ColinB wrote:
If you truly believe that, why not simply stop failing & stop sinning ?
Your stance seems to be: "It's not possible to be without sin, so why even try ?"
Sounds like a cop-out to me.
Nope. My stance is that we live in a fallen world. A world that fell when Eve listened to Satan and ate of the fruit, and Adam just stood there and let her do it. For God told them not to eat of the fruit of the tree. When they failed to obey God, Satan got his foothold on this world. So no matter how hard we try, in this fallen world, sin will always be there. If we read our Bibles, repent of our sins, and obey God' commandments then with the power of the Holy Spirit He cleanses us from sin. Our lives our transformed and conformed, but it isn't some magic process. God isn't some magic genie that goes POOF and you'll never sin again. He doesn't want a robot, he wants somebody of free will willingly wanting to follow Him. Willingly wanting to serve Him, and willingly not wanting to sin. If we get cocky and decide on our own that we will not sin, then we are saying we can do it without God and therefore God's Spirit leaves us and then we once again sin. Jesus says you have to carry your cross daily. We live in a fleshly world. We can try to not sin, but without Christ - we will never even be able to win the battle. Even with the Spirit - our flesh always wants to rebel. The Bible talks of God's chosen people always turning away from Him time and time again. We are nothing but filthy rags (Isaiah 66). We are dung and filth on our own. Our flesh is dirty, and Satan lays out snares to temp us. God has offered us Christ as the cornerstone against sin and death.
Because we were created in God's image, meant for more - but because we have free will - we welcomed sin and lust into the world. We still, however, were created in God's image - so we create beautiful things based on his wonders and beauty. Which is why we can admire an artist, or a singer. Because the beauty we hear from them came from God. When Elvis Presley got fat and sick, that was a metaphor of the sin that was in his life by his womanizing and drug use. He knew the truth, and he could have repented, but he chose not to - and the beauty of his voice became sin. Even in his final days, his God given beauty was somewhat there in his voice - but the damage and the filth came to the surface. What was once created in the perfection of God, had mired itself into sin and in the end was the bloated sin of Elvis. All of his sins came to the surface and he died of his sins. And Jesus wept.
I may not be the man I ought to be, but Thank God - I am not the man I used to be.
http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=WKDP7GNX