PUTTING ON CHRIST

God demonstrated His great love for us by making Jesus sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him... In Christ. God expects, and commands, that we live in obedience to His word, the scriptures, so the onus is on us to diligently study His word. We must live our life guided by the level of understanding we have received, refusing to practice sin as a lifestyle and doing our best not to knowingly sin. But… we do sin: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” Therein lies the need for ongoing grace and mercy: “If anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous ... If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness ... Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”God overlooks our sin slips -- our falling short of His mark -- for He does not hold us accountable for our unknown sins committed in ignorance of His standards, or occasional sin “slips” we have put under the cleansing power of His blood through confession at His Throne of Grace.

God looks at us through His imputed righteousness which we wear like a coat... and sees His Son. You see, we really do “put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” We are literally sinless before God, not perfect, not spiritually mature yet, still displaying the reality filthy rags of our Self nature... still sinful, but sinless in His eyes. There is no condemnation, no need for introspection that dilutes our faith, we can quit beating ourselves up over our unworthiness. We don't have to make ourselves better to be acceptable or earn favor with God. There is nothing we can do to make God love us more, and nothing we can do to make God love us less. His amazing unfathomable relentless love is the greatest constant of life… the very definition of unchanging.  And far from being a license to sin, putting on Christ is the best reason not to.

Endnote: It is the Holy Spirit’s job to reveal Christ in us, making our unknown sin known to us as sin, as we mature in the faith. Our choice is always either obedience -- in agreement with the Holy Spirit, or disobedience -- in agreement with Self. Practicing sin... habitually sinning, will eventually lead to death... separation from God. Our cloak of righteousness – Christ --  only protects us in our obedience, so we must always be conscious of sin’s wages – the payment we receive for habitual sinning... death… everlasting separation from our Father!

THE BEST REASON NOT TO SIN 
(Rom. 13:14; Gal. 3:27; 1 Jn. 1:8-9; Heb.4:16)