Permanent Solution

Permanent Solution

1 Corinthians 6: ⁷ The very fact that you have legal disputes among yourselves shows that you have failed completely. Would it not be better for you to be wronged? Would it not be better for you to be robbed? ⁸ Instead, you yourselves wrong one another and rob one another, even other believers! ⁹ Surely you know that the wicked will not possess God's Kingdom. Do not fool yourselves; people who are immoral or who worship idols or are adulterers or homosexual perverts ¹⁰ or who steal or are greedy or are drunkards or who slander others or are thieves—none of these will possess God's Kingdom. ¹¹ Some of you were like that. But you have been purified from sin; you have been dedicated to God; you have been put right with God by the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

 

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“Maybe I can use a coat hanger” was my first thought in repairing the hatch back door on my jalopy of a car.  Of course the hanger did not fit properly. It was too thin to snugly connect the hatch to the car and if I doubled the hanger, it was too thick. I needed a permanent solution.

 

• There have been many times when I looked at temporary solutions as permanent.
• There have been many times when I declared something as “fixed” when it was still broken.
• There have been many times when I argued about my patch work, justifying why I repaired it the way I did.

 

Paul explains the reason it is frivolous to take legal action against another believer in JESUS. He, however, does it in a strange way. He explains that anyone who sins in any way, will not receive the kingdom of GOD. The sines he lists are temporary solutions to a deeper problem, namely the lack of a relationship with JESUS for salvation.

 

• GOD wants me to turn from temporary sin and replace it with a permanent solution, namely JESUS.
• GOD knows I cannot resist sin, so HE gave me a permanent solution, namely JESUS.
• GOD saw all the sins I would ever commit, and HE forgave me with HIS permanent solution, namely JESUS.

 

Trying to pick apart the list Paul writes, points to a deeper problem which is surrender. I mean, if I think “I” am not on the list he writes about and that I can tell someone else to straighten up because “their” actions are sinful, then I am the one with the serious problem. All have sinned and need a permanent solution to sin.

 

JESUS is that permanent solution. HE not only saves me eternally, HE guides me daily through the HOLY SPIRIT. When I want to use sin as my solution, the HOLY SPIRIT warns me and provides a way out. I don’t always take the way out, so HE pleads for me when I sin. I am grateful GOD’s grace is sufficient to cover my sins.

 

• Are you trying to fix your life with temporary sin?
• Do you think you were “born that way” and are unwilling to surrender your life to JESUS?
• Have you fallen for the lie that if you have committed a sin, GOD will not forgive you, or worse yet, you do not feel you need to be forgiven?
• Will you consider the love of JESUS and ask for forgiveness of any sin so HE will be faithful and just to forgive you of your sins and cleanse you of all unrighteousness today?