SIN NO MORE!

 

Sunday, September 24, 2023

 

SIN NO MORE!

 

Jer 31:33-34

33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

 

          The phrase, “sin no more” can be found in the Authorized Version only three times but each time it is significant. First, in our text above, God proposes a new covenant with Israel to replace the old covenant built around the structure of the Mosaic Law. The law restricted their conduct but did nothing to change their character! God, through Messiah, is going to “put his law in their inward parts.”

 

          Warren Wiersbe accurately said: “Any plan for the betterment of human society that ignores the sin problem is destined to failure.” Religion may manipulate conduct through intimidation, shame, and punishment but real change comes from within.

 

           Jesus tells forgiven sinners to “go and sin no more.” In John 5:14 Jesus said to a healed cripple to “sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee.” The cure for hitting your thumb with a hammer is NOT to hit it again repeatedly!

 

          Lastly, in John 8:11, Jesus says to the woman “taken in adultery – in the very act” to go and sin no more. The shame of being caught and the near fatal condemnation had convinced this woman to change her habits. Day after day she would remember the words of Jesus “neither do I condemn thee.”

 

1 John 2:1

2 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:

 

Dear Lord, thank you for forgiveness that is abundantly available for the asking. Let us not forget that the cost of providing it was your cross. Help me to “sin no more.”