Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”

• Romans 3:22-24

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

• Romans 6:23

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

Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper,
    but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy.

• Proverbs 28:13

Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

• James 5:16

“Only through the consciousness of sin is one admitted; to want to enter by any other road is high treason against Christianity.”

• Søren Kierkegaard, Provocations (from Thoughts that Radically Cure)

Earlier this week, I disagreed with Kierkegaard, but in this case, I am leaning toward agreement.

We have to do more than just be conscious of the sin in our lives, but without that consciousness, we cannot enter Heaven.  In fact, with the idea that we are really quite wonderful inside our souls might make us so arrogant that most other Christians would not want to be around us.

I have been berated by many people in the last twenty years or so.  They tell me that sin is a four-letter word.

I am sorry about my mathematical purist feelings, but sin is a three-letter word.

But I have been told to tone that the sin rhetoric because young people today do not want their feelings hurt and once we say “sin” they get turned off and refuse to listen.

I believe that Satan wants you to believe that.

I believe that if the Holy Spirit has been preparing the person to listen, they will hear the word “sin” and be convicted by it and they will want to hear more.  Especially about how God can wash away our sins.

Denying the work of the Holy Spirit is a serious issue.  The Holy Spirit has to get the person to a point where they are willing to listen or you can say ‘teddy bears, lollipops, and fluffy clouds’ and they will not listen.  We forget who does the saving at times.  Our words matter, but we need to get our theology straight.

We are sinners, but God loves us and He has a perfect plan for our life.  BUT…

We have sinned and fallen short of what God has planned, maybe running in the opposite direction.  But that is not the end of the story.  Jesus died for our sins, and only through Him can we be saved.  But we must trust and believe in Jesus and His sacrifice, dying for our sins and rising from the grave to conquer both sin and death.

That may be short and concise, but we need to confess our sins.  We will never be able to remember all our sins, but in consciously recognizing ourselves as sinners and how we cannot cleanse ourselves of our sin, that puts salvation totally on Jesus.  He did it all.

I am a sinner.  I am saved by Grace.  God loved me so much that He sent His Son to earth to die for my sins.

I guess that is why they call sin a four-letter word.  We ignore the problem until we are always speaking in the plural.

Lord, I have sinned.  Forgive me of my sins, S-I-N-S.  Thank you for loving me and forgiving me.  Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.