We destroy our lives by sinning, but when we turn to the Lord, he restores our lives. Still, we can’t be happy until we stop sinning, can we?
I think of Mary Poppins. Did you ever watch the movie as a kind. She holds up a measuring tape and measures the two children, the boy is obstinate. She measures herself and she is "practically perfect in every way."
Is that really that different from "I try to be perfect, but wen I fail, I confess my sins?"
I have been saying the standard of holiness is God... "be ye holy as I am holy." I don't think anyone gets even close. Not even Mary Poppins. The holiness of God is so far beyond us, so far above us, that when we get to see the real holiness of God, we will all fall as dead men at his feet, just like John. We will say as Isaiah, "woe is me, I am undone." The problem is what I mentioned before, we do not merely do sins, we do not merely do evil deeds, we are evil.
Let me say it another way. The person who thinks he repents of all his sins has not begun to understand his own evil. Now in the Christian life, regeneration occurred, the Spirit came and guides us into all holiness, and God has given us all the tools we need to live as workmen for him. The Christian life is not one of sin, but of holiness. We will live more righteous lives, because it is the nature of the Christian to do so. Those who resist will be chastened, and some will die. God will remove some from this world before they sin too much.
Nevertheless, I do not believe anyone in this life will ever accomplish the standard of God "be ye holy as I am holy!" That is a mark in which we will always fall short, but that is the mark or the standard of the Christian life.
I have no problem with you calling Christians to live by a higher standard. I support you in calling Christians to repent of sin. I cannot agree with your attitude that if we just repent of all our sins, every thing will be OK. Yes, we should repent of sins, but that will never really cover it. Such an attitude does not recognize the exceeding evil from which we came, and the fact that evil still lives within us. To God be the glory, he has given us the tools to be overcomers, but in my opinion, if we focus on the confession of sin, and self righteousness, then we miss two things... the power of sin, and the standard of God.
In Romans 7:8 there is a passage that says....
8 But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead. The word "sin" here does not refer to individual personal sins, but to the evil that lives within us. Others commonly call it sin nature. Sin nature comes alive when the Christian focuses on keeping the law. This can be any law. It is like putting a line in the sand and telling people not to step over the line. What do they do? Yes, they put their big hairy toe right over that line. Why? Flesh! Sin! But if the line is not there, and we focus on Christ, and we seek to please him, and we follow him, that is the victory.
I am not saying that we do not repent of sin. I am saying, if that's all you think about in your Christian life, you will fail. Also, I am saying that it is self-righteous to even think that we can be perfect. That is not to excuse sins, but rather just the oposite, it is to admit how evil and guilty we actually are. It is to admit how much more holy God is then we are ourselves. That admission is the beginning of repentance.
To fall on our faces, and to admit that we are so guilty that we can never even begin to name all our sins, to admit we do not merely just sin, but we are sinners, is the beginning of repentance. That is so much more then saying I goofed today when I got angry and I am sorry and will not do it again. Certainly we should admit our "goofs," we should repent of our failures, but more then that, we should admit we are living failures, and that sin runs deep.
