Our view of sin must be changed to walk in all of God's promises

Paul Washer HeartCry Presentation Clip


I think in the church today, we have a real problem in how we have come to view sin in our lives. We most often view sin as specific acts against right and good, acts of wrong, acts of evil. When we get saved, we think of God as forgiving us of these acts of wrong, whatever they may be. Most of us were not bank robbers, or pedophiles, or rapists, murderers, etc., we were just average people who may have had lust issues, or anger problems or were jealous, or who drank a little, or who occasionally misstated things on tax returns, LOL. Right? Unfortunately, that is not what the word of God teaches us about the nature of man.

When Adam and Eve fell by eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, was that disobedience of theirs not just a small (relatively speaking) sin as we view sin? It was just disobedience, an act we have done 1000 times over, correct? Yet the punishment that God meted out was pain, labor by the sweat of our brows our entire lives, banishment from the kingdom where were would be kept by God and enjoying the pleasures of the garden of Eden, and more importantly, the presence of God, and ultimately death. Was God overreacting?

We judge this sin as small, like most of ours. In that small act of disobedience, God, who sees far more clearly than our limited minds can, saw it differently. He knew clearly that hidden in that fruit we ate was the seed of rebellion, the seed of independence from God with the idea that we by ourselves could discern right and wrong, good and evil. The fruit of that tree indeed made us think we are gods, able to make our own decisions, run our own lives.

Yet what did the fruit yield up to mankind? It planted a seed in the heart of all men...ALL men... a seed of rebellion to the authority and protection and love of God and from that one act of disobedience, all the murder, wars, starvation, child abuse, pain, tears, loneliness, suicides, depression, hatred, sexual sins sprang forth. From that one "innocent" act.

What we fail to understand is that when we are saved, we are asked to fully 100% bow the knee to God and submit ourselves to him as total authority over our lives. We give up all rights to ourselves. We are His. When the Bible says we become God's servants, that word actually means slave. We look at that and recoil, as the rebellion in our hearts screams out, I will not be slave to any! I will run my own life. I will do it MY way, thank you. I can be a "good" Christian and still do it my way. I can if I try hard enough.

No, you can't, nor can I , nor can anyone born of a woman, for the seed from that tree passed down to us. We all, in our walk with Christ must indeed come to a point like the prodigal son, who told the father after being fully broken of His rebellion, "It is better to be a servant (slave) to my Father than to do things my way, for the end of my way is death and tears and sadness." It is when he "came to himself" as it is described in the parable of the prodigal son, that he finally gained the full approval of God and began to enjoy the fruits of sonship.

If we could but have the veil pulled back just a little and see what God offers us if we will fully submit to him...lock, stock, and barrel. Everything. it is a radical move that results in radical Christianity, joyful Christianity, a place of safety, a place of true rest, offering the walk that most of us have sought our entire walks, but have never found up till now.

It is only when a man breaks inside and acknowledges, not that he is a sinner, but that he indeed is SIN, depraved and rebellious to the authority of God, that God not only is willing to forgive, but to give all of us new natures a nature like that of Adam and Eve before the fall.

Let us remember there is none good save God. None. All have gone out of the way. All still have the fruit of that rebellion to God in their hearts, doing it their way.

God sees that rebellion and hates it for it has caused all the pain and heartache in humankind's history.This is why Jesus came, to set us free from our "me" nature, our flesh as it is called in Romans.

Sadly, many Christians do not see the depth of their sinful nature. They confess individual acts of sin, but their fallen nature is not confessed or submitted to God to kill. Therefore, their entire lives remain a fountain of sin that cannot be stopped up, and that is a shame, when God has offered us total freedom from our old selves. We simply do not see the need for it, as we are still running our own lives.

What is truly the saddest about this blindness to the depths of our depravity as long as we stay in the lower nature, as "carnal" Christians, is that Jesus made an amazing statement.

"He who is forgiven much, loves much."

As long as we see ourselves as "good" people and when we slip up we confess the individual sin away, we never come to the conclusion that our nature is totally depraved, and therefore we cannot be filled with the full love of God and cannot love much.

As long as we continue to run our own show as owners of our own selves, whether we want to admit it or not, our core flesh remains in rebellion to the authority of God, who has purchased us and who owns us. The result is that we play into satan's hands, perhaps saved, but totally unable to be truly fruitful in our knowledge of Him. Like the prodigal, how many end up living their Christian walks out in the hog trough, even though we are sons....sons of God!

I pray God's mercy rain on all. In ourselves, in our lower natures, We ALL have fallen short of the mark, and will continue to until we figure out how to get fully free of the fleshly nature.

How desperately this new nature is needed in these last days for us to find the power and strength to truly serve him. It is available...we simply need to see our desperate need for it. Until we stop seeing ourselves as "good" people, "good" sinners saved by grace, and realize that as long as we do not fully submit ourselves back under the authority of Christ, we will walk carnal and defeated lives.

He owns us, brothers and sisters and wants only to do us good, giving us joy, peace, power, safety. His perfect will for us is not to be feared!

Let us grab hold fully again of a God who can truly set us free as He promises, free from sin, free from the world, free from the power of the devil, free from failure and defeat, free to abide in Him all day, every day! He has called us to put on our cast off by faith our old nature, and reckon it dead and by faith, put on our new nature, a nature that walks the Christian walk as an easy yoke, where He promises to "cause us" to walk in His statutes.. Shall we disappoint Him?