It’s (mostly) dead. Sin. Repentance. Perhaps we should hold a funeral service. It would be fitting.
And when sin is no more, and there’s no need for repentance.
Let me explain.
- Fornication? Used to be a sin. Really not a “biggie” anymore. Just kind of expected in an relationship after a certain point. Christians live together just as much as non-Christians.
- Slander? Just normal. In fact we watch it on tv all the time. Pick a news channel. Any of them.
- Gossip? Just “venting.”
- Greed? We’re just earning our living.
- Idolatry? We don’t worship idols. That’s gone.
- Envy? That’s a sin?
- Gluttony? Nah.
- Ungrateful? Complaining? Just talk.
- Homosexuality? God made people that way
- Murder? Yes! That’s a sin. Haven’t done that one. [And abortion is just a fetus anyway]
Honestly it’s no big deal now if you hear someone is pregnant out of wedlock. It’s “normal” to live together prior to marriage. We rarely talk about sins like envy, ingratitude, gluttony, gossip and slander as they aren’t “big” sins. So if nothing is sin and everything is “just love one another,” then why did Jesus have to die?
He died to take away our sins.
But we act as if there are no sins. That sin isn’t a big deal. We can be Christians and live however and should let others live however is the normative thinking.
But the Scriptures say that when we come to Christ we “repent.”
If there is no sin, then there’s no need to repent.
The prophet Jeremiah said it this way when similar times hit Israel:
“Truth has perished,” (Jer 7:28).
It’s not that truth is dead, but it’s that the people of Israel were treating truth as if it had no value.
And for us today it’s not that sin and repentance are dead. The most certainly are not. But they are being treated with no value.
And that no value devalues the cross of Christ.
He died for sin. That we might be free.
Of course we don’t live in legalism. We don’t live in bondage anymore to our sins. We are free.
But it’s because we’ve repented. We’ve changed. We’re walking in the grace that draws us ever deeper into holiness.
Our loving of Jesus causes us to become more like him.
Of course we sin. Of course we fail. Of course we have major issues to overcome.
But we’re working on walking out repentance. Instead of walking away from it.
When the Bible says, “judgment begins with the house of God,” I find that scary (1 Pet 4:17).
It’s why I pray that revival, or perhaps resurrection, would come. Not a revival to our current ways, but a revival that has such fear of God in the land that holiness is normal. It’s happened in the past when God’s glory has visited mankind.