Sin Count

I found this article about how many times we can sin. Tiffany and I did another collaboration about it.

We started off discussing a misquote, but I later discovered that according to my NIV it’s not a misquote. The article says “In Matthew 18:21-22, we read, "Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, ‘Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?’ Jesus answered, ‘I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.’” The KJV says “Until seventy times seven” (Matthew 18-22). Seventy times seven is 490. How that has been read may have changed as our definition of those words put together has changed. Regardless of how you quote or translate that verse, the point is not that once you've forgiven so many times, you stop, but that if you want to be forgiven, you continue to forgive for an immeasurable amount of times, as God forgives us.

Tiffany: I don’t agree with ‘once in grace, always in grace.’ If I do something wrong, I’ll have to ask forgiveness for that sin.

GCW: And we have to be sincere in asking forgiveness. It’s not just the words that matter.

Tiffany: It’s more than just a lip-service. It’s called giving him your heart for a reason. You wouldn’t give just anyone your heart. When you give him your heart, you’re giving him your everything, because it’s all connected back to that.

GCW: We’ve been studying Jonah in Sunday school. Somehow, it was a new concept for me, the concept of a merciful God, who is so loving to forgive so many things, over and over. I guess I knew that He is merciful, but it always took a backseat to the idea of His wrath if we mess up.

Tiffany: There is only one thing He won’t forgive. That’s blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.

Mark 3:28-29 - "Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter, but whoever blasphemes the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of eternal sin."

GCW: Can you explain that a little more?

Tiffany: In Matthew 12:32 Jesus says "Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come." So, it’s where you speak against the Holy Spirit. I always looked at it as making fun of the Holy Spirit, but it can also be lying against, or if someone in the church-house pretends to be speaking in tongues, or like how you can dance in the Holy Spirit, or even being slain in the spirit. Even a preacher pushing someone down when he’s laid hands on that person to pray—

GCW: I’ve had that happen to me before.

Tiffany: I think that would be blasphemous.

GCW: Okay. Thanks. Moving back a bit, what if you sometimes mess up? Like you give your life to God, but sometimes you mess up and do something that had previously been a habit?

Tiffany: God’s not gonna live in a dirty dwelling. God’s gonna come in and clean it out…Once you give your life to God, your language is gonna change, the way you dress is gonna change, your attitude is gonna change. It’s not gonna go on and on. If you’re talking the talk, but not walking the walk behind closed doors, and you keep doing things a Christian wouldn’t do…how many times are you gonna do that before God turns you over to a reprobate mind?

Romans 1:28 - Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done.

But God deals with each person differently.

Tiffany: It’s not standardized testing. Each person is different. Each person learns differently.

Another one of Satan’s tricks is to get us to think that there is no hope, that there is no possibility that we can be forgiven, healed, and restored.

Tiffany: As long as Satan is trying to get you to think that, there is hope. When God turns you over to that reprobate mind, you don’t care.

GCW: So, when we stop caring about sinning, we’re in big trouble!

What can we do when we are tempted to do things that are not of God?

We can read our Bibles, pray, listen to worship songs, or even remove the thing that is tempting us. In Fireproof, he breaks the computer he was using to look at things that caused him to sin.
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Read our first collaboration here!