Many of us go about our lives today like the couch sitting in our living room. On the outside, the couch appears just fine - clean and tidy. But underneath the cushions lies all kinds of junk. A life in which we look good on the outside but are wasting away on the inside is not the free and abundant life that God wants for us. In Matthew 23:27-28, Jesus drives home the very point when He compares the Pharisees to whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. If all we ever do is stuff away or suppress the worst parts of our stories, we'll never be fully free.
 

In 1 Samuel 16:7 God reminds the prophet Samuel: "For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart." God isn't interested in cleaning up your life only on the outside. God is interested in the complete removal and destruction of sin in your life. To be made alive in Him requires that a part of you must first die. We cannot have a free and abundant life outside of the presence of God.

Jesus, a sinless man, substituted His life for ours, shedding His blood, and by doing so, satisfied the consequence of sin. Jesus didn't just go to the cross so you could clean cobwebs out, modify your behavior, and manage your sin. Jesus came to kill sin. A free life does not come from training your sin, but killing it.

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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,