Many Christians, whether new or long-term, talk about falling away from God, or going away from God.
Much of the time, they get discouraged, seeing that they still engage in sinful thoughts and actions, that their behavior is not always "Christian-like."
They despair of God's love for them, and they stop going to church.
Some pastors and ministers fall into this discouragement, convinced that they are not worthy to bear the message of God's grace to a fallen, sighing, dying world, because they still see sin in their lives.
Much of this confusion has to do with a limited understanding of all that Jesus did at the Cross for us.
He did not just die for us and our sins, but He also died as us and condemned sin in our flesh.
"1There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 2For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. 3For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: 4That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. " (Romans 8: 1-4)
We are delivered from sins and from sin, including the sin in our flesh.
Whatever feelings we may sense in our bodies, whatever sense of shame or hurt which we inflict in ourselves or others inflict us, we are set free from all of it because of what Jesus did at the Cross.
We are no longer in ourselves, but we are in Christ:
"20For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us. 21Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God; 22Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts." (2 Corinthians 1: 20-22)
God is establishing us now in Christ. We do not establish ourselves.
Now, if He has established us, then there is no going away from Him. The issue for all of us is not getting rid of sin in our lives (for He is the propitiation for all our sins as well as the sins of the entire world -- 1 John 2: 1-2). The issue is relying more on His grace and less on our efforts.
The problem is no longer sin, but rather identifying further with His Spirit instead of our flesh, our selves, our efforts.
Love is not our doing more, but our recognize that we are in Christ, and no longer in ourselves, and that God loves us just as much as His own Son:
"Herein is love perfected among us, that we may boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world." (1 John 4: 17)
Peter writes at the end of his second epistle:
"But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen." (2 Peter 3: 18)
Great!
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