I'm sitting here reading a Spurgeon sermon on repentance and he asks the following question: "Suppose that there was no reward for virtue and no punishment for sin. Which would you choose?"
Everyone hates their sin when they're facing punishment. I see it in my kids. My students. People I counsel. Myself. It's easy to cry and wish we had never done something or even had the desire in our heart when we're facing the justice of God or the consequences of life.
Do I hate my sin because of how it offends God? Or do I hate it because of the potential problems it could cause me. The judgment, the separation, the embarrassment.
I think that the answer to this question reveals a lot about who we really are. When David was confronted with his sin of adultery with Bathsheba, he wrote Psalm 51. Within that great psalm he wrote: "Against You, You only, have I sinned." He was grief-stricken because he had sinned against God. Not because he had been caught or punished.
I think that I have to pray through this one, but I thought that I would throw it out there. The answer is the key to true repentance.
1 comment:
thats so weird that you bring this topic back up because i really have been praying for something similar in my own life. I have been asking God to help me do the things that i desire to do and not the things that i think i want to do. If that makes sense. No one wants to sin but we all do it all the time. however we all desire to live the life that God has planned for us. thats why i feel like so many of my friends and people i know dont even think twice about when they sin because they dont think that they will ever be punished. and people now a days also dont think that its not worth being good if your not rewarded. and dave like i was saying wed. nite if there was no reward at the end of this life it would be so hard for me to keep my faith because of what society has tried to teach me
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