Is There Life After Sin?

Hello blessed child of God I hope you’re fine by God’s grace. As for me I’m okay thanks to Him.
I know my title is pretty awkward but I promise I’m going somewhere with this. You know how Christians are supposed to know better than anyone about God’s forgiveness and restoration right? Yesterday I was reading Psalm 51 and I found it stunning that King David knew more about God’s forgiveness than I do. At his time, Jesus Christ hadn’t come to earth yet and hadn’t died on The Cross yet to save us from our sins, David lived at a time where forgiveness of sins was achieved through sacrifices made to God, but David grasped more about God’s forgiveness than I ever did before. We’re going to look deeper into this as we read Psalm 51.
Psalms 51:1‭-‬19 ESV

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; build up the walls of Jerusalem; then will you delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar.

Okay I know it looks long but we’re going to look at it as The Holy Spirit enlightens us in this text.
You know how when you’ve committed a sin and you confess it to God the devil comes to you and whispers to you and tells you his usual lies? You’ll surely recognize some of these:

• Did you really think that God was going to have mercy on you after the horrible thing you did?
• Did you really think that it was enough to confess your sin to God?
• Did you really think that God could cleanse you completely of something so disgusting?
• Did you think it was possible for God to wipe your sin?
• Do you really think that after what you did, God can still make His wisdom penetrate your soul?
• How dare you believe that you deserve to be happy again after you’ve sinned against God?
• How dare you believe that after what you did, God can miraculously cleanse your heart, make you pure and make you new such that you don’t fall back in the same sins?
• How dare you think that God’s Holy Spirit would still want to dwell in you after what you did?
• How dare you think that God can still want you after what you committed as sin?
• Do you really think that you’re still entitled to the joy of salvation after what you did?
• Do you really think that God can restore you after this sin?
• Do you think that God can let someone like you continue preaching to His people after what you did?
• How dare you open your mouth to praise God after what you did? The same mouth with which you sinned against Him, you want to use it to praise Him? The same hands you used to sin against Him you want to raise them up to worship Him? Do you really think that God wants your praise after what you did? How dare you think that He will accept your praise?
• Did you really think that your tears, your repentance, your confession would be enough for God to forgive you, restore you and let you remain His child?

The list could go on, right? The devil is an expert at making us believe that our repentance and confession don’t count because what we did was so bad that God can’t forgive it. This brings us back to King David who knew exactly the depth of God’s forgiveness. Please take a look again at Psalm 51, mostly focusing on the parts in gold.
Just to put you in the context of this Psalm, King David whom The Bible calls the man after God’s heart did what human beings would consider the worse thing someone can do to their relationship with God and their ministry. He lusted on someone else’s wife, then he asked for her to be brought to him, he had sex with her, she fell pregnant and to cover the whole story he plotted the death of her husband because he didn’t succeed in getting her husband to sleep with her so that he would have the impression that he was the father of the child. (See 2 Samuel 11)
This looks like a plot from a Netflix TV series. God then sent Nathan the prophet to open David’s eyes to his sins and what did David do?

• Did David commit suicide because his case seemed desperate?
• Did David deny his sin and kill the prophet?
• Did David run away from his kingdom?

No, no, no, he confessed his sin to God and repented sincerely. Many of us wouldn’t believe in God’s love enough to confess our sins to Him hoping for full restoration, many of us don’t even believe that God is able to restore us.
1 John 1:9 ESV

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

At times we make 1 John 9:9 more of a ritual than a real belief, we confess our sins to God because we have to, but we don’t really believe that He will forgive us, or that He still wants to hear us praise Him, or that He still wants us to serve Him. I’m guilty of this more often than not. That’s why I’m amazed when I look at David’s faith in God’s forgiveness, love and mercy. Just to contrast with the devil’s lies seen above, let’s look at the truths that David believed in.

