Sin

Whoever is truly humbled — will not be easily angry, nor harsh or critical of others. He will be compassionate and tender to the infirmities of his fellow-sinners, knowing that if there is a difference — it is grace alone which has made it! He knows that he has the seeds of every evil in his own heart. And under all trials and afflictions — he will look to the hand of the Lord, and lay his mouth in the dust, acknowledging that he suffers much less than his iniquities have deserved.

John Newton, from his letters, Indwelling Sin And The Believer

Theology And My Sin

One sin I consistently struggle with is pride over knowing a fair amount of scripture.  I love the Word of God and read it often. And sometimes in my flesh, I begin to believe there is something better about me than others, because I have read more. This obviously is pretty ridiculous. First of all, I don't really know much.  Second, anything I understand has been given to me by God and as such is no credit to me. Most importantly, the Word that I love teaches that I should not think of myself more highly than I ought. So there I am....a mess.  Unfortunately, it seems to me that there are a lot of people who are similar to me in this regard in the Christian world. I read many blogs online and books and it often occurs in my opinion that knowledge about God is elevated above knowledge of God. Theology is elevated above discipleship and love. The argument for this position is that truth is not negotiable. I agree with this argument, but often the application is not done in love and is over disputable matters (ie things in scripture which are unclear and peripheral to the gospel). In light of the above, this week I was thinking about the apostles. It struck me that Jesus did not pick one theologian to be among the twelve .....and there were plenty around.  You might argue that possibly the greatest apostle Paul was a theologian, and I think that argument would be correct.  But Paul had the wrong theology! He was transformed not by what he knew but by who he knew. So what does this mean?

My observations:

1) Christianity is about a relationship to the living God, knowing him, not just about him;
2)  The Word is the Spirit's revelation of who God is and who we are in relation to him. We are called to be disciplined in studying, reading and meditating on the Word. It is a means by which we can know God personally;
3)  Our position is based on who we know not what we know;
4)  There are indisputable matters (eg the gospel) and disputable matters within scripture for the Christian.  The former are not negotiable. The latter should be discussed in love and charity within the body of Christ.
5)  Comparison of myself with anyone but God is sin. Pride is therefore never righteous for the human.
6)  Jesus isn't impressed by what we know.

Opposition

John Owen Quote:

"'There is no duty we perform for God that sin does
not oppose.  And the more spirituality or holiness
there is in what we do, the greater is its enmity to
it.  Thus, those who seek the most for God experience
the strongest opposition.'"

My Holiness

There is enough sin in the holiest act I have ever undertaken to damn me to hell for all eternity.

Naked and Unashamed

And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
Genesis 2:25

And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account......
Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Hebrews 4:13,16

In the garden of Eden, before the fall of man, Adam and Eve were sinless and communed with God without shame despite their nakedness. They were unaware of their nakedness in that they did not see it as anything unusual. They had a closeness with God and confidence before God that could only be present in an innocent state. But with the fall of man things changed. Adam hid from God realizing his sin and experiencing shame for the first time. Shame can be defined as: having a painful feeling and emotional distress (sometimes to the point of despair), for having done something wrong, with an associative meaning of having the disapproval of those around them. 1 Since Adam, we all experience shame before God which comes from the realization of our sin and of God's holiness. God sees all, no matter how hard we try to hide (Heb 4:13). Yet there is good news! Through faith in Christ, we become righteous before God (2 Corinthians 5:21). My sin exchanged for his righteousness. So for the believer, we now can approach Almighty God with confidence (the KJV says "boldness") to receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. Our relationship with God is reconciled (Romans 5:1), and we can be naked and unashamed before God as Adam and Eve were originally in the garden. Praise be to the Ancient of Days for providing us with the means for peace with Himself and peace within ourselves. Amen

1. Swanson, J. (1997). Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains : Hebrew (Old Testament) (electronic ed.) (DBLH 1017). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc.

Secular Humanism

Secular humanism is the world view of much of our society today. This belief system is based on the idea that man is basically good and that with education and advancement of knowledge society can be improved even to an utopian state. This is consistent with a belief that man is evolving to a better condition. Understandably, the secular humanist opposes religion as Christianity and the Bible say that man is basically evil and that rather than improvement over time, the world will become more permeated with sin, wars etc. So, the Bible is rejected as the basic goodness of man in and of himself and the potential for self improvement in the abscence of God's influence are not existent. The crux of the issue is whether man by nature is "good" or potentially "good" or sinful. The conclusion of the secular humanist would be that as we become more knowledgeable and more technologically advanced, society should improve. The Bible suggests differently.

2 Timothy 3:1-5
But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power.

Romans 3:10-12
“There is no one righteous, not even one;
there is no one who understands,
no one who seeks God.
All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
not even one."

Jeremiah 17:9
The heart is deceitful above all things
And beyond cure.
Who can understand it?

Ecclesiastes 7:20
There is not a righteous man on earth
Who does what is right and never sins.

Some of Man's Evil Manifested of Late
1930s- Stalin's Great Purge - political killings of 600,00 to 2 million Russians.
1940s-Holocaust - Genocide of 6 million Jews.
1970s-Pol Pot Leadership in Cambodia - 700,00-1.7 million Cambodian deaths.
1990s-Rwandan Genocide-Execution of 800,000 to 1 million Tutsis and moderate Hutus by Hutus
1990s-Srebrenica Genocide-Mass murder of 8000 Bosniak men and boys by Army of Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina
2000s-Darfur-government backed military and militia contribute to the deaths of 400000 and displacement of millions with rape of girls and women widespread.

