Now for some, you might be thinking that this is a strange title, but for others, you know exactly what I mean; we are all going to sin, but how bad that sin, we do not know. As long as we are on this earth in bodies of flesh we are going to struggle. Sin is a part of us and has been since Adam’s fall. If you are thinking that have no struggle with sin, you are only fooling yourself, but you are not fooling God.

My Pastor once said, “if you trust your flesh, that is your first mistake, it will let you down.” It is not a matter of maybe, it is a for sure going to happen at some point fact! For myself that has proved true on more occasions than I care to admit. We all have.

Have you had moments like that? Maybe you chose to spread a malicious gossip about someone, or maybe you took something that did not belong to you. It does not matter the sin, it is all equal to the Lord. Sometimes we want to justify our actions, maybe that person in our eyes deserved to be gossiped about. Wrong! Not a smart thing by any means, but there are times when we choose to satisfy our flesh and not walk in purity before the Lord.

I really think that people feel they can make themselves better, they can live above sin. When we are born into the kingdom and baptized we are buried with Christ and raised to newness in life, the old man has passed away. Roman’s 6:4 tells us this. Now in that moment, every sin is forgiven. We suddenly have Christ’s righteousness. So many people think this means, I will never sin again, I cannot, I am new; however, although the old man is gone, our sin nature that lies deep in our DNA is still there. As the Holy Spirit teaches us and changes us we should act differently and sin should not be a habitual thing in our life, but there will be times that we do sin.

Even Paul says this in Roman’s 7:25-20 “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.”

The “good news” is this, we have an advocate with the Father and his name is Jesus, he alone took our sin and shame to the cross and suffered and died for us, that we would never receive the punishment due us. Every sin forgiven, forgotten as though it never happened, for all eternity. It doesn’t make us want to sin more, thinking we have a free pass, grace, and more grace, or at least it shouldn’t. As we grow in the wisdom of Christ and our hearts are changed we desire to please The Lord above all else. And when we do sin, we ask and receive forgiveness from our Savior, Jesus.

I know that I will not be free of my sin nature until I am home in Heaven, however, I have learned to “not trust my flesh”. I know that without a right relationship with Christ, without constantly seeking him and his will I can easily get distracted and possibly cave to sin.

I used to think that if I could just get into Heaven and hear the Lord say “well done”, that would be a great moment. I find these days that if I can lay my head on my pillow at night and hear “well done” at the end of my day, that makes my heart happy. I want to please The Lord, sometimes I do and other times not so much, but I am so thankful for that Amazing Grace that flows with love and forgiveness!