Does Sin Hinder Prayer?
A friend on facebook asked me the following question:
Another question about sin and prayer. If sin hinders prayer then our prayers will always be hindered since we are not sinless. But perhaps there must be at least the desire that fight sin then our prayers will not be hindered. I am not sure how to biblically support that. What's your take on this matter????Here was my simplified answer:
On the ONE HAND sin does hinder answers to prayer (verses could be multiplied but I'll quote one from the OT and two from the NT):
Ps. 66:18 If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.
James 5:16b The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
1 John 3:21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God;
22 and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.
On the OTHER HAND we now approach God not through our own merits, but the all sufficient merits of Christ. The OT saints didn't know that they also [ultimately] were accepted by God through the merits of Christ. But being under the Mosaic Covenant, what they were given and told was they approached by grace, yet their personal holiness was integral to the receiving the covenant promises. In one sense that was true because under the Old Covenant. Whereas New Testament believers now know and benefit more directly the blessings of the New Covenant. The emphasis is the merits of Christ and because of that knowledge, we have more boldness to approach God for grace.
Under the Mosaic Covenant the principle was:
- "Obey and God will bless you" or
-"Do X [i.e. the commandments] and you shall live."
Under the Messianic Covenant, the principle and emphasis is:
- "God will bless you, that you may obey [by God's empowerment]" because, as Paul says, God's goodness leads us to repentance (Rom. 2:4).
Rather than "Do and Live," the New Covnenat teaches "It's DONE, so you can LIVE" (meaning Christ obeyed the law in our place for our justification and so fulfilled the positive requirements of the law via His active obedience; and fulfilled the negative requirements of the law via his passive obedience by paying the penalty of the law through the cross for our forgiveness).
Forgiveness and Justification in Christ grants us the Spirit of Adoption, which grants us Sonship, and thereby free access to the Father.
Access that blesses whereby it ultimately hinges on God's faithfulness, not ours. The weakness of the Old Covenant (as the book of Hebrews says by quoting Jeremiah on the New Covenant) was that of the unfaithfulness of those under the (Old) covenant. The strength of the New Covenant is that in God's faithfulness, He empowers believers to be believing, faithful, repentant etc. God blesses us so that we obey. And one of the blessings is empowerment to obey as well as provision for all our needs (material, spiritual, physical, etc.).
This why, for example, Jesus often (not always) healed irrespective of the repentance of the sick. He usually didn't require repentance and obedience first for healing. Whereas that was the principle of the Old Covenant (Ex. 15:26).
Exo. 15:26 saying, "If you will diligently listen to the voice of the LORD your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, your healer."
So, the emphasis and general principle is reversed. Even Paul said:
Gal. 3:2 Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?
3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?
4 Did you suffer so many things in vain---if indeed it was in vain?
5 Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith---
6 just as Abraham "believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness"?
So, plead the blood of Christ. Ask for God's blessings (financial, or what have you) for CHRIST'S SAKE and merits. Then also ask God for obedience empowering grace.
I suspect, the hindrance of answered prayer under the New Covenant is not so much the sins themselves, but how the sins affect our conscience so that we can't boldly enter God's presence for blessings (1 John 3:21-22). Yet, the crowds often received healing from Christ in their boldness irrespective of their lack of righteousness just by touching His garment.
This gives new or revived meaning to passages like:
Eph. 3:11 This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord,
12 in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him.
Heb. 4:16 Let us then with confidence/boldness draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
This is why I appreciate the healing ministry of Roger Sapp and Curry Blake as well as the writing ministry of Vincent Cheung (with stated qualifications). They are grace focused.
