I've been reading a lot of gospel-centered books in the last several months in preparation for the conference. In doing so, I ran across this statement:
"[I]f you do not believe you are dead to sin's guilt, you cannot trust Christ for the strength to subdue its power in your life. So the place to begin in dealing with sin in your life is to count on the fact that you died to its guilt through your union with Christ in His death. This is an important truth you need to ponder and pray over until the Holy Spirit convinces you of it in both your head and heart."
Do you agree with the author's contention that "the place to begin" in defeating sin is trusting that (because of Jesus) you have "died to its guilt"? All Christians would agree that we have died to the guilt of sin because of the cross of Jesus (Romans 8:1). My question is do you believe focusing on the lack of guilt is the place to start in dealing with your sin?
Thoughts?
Men's Conference on Pursuing Genuine Biblical Revival
May 5 & 6, 2017
Theme: "Capture Our Hearts Again!"
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Ray Ortlund
Pastor of Immanuel Church (Acts 29 plant in Nashville, TN)
President of Renewal Ministries
Regional Director of Acts 29 Network
Formerly Assoc. Prof. of OT & Semitic Languages @ Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (Deerfield, IL)
Council Member & regular blogger at The Gospel Coalition
Author of commentaries and many books including Isaiah: God Saves Sinners in the Preaching the Word Series Commentary Series, When God Comes to Church: A Biblical Model for Revival Today, The Gospel: How the Church Portrays the Beauty of Christ in the 9 Marks Building Healthy Churches Series and most recently Marriage and the Mystery of the Gospel.
Pre-Conference Workshop - 2 Sessions (Content to be released soon)
Special Guest Speaker: Dr. Tom Schreiner
James Buchanan Harrison Prof of New Testament Interpretation, Professor of Biblical Theology and Associate Dean of the School of Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Louisville, KY)
James Buchanan Harrison Prof of New Testament Interpretation, Professor of Biblical Theology and Associate Dean of the School of Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Louisville, KY)
Author of many commentaries and books including The Law and Its Fulfillment: A Pauline Theology of Law, The Race Set Before Us: A Biblical Theology of Perseverance and Assurance; The King in His Beauty, and Romans in the Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament Series.
Registration opens soon at www.FGCon.org
Registration opens soon at www.FGCon.org
Hosted by:
Union Lake Baptist Church
8390 Commerce Road
Commerce, MI 48382
248.363.9600
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I disagree. I once read a statement in a magazine that said: "If you are feeling guilty, then you probably are". I think God has placed guilt within us to remind us of the fact that we have sinned and violated His laws. Genuine contrition over sin is a good thing, especially if we go broader than the fact that we have not just violated our own conscience. When we realize the infinite holiness and perfection of God, we see our sin in it's proper context and to whom we are actually sinning against. I think there is a difference from being pronounced guilty once and for all and being broken with guilt for our daily offenses.
ReplyDeleteI find this a very interesting question.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the "place to start" as a believer in dealing with our sins is the Holiness of God, like Elias said.
BUT, if we are an unbeliever, the place to start in dealing with our sins is to recognize our sinfulness.
We know that feeling guilt is a good indicator of sin that is not dealt with. The problem is, however, there are a lot of people who don't have this feeling. That doesn't mean, however, that they are not guilty...
Not being guilty of our sins sounds cross centered to me.
ReplyDeleteIf you feel guilt for the sin then you are still holding the sin as yours. This would lead me to think that this a good place to begin.
We should and do feel guilt over sin but at the same time we must realize that this sin too was placed on Christ. Christ was charged Guilty in our place therefore who are we to try to take back this guilt. Out feeling bad does not in the least lessen the weight of sin on Christ. No, instead holding guilt is an attempt to lessen the work of the Cross.