‘I’m a ‘SINFUL’ man. The ‘SINS’ of my Youth were plentiful. I may not have done serious crimes, but I had hateful thoughts, anger and bitterness and resented certain people. Now I want to be a ‘GOOD person’, a ‘good father’, ‘good husband’, ‘respectable family/community elder/leader’. So today, I go make several offerings (burnt offering, perform religious rituals) at ‘Religious places’, frequent visits to ‘holy’ places, read ‘holy’ books that bring peace, offer to charity and try to stay out of trouble.

But yes, I fall occasionally and make mistakes, have conflicts, hold hatred and grudges, and unforgiveness to people who are not like me or who follow different belief’s or ideologies/political views; I continue to struggle. Can I ever be free of sinful ways? Can my thoughts ever be clean of sin?’ Most MEN think like this as they age and mature. But in this ‘fallen world’ we will continue to ‘sin’. Even if we have negative and hateful thoughts it is still ‘sin’. So, what? Do we make offerings and sacrifices every day to stay ‘clean’?.

God gave us a WAY through Jesus Christ and His redemptive work at the Cross through His Blood. He knew we were going to keep sinning all throughout our lives in actions, words or in thoughts. Through Christ we have forgiveness every day for past, current and future sins. Through Him we are CLEAN in the spirit. Struggling and striving to be clean and stay away from sinful ways is almost impossible in the flesh. All such attempts are truly futile. There is absolutely no other way than Jesus. Through Jesus we can be called ‘Sons of God’. So, we are no longer ‘Sinful’ but we are children of God – clean and righteous!

Matthew 5:21,22, 27,28. Matthew 15:18-19, James 1:14-15, Galatians 3:26, Romans 8:14