| Sin Consciousness |
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I think that we see it backwards when we see the death of Christ as needed to appease God. It has been preached from pulpits for centuries that God cannot fellowship with sin because of His holiness. I am not making light of man's sinfullness or God's holiness, but when Adam sinned, God knew about it and still came looking for Adam to fellowship with him in His sinfull state. The truth is that if God could not fellowship with sinful man, He would have no one to fellowship with regardless of what those who think they have already come to sanctification might say or believe.
When man sinned and became aware of good and evil, it made Him instantly aware of the vast gulf between God's goodness and man's sinfulness. The breaking of fellowship with man was because of man's conscience. Adam hid from God. It was not the other way around. Notice what this verse really says:
Isa 59:1 Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:
Isa 59:2 But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.
The institutional church reads these verses and stresses that man's sins keep God from being able to stand to be around us. Even through the blood of Jesus, they say, God has to hold his nose to be around us. But what does the Word really say? It says that God's arm is not short and His ear is not too heavy to hear. The problem is not on God's side in our inability to fellowship. So it must mean that our sin does something to us that keeps us from fellowshipping with God.
According to Hebrews 9 and 10, this was exactly what was wrong with the Old Covenant. God provided sacrifice for sin to appease man's conscience so He could fellowship with us, but these sacrifices had to be done year by year because we could not imagine that the blood of one natural lamb or goat could ever take away sin. The Day of Atonement would finally come around the the lamb was slain and Israel felt clean before God. But, by the next day, they would yell at the wife or kick the dog and they would again not feel holy enough to spend time with God and would have to wait a whole year to feel clean again. It has always been about our sin consciousness and not God's holiness.
Heb 9:13 For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh:
Heb 9:14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
Heb 10:22 Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.
Heb 10:23 Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)
The Old Covenant could never take away sin. It only cleansed our conscience for a short time so we still spent more time feeling guilty before God than we did in fellowship with Him. But, Jesus forgave sin once and for all. He not only forgave every sin we have ever committed, but He has already born the punishment for every one we ever will commit. This was God's plan to perfect forever those who are saved as pertaining to our conscience which the Old Covenant could never do.
Unfortuntely, Mystery Babylon, the Harlot counterfeit for the Church, continues to keep God's people in bondage to sin consciousness. They preach the constant need to "go to confession" or to "come to the alter" or to "apply the blood" every time we sin. There is no ministry in Heaven of applying blood today. It was done once and for all, but ministers do not want you to know this. They want you continually guilty so they keep themselves in a job or they think you cannot handle the truth.
As a man sees himself so is he and as long as we see ourselves as sinners saved by grace we will continue to be a sinning church. But, if we ever get the Word in our hearts and really cleanse our consciousness of sin, we will be able to live boldly in His pressence and His holiness will become our own.
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