What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Romans 6:1-2
Recently one of our little ones was in trouble for biting. While I had her in time-out, she repeatedly kept telling me “I said I was sorry” and expected me to let her off the hook because she had said “sorry”. The problem is that she was not truly sorry, she had only said that as some sort of magic word to make the discipline go away. I tried to explain to her that just saying “sorry” does not mean that she can continue to bite others even if she meant it, the words do not make it all go away because there is still another person who has been bitten, and there are still consequences for bad behavior. What I wanted from her is to stop biting others.
An amazing thing happened as I was talking to her, I thought about the many times that I have stumbled in the same sins over and over again and the amount of grace that the Lord has lavished on me, and I felt compassion for her. As a good parent I still needed to discipline her, but I felt truly convicted of the fact that I had also said sorry many times before.
No, we can’t totally avoid sin all the time because it will always be knocking at the door of our lives, attempting to get in. Even the apostle Paul struggled with sin. There is good news however! We have just celebrated Christmas and have the good news that a Savior was born. Jesus came and died for our sins, so also those of us who have died to sin with Him, have been raised to life with Him and are no longer slaves to sin. Still, we are not to use that as a permit to do whatever we want to do.
I pray that in the new year ahead that the Lord will constantly remind us of His grace and of the consequences of bad behavior, and I am sure that He will because He is a Good Father who loves His children.
Happy New Year!
Blessings,
Jeff