Are you baptized? Have you received Communion? Do you confess your sins regularly, rarely, or not at all? Are you struggling to break free from sin? Is your spiritual life unbalanced, inconsistent, or wandering? Sometimes you live in sanctification, and other times you fall back into sin? This message is for you.

Jesus wants to save you. He is reaching out to you. Your church denomination doesn’t matter. This has nothing to do with religion or Christian activism. It’s about your life.

Are you in communion with God? Do you live out a personal relationship with Christ every day?
Pause this reading and answer that question sincerely. Find a quieter place, meditate on these questions, then come back and continue reading.

Are you proud or satisfied with your life, with your personal relationship with Christ? Do you know that no intimate relationship with God is possible while living in sin? Do you realize that sin is an act of disobedience? And that any sin that is not acknowledged, confessed, abandoned, and any harm done (to your neighbor) will lead directly to the gates of hell after death? If you doubt it, take your Bible and read this verse:

“Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.” — 1 Corinthians 6:9-10.

The sinner will not have access to the Kingdom of God. Sin disqualifies you from salvation. But true repentance opens the way to God’s grace, which justifies you. That’s why the Apostle Paul affirms:

“And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” — 1 Corinthians 6:11.

Do you want to be washed? God cannot save you without your cooperation. No man or woman in the New Covenant has ever received the grace of salvation, redemption, or deliverance without recognizing their sinful nature or guilt. Jesus always asked those He visited and saved: “Do you want to be saved?”, “Do you want to be healed?”, “Do you believe that…?”

And after a positive and sincere [from the heart] answer to these questions, He acted or responded: “Go and…”, “Rise and…”, “Cast yourself into…”, etc. There is no salvation without a personal commitment from the believer. Your commitment is worthless if you do not obey Christ’s instructions, even after desiring salvation.

In his letter to the Romans, the Apostle Paul declares: “The wages of sin is death.” He is fully aware that no sinner—whether baptized, communed, actively involved in church, priest, pastor, bishop, prophet, pope, etc.—will inherit the Kingdom of Heaven if they continue to live in iniquity, unless they break radically and completely with sin. Jesus, speaking to those considered the believers of His time, said:

“Everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever.” — John 8:34-35.

Are you a Christian living in sin? Jesus says: you will be expelled from the Kingdom of Heaven! For you are a slave-Christian. Only free Christians [“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” — John 8:36] will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Which kind of Christian are you:
The slave-Christian who lives with, loves, or struggles with sin?
Or the free Christian, who has been set free from all forms of sin—liberated and sanctified?

This text is an excerpt from the book “How to Commune With God?” written by Jean-Paul Marie (Pastor Samuel Binyou).

We invite you to read the next article: “LIVING IN THE IMAGE OF CHRIST — IS IT POSSIBLE?”

THOSE WHO START BADLY AND FINISH BADLY. THOSE WHO START BADLY AND FINISH BADLY. THOSE WHO START BADLY AND FINISH BADLY