It Is Not Too Late!

The power of TRUTH is in its ability to produce freedom in those who will heed it. Jesus said, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” (Jo. 8:32). If knowing the truth sets us free and “Whom the Son sets free is free indeed”, (Jo. 8:32 & 36), then, freedom, and the peace it brings become the true markings of liberty in our life; not the liberty to be reckless or sin without conscience or fear of consequences, but the freedom to live with a clear conscience and in fellowship with God.

 
Sin promotes a counter activity of religious flurry and vain worship and counterfeit religious exercises that create the illusion of righteousness and a serious case of undiagnosed spiritual blindness. The endless litany of good deeds and rituals religion calls for, however, have failed to produce true repentance or righteousness in its participants. These can never play any useful part in the life of any soldier-of-the-Cross.

 
Sin in any of its legal or illegal forms is still unlawful before God. Breaking His commandments, whether the Old Testament ten or the revised version written under grace, is still breaking the commandments. Doing good deeds to counter balance the scales of justice is not the right answer to a holy God. Paul’s answer to the question, “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” (Rom. 6:1), is still, “Certainly not!” (Rom.6:2). Grace does not provide us an excuse to sin or absolution for disobedience.

 
The hour is late. The coast is not clear. Now is the day of salvation. The night is far spent. Many virgins are lining up in the corridors of time waiting for the arrival of the Bridegroom. Some are prepared to keep the watch, others are not. Many have been deceived into thinking sin is old-fashioned.

 
They have embraced the ‘soft line on sin and self-indulgence’ and think it can be covered over by good deeds, as a substitute for obedience. They are more persuaded by the will of man than be the Word of God, and are in no position to sustain their position if the Lord delays His coming much longer. They are unprepared to maintain the righteous cause of Heaven and have taken to the streets of sin to ‘peep and mutter’ with the divinationists and carouse with the idolaters.

 
Our ideas of what is good enough are not good enough. How many, to their horror, will hear the door close as the warning of Jesus Christ echo forever in their ears, “I never knew you, depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!” (Matt. 7:23)  Sin is anything that separates us from God, ourselves or others. Whether we temporarily excuse it as necessary or permanently justify it as not hurting any one else, it becomes an open portal for destruction to come into our lives. Unconfessed sin brings death and cuts us off from our relationship with God.

 
PRAYER:

Dear Lord Jesus, give me the courage to confess those things that bind me that I might be ready as a wise virgin awaiting Your return. Keep me from deception and excuse making and may I follow willingly Your Holy Spirit Who has been sent to “lead us into all truth”. Amen.
To Ponder: what has our silence gives our consent to?