How is our moral improvement?

Sin

"Sin, is first and foremost, resistance to finding joy in God. " John Piper

....Because we find joy in a big screen t.v. or success in our jobs or exercise or our children or food or our relationships or money or ministry or alcohol or sex or anything else. Our hearts are given over to these things. But we are to love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our might (Deut 6:5). All of our heart. To what have I given my heart? To what have you given your heart?

I Am Righteous!

I am righteous! That is a profound statement. A statement that when taken out of context is really ridiculous (Rom 3:10)....especially if you know me. I just spent an hour in anger and sinful response to an occurance in my life, and I am struck with amazement at the thought of being considered righteous. I am so far from righteousness in my actions at times it sickens me. But there is good news for me and for you if you feel like I do (John 3:16). For Christ atoned for my sins on the cross 2000 years ago. First, Jesus came in the form of man and through active obedience to the law he fulfilled what you and I could never do...he lived a sinless life (Heb 4:15, 1Pe 2:22). He was and is righteous. Then he bore the sins of all who believe in him in his body on the cross (1 Pe 2:24). He paid the ransom for our sins (1 Tim 2:6; Rev 5:9). The entire cup of God's wrath against my sin was poured out on Christ. His wrath is spent for my past and my future sin. The sin I committed in anger today was upon Christ, and the sin I commit tomorrow was on Christ. So through his passive obedience unto death on the cross the penalty required for my sin was paid in full. I am redeemed. I am justified before God (Rom 5:1), Christ having served vicariously for me my sentence. But that's not all. Christ's righteousness for his obedient perfect life is then imputed or credited to me (2 Cor 5:21). Through this, I am reconciled in my relationship to God. He sees me as having the righeousness of Christ. All this through faith in God's person, his Word and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amazing grace.

Cheap Grace

If the professed convert distinctly and deliberately declares that he knows the Lord's will but does not mean to attend to it, you are not to pamper his presumption, but it is your duty to assure him that he is not saved. Do not suppose that the Gospel is magnified or God glorified by going to the worldlings and telling them that they may be saved at this moment by simply accepting Christ as their Savior, while they are wedded to their idols, and their hearts are still in love with sin. If I do so I tell them a lie, pervert the Gospel , insult Christ, and turn the grace of God into lasciviousness." -C.H. SPURGEON

Purposeful Sin

When we become believers in Jesus Christ, we are justified by the work of God in the death and resurrection of Christ. Our sins are paid for and the righteous sinless life Christ lived is credited to us. We are sanctified by the Spirit of Christ during our remaining life on earth. This is progressive but not completed until we are with God (Phil 1:6). Because of the flesh, it is impossible to completely cease from our sinning (Rom 3:23, 1 John 1:8,9). However, we are called to be holy, as God is holy (Lev 11:44). Thus sanctification, being conformed to the image of Christ, is empowered by God but requires our cooperation.

Sin in our lives can be of two forms(Num 15:22-31): what I would call accidental sin and what I would call purposeful sin. Accidental sin would be sin done in ignorance (ie not knowing that an action is a violation against God) or sin done without forethought (eg hitting one's thumb with a hammer and uttering an expletive). Purposeful sin would be any sin done with forethought either in passive defiance (an example would be knowing God wants me to do something yet refusing to do it) or open or active defiance to God's will. Our inability to stop sinning because of the flesh pertains to accidental sin and continued purposeful sin in our lives is a manifestation of either blatant disobedience, ignorance or unbelief.

God cannot tolerate sin and hates evil. I have been convicted of late that I have rationalized my sin by categorizing it as less severe and therefore not important and allowable. Things like speeding, having an extra glass of wine, and giving too much importance to exercise and sleep have persisted in my life despite my knowledge of God's hatred for sin. What does this mean? If Christ is my Lord, I should be submitting to him in all things. I should not be persisting in purposeful sin. Sure, I will mess up at times, accidently, but Jesus wants all of me. Submitting to the Lordship of Jesus Christ requires a ruthless pursuit of holiness. We must be killing sin, or it will be killing us (John Owen, Mathew Henry. Rom 8:13). Tolerating purposeful sin in my life as at best a grievous insult to God and at worst a manifestation of unbelief. As James said, even the demons believe, but they don't acknowledge and submit to God as Lord (James 2:19).

The ultimate question posed by Jerry Bridges in The Pursuit of Holiness:

Will you decide to obery God in all areas of life, however insignificant the issue may be?



See also this post http://sm--blog.blogspot.com/2008/07/saving-faith.html

Edward's 56th Resolution

Resolved, never to give over, nor in the least to slacken, my fight with my corruptions, however unsuccessful I may be.

Jonathon Edwards

Hunger.

I frequently am impressed with my inability to do what is right in God's eyes. Even if I try "really, really hard," I find it impossible to lead a righteous life. I am able to see sin in my thoughts, and even in my trivial actions that to others go unnoticed. It makes me sad to think I dishonor God through my sin in so many ways. I long to be a good and faithful servant to my Lord. But in reality, this sadness because of my sin and the longing to honor God point to the condition I will have in eternity. I long for myself fulfilled in purpose to the Almighty. Until I am with him this cannot be fulfilled as sin in me prevents it. Listening to Steve Brown on the radio this week was encouraging as he commented on Jesus' words on the above situation:

Matthew 5:6: "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled."

Observations:
-Those that long (hunger and thirst) for righteousnes are blessed.
-Those that long for righteousness will receive it.