Resumo de We Confess Our Sin

You''re probably sabotaging your successful Christian life right now if you''re making one or more of these mistakes. Do you know what they are?

I''m going to share with you quickly three of the most common mistakes that Christians make and how they can be corrected.

Mistake #1: "Being a Christian means I am a sinner that was saved by God''s mercy and I''m still a sinner..."

This is a commonly held misbelief by many Christians. They belief that they are still sinners. Christians are not still sinners who only received God''s mercy at salvation.

When you accepted God''s free gift of salvation because of his mercy, you also received something by grace--his life!

So you are no longer a sinner, you are a totally new creation, God has placed his life inside of you to make you who you are--a righteous and holy Saint!

Mistake #2: "I have to try to act like the Christian I am supposed to be-a good, moral, holy person..."

Satan often uses this to trick Christians by giving them this thought, that would appear to be a good thing--but it is actually a source of disaster!

You see, this goes along with mistake #1, when you try to act like something you''re not you are bound for failure!

If you realize the fallacy of thinking that you are a sinner you won''t act like one. And when you realize that you already are a righteous, holy, new creation because of the finished work of Christ--you won''t have to act like one because you are one!

It''s impossible to successfully be something you are not. You have the victory to succeed as a righteous Christian because you are, because you have Christ''s life that remade you!

Mistake #3: "I better be sure to ask forgiveness for my sins when I do sin because I want to make sure I''m forgiven of them, so God will still love me..."

Why would you ask for something that you already have? Why would you ask for forgiveness of sins you have already been forgiven of?

When Christ died on the Cross for the sins of the world, he died for ALL of them! Right? So when you accepted by faith his gift of salvation, the sacrifice that he made for your sins you received forgiveness for ALL of your sins! That is why Christ said, "It is finished".

A common misunderstanding is that he died only for those sins you have already committed, not future ones. That sins you commit from here on out have to be forgiven.

Ponder this for a moment, how many of your sins were in the future 2,000 yrs ago?

You are completely and totally forgiven of all of your sins-past, present, and future! You received the life of Christ upon accepting salvation, that''s why you are a reborn, righteous saint! Instead of asking for forgiveness, give God praise for the awesome completed work at the cross!

Created in God?s image. Genesis 1:27 asserts that we have been made in the image of the Creator. Like God we have the capacity to love and care, to communicate, to create, to minister. Like God we are free, and we are responsible. We have been made, says Psalm 8, ?little less than God,? and crowned ?with glory and honor? and been given ?dominion over the works? of God?s hands. We believe that the entire created order has been designed for the well-being of all creatures and as a place where all people can dwell in covenant with God. Genesis uses the images of a garden to suggest the kind of world that God intends.

Sin. But as we all know, we do not live as God intends. Again and again we break the covenant relationship between God and Us. We turn our back on God, on God?s expectations for us. We deny our birthright, the life of wholeness and holiness for which we were created. This we call sin.
A distinction should be made between sin and sins. We use transgressions, immoral acts. We speak of ?sins of omission and commission.? These are real enough, and serious, but they are not the essential issue. The issue is sin in the singular. Sin is our alienation from our God, our willful act of turning from God as the center of life and making our own selves, our own wills, the center. From this fundamental sin our various sins spring. Sin is estrangement of at least these four kinds:
Separation from God. Sin is breaking the covenant, separating ourselves from the One who is our origin and destiny. It is trying to go it alone, out of touch and out of relationship with the God who is the center of life. Based on the Genesis story, the church has described this break in dramatic terms: the Fall.

Separation from other people. In our sin we distance ourselves from others. We put ourselves at the center of many relationships, exploiting others for our own advantage. Instead of loving people and using things, we love things and use people. When confronted with human need we may respond with merely token acts of kindness, or perhaps just lip service, or perhaps not at all. Toward some people and some groups we are totally indifferent or actively hostile. Sin is a denial of our common humanity, our common destiny on this one small planet.
Separation from the created order. In our sin we separate ourselves from the natural environment. Greedily we turn upon it, consuming it, destroying it, befouling it. As natural resources dwindle, as possibilities increase for long-term damage to the atmosphere and seas, we pause to wonder. But our chief concern is for our own survival, not for the beauty and unity of all God?s creation.

Separation from our selves. We turn even from our own center, from the goodness, happiness, and holiness which is our divinely created potential. We are not unaware of this center. Sometimes it seems that there are two wills warring within us. As Paul put it, ?I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate? (Rom. 7:15).
Our yearning. Paul continues several verses further on: ?Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?? (7:24). Like Paul, we discover that we are powerless to extricate ourselves from sin. Though we work ever so earnestly at various means of saving ourselves?being good, going to church, reading the Bible?these in themselves cannot save us. Sin is not a problem to be solved, a malfunction to be fixed. It is our radical estrangement from God, a separation that only God can heal by a radical act of love, of amazing grace. We yearn for this reunion, this reconciliation, this redemption, this salvation.

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