“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned! Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.” (Galatians 1:6–10)

Christians don’t always agree. You know that. If we did, there would not be so many different denominations and church bodies throughout the world. It is an unfortunate result of the fact that the church is made up of sinners, myself included. Disagreements cause divisions. It continues to happen within denominations. I read an article over the weekend about an imminent split in the United Methodist Church.

The challenge we have this side of heaven is to remain faithful to the Gospel, the message of God’s grace that calls us and claims us to be His dearly loved and forgiven children, not because of what we do, but because of what Jesus did for us. He died to pay for ALL sin. All sin.

But notice, no where does Jesus tell us that sin is no longer sin. That is one of the greatest perversions of the Gospel the church is facing today. People want to declare that things the Bible clearly calls sinful should no longer be seen that way. That is the issue at the heart of the split in the UMC.

When Jesus died to pay for sin, he negated sins power over us, but not sin itself. It is still with us. When He forgave people, He did not give them permission to sin as much as they wanted. Quite the contrary.

In John 8, Jesus was questioned about what to do with the woman caught in adultery, He dispersed the crowd by telling them that whoever was without sin should cast the first stone. They all left. Jesus then asked the woman:

“Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.” (John 8:11)

Jesus did not tell the woman her sinful lifestyle was acceptable. He told her to leave it. Sin no more. Don’t remain that way. He came to make payment for your sins to give you forgiveness and a new life. Leave your former way of life. Don’t let sin control you. Be led by the Spirit of God.

Sin is still sin, no matter what some in the church or government may say. I will trust God’s Word on that. The same Word that tells me about the forgiveness I have for Jesus’ sake and that encourages me to live a better life in response.