Have you ever indulged in more than a serving or two of fresh out of the oven brownies, or found yourself halfway deep into the gallon of cookie dough ice cream during a late night Netflix binge ? Or maybe for you it’s eating way too many Krispy Kreme donuts in one sitting, or nearly a whole package of those double stuffed Oreos. I could go on and on providing examples of sugary indulgences that each of us have gorged ourselves with at one time or another. Junk foods that have absolutely no nutritional value and have been scientifically proven to be nothing more than pure poison to our human bodies. And if sugar is not your thing, what about when you scarfed down nearly the whole pizza that was delivered one Friday night or ordered that #1 combo at McDonald’s and made it a large size, which is easily more than enough total calories for most people for the entire day contained in one fatty meal. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but in a roundabout way, scripture flat out tells us that putting poison in our bodies is a sin.(1 Corinthians 6:19). But does this stop most of us Christians from allowing ourselves to eat too much junk food on a regular basis? The answer is no. In fact, I know from my own experience of having been raised in a southern baptist church in Alabama that eating lots of fatty high carb sugary foods is actually celebrated as a part of Christian fellowship in many southern churches. So the point I want to make by using the consumption of too much junk food has to do with how sometimes we Christians tend to judge sin being committed amongst other people, especially our Christian brothers and sisters. We seem to have this idea that eating too much junk food (aka poison) doesn’t count as a sin the same way as other more obvious examples. Now don’t get me wrong, I do get why we would think this, but in all honesty, a sin is a sin is a sin is a sin. As Christians, we need to be reminded that scripture says we are ALL sinners and fall short of the glory of God. This means that as a living breathing human, yes, even a living breathing Christian human, it is impossible for us not to live in sin, no matter how hard we try. So when believers, like those within many of our American churches today, judge others and look down on them for a particular sin they have committed, they are essentially saying that they see themselves as better than their brother or sister in Christ. This is not good, it is not the example Jesus set for us, and it does nothing to help us as Christians to encourage each other, or more importantly, be on the same team with the purpose of leading non-believers to Christ. It is living with arrogance instead of with humility and this is just another example of sin. Moreover, living in this way is also very damaging to us individually as believers, because we end up living our lives with this idea that the less we sin, the better we are in God’s eyes. Therefore, whenever there are times when we are not able to uphold our end of the bargain, we live in shame and full of guilt, allowing Satan to have us exactly where he wants us. Despite what many of us Christians may think, living our lives full of shame and guilt only makes us less effective as soldiers for increasing God’s army of believers. As believers and followers of Jesus, the bible clearly says that we cannot work our way into heaven, or ever be good enough to get into heaven. God knew that we would never be able to avoid sin, and loved us so much that he sent his only son Jesus to suffer a horribly painful death on the cross in order to pay the debt for any sin we’ve committed or will ever commit. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the light and no man can come to the father except through me. Now don’t get me wrong, all this doesn’t mean that as Christians we are off the hook when it comes to seeking to lives in a way that is pleasing to God. It doesn’t mean that we can just live our lives with the idea that we can do whatever we want whenever we want and all is well because we are forgiven. Of course it doesn’t. As believers, we are to be obedient and there are consequences for our sins. But, there is also no way that any of us can live our lives in this broken world without encountering sin. But when we truly believe that Jesus died for us and we ask him to come live in our hearts, it changes us. It changes our hearts. It changes our intentions. And Jesus knows are hearts and intentions and if we truly mean business when it comes to a relationship with Him or not. So, in those times when we do give in to sin, which will happen more often than we even realize as long as we are living in this world, all we have to do is to confess our sin and ask Jesus to forgive us. And what is so amazing is at that very moment that we sincerely and humbly confess our sin, His endless grace and mercy wipes the sin clean from our past. His mercies are new every morning. Now I don’t know about you, but to me, knowing this is so unbelievably uplifting and hopeful and exciting. Don’t you see that it frees us from judging other people whether they are believers or non-believers, and it also frees us from looking down on ourselves and allows us to see ourselves for who we are as Christians and as God’s children whom He loves so much. The fact of the matter is that no matter how hard we try, we are sinful beings who need to be saved daily. But the beautiful thing is that as Christians, we have Jesus in our hearts in which to confess our sins and make us new again every single day. If we have given our lives to Him, there is nothing that can separate us from His love for us from now until we get back to our eternal home. Being a good enough Christian to get to heaven has nothing to do with what sins we have committed or will commit during our Earthly life. It has everything to do with what Jesus did for us. All we have to do is believe he died for us and ask him to come live in our hearts. Ironically what happens when we begin to understand that there is no amount of work we can do to earn our way into heaven, we as Christians end up working harder than ever to live a life that is pleasing to God. And this, my friend, is how we can live out our Earthly lives with freedom and peace.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.
John 3:16