Monday, August 27, 2012
2 Corinthians 6:1-2 As God's co-workers we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain. For he says, 'In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.' I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation."
YOU CAN ALWAYS GET FORGIVENESS ... TOMORROW
This is one of the lies that Satan likes to whisper in the Christian's ear. When our sinner's heart hears this it eagerly agrees, "Yeah, I can get forgiveness tomorrow because I can just choose to be sorry about this sin then."
Actually, no, no you can't. Repentance is not an action you can choose to do. Repentance is an attitude of the heart that a person has to be moved to. We don't have some sort of "repentance" switch that we can flip up or down.
We think about repentance like it's an action that we can do, but it's not. When we see something that shows a person is sorry about sin, that's not repentance, it's just the outward sign of the spiritual condition which has already changed inside that person. The point is, we can't repent on cue.
Think about it like this. What if I said that I was going to slap you across the face, but right after that I was going to be genuinely sorry about it and ask for your forgiveness. Ready? Would you think that kind of "repentance" is real?
If other people wouldn't fall for this, why do we think God will? He knows our hearts better than we do. Even if we fool everyone else, God will know the truth of our impenitence.
PRAYER: Father in heaven, you know the sins of our past, and the sins of our today. You know when we have done what we knew was wrong. Forgive us for this horrible insult to your majesty, and to your grace. By the blood of Christ cleanse us of all our past sins and give us strength to live our futures according to your will.
