"I wish I never sinned" said the Israelite at the head of the queue.
The others waiting to make their sacrifices nodded.
The priest narrowed his gaze. "Why do you wish you never sinned?"
The Israelite was amazed that the priest would ask. The answer was so obvious it hardly needed saying. "So I don't have to keep returning to this altar."
.
? Was this a good answer?
Well if it's our answer today for why we don't want to sin, it's pretty crummy.
But I notice in myself that a big part of why I hate sinning is that it humbles me, shows me I'm not a righteous, self-sufficient wage-earner and reveals my desperate need for Jesus. So much of my hatred of sin is actually the flesh talking.
You can get the flesh to hate sin. And hate it a very great deal. But the flesh does not hate sin for the right reasons. The flesh hates sin because it leads to brokenness and dependency (or it ought to).
Therefore what can often sound like a very holy determination "never to sin again" is actually a determination never to need Jesus again, never to fall at His feet and confess our desperate depravity, never to have to plead His mercy. It can actually be code for 'I never want to live by His grace, only by my righteousness.' And therefore it's a bit like the Israelite saying 'I don't want to sin because I don't want to have to keep coming back to the altar.'
That's what I'm getting at. But I realize four lines with no context is a bit cryptic! Sorry!
This rings a bell with me.
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It wasn't cryptic on first reading, then i started to doubt :) - i'm sorry! Think there has to be a difference between being ashamed of the sin that we need forgiveness for, and being ashamed to seek forgiveness for it ... in other words, that's spot on.