By Ryan Kelly –

Feel-good preachers seem to be a dime-a-dozen in today’s world. And it’s not hard to figure out why. Telling people about God’s love and His plan for us is an easy thing to tell people, and it is certainly uplifting and encouraging. No question about it, and it is all completely true and good in and of itself.

However, not only is God fully-loving, but He is also fully righteous and fully just. God is perfect, and we must be made perfect in order to stand in His presence in Heaven. And of course, this is impossible for us without the saving grace of Jesus Christ and His sacrifice to forgive us of our sin. We are made perfect in Him.

Through Jesus and the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, we should have an absolute repulsion to sin. We may be tempted, but any sin that we commit should be a bitter taste in our mouths and heartache to our soul. We should hate sin as God hates sin.

But what happens when we do sin? These two verses explain it well.

James 5:16: “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.”

1 John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Jesus has made us perfect in the eyes of God, but we are still on the path of righteousness (growing closer to God) while here on this Earth. This means that we are still flawed and can fall to temptation. When we do, God is quick to forgive us through Christ, and He can and will cleanse us and empower us to reject sin at the next turn.

We must never tolerate sin in our lives, but rather we must fight temptation and stand firm as a radiant reflection of the light and love of Jesus in this world. Let’s strive to be as perfect as the image that Jesus has created us to be. If you fall short, you are forgiven, but use each failure as an opportunity to do better the next time. It is a small gift that we can give back to our Savior who died for us all.