Breathe easy, as the “New Year” is to start today; that the first article of the year is calling upon you to make no New Year’s resolutions; that few, very few, ever keep anyway! So, why not make a “New Year’s Resolution” for losing weight during the year 2017? Yes, these words were written just to prove that we never keep those resolutions that we make! So, I have told you I will not call upon you to make any “New Year’s Resolutions,” then, the first thing I did was to call upon you to do this that!
Seriously now, the person who has no desire to get better, to make himself a better person, to improve himself, may not be much of a person! This is based upon the fact, that we have no “perfect,” no flawless people walking among us today! Yet, we hear say: “Accept me just the way I am, for this is who I am!” Such a person is revealing that they have no desire to improve! How sad! But think about this, once there was a person who walked upon this earth, who was “perfect,” who was without flaw, and who was without sin! Peter wrote of him: “Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously” (1 Pet. 2:22-23). Yet, few honored him, as he should have been honored and should be honored today! In fact, listen to their cry when Pilate asked them: “What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ?” (Matt. 27:22). Are you listening? “They all say unto him, Let him be crucified.” Yes, Pilate even set a man of “murder” before them, as Luke wrote: “I will therefore chastise him (Jesus, frw), and release him. (For of necessity he must release one unto them at the feast.) And they cried out all at once, saying, Away with this man, and release unto us Barabbas: (Who for a certain sedition made in the city, and for murder, was cast into prison.) Pilate therefore, willing to release Jesus, spake again to them. But they cried, saying, Crucify him, crucify him” (Luke 23:16-21). There was no honor for him who was “perfect,” “without flaw,” and who had no sin!
So, shall we be honored who are far less than “perfect,” who have our flaws, and who commit sin? First, in our thinking, let us remember Paul’s words to those in Athens: “For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device” (Acts 17:28-29). No, we do not look for our God to be made out of “gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device;” a god that can and was destroyed by invading armies; a god neglected by the hands of man. One of the things I noticed while preaching the gospel in India, was that I would come upon area full of “their gods” and they were totally neglected and abandoned, as the grass and the weeds grew up about them! What a difference between the ideas of man and his gods and God and his idea of man! Those who follow the world, think they can make their own gods; while God created man! Thanks,be to God, who provided us with a means to handle and forgiveness of our imperfections, our flaws, and our sins! John wrote: “if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 1:9 – 2:2). There is our God and his plans for our imperfections, our flaws, and our sins! It is from the creator to the created!
Did you notice John’s words: “that ye sin not?” Even though God has an answer for our sins; this is not to create within a desire to sin! No, this is a loving Father, through his beloved Son, providing a way of forgiveness, not creating a desire to sin! Remember the cost of our redemption from sin: “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Pet. 1:18-19).
So, did I hear anyone say, “I have no desire to improve myself in the year 2017?” My friend, my brothers and sisters in Christ, is this what you think of the “precious blood of Christ?”
Frank R. Williams