Stop doing and start believing! Our Saviour Jesus will deliver you from those sins and addictions

Jesus never says "Change your ways first and be good, and then I will accept you when you come." Like Zacchaeus, He called us to Himself in our sinful state and fills us with His Spirit who transforms us to the image of His glory, from glory to glory (2 Cor. 3:18.)

Like Zacchaeus, we cannot come to Him unless He calls us. In John 6:44, He says "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day." And there we were thinking "I decided by myself to follow Jesus" when He, the Sower, was the one who scattered the seed (the Word) our way, made the ground (our hearts) fertile, made sure that Satan did not steal the seed and tended the plant so that it can grow and bear fruit! We, the ground, can do nothing! Our salvation has got nothing to do with what we did; it's all to do with what Christ has done.

By His grace, we understand Ephesians 2:8-9 "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast."

The word "saved" here is not just being saved to go to heaven. It encompasses deliverance from the power, pleasure and penalty of sin; deliverance from molestations by the enemy and deliverance from sickness and addiction. It encompasses justification from all the things from which we could not be justified by Law of Moses, as it is written in Acts 13:38-39 - "Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through this Man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins; 39 and by Him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses."

When He causes us to realise this, it becomes difficult for us to condemn those who have not yet received their invite to His table. We realise that in Christ, the reason we are not doing the bad things that others are doing is because "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast."

With this realisation, instead of giving believers who are still struggling with sin more rules and regulations that they cannot keep and thinking that they are not trying hard enough to stop sinning and stay on the right path, like our Saviour Jesus in Matthew 9:36, we have compassion and pity on them. "When He saw the crowds, He was moved with compassion and pity for them, because they were dispirited and distressed, like sheep without a shepherd."

You point these aimless and confused yet beloved of God to the Shepherd who loves them, because you realise that without the Shepherd, the sheep cannot stay on the right path (will continue to sin), even you. Even as born-again Christians, we don't know the path of righteousness. The Lord our Shepherd leads us on this path. He called us. Know that "being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;" Philippians 1:6.

The Holy Spirit will teach you all things.

Believe Right and you will Live Right.