27: Where Is Our Focus?

Many of us are more conscious of the flesh, conscious of sin, and even conscious of satan than we are of the resurrected Christ and what He has accomplished. Why are we so sin conscious when Jesus has removed the sin barrier? The biggest obstacle in the church to living the abundant life that Jesus came to give us is unbelief in the finished work of the cross! It is causing people to WORK WORK WORK to fix their problems. And those in ministry are often helping the problem right along. Typical “ministry” is actually quite sin-focused. The typical line of interrogation in ministry is the following:

•  What did they do to get themselves in this trouble?

•  What happened to them to cause them to be in this trouble?

•  Are they in unforgiveness and thus unleashing tormentors and getting what they deserve?

•  Or even worse: what demons are enforcing a curse on them? The devil loves that one because he gets the attention!

All of these are sin, self, and satan focused and cause introspection and unveiling of ugliness that will only bring us down and lead us to wrong conclusions about God. The natural result of sin consciousness is fear of punishment and feelings of shame. Then the natural, human consequences of sin will be misinterpreted as punishment from God. The goal of ministry should be to point the struggling, suffering one to the love of Jesus.

For the one who fears punishment, God’s perfect love is not fully accomplishing its purpose. ¹ What is its purpose? First, it was to remove our sin and create us new in Christ — a new creation. Then, the demonstration of love at the cross – Christ’s finished work which has cleansed us from sin – should then cleanse our conscience so that we draw near and enjoy His presence. Unless we remove the fear of punishment, we will not experience the perfect love of God!

(from page 71 of Unveiling Jesus)

Want more from Tricia Gunn? Check out excerpts from the Unveiling Jesus 20-part series!

Unveiling Jesus, by Tricia Gunn, is a verse by verse study of the pure gospel of grace. It’s an amazing journey of love, identity, and freedom in Christ.

---

Shop Unveiling Jesus Products

¹ 1 John 4:17-18