It is so easy to live in sin. No action required; no responsibility taken—it’s just the way we’re made. That’s a lie, though, isn’t it?
The way we were intended to be, the original design of God, was to live without sin and in perfect harmony with our Creator. While some may easily claim it’s not our fault why we act the way we do, we cannot just sit by passively in our fallen nature.
Passivity only works in the hospital.
G. K. Chesterton wrote:
The whole point indeed is perfectly expressed in the very word which we use for a man in hospital; “patient” is in the passive mood; “sinner” is in the active. If a man is to be saved from influenza, he may be a patient. But if he is to be saved from forgery, he must not be a patient but an impatient. He must be personally impatient with forgery. All moral reform must start in the active not the passive will.
Chesterton, Orthodoxy
Christ-like living requires an act of the will.
God has provided his Word and the Law to make clear the contrast between how we should live and how we do. The Spirit uses the reality of this tension to make us uneasy with our unnatural state. As we are confronted with the gospel of Christ, we become increasingly aware and thus impatient, as Chesterton said, with our way of life. The Spirit works on our frustration and uses the witness of Christ-followers to draw us to himself, to give us hope that true change can actually happen.
The Apostle John wrote in his letter the action required and result that follows:
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
1 John 1:9 (NIV)
Confession comes in here. As confession opens the door to our hearts, forgiveness can do its work by the power of Christ.
Thank him for the work of the Spirit and believers in your own story of faith and pray for those you know who need to act upon the inner struggle they’re experiencing.
Grace and Peace
