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Enjoy Life, Enjoy God


Dale Patterson

AH...THE MATTER OF SIN

June 3, 2009

Yes, we sin, and go on sinning, in Christ. How can that be? How should that be?

If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left...
But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.

- Hebrews 10:26, 39 TNIV

Let me risk heresy here. We are forgiven in the name of Christ. Have confidence in this staggering truth. But let us not be presumptuous in our trusting God's grace and forgiveness. Out of gratitude pursue righteous holy lives, not simply to avoid punishment, not simply to secure heaven, but to honor the one who we claim is our Lord. How we live is important. Stop sinning.

Several centuries ago, the great Puritan, John Owen wrote: "How many have we seen in our day who, from a warm profession, have fallen to be negligent, careless, indifferent in praying, reading, hearing, and the like!" Don't let these words describe us. Hebrews, like Owen, issues us a call to remember: how we live is important.
Joyfully,

Dale Patterson