Hey guys!
I've got a question for you.
Should Christians repent every single time when they sin against God?
Should they repent and ask Him for forgiveness?
Well, some Christians say, “Well, yes, of course, we have to
because after justification comes sanctification, and we need to live Holy before God.”
And then others say, “Well, no, because Jesus already died for all our sins,
the past, present, and future sins.
Meaning He already died for all the sins that we're still going to do.
We are already forgiven, so we don't need to repent every time."
What is the truth here?
Well, we need to see what God Himself says about this in His Word.
Let's get to it.
Now, just very quick; if it's the first time that you're here on my channel,
I'm Daniel, and welcome to DLM Christian Lifestyle where we help you to grow, spiritually, in God.
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Now, should we as Christians repent every single time that we sin against God?
Well, do you remember what Jesus Himself said to the disciples when He taught them how to pray?
Read it with me, Matthew 6:9, “Pray then like this: 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts,'"
Did you hear that? Let me read it again.
'"And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."'
So, here Jesus clearly tells us that we need to ask God for forgiveness.
We need to repent.
The biggest reason why some people say that we don't have to repent is
because they don't understand the difference between justification and sanctification.
Or they don't even know what it actually means.
Maybe I'll make a video on this sometime because it's so important.
But in short, when you come to Jesus Christ. When you accept Him as Lord and Savior,
then you are declared, not made righteous, but declared righteous,
because Jesus died in your place.
Paul says in Romans 3:21,
“But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law,
although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it,
the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift,
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”
So, on that day when you come to Jesus Christ and you accept Him as Lord and Savior of your life,
you are declared as righteous.
It happens once, done, you are declared righteous, and then you become a child of God.
John 1:12 says, “But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name,
He gave the right to become children of God, who were born,
not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”
So, now when you sin against God as His child, because you will fall sometimes,
We're not perfect. We struggle, we fight against sin,
but sometimes we will fall because we still have a sinful nature in us.
We will only be perfect one day when we are with Christ, but now when you sin as a child of God,
you don't lose your son-ship, your daughter-ship,
you are still His child because you've already been declared as righteous.
You don't need to go back and be declared over, and over, and over again righteous, whenever you sin.
Now, you have already been spiritually reborn.
You don't have to go again and be reborn that has already happened.
God gave His Spirit, and He put it inside of you, and now when you sin, you grieve the Holy Spirit.
Ephesians 4:30 says, “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”
So, when God declared you as righteous,
He sealed you with the Holy Spirit of promise until the day of redemption.
But you're still here on earth, you're still gonna live here.
So until that day, until the day that you're with Christ you now focus on sanctification.
You live Holy and for Christ every single day of your life.
And here's the thing. If you truly are a Christian, a real Christian,
if you truly have been reborn, then you want to stay away from sin and follow God,
and live Holy because He is Holy.
1 Thessalonians 4:3 says, “For this is the will of God, your sanctification:
that you abstain from sexual immorality;”
Verse 7 says, “For God has not called us for impurity, but in Holiness.
therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives His Holy Spirit to you.”
You see, as a child of God, your conscience and the Holy Spirit in you will convict you of sin.
You will feel bad about it, and you would want to go to God and say, 'God, I'm sorry Father, I messed up,
please forgive me for this, and this, and this thing that I did.
Please restore my relationship with You.
You will feel something is wrong deep in your Spirit, and it will only change.
That feeling will only go away once you ask God to forgive you, then you'll feel open.
You'll feel the connection between you and God again, in the Spirit and in truth.
Let me ask you a question, and don't just brush it off, be honest with yourself.
When you sin against God, do you really feel bad?
Do you have remorse?
Do you feel guilty every time you lust after a woman or after a man, every time you watch pornography,
every time you go and you drink, you get drunk, every time you cuss, when you sin,
every time when you lie, do you feel bad about it?
If you don't, then it's a very, big sign that you're probably not a real Christian.
James 4:8 says, “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.
Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
Be wretched and mourn and weep.
Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.
Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you.”