• David really thought that God was going to have mercy on him after the horrible thing he did
• David really thought that it was enough to confess sincerely his sin to God
• David really thought that God could cleanse him completely of the disgusting thing he did
• David really thought that it was possible for God to wipe his sin
• David really thought that after what he did, God could still make His wisdom penetrate his soul
• David believed that he could be happy again after he sinned against God
• David dared to believe that after what he did, God could miraculously cleanse his heart, make him pure and new such that he would not fall back in the same sins
• David dared to believe that God’s Holy Spirit would still want to dwell in him after what he did
• David dared to believe that God could still want him after what he committed as sin
• David really thought that he could once again enjoy the joy of salvation after what he did
• David really thought that God could restore him after that sin
• David really though that God could let someone like him continue teaching His ways to people after what he did
• David dared to desire to open his mouth again to praise God after what he did. The same mouth with which he sinned against Him, he wanted to use it to praise Him. The same hands he used to sin against God he wanted to raise them up to worship Him. He really thought that God would want and accept his praise after what he did.
• David really thought that his tears, his broken heart, his sincere repentance, his confession would be enough for God to forgive him, restore him and let him remain His child and continue worshipping Him and serving Him.

Do you know the most interesting part about all this? It’s the fact that David was right. David was right about God’s forgiving nature.
No doubt that he never fell in this type of sin again, because he believed that God could cleanse him and give him a new nature, and God granted to him according to his faith. David let the revelation of the new him match his experience in daily life, he didn’t fall in the same sin because he received God’s complete restoration. God doesn’t just purify us from the sin, He also purifies us from that thing which was hidden in us eversince which made us commit the sin in the first place.
When you fell, when you gave in to temptation, God used it to expose something hidden which was wrong with you. If there had not been a temptation, you wouldn’t have known what was inside you, but now that it is out God will work on you, cleanse you from the inside and purify you completely, if you believe.
So, going back to the title of my blogpost:
Yes there is life after sin if we confess our sins sincerely, repent and receive forgiveness for our sins through Christ Jesus
Yes there is a future after sin if we confess our sins sincerely, repent and receive forgiveness for our sins through Christ Jesus
Yes there is joy, peace, praise, fellowship, ministry etc after sin if we confess our sins sincerely, repent and receive forgiveness for our sins through Christ Jesus
Your life, your joy, your relationship with God, your ministry don’t have to be over because of one moment or one season or one scene of sin, failure and giving in to temptation in your life.
When you confess your sins to God, believe Him, believe that He can and He will forgive you, wipe your sins, restore you and purify you. It doesn’t matter what people will say when they will call you by your past sins, God will call you by your name. Don’t just ask for His forgiveness and leave, remain in prayer and receive His forgiveness, listen to the voice of His Holy Spirit as He says:
“In Christ Jesus I have forgiven you, I have purified you from all unrighteousness, you can move on it’s over now, lift up your hands and praise/worship Me(God), you can be happy again now, draw water with joy out of the well of salvation, you are a new creation now, old things have passed away and all things are new”

Prayer

Father Lord God Almighty, I recognize today that every time I doubted that you could forgive me, every time that I thought I had to be miserable for months and punish myself so that You would forgive me, every time I failed to receive your forgiveness due to unbelief, I insulted The Sacrifice of Jesus Christ on The Cross and instead of believing You I chose to believe in the lies of the devil. I choose today to believe that You are more than willing and able to forgive and restore me completely, to purify me and make me new so that I don’t fall in the same sins again, and I believe that You want me to be happy, full of The Holy Spirit, praising You, despite my past errors, in Jesus Christ’s Name. Amen.

It’s Now Your Turn

Amongst the lies listed above which one has been the most devastating to you? Which truth have you chosen to retain today to fight this lie everytime it will come back?
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Invitation

Are you fighting a battle in your mind against the lies of the devil, past failures, anxiety, depression, comparison and jealousy, you need to learn how to tap from God’s Word to receive the necessary resources to win this battle. I recommend that you check out this new series by Pastor Steven Furtick, lead Pastor of Elevation Church. This series started on 11-12/08/2018, it is a 7 parts series through which you’re going to learn how to take back your mind in the age of anxiety.
All you need to do is tune in on the Youtube channel of Elevation Church every Sunday at any of the following times.

• 14:30 (GMT+1) a.k.a 9:30 am EST
• 16:30 (GMT+1) a.k.a 11:30 am EST
• 22:00 (GMT+1) a.k.a 17:00 EST

If you feel concerned about your internet connection, watching the whole worship experience with video quality 240 MP should cost you 250 MegaBites. Alternatively, you can download the sermon replay on YouTube on Monday evening at 17:00 GMT+1 (12 Noon EST)
God loves you so much
God bless you
Victoria Eyog