Many of us have gotten to the point where we question what’s the point. I’m just going to keep sinning and disappointing God. Why even try? However, as you have heard, being sin-conscious is deadly, and the Bible shows us that God doesn’t accept or reject us because of our actions but more so our actions can never be good enough. Gods acceptance is based on your spirit being righteous, which is not dependent on your performance. Righteousness comes by faith, “Just as Abraham believed God, and it was accredited to him as righteousness” Galatians 3:6, so through confessing Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. When you are born again, God gives you a new spirit.
Next thought is “so can I do whatever I want?” No, you cannot. “Does it matter how I live?” Yes, it does. You gave your life away. You died. Your life is not yours anymore! If you were married, would you tell your wife “By now that we are married, I am going to go and do whatever I want?” Of course not. For before marriage, you could, but now you have given your life to her. It is not yours anymore. So it is when you were in darkness you could do whatever. But when you accepted the light, the light came into you and transformed and transferred you into his kingdom, giving you his life. Paul the apostle talks about this in Romans. “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not understand and know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?”. Romans 6:1-3.
So as Jesus died, we too are dead to sin. Our new nature desires to live holy, and we don’t want to give the devil access to the temple and body of Christ that we are (Romans 6:15-16). How you live may not affect your spirit’s righteousness, but it will affect the life you have been called to live and your testimony/reputation among the saints.
The truth is you are no longer a child of the devil who loves to sin. You still sin, but it’s not your nature. Think for a second how does the thought “This is pointless. I’m just going to keep sinning and disappointing God. I should give up and just sin” come? Have you read or heard God discourage any of his prophets or Jesus? Or did you see Jesus discourage any of his disciples? Your spirit, the real you, has been changed and no longer enjoys sin. As a born-again believer, you have a built-in desire to live holy (1 John 3:3). Also note this: 1 Corinthians 27-29.
The law and its purpose were to show us how we could never do it, how holy God is, and remove the deception that we could be holy on our own. The power of sin is from the law. “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.”1 Corinthians 15:56 ESV. You see, the pain of death comes from sin, and the power of sin comes from the law. It was a placeholder in which the flesh used to do evil.
So you see, when you commit yourself to the law, you are in essence giving sin power. Hence, we believe in Jesus and his resurrection. As he has died to sin, so have we, and we can say “death has been sealed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” 1 Corinthians 15:54-55.
Again, I say we don’t strive for holy lives, but a holy life comes through believing and choosing God and Jesus. We don’t strive for works, for works come through faith in Christ. For it is the Lord that grows these things through you.
Our actions and how we live matter because when you sin, you give Satan an inroad into your life. “Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?” Romans 6:16 ESV. Your life will show obedience to someone anyway; you choose who it will be.
The devil wants to bring death into your life any way he can—sickness, disease, poverty, depression, and other nasty things— he comes to “kill, steal, and destroy” (John 10:10). Therefore, why give him an opportunity through sin? As a Christian, you don’t need to live holy for God to accept you. However, your actions and attitudes matter as others look to you to see Jesus, and your actions determine how you get along with other people. That’s why it is to your advantage to live a holy life.
All this to say, sin is never a wise choice but is also never an issue between you and God. For he has dealt with sin on the cross, your past, present, and future sin when you are born again. You can come boldly before the Lord when you have fallen because you will fall— “for the righteous falls seven times and rises again” (Proverbs 16:24)— when you are displeased with yourself, and even when you have given the Satan and inroad into your life.
You can still come boldly into the very presence of God, your Father, and receive from him because your spirit did not lose any right standing with him. The word encourages you to come before him when you need mercy and help. “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:16 ESV.
Don’t just come before him when you think you have done something or everything “right”. You’ll only be self-righteous if you think you have done so. It’s only because of Jesus Christ that you can draw near to the Father. As a born-again Christian, you have the right to come into the holy of holies of your Heavenly Father. So wherever you are in whatever you are, raise your hands and set your mind on him and bless his name. Just begin to bless the Lord and sing to him. We thank you, my God, for you have not forgiven but justified, blotting out all sin from us; therefore, if you do not deal with us according to our sin, neither will we deal with you according to our sin. Amen.