What happens when a Christian sins?

As  Christians, we have all at once stumbled and fallen at least once in our Christian walk (hey…some honesty please..). We have at some moment been guilty-stricken after falling to the point that we felt so far away from God; we felt like God has withdrawn His Presence (uzimu onse wasungunuka). I have heard many people attribute this guilty-feeling to the Holy Spirit. I will address two questions in this article; Does God’s attitude towards us change when we sin? Is it really the Holy Spirit responsible for our guilt when we sin? To both questions I will answer with a big NO. 

Let us start with God’s attitude towards a Christian who has just committed sin. I say again God’s attitude toward you does not change when you sin. Most people have the idea that God is taken by surprise when they sin (that He has this OMG expression on His Face). Well God is neither surprised by your sinning nor does He panic because He already devised a way for the remission of your sins; this way is Jesus’ sacrificial death. When Jesus died, He died for your past, present and future sins (Yes even future, why are you looking surprised?). Well Jesus died more than two thousand years making your sins, before and after you were born again, future sins(unless you were alive two thousand years ago).  After Christ’s death there’s only one sin that man can ever commit, it is not getting drunk, having sex, stealing…stop judging , it is NOT BELIEVING IN JESUS (unbelief)[ Hebrews 3 and 4 emphasizes this]. The only sin a believer can commit after falling or stumbling is not believing in the forgiveness of God; that by Christ’s death all their sins were paid for. By feeling guilty about our sin we implicitly say that we are justified before God by our works acting contrary to scripture [But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. – Romans 4:5] [But that no man is justified by the law (Do’s and Do Not’s) in the sight of God, it is  evident: for, The just shall live by faith. – Galatians 3:11….brackets mine]. If we were made righteous not by our good deeds then how can we make ourselves unrighteous by our bad deeds?  Your salvation was bought by the infinitely-priced blood of Jesus and no sin is strong enough to cancel that transaction. The attitude of God toward you is dependent on how He sees Christ so as long as Christ remains righteous God will see you in His Eyes as righteous. YOUR SIN DOES NOT DISCREDIT YOU BEFORE GOD.

Moreover, God gives you a new spirit when you are born again [A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh – Ezekiel 36:26]. This new spirit remains unadulterated by any sin you commit.  This new spirit is one with God [But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. - 1 Corinthians 6:17]. Your spirit stands before God as pure as it was the day you got born again.

I know there are questions like but doesn’t God want us to be holy?  Yes and Yes [For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. – 1 Thessalonians 4:7] [1 Peter 1:16]. Is holiness a product of our works? A Big No.  Holiness is a fruit of righteousness which we have obtained in Christ [even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness – Romans 6:19] [Romans 6:22][Ephesians 4:24].

Second question, does the Holy Spirit convict us of sin? Well not believers [And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:  Of sin, because they believe not on me – John 16:8-9 ]. The Holy Spirit only convicts those who have not believed in Christ of sin. To believers He convicts us of Righteousness that we have attained through Christ and convinces us of our sonship [The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God –Romans 8:16(ESV)]. The Holy Spirit continuously reminds us that we are children of God therefore when we sin we feel unusual because we have acted contrary to our nature not that God is mad at us. When we sin our spirit says “as a son and co-heir with Christ how could I scoop that low?, it’s like a king eating garbage or wearing rags…this is not my nature”.

I am encouraging sin? NO. As Christians we no longer have a desire to sin because it is inconsistent with our nature as children of God [No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God – 1 John 3:9(ESV)].  When God freed us from sin, He made us servants of righteousness therefore we no longer desire to sin but to do righteous works [Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness – Romans 6:18].  GO AND SIN NO MORE….

On the "ndife nyongolotsi" and "I am just a sinner" prayers

“Oh God who am I before you? I am nothing but a worm (nyongolotsi yachabechabe); I am the scam of the earth, a grasshopper (chitete) before you”. Do you remember these types of prayers we used to make? (Oh some of you just prayed like that today). They sound so cool right? Sound so spiritual right? (Mwautsogo). We do it in the name of humility. Well this false humility has to stop if we are to be consistent with the truth that we have become the righteousness of God [2 Corinthians 5:21]. 

Think about it, if God sees us as He sees Christ(oh yes just read on), then by praying these nyongolotsi (I am just a worm) prayers, aren’t we implying that God sees Christ as nyongolotsi (worm)? Don’t you think you are trying to depend on your own works (which really make you a nyongolotsi) instead of resting on the work of Christ which makes you righteous before God? By these “I am just a sinner” prayers aren’t we implying that we still think our works can justify us before God (that our works determine whether God loves us or not)? How valuable are we before God? Why do we stick to our past sinner(ndife ochimwa) state as if Christ’s work was not complete? It doesn’t matter anymore how worthless we were before being born again; what matters now is who we are now and  what God  is transforming us into [For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. – Romans 8:29].

Who are we before God now? The Scriptures say He has made us sons [And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father – Galatians 4:6]. If our earthly fathers , as imperfect as they are, don’t see us as scam, grasshopper or cockroach then what makes us think God, as perfect as He is, could see us that way. No matter how many times you sin or fall you don’t lose your son-ship because son-ship is a state of BEING not a state of DOING (unless you tell me that in your family you seized to be a son that day you stole those two teaspoons of sugar from the bowl).  This means our “I am just a sinner” prayers are not necessary (even the devil is surprised).  Jesus completely paid for ALL your sins to change you from sinner to saints (He didn’t leave a balance not even a tambala (cent) to be paid later).[For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)  - Romans 5:17]

How does Jesus the One who felt the pain (punishment) of our sins look at us? If anybody has to be angry with us then it has to be Jesus because He felt the wrath of God because of our sins. But the scripture says He is not ashamed to call us brethren [For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren - Hebrews 2:11]. If Jesus, in all His Splendor and Majesty, is not ashamed to call us brothers / sisters then where do we get the audacity and courage to call ourselves these disgusting names?  No matter how bad you or other people think you are Jesus still calls you brethren. And on this note why should it matter what people call you? You allow your day to be ruined just because somebody (an uncircumcised philistine) has called you a bad name; come on be confident Jesus calls you brethren (whose word carries more value? Jesus’ Word sustains the universe, what does that person’s word sustain?) [Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice - Philippians 4:4].

