Friday, June 29, 2012

Sin Is What Sinners Do

Sin is what sinners do.

There are several false teachers out there who claim that you are a sinner because you have sinned. They deny the doctrine of original sin. However, the true fact of the matter is that you sin because you are a sinner. While lying does make you a liar, the reality is that you lie because you are a liar. You do what you are and you are what you do.

The person you are in your secret life, the person you are when no one else is around to see you, that is the true you. You are what your life is characterized by. When no one else is around to see you, is your secret life characterized by looking at pornography and lusting after other women? Then you are an idolater and an adulterer at heart, and the Bible makes it clear that you will not enter the kingdom of God. If your secret life is characterized by habitual sin, you are not a Christian—no matter how strongly you may protest. If someone came up behind you without your knowing and watched everything you did and said, would there be evidence that you were truly a Christian? You only confess Jesus because you want fire insurance; you want to be saved from the penalty of sin, the punishment of eternal torment in hell, but you do not want Jesus. You have no love for Jesus and do not want Him to be Lord of your life. You only want Jesus if He allows you to live your life the way you want to—sin and all. Read your Bible, man or woman. It condemns you on every page. You are not a Christian. You do not belong to Christ.

Jesus said that in order to be His disciple (to be a genuine Christian) you need to count the cost of what it means to truly follow Him (Luke 14:25-35). You have never done that. The Bible says that everyone who names the name of Jesus must depart from all sin (2 Tim. 2:19). You have never departed from it, nor have you ever repented of it. The book of Romans says that if we live according to the flesh and its desires, we will die, but if by the Spirit we put to death the deeds of the flesh, we will live (Rom. 8:13). You are not a sin murderer, you are a sin enabler. You make excuses for your sin as if God will allow you to hold onto it. The Bible teaches no such thing. The Bible declares that Jesus came to save His people from their sins (Matt. 1:21). The message John the Baptist, Jesus, and the Apostles preached was to "Repent!" and to bear evidence that demonstrates your repentance.