Journey to Understand Grace Part 2: Sin

One of the main dilemmas in understanding grace is the problem of sin.  Sin as we all know still plays a role in our lives, but as a Christian what does it mean that we sin?  Does sin matter and if so how? 
I think a good place to start answering these questions is to look at the very words of Jesus:

Matthew 5:29-30

If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away.

It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.

And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.

It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

Jesus HATES sin.  He believes sin is DANGEROUS and it needs to be dealt with seriously.  However, in our Christianity today we so often embrace sin and we like to downplay it. Instead we label it a "struggle" so that we can continue to hold onto it and don't have to confront it.

So again, we need to step back and look at Jesus.  How did He deal with sin in the temple:

Matthew 21:12-13

Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there.

He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. "It is written," he said to them, " 'My house will be called a house of prayer,' but you are making it a 'den of robbers."

The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them.

Jesus boldly confronted sin in the temple of God.  He didn't gently ask the moneychangers if they could leave at the end of the day and not come back tomorrow.  He came in with zeal, drove them out, and then did the work of God in its place; he healed the lame and blind.  Jesus is the same, yesterday, today and tomorrow. 

I Corinthians 6:18-20

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit,

who is in you, whom you have received from God?

You are not your own; you were bought at a price.

Therefore honor God with your body.

To think that somehow now because of grace Jesus feels differently about sin in His temple I think is a misrepresentation of His heart.  To think that He rearranges furniture in your heart to make room for your pet sins, or that He has a room called grace so that you can comfortably keep your sin is a lie.  Hopefully, by the end of this series you will see that it is precisely because of God's grace that we can call sin, sin, evil, evil and we do not need to be afraid to confront it head on.