SIN DOES NOT AFFECT GOD

Series: The world’s most pricking message

By Munashe Soka

“What!!!” you might yell at me, “Did you say sin does NOT affect God?” —emphatically yes. Well, these are some of the rarest truths you’ll ever hear being preached. Usually, when we preach about the grace of God, most people, especially preachers, get disturbed. I know why; I was once a ‘victim’ of the grace message; so to say. It sounds like a licence to sin, isn’t it? Nevertheless, it isn’t a license to sin. Rather, the preaching of an unapologetic grace message is an empowerment to right living and not to sinful indulgence.

In this article, of course, my main objective isn’t to give someone freedom to sin but empowerment to live right. Once you get to understand this, sin will lose its grip on you. Before I begin to explain my point, I want this statement to register in you—SIN DOES NOT AFFECT GOD. And don’t quote me wrong, I didn’t even say it affects you either.

The bible says, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1) The meaning of this scripture is very simple to those who have not been blinded by religion. It means that God no longer holds any Christian guilty of any sin because he/she is now in Christ. Because of the fact that you have received Christ as your Lord, God no longer find any cause to condemn you, and that’s now your state till eternity.

There are those who say that the scripture I quoted only applies to Christians who are not living in sin as the ones whom God does not condemn. They say that the next sentence in that verse (which I did not quote) says, “…who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit,” meaning that the evil shunning Christians are the ones who are not condemned, but the sinful Christians are. Okay, to respond to that I can say that the one in Christ is not your physical body or your flesh—it’s your spirit and your spirit will never walk according to the flesh. Whether you sin or not your spirit remains righteous before God. Your spirit is now a part of Christ and Christ is all righteous and all light.

Nonetheless, if you are a good student of the bible you’ll get to understand that that next sentence wasn’t in the original Greek manuscript from which our English bible was translated. It appears that the statement “who walk not according to the flesh….,” was an addition made by the translators and not by Paul himself. My ESV bible has a footnote which says that the earlier manuscript did not include that statement. It was something that was then added later on. If you read most versions, other than the King James, you do not see that statement because it is believed that it was not in the original.

The ones whom God does not condemn are ALL Christians including those who are sinful. Your sins are no longer a factor with God. Sin is something that Christ destroyed on the cross; His blood washed them all away. If sin is still a factor with Him then it means His blood did not completely wipe them. It means His cross still didn’t do quite good. Psalms 103:12 says, “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.”

In Christ you have been made a new creature altogether; you are no longer that same old sinner you used to be. Of course someone may say, “Before I was born again I was a smoke addict and even now that I’m born again I’m still struggling with smoking, how then am I a new creature?”

When the bible says you are now a new creature, it doesn’t refer to your physical body. It is talking about your spirit—the hidden man on the inside. You are a sinless creature on the inside. I want to ask you; before you were born again, was the colour of your skin black or white? And after you were born again was the colour of your skin the same? Of course your answer is yes. Now if that’s so, why then does the bible say, “If any man be in Christ he is a new creature”? (2 Corinthians 5:17)

So it means that your physical condition cannot affect your spiritual condition. The same is true when it comes to physical sins. Physical sins do not affect the condition of your spirit; you’ll still remain righteous. Those who are in Christ, the bible says, cannot be condemned. Again I say; I’m not giving people a license to sin here; I’m empowering you to live right.

There is no Christian who loves to sin. You do not feel good after committing sin. And most Christians are still struggling with sin; some are even addicted to porn, masturbation, lying, gossip, hatred, fornication, adultery, guilt caused by memories of past sins, prostitution, stealing, smoking, drinking, drug abuse and so many. You do not know how to come out of this I know.

Your greatest problem isn’t the sin itself but the guilt. You think, “Ah I have messed it up already. My life isn’t going to be repaired anymore. My past sins are hunting me down. God is mad at me. I’m no better person. I killed, I prostituted, I lost my virginity and I’m less a woman I should be, I’m just not good anymore…”

When you approach God you think He is always holding a whip against you. You think God sees you with less favour than He does that other girl who never slept with a man before marriage. You think God favours you less than that guy who never smoke and drank in all his life.

Let me tell you this: God does not look at us based on our physical condition. God looks at us based on our spiritual condition and our spiritual condition as Christians is just the same—we are all new creatures in Christ and we are the righteousness of God, His own special people, His holy nation, and He cannot condemn us.

From today if you sin just say to that sin, “You unclean thoughts, you bad habit, you lying spirit, you fornication, you masturbating desire;—you have no power over me—the real person on the inside; I have been made the righteousness of God in Christ. You do not have power over me. I refuse to be ruled by you. From now onwards I live and walk in righteousness only because that’s my new nature. God sees a holy person when He looks at me. I’m always living in righteousness. I am the salt of this earth. I have power over every sinful desire in the name of Jesus!”

You see when you begin to talk like this sin will lose its grip on you and your spirit will begin to gain control over your physical life. Look at the following verse and meditate on it:

Romans 6:11-14, “Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the law, but under grace.”