Can I Out-Sin God's Love?

          So after my first week at Liberty University, things have stayed good. Walking with Christ doesn't look one specific way for everybody, and life throws curve balls and you have good days and bad days, but when it's all said and done and you wake up after a night of crying and screaming out of frustration and confusion, you wake up to the realization that the Lord is good and His mercies truly are new every morning. Being a Christian doesn't mean that you won't ever sin, but it does mean that every time you turn away, the Lord walks with you and waits patiently and lovingly for you to turn back around and seek His face again. I seriously cannot tell you how many times I've thought that this one sin, this one specific thing, was the last straw for God. Let me put this idea to rest right now. 

Jesus doesn't rejoice in our pain,
but suffers with us.

          Psalm 23:6 NIV reads, "Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever." A better and more accurate translation is in the New Living Translation, which reads, "Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the LORD forever." God doesn't follow us around, loving us in a passive, lackluster way. God's love is something that we only get glimpses of in this world. The intensity and the passion with which our God loves us is literally beyond our comprehension. He chases us, He hunts us down with love. He will go into the darkest pits with us, just to show us that He loves us. Even when you're in the act of sinning, He is right there with you, heartbroken but still loving you. So stop that right now. Put to death this idea that you can out-sin God's love. That's what the enemy wants you to believe, and it's a lie straight from the pits of hell. Let the Lord pick you up, give up your sinful, selfish desires, and start over again. We've got a war to win.
          Galatians 5:13 and 1 Peter 2:16 both give us a clear challenge as Christians: the entirety of your sin has been forgiven through your faith in the finished work of Christ and you are now free from the bondage of sin . . . so what are you going to do with this freedom? You could use your freedom to satisfy yourself and live for yourself again, or you could live out God's commission for your life and win souls for His kingdom. God's love is going to pursue you no matter what, but whether or not you live a life that is pleasing to Him will reflect what's in your heart.

          This is where the book of James comes in with the idea of faith without works being dead. Throughout the book, James isn't saying that you have to do all these great awesome things and be perfectly obedient to God in order to deserve salvation. Rather, he offers us the idea that genuine faith that infiltrates every aspect of our being will be evident in our behaviors. When Jesus comes into your heart to rule over your life, he doesn't just make you a "good person." Jesus comes to make you a radically different creation in every area of your life. Can you resist the Holy Spirit's urging in your conscience? Sure. You can still sin as a true believer. But true, genuine faith will be lived out in submission to God's will. This is where a lot of people will get the idea that you can lose your salvation once you have it.
          I really want to go into some detail and be very, very clear about what the Bible says about salvation and how or if you can lose your salvation, so I'm going to save this for a separate post. A lot of this stuff can get scary for those people who don't know for sure whether they're saved for good or if they've out-sinned God's love and forgiveness and can't get into heaven anymore, so let me leave you with this. 

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord . . . who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began. - 2 Timothy 1:7-9