05/10/17 SINNING RELIGION REGARDLESS OF DOCTRINE.

05/10/17 SINNING RELIGION REGARDLESS OF DOCTRINE.
(Don't forget, sinning against God often involves sinning against other people as well).

When a believer sins, disobeys God, then the next and urgent step for that believer is CONFESSION and REPENTANCE. Of course, if you believe in sinning religion (the false doctrine that God does not save us from sin and sinning in this life and that sinning is expected in the Christian life and that forgiveness of future sins was included at the time of your salvation), then you do not see confession and repentance as essential to your salvation, though you may see it as being a "good thing" to do. But, on the other hand, if you believe that God saves us from our sins and sinning in this present evil world, then you must also believe that sin should be followed by confession and repentance. At least that is your doctrinal view, if not your practice.

However, a lot of believers sin but do not call on God in confession and repentance. They just "straighten up, shake it off and move on." They may feel bad that they have sinned, and they may intend to abandon their sin, but they fail to humble themselves before God in confession and repentance. There are various reasons that "just getting back on the path" is not sufficient.

First, God requires, commands, demands that we confess and repent when and if we sin. Okay, so this one reason is all the reason we need to do the right thing, but there are other factors that attend this one sufficient reason.

When we "wrong" God, we should face our failure and be sorrowful enough to bring it to God (and other people if they are included in our sin). If we are not sorrowful enough to humble ourselves and come to God (or others), then we are presuming on the goodness of God. There is no such thing as, "saving presumption," though there is such a thing as, "saving faith." Faith includes confession and repentance. We are wrong, dead wrong if we think that we only need to forgive ourselves and think that God does not require our heartfelt return to Him.

God is our Master, and we are accountable for every thought, word and deed. We will be answerable for whatever sin we have committed, then refused to seek God's grace and mercy. Since we will be held accountable for every area of our life in the future, which has not been surrendered to God, then aren't we accountable to God now. If we have unconfessed and unrepented sin in the future, we will suffer the judgement of God for our sins. We either accept His deliverance now or face His judgment later.

And don't forget, when we disobey God, we cause Him pain. Basic understanding tells us that we should humble ourselves and express our regret, sorrow for having hurt Him by grieving Him, resisting Him, wearying Him, vexing Him, offending Him. We should be as committed to seeking restoration with God as we are in belittling God through rejection.

Not only does God require us to seek His forgiveness for sins committed, but the trauma of having to, "bow down and 'fess up" makes us less likely to commit the same sin again.

If we sin, we need to humbly and effectually seek reconciliation with God. We must recognize our own corruption, feel our own rebellion, be sorrowful for the heartbreak and sorrow that we have caused Him. We must confess and repent or we presume on the grace and goodness of God. We can never move on until we have been healed, delivered, forgiven and cleansed of our own sin.