See, for some reason, there's a lot of Christians out there who believe that,
if they were saved by God's grace, through their faith and not by their deeds,
which is what Scripture says, but then they believe that 'okay, then it's fine, I can continue to live in sin,
because I'm just saved by God's grace. After all through my faith.
But then you don't understand what true faith really means. True faith means that you now hate sin.
You love God and you love righteousness.
True faith will automatically produce good fruit, God's fruit in you,
and that means that you will automatically produce good deeds.
Ephesians 5:8 says, ”For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.
Walk as children of light, (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true),
and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.
Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them."
This is so easy to understand.
The truth of God, His Word, is like a two-edged sword that cuts right through your sinful nature
and your new spiritual nature, and you need to know the truth.
You need to know that you need to live Holy before God.
But remember, you also still have a sinful nature within you.
You have God's Spirit in you, and you still have the sinful nature in you.
So it will be a daily battle to do what God wants you to do
and to do what your fleshly nature wants you to do.
Now, when you sin you need to go to God, your Father, it is now a family relationship.
You need to go to your Father and say, 'Father, I'm sorry, please forgive me for my sin.'
This is what John explained to the Christians of that time as well.
He says in 1 john 1:5, "This is the message we have heard from Him and proclaimed to you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.
So, first, John wants us to understand how Holy God really is, and then he continues;
"If we say we have fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness,
we lie and do not practice the truth,"
So, he's basically saying, if you say, 'Nah, it's fine, I have my relationship with God, He understands me',
but you still live in your sin. You still live in darkness.
You lie - you don't have a real relationship with God,
and you're probably even lying to yourself to try and justify your own sin.
"But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another,
and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us."
Now, listen to this;
"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
So even as children of God, when we sin, we are dirty. Our sin makes us dirty, unholy before God.
God is very Holy. We can't even compete with Him. He wants nothing to do with sin.
He is in the light, and so we have to be in the light, and when we sin, we move out of the light.
And we have to go to our Father and say, God, 'I'm sorry please forgive me,
restore my relationship with you.'
In chapter 2 John says, "My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.
But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous."
So, when you sin, you can now go directly to God, you don't need to go to a priest or to someone else.
Sometimes it's good to pray with someone else.
God says that we should confess our sins to each other, in His Word,
but you can go to Him directly because Jesus died for your sins.
So He's sitting on the right hand of God, the Father,
and He's there for us so that we can communicate directly to Him and ask Him for forgiveness.
Ask Him to bring your sin to light.
All those things that are hidden in darkness.
Some people don't even know about certain sins that they do until the Holy Spirit,
until God brings it up, and He shows you all the evil things that you do.
And it's not just the actions, the outward actions, it's the things that you're thinking, your thoughts.
Ask Him to show you your sin.
Pray like David who said in Psalm 139:23, "Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting!"
If you truly love God with everything that you are, you will abide in Him and obey Him.
You will hate the sin of the world, and you will love God, His righteousness.
You will want to walk in the light every single day of your life.
Later on in 1 John 215. John says, "Do not love the world or the things in the world.
If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
For all that is in the world the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes
and the pride of life is not from the Father but is from the world.
And the world is passing away with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever."
If you are God's child, you have His Spirit within you.
You've been reborn.
You are a new creation.
God's spirit is in you.
You are set apart.
You are not part of this darkness of the world.
You are called to be the light of the world that shines your light on this darkness,
that shares God's truth and His love to everyone who so desperately needs it.
Let me ask you and be honest.
Do you really love God?
Are you sitting on your throne, of your heart, or is He sitting on it?
Do you truly want a real relationship with Him?
Do you want to know Him more, and more, more fuller?
And if you die today, are you ready to meet God?
Are you ready to stand in front of His throne,
in front of His mighty presence to be judged by the Judge of the universe?
Would He welcome you as His child?
Will He say, 'My child, welcome!' or will He say, 'Go away from Me, because I never knew you.
And if you're not sure, then you need to be sure.
Please watch one of these videos here, and I'll see you there.
And remember, God loves you, and I love you too.
Bye!