greed. We like it when God fixes our struggles, but
prefer to hold on to our selfishness. Many
have taken him their brokenness, but still prefer to grip hold of pride. There are many idols we are glad to turn over
to God, just not the ones we enjoy for ourselves.
Forgiveness isn’t God’s problem, it is ours. We still want to hold on to some of our sins,
and God gives a covenant that is a package deal – all or nothing.
The rich young ruler found that out when he asked Jesus what
there was left to do for his entrance to the Kingdom. Jesus went through a number of things that
were already not a problem, but then got down to the one he preferred to keep
hold of – material possessions. The
problem wasn’t the possessions, but the young man’s sin of greed. Walking away, that young ruler didn’t turn in
the sin, and couldn’t be forgiven that day.
What are you holding on to these days? What sin is still your preferred vice? Stop accepting it as your little pet, and
turn every single one over to Jesus. He’s
ready to do the work to cleanse us of them, but we have to hand them over.
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