BP53 - The Eradication of Sin

In many of the church circles in which I move these days, there’s much talk about God’s love (as there should be!) and the identity we now have in Christ (also, as there should be!).  Yes, of course (!!), we’re loved by God!  And, yes, of course (!!), we’re New Creations in Christ.  And I don’t want to gloss over those holy truths in ANY MANNER.  In fact, may Heaven and the entirety of God’s Kingdom forbid it!

But (and I offer this with a bit of fear and trembling)… rarely do we talk about our sin and how its eradication from our lives is an important—if not central—component of God’s progressive conquest of grace in and through us.  By “conquest of grace,” I mean His on-going and progressive works of redemption and salvation, through [see Note below]:

Note:  The below is not intended to be an exhaustively complete list of God’s work in our lives, for His works in and through us are infinite.  Additionally, while I list these as discrete works, there is significant overlap in and through all of them.  Further, the below works are synergistic in their effects—on and in us, on and in the world, and on and in The Kingdom.

1/Our unification with Jesus.

2/Our justification in Jesus.

3/The impartation (through baptism and The Holy Spirit’s release [in His expressions of love-fruit and power]) of His Presence within us.

4/Our re-creation and resurrection.

5/Our glorification in “this current Earth-life.”

6/Our adoption as Our Father’s Son [or Daughter].

7/Our repatriation into The Family of God.

8/Our reconciliation with God, our own selves, the people around us, the the whole of creation. 

9/Our participation in The Divine Nature of God.

10/Our (and creation's) restoration.

11/Our sanctification.

12/Our purification.

13/Our renovation.

14/Our authorization.

15/Our ordination.

16/Our commissioned consignation to mediate The Person and Presence of Jesus—as well as The Trinity as A Wholeness—to and in the world.

17/Our final resurrection, glorification, and disposition in “the world and glorious, lingering life to come.”

And...

18/Our complete satisfaction and contentment in God.

God loves us so much that He wants to bring about a condition in us where sin is entirely absent.

Think about that for a moment.  Think about how such a remade condition in you might feel and be experienced by you and everyone who knows you.

God has made—and is, ultimately (through partnership with us and through the final threshing of the body of death [see Ro 7:24] from us at our physical departure from “this current Earth-life”), making us (that is, you and me)—into New Creations.  New Creations, who are—and who are in the process of being—entirely (and NOT theoretically)—redeemed and salvaged.  And, that is, remade…

1/Totally absent of sin:  The sins of doing evil (that is, the sins of commission); and, more importantly, the sins of not living completely the abundant, ordinate God-life Jesus gave us (that is, the sins of omission).

2/Totally absent of the entirety of sin’s effects.

And…

3/Totally unable to ever sin in any manner ever again.

Quite honestly, I wish we all talked a lot more about what I’ve written in above.  Oh, that we might all begin to have such conversations once again!

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Ps 107:19-22…

Then they (that is The Redeemed) cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and He saved them from their distress.  He sent forth His Word and healed them; He rescued them from the grave.

Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and for His wonderful deeds for humankind.  Let them sacrifice thank offerings and tell of His great works with songs of joy.