I've been reading Charles Swindoll's book The Grace Awakening this past week or so, and wanted to share an epiphany moment. Ok, here it is:
I am a new creation in Christ. I don't have to sin. In fact, the normal state of my life now should be not sinning.
Ok, now, that's all very nice and good and sunday school and we've all heard it, right? But bear with me here. :)
I don't know about the rest of you, but I grew up being told, effectively, "God's grace covers you when you do sin. Just be sure to confess everything...and if you're not sure, confess whatever you can't remember." The focus was on what to do when I sinned.
The result of this was an incredible guilt complex. Every time I tried to confess, I'd wrack my brain trying to think of everything I could possibly have done wrong...and when I couldn't think of anything, I felt even worse. After all, if I couldn't think of anything I'd either forgotten it all (how uncaring!) or was so prideful as to think I didn't have any sins to confess. Right?
Wrong!!
As a new creation, my normal state of life should be not sinning! If I can't think of anything sinful to confess, then I should in all humility and joy thank God for his abundant grace that has conquered sin.
Maybe this is old hat to you, but it is huge and new and joyous to me.
2 comments:
It's not old hat, it's very recent hat to me! I'm so glad you came to the same conclusion that I did about that, because I too suffered from the guilt complex and was horrified when I started to doubt its validity. Reading Philokalia helped, but it took years for me to realize what Maximos was talking about. :)
Indeed, His Grace is sufficient for us and now there is no condemnation in Christ. May God bless you richly and use you mightily for His glory!
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