FInish the Race

As Christians we talk a lot about sin, how to avoid sin, what sin is …. but what I haven’t heard much is what to do when we sin and after. Face it we all sin, we as people are sinners, ever since Adam and Eve we all sin. I have fallen into a great problem, it is the problem of the Pharisees, and is what we now call legalism. Legalism (at least in Christianity) is following the rules, but doing it in the mindset that you are making yourself righteous. I have fallen into this, which led me to detest myself when I sinned and saw myself as a failure before God. I read a passage in James that said we are to have “faith and deeds” and need both, and cannot survive without either, James 1:14-26. I was troubled by that, I as a human am fallen, but have faith, so where does that leave me? I began a legalistic lifestyle, judging myself and others believing that perfection is what we are to be aiming for, unfortunately I did not realize that it is not perfection, but salvation that is our goal. I did not understand the passage clearly, what James was trying to say is you have faith, good, but where are your deeds to back it up? Basically “put your money where your mouth is”, he’s pointing out to the people that if we truly believe in God we will make an effort that we will live out our faith. So I then came to realize that we all sin, and as faithful people we will ask for forgiveness and as faithful people we will work to improve our lives based on God’s law. Improvement is the big word here, the Christian who is satisfied with his lifestyle is far from God, the Christian who says I’m happy where I am at, I’m staying here, we are to keep moving forward in our walk with God, we are to run and finish this race. So when we sin we are not to “beat ourselves up” but pick ourselves up and continue with the walk. I am not saying sin is okay, it is a horrible thing, but we can’t let it get in between us and God any more than it already has.