life of a female bible warrior

There are probably a lot of Christians, like myself, who experienced salvation and found what ensued thereafter to be a lengthy, ongoing journey. It wasn’t as if sainthood descended and I became like Jesus Christ and His apostles overnight; in fact, I still have an immensely long way to go to be like Christ, imo. 

As I ponder it, I don’t think even Christ’s own disciples were saints all of the time. They had their own life journeys to travel while they learned along the way. I wonder how often they sinned from the time they met Christ to when He was crucified and taken from them. Even after He went to the right hand of the Father, I still don’t see the apostles as perfect saints without sin. 

I think we grow in holiness and desire to please God as we walk this Christian journey. It’s a learning and developing life experience. Change happens along the way.  I think there is no possible way that sin wouldn’t happen and that even the most self righteous Christian sins, despite himself.

We’re all going to sin because sin is part of our human nature. We make dreadful mistakes and this is a part of life, even for Christians. So wherever we are in our lives at this point, we can look backward even a year or two ago and find where we have sinned and displeased God. If we have remorse for those sins and mistakes we’ve made, and have repented them, I don’t believe that God or Jesus are going to hold our sin against us. The bible tells us that they don’t.

This doesn’t mean that there won’t be worldly consequences for sin due to our poor choices, because consequences come, whether we’re sorry or not; that’s just the way that life is. It’s clear to me, though,  that condemnation comes from holier-than-thou human beings who are arrogant and judgmental, who need to pluck the beam out of their own eyes before judging the splinter in their brother’s. These critical people potentially need to take their own moral inventory.

“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” Romans 8:1

There is glorious liberty in the family of God! Our Father does not condemn us for any past sin. All judgment for our sin has passed upon Jesus. As you put your faith in the blood of Jesus, there is a perfect cleansing from all sin.

You are “in Christ” now. God cannot and will not condemn you because of Jesus. You are free from fear. You are liberated from guilt – no matter what you have done or where you have been. Since you made Jesus Christ the Lord of your life, there is “NO CONDEMNATION.”

The truth of Romans 8:1 will keep you singing the rest of your life. Think on it. Talk about it. Most of all, act on it. Since you are not condemned, you have no need to condemn others. What a freedom to see others reconciled to God and to tell the Good News!

Boldly Make This Confession of Faith Aloud

I am no longer condemned. I refuse all guilt and shame over past sins and failures. I am free in Jesus for I have received God’s grace.

http://www.howtotouchgod.com/no-condemnation.html

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When others try to brand us over a single failure, or label us by a past sin, we must know who we are in Christ and what kind of future he has scripted over our lives. We must let Christ brand us, not people who point their fingers in accusatory fashion. This takes courage, strength, and a self-dignity that isn’t built on the foundation of our own righteousness, but a solid foundation of who we are because of Jesus’ righteousness. Our personal victories are dependent on our hearing God’s voice and knowing what He thinks about us, not what others speak of us.

• Have you ever been labeled by someone else?
• How did that make you feel?
• Why does it hurt when other people brand us negatively?

Read Romans 8:1

• What does the word ‘condemnation’ mean?
• Have you ever seen that written on an old abandoned building? It means to pronounce ‘unfit’ for something. That’s what Satan, the accuser of God’s children (Revelation 12), wants to do to you through other people. He wants to point accusatory fingers at you and brand you as a person unworthy of love and unfit for grace. Where Satan tries to destroy your dignity, Jesus steps in to rescue it…

Read John 8:1-11

• Who brought the woman caught in adultery to Jesus?
• What were their attitudes?
• In what ways have you seen religious people condemn others?
• Jesus stooped on behalf of the condemned woman. In what other areas of Scripture was Jesus prone to stoop? He stooped to wash his disciples’ feet. He stooped to receive the children… a Roman whip… a cross.
• Does this reflect humility on Jesus’ part?
• Why was Jesus willing to risk his reputation on such an immoral woman?
• Has grace ever caused you to risk your reputation for someone else?
• What do you think Jesus wrote on the ground? Could it have been the sins of these religious accusers to expose them in their judgmentalism? Could it have been a beautiful picture of this woman’s future under grace, love, and restored dignity?
• Jesus stood between the accused woman and her accusers. That’s precisely what he did for you and me on Calvary’s cross. Will God ask us to do the same at times: standing up for the accused and condemned?
• Why do you think the oldest accusers dropped their stones first?
• What did Jesus say to the accused woman after everybody had left?
• What does it mean to go and sin no more? What new identity has Jesus clothed us with? How can we wear that identity well?

NEXT STEPS: Have you broken free from the condemnation of others? Spend time this week asking God what kind of new identity His grace has clothed you with. Ask Him how you can focus more on that identity than on what others are saying about you. Have you been guilty of pointing your fingers at someone else? Have you branded them because of a moral or spiritual failure in their life? Ask God to give you a more gracious spirit to be a mercy giver rather than a finger pointer.

http://www.faithconnectionchurch.com/next-steps/talk-it-over/55-chattanooga-churches-masquerade-2