In Acts, God rebuked Peter not to call common what He has cleansed [And the voice came to him again a second time, What God has cleansed and pronounced clean, do not you defile and profane by regarding and calling common and unhallowed or unclean – Acts 10:15]. Now Jesus gave Himself to cleanse and sanctify you [Ephesians 5:26][1 Corinthians 1:2] [Hebrews 10:10]. If God rebuked Peter that He had no right to call common what God has cleansed, then it means you also have no right to call yourself a sinner, scam (or whatever ‘humble’ words we use) when God has cleansed and sanctified you. This renders those false humility prayers illegal in the spiritual realm.

From today accept who you are in Christ (I know it is a bit overwhelming and too good to be true but it’s the truth), come boldly before God [Hebrews 4:16] and pray like Jesus saying “Father, I know you always hear me”. Yes He does hear you (the moment you received Jesus Christ, the Father's Ear eagerly waits to hear your prayer).  STOP the "ndife nyongolotsi" prayers (message from the prayer activist).

                                               

Relax..God is not angry with you

Religion (even Christianity…there I said it) has presented a God who is hungrily seeking to be appeased more like a “worship-maniac” kind of God (a God that craves for worship). It has presented a God who is full of wrath carrying a big humongous baton (chikwapu…remember that when we were kids?) anxiously waiting for somebody to make a mistake so He can whip them. This is why we have religious people who are trying hard, sweating blood, to build their own righteousness by their good works (self-righteousness master builders) in order to appease a higher power so He should spare them the big rod. Isaiah 64:6 has the best description of this type of righteousness; it says our best deeds of rightness and justice are as filthy rags or a polluted garment [For we have all become like one who is unclean [ceremonially, like a leper], and all our righteousness (our best deeds of rightness and justice) is like filthy rags or a polluted garment; we all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away [far from God's favor, hurrying us toward destruction] – Isaiah 64:6 (AMP))] . This means that if we are to please God by our good deeds (which are as filthy rags) then God has to be automatically angry with us because our own righteousness stinks before Him.  Well the topic here is not “how stinky is your righteousness” but “God is not angry with you” so let’s focus on that. 

Now that we have established that our righteousness is as filthy rags before God then don’t we deserve that God to be angry with us? Oh totally!!! we deserve every cubit of anger from Him every second of our lives (24/7 partakers of God’s wrath). In His foreknowledge, God knew that our righteousness will always fail us and that we will need a righteousness of someone else who is perfect so God prepared a Lamb (Jesus) to be sacrificed. Jesus came as an expression of how much God loves us not an expression of how much God is angry with us.  Whilst we deserved all the storehouses of God’s wrath (anger) to be poured on us, Jesus deserved all the storehouses of God’s Love to be poured out on Him for He pleased God [Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased – Luke 3:22]. Whilst we deserved to die an eternal death [For the wages of sin is death – Romans 6:23], Jesus had eternal life. Jesus’ sacrificial death brought so many spiritual implications (seriously, why would someone with eternal life die? Doesn’t that make God crazy? He must have been crazily in love with someone I guess).

 On the cross, Jesus stood in our place to take what we deserve so we can have what we deserve. So the wrath (anger) that was supposed to be poured out on us was poured out on Him (Jesus) so that the LOVE that was supposed to be poured out on Jesus should be heavily poured out on us (more like standing on a waterfall of His Love) [Romans 5:8-9]. On the cross, God was punishing Christ so we can be restored to Him [It was God [personally present] in Christ, reconciling and restoring the world to favor with Himself, not counting up and holding against [men] their trespasses [but cancelling them], and committing to us the message of reconciliation (of the restoration to favor) – 2 Corinthians 5:19 (AMP)]. On the cross God was exchanging our ragged (sticky) righteousness with the perfect righteousness of Christ (righteousness that pleases God) [For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. – 2 Corinthians 5:21]. 

By believing in Christ, we have attained the Righteousness of Christ (the right standing of Christ before God) meaning before God we stand as righteous as Christ (we stand as Christ). So as God said to Christ “Thou art my beloved son; in thee I am well pleased” He is saying the same thing to us (can you hear Him saying that? Oh He is so sweet). With this Righteousness we have attained in Christ, there’s no reason big enough (even if you search the whole universe) for God to be angry with you because to do that He has to be angry with Christ first (we know that can’t happen). It is too late for God not to love you.  The Bible says on 1 Corinthians 5:17 [If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.], notice that it says “Be in Christ” as a present state meaning every day you are becoming a new creature (God is constantly upgrading you in Christ). So did you sin yesterday or before reading this article? Well God is not mad at you (He’s not going to strike you with leprosy or something).  If you are being in Christ, He is renewing you (new creature) and the old thing are passed away now just put on this NEW man [And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness – Ephesians 4:24] (also read Colossians 3:10). God is not angry with you even when you sin. Some may say “are you saying we can sin since God won’t be angry with us?”  Well I forgive your religious mentality. Anyways, just try putting on the new man in Ephesians 4:24 and see if you will have the appetite to sin. Again I tell thee Relax, God is not angry with thee.

Other Reference scriptures: Philippians 3:9, Ephesians 2:3-7, 1 Thessalonians 1:10, 1 Thessalonians 5:9