Sin- Not just DOING but BEING (Chambers Alert)

Sin is a fundamental relationship— it is not wrong doing, but wrong being— it is deliberate and determined independence from God. The Christian faith bases everything on the extreme, self-confident nature of sin. Other faiths deal with sins— the Bible alone deals with sin. The first thing Jesus Christ confronted in people was the heredity of sin, and it is because we have ignored this in our presentation of the gospel that the message of the gospel has lost its sting and its explosive power.

Wow! I don’t think I ever heard of that concept.  Sin is not just something we do but it is something we are.  It is not just a behavior but a part of our character.  In other words, we are not sinners because we sin, but we sin because we are sinners.  It is in our nature.  Paul said, “Oh what a wretched man I am, who is going to save me from this body of sin…thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”  Then we can conclude there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

A man cannot redeem himself— redemption is the work of God, and is absolutely finished and complete. And its application to individual people is a matter of their own individual action or response to it. A distinction must always be made between the revealed truth of redemption and the actual conscious experience of salvation in a person’s life.

I take this to mean that redemption is sufficient for any who believe it but not effective until you receive it.  John 1:12 points to the fact that receiving and believing are on the same page.  If we only believe it is insufficient and ineffective, we have to receive also!