MAY WE PERSIST TO SIN INTENTIONALLY?
Sakkie Parsons
Translated from Afrikaans: Mag ons willens en wetens moedswillig sondig?
Translator: Robin Barker
In Faithfulness He Will Bring Forth Justice
Someone wrote to me as follows:
“I want to ask you a strange question:
If a person does something wrong and you ask God for forgiveness but you do it again.
Will He still forgive you? “
This is how I see the answer to this question:
What I am going to write applies to everyone who has accepted Jesus Christ as their Redeemer and Saviour.
Every time when you approach our Lord in truthfulness and ask for forgiveness, you are forgiven and what is even greater – is our Lord never thinks about that sin again because once He has forgiven you – you are forever forgiven for that sin from that specific time onwards.
PSALM 103:11-13
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him;
12 as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
13 As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him;
We read in the New Testament:
1 JOHN 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
1 JOHN 1:10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.
Then –
Our Lord will never ask you to do something that He Himself does not do in perfection and He says to Peter and to you and me:
MAT18:21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”
MAT 18:22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.” (Every time)
Should someone ask us for forgiveness, we must always forgive that person and our Lord also does exactly this – if we truly in all sincerity ask Him for forgiveness.
The difference between yours and my forgiveness and our Lord’s forgiveness is actually this:
We sometimes take some time for us to make peace with our conscience even if we have truly forgiven because we are just human but as I understand the Word, for our Lord, after you have asked Him for forgiveness, it is as if you have never have committed that sin.
This is all because of the Blood of Jesus that was shed for us at Golgotha.
Therefore our Lord invites us:
ISAIAH 1:18 “Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.”
Now let you and I strive, after we have asked our Lord for forgiveness, to work on it to never repeat that sin, so that we can live our lives holier before our Lord and therefore be an example to our fellow man around us.
We can do this because, and how gloriously to know, our Passover Lamb has been sacrificed for us.
1 COR 5:7 Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
1 COR 5:8 Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
There are actually two other aspects of this matter which I want to share with you.
The first one is this:
Does that now mean that I can sin wilfully?
Like the married man that I know of, who made known to a married friend of mine that he is in love with her and would like to have a relationship with her. When she asked him: “What will our Lord think of this?” he answered: “We must just ask our Lord for forgiveness and then all will be right.”
It does not work that way.
This I say with immense respect, God is not foolish or deceivable. No!
Precisely because He is God Almighty, that kind of thought should never even appear in our thoughts.
For those people who may contemplate such a reckless thought, I can just remind you about what is written in the Word:
GAL 6:7 Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.
GAL 6:8 Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.
We also should definitely remember that if we want to say: “I did not know that it was truly wrong for a Christian/disciple/follower of Jesus to do this or that” while you have the Holy Spirit living within you to guide you, that there is also written:
PRO 24:12 If you say, “But we knew nothing about this,” does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who guards your life know it? Will he not repay everyone according to what they have done?
For those who think or mollycoddle[a] the idea that their wrong doings can be removed by good deeds etc., I want to show/refer them to the following:
1 SAM 15:22 But Samuel replied: “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.
1 SAM 15:23 For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry. …”
PRO 21:3 To do what is right and just is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.
The last aspect concerning this matter that I want to share with you is the following:
What if I am addicted to some or other substance etc.?
I know that it is wrong and if I did it, sometimes while I am doing it, I am very unhappy because I am disappointing my God – but I can just not help myself.
I can just say to you with great compassion that I know what you are talking about, because I have been there.
I used to smoke on average 20 cigarettes per day, after I accepted Jesus as my Redeemer and Saviour.
What I can assure you is: If you are completely truthful in your asking for forgiveness, Jesus will forgive you, He did forgive me but it must never become the norm in your life:
“It is my weakness. I will just say sorry every time.”
You must continually remember to fight against it and in some circumstances make use of professional help and then one day, as it happened to me, you will come almost like a shock to the realization:
“I am not doing it anymore!”
This naturally applies to all addictions, deviations, or the wrong you are doing in your life, or whatever you want to call it.
Do you remember what Jesus said to the woman who was caught committing adultery?
JOHN 8:10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
JOHN 8:11 “No one, sir,” she said. ”Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
Do you see?
Jesus did not condemn her but He did say to her:
JOHN 8:11 … ”Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
In closing I leave with the following three sections from the Word concerning our Almighty, All-knowing God:
PRO 15:11 Death and Destruction lie open before the Lord—how much more do human hearts!
PSM 33:14 from his dwelling place he watches all who live on earth—
PSM 33:15 He who forms the hearts of all, who considers everything they do.
While we know all of these things, how gloriously to know all of this:
ISA 42:3 A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice;
Greetings,
Sakkie
Footnote:
a Mollycoddle – treat (someone/something) in an indulgent or overprotective way.