Extreme Measures

How serious are we when it comes to honoring God and avoiding sin?
It's not about our salvation.
We're Heaven bound because of what someone else did.
That would be Jesus.
We could never be good enough to stand before a Holy God.
We would have to be perfect.
No way I can meet that standard!

But knowing Jesus paid the penalty for my sins on the cross, and through believing in Him I am credited with His righteousness in God's sight, I'm free to follow because I love Him.

I love what He loves.
I hate what He hates.
I still struggle with the old sin nature, but it's not the rule of my life anymore.
My heart is broken over my failures, and yet I celebrate the joy of forgiveness!

But I should all the more want to avoid what God hates.
And I need to remember that my sin cost Him the life of His Son.
Day by day.. step by step.. with the help of the Holy Spirit, we've got to get rid of sin.

In the Old Testament we see God telling the Israelites to take the Promised Land and destroy the Godless people who lived there:

Deuteronomy 20:16-18 (NIV)16 However, in the cities of the nations the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes.17 Completely destroy them--the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites--as the LORD your God has commanded you.18 Otherwise, they will teach you to follow all the detestable things they do in worshiping their gods, and you will sin against the LORD your God.

Those are extreme measures that God called for in that time and place to keep His people from falling into sin and away from Him.

Jesus also talked about the need to take extreme measures against sin:

Matthew 5:29-30 (NIV)29 If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.

Of course, Jesus isn't talking about self-mutilation here.
He's just saying we need to be ruthless and do whatever it takes to destroy sin.
If we give up our hearts become hard.
Suddenly it's not as big a deal to sin as it used to be.
Our love for and dedication to God fades.

Is there something in your life you need to "chop off" or "gouge out"or just simply destroy?
Begin the war.
Seek forgiveness for lost battles.
Celebrate grace.
And rise again to fight another day.