Perhaps many Christians in America agree that God is dealing with the sin in our lives. We need to repent and begin to keep the commandments of Christ and His Apostles. There are several outstanding moves of the Holy Spirit throughout the country and through them God is warning us to repent before our nation is destroyed.

We understand how God dealt with sin under the Law of Moses. But how God deals with sin under the new covenant is not always made clear, some supposing it doesn't matter if we sin and others maintaining that there is not power in the new covenant to deliver us from sin. This lack of clarity detracts from the effectiveness of the present call to repentance.

Under the old covenant, the Law of Moses, God issued a clear list of things we are to do and things we are not to do. If we disobeyed any of the commandments or statutes we were to bring our animal as a sin or trespass offering. If we did so, in obedience to the Law, our sins were forgiven.

He shall remove all the fat, just as the fat is removed from the lamb of the fellowship offering, and the priest shall burn it on the altar on top of the offerings made to the LORD by fire. In this way the priest will make atonement for him for the sin he has committed, and he will be forgiven. (Leviticus 4:35 NIV)

Clear, specific, simple directions.

But how we Christians are to deal with sin under the new covenant has not been made clear, specific, and simple. There is a tremendous area of confusion concerning the transition from the Law of Moses to the new covenant.

To my knowledge, none of the writers of the New Testament, with the exception of the Apostle Paul, taught specifically how we are to deal with sin under the new covenant, although all of them, along with the Lord Jesus, warned us clearly that we Christians are not to sin, and if we do there are severe consequences.

If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, But only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. (Hebrews 10:26 NIV)

I realize my Evangelical associates will rise up in protest and announce that the above verse is not written to Christians, even though the writer is addressing the "holy brothers." It is this kind of confusion that prevails.

The Apostle Paul warned us in several of his epistles that if we Christians continue in sin, living in the sinful nature, we will die spiritually.

But Paul did much more than this. He explained to us the nature of the transition from Moses to the new covenant and how we are to deal with sin under the new covenant.

Yet we are not clear on this transition today, probably because, as Peter said, Paul is hard to understand. Peter added that people wrest Paul's teaching to their own destruction. This is what is taking place today. (It is a tribute to the humility and integrity of the Apostle Peter that he referred to Paul's writing as part of the Scriptures.)

To be continued.