Beware! Your Sins Will Find You Out

Tuesday 12th August 2008

Let's continue our book review of Mt Sinai Resources.

For today let's look at the one entitled "Beware! Your Sins Will Find You Out"

I remember as a Christian growing up, I would be told about the need to confess my sin whenever the Holy Spirit brought them to mind. Otherwise, to be in a state of having unconfessed sin would be torture.

A frequently-quoted verse to support the above theology would be 1 Jn 1:9 "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness". Hence, if one were not to confess quickly, he would remain in a state of unforgiven-ness. Woe if that person was to suddenly drop dead, because it would mean ending up in hell!

Thanks to the grace gospel, I now know that this verse applies to the gnostics who had infiltrated the early church and were going about telling others that they had not sinned before. Not only that, I now also understand the true meaning of confession as far as the New Covenant believer is concerned.

Furthermore, the Holy Spirit convicts a believer of righteousness and not of sin. I have blogged about that here.

The act of "confessing one's sin" does not mean going into a room and telling the person on the other side of the door all the wrong, in terms of thought, word and deed. Rather it means to agree with what God's Word says about our sin -- that it has already been punished on the body of our Lord Jesus Christ -- and to thank the Lord for His finished work.

Another verse used to justify the "confession of sin" was Gal 6:7 "Be not deceived. God is not mocked. A man reaps what he sows".

However, if we were to read this in its proper context, we will realise that Paul is referring to doing good to others, and not to sin. Let's look at the verse preceding as well as following this particular verse on sowing and reaping...

6Let him who receives instruction in the Word [of God] share all good things with his teacher [contributing to his support].

9And let us not lose heart and grow weary and faint in acting nobly and doing right, for in due time and at the appointed season we shall reap, if we do not loosen and relax our courage and faint.

It would be very strange for Paul to talk about a particular subject , suddently drift to another topic, and then come back again to that original subject. A more consistent approach would be to interpret this entire section as referring to just one subject matter, and that is how we should be sowing our money into a particular ministry.

Please allow me to share a personal testimony here. I felt prompted of the Lord back in Dec 2005 (after I got my year-end bonus) to get all the CD sermons and books of Ps Joseph Prince as a means of sowing into Joseph Prince Ministries. After all, Gal 6:6 says that we are to contribute to the support of the one who gives us instruction in the Word of God. Well, the principle of sowing and reaping continues to apply in terms of how we spend our money, because since that initial act of sowing, God has prospered my career and caused my salary to increase so exponentially, that I have even much more seeds to sow. Hence the D2R and D2RD giveways :-)

Some of you out there may accuse me of having an "ulterior" motive, in that I am expecting to reap as a result of sowing. Well, if that is the case, then should not that same accusation be directed at the farmer who sows seed into his field or vineyard? Duh!

Of course I am expecting a harvest lah -- and a super-bountiful one at that -- that my barns be filled to overflowing, in order that I have even more opportunity to put Gal 6:6 into practice and sow bountifully into worthy ministries like One-North where I receive instructions in the Word of God. After all, Paul also says in 2 Cor 9:6 that he who sows sparingly will reap sparingly, while he who sows bountifully will reap bountifully.

Coming back to the book title. Sowing and reaping does not apply to sin anymore this side of the cross, because Jesus reaped what we sowed and paid the price for all our sins -- past, present and future. That is why the author of Hebrews quoted the prophesy in Jer 33 as being fulfilled by the New Covenant in Heb 10:16-17

16"THIS IS THE COVENANT THAT I WILL MAKE WITH THEM AFTER THOSE DAYS, SAYS THE LORD: I WILL PUT MY LAWS UPON THEIR HEART, AND ON THEIR MIND I WILL WRITE THEM," He then says,
17"AND THEIR SINS AND THEIR LAWLESS DEEDS I WILL REMEMBER NO MORE."

So let us stop remembering what God has said He had forgotten. Instead of being sin-conscious, let us instead be righteousness-conscious and confess that I am the righteousness of God in Christ.

Having said that, the principle of sowing and reaping still applies in the area of how we spend the money that God has entrusted to us. So, maybe the title of the book should be "Beware! Your Tithes and Offerings Will Find You Out!" :-)