Sin pt. 3

But just because one understands this gap and fallen state, and accepts God’s extended cross to them does not mean they can leave the sin nature behind and became a perfect creature again. Christians still must deal with the sinful nature and the war against the flesh and the world. The Christian now has a conflict and battle inside as we try to follow the laws and precepts of God, yet struggle with the old self, the sin nature as it tries to lure us to not obey the commands of God. The Christian now must battle three different evils and enemies as we march on in the life that God has called us to.

            

The first pull is from the world and the sinful influences around us. I John 2:15 tells us “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him”. The world and its culture, philosophy, and trends try to pull the Christian farther and farther from God and His love. The world is evil and is trying to seduce the nature of the old selfish sin nature. John reminds us also that the world is under the control of Satan and he is the ruler of this world and is trying to drag the believer away from the calling of God (John 5:19). Paul truly understood how to beat the world when he states in Galatians 6:14 “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world”. The world is the first enemy the Christian battles and a realization of the world and the power it can have over our sinful nature is important.

            

But the world is not the only enemy that the Christian battles. It is the starting point but just the beginning. The flesh or sin nature is still there inside all Christians and it must be dealt with properly. The flesh is our inner selfish nature, which is the second enemy. It is the nature that rebels against God and it is the nature that was the root of Adam’s sin of pride. Timothy Keller even expands upon the nature and sin that the flesh can cause us to do. He states, “Sin is not simply doing bad things, it is putting good things in the place of God” (171). Paul explains in Ephesians 2:3, “All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts”. The flesh is the original enemy and the root of the battle of Christians as they fight against the power of sin in their lives. Paul even takes the flesh one step farther and states that it is a decision that needs to be made. Either the Christian is for the flesh or for God. He tells us in Romans 8:5, “Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires”. The Christians must deal with the sin nature and this enemy and seek God and the Spirit to beat back the temptations of the flesh, so that the third enemy of the Christians when it comes to sin may be confronted.

            

The third enemy and struggle when it comes to sin is the devil or Satan. Satan is a real being, not some made up character in fiction. Satan is focused on stopping the Christian work and spreading of the gospel. Satan is a great manipulator. He can use the world and the flesh and go after the believer to distract and bring them down away from the work of God. Peter reminds us that the devil is a lion and ready to devour the Christians at any chance he gets (1 Peter 5:8). James reminds us what a believer must do to succeed against the devil and his mighty attempts to bring us down when he states, “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (4:7). The three levels or enemies of temptation are tough. From every angle the Christian is bombarded with sin, temptation, and struggle as they travel along on the journey God has for them. But, God has also provided a way to escape and not sin if only the Christian will turn towards Him.

            

God has provided three ways also to combat the three enemies of sin. First and foremost God has provided His word. The Bible is God’s first gift to the believer as they struggle along in this life. The Bible is the living word of God that can help the believer to grow, understand, remind, and refresh the believer of the truths form Him. The Bible can even rebuke the believer when he has struggled or sinned.

            

The word of God is not the only gift for the sin struggle that is provided. The gift of Jesus Christ as our intercessor is there also. 1 John 2:1 reminds us of this truth, “My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense-Jesus Christ”. This is a great truth because it helps us understand first a great action and gift that Jesus has given us, but it also gives us hope. Hope in knowing that we can never be perfect and sinless because Jesus is there to pick up the pieces and make us right in the eyes of the Father. This is a gift that the believer has nothing to do with or an involvement with. This gift is all about Jesus and God.

            

The third gift is a great power given to the believer, the gift of the Holy Spirit or God living in the believer. God’s power lives in us and can aid the believer in his struggle against the flesh and world. The power of God is even greater than anything the devil can do also. Galatians 5:16 reminds us, “So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature”.  The power of God, as the Holy Spirit can do anything in the lives of the believer. This is a great comfort to know that the believer has a power greater than anything in the universe or flesh and it will help us over come all temptation, as long as it is sought after and used to fit it. God has provided a way for the true believer in Him to escape the temptation and sin and with Jesus Christ, He has even provided a way when we do struggle and sin and fall. God provides for the believer in his struggle and will ultimately help him win the war at the end of all time.

            

Sin is like disease. It is a killer. But with more drastic results than physical diseases; it kills the soul and spirit. The physician that can prescribe medicine for the disease is God. The Bible tells us what the disease is and where it is infecting us spiritually. Then it prescribes a cure and treatment for the disease. The difference here is that the physical disease may have many cures while there is only one cure for the sin problem, the grace of God. The grace of God heals all sin, and even though the believer deals with sin in life, there is not an eternal death from the results, just broken fellowship. This biggest aspect of sin and the cure of grace is that the patient can do nothing on their own; they need the physician and cure to do all the work on the patient. Oh what a mighty physician and cure has been blessed to the patient of the sin disease.

Sin pt. 2

But if human beings have this sin nature and depraved state, how did we get there and where does it come from? Genesis 3 tells us about the first sin of Adam. The curse because of this sin brings about the sin nature to Adam and the rest of his descendants. This sin nature then is passed down to every human that has lived or will ever live except the person of Jesus Christ. The sin being passed on to the future descendants is called imputed sin. Romans 5:12 shows us this concept, “Therefore, just as sinned entered the world through on man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned”. Sin then because of Adam’s fall from perfection, is imputed onto all of his descendants.  Adam sinned, so all humanity became sinful because of it. But Adam cannot be totally blamed for the sinful state that we are in. All humanity was there with Adam and through Adam and all humanity sinned with Adam. Adam alone did not make the choice because all of humanity and the bad choices with them were there present with Adam helping him make the first sinful pride filled choice not to listen to God. Hebrews 7:9-10 shows us that even if a person is not physically born yet, they are still there in the ancestors and involved with them to some extent. Hebrews tells us, “One might even say that Levi, who collects the tenth, paid the tenth through Abraham, because when Melchizedek met Abraham, Levi was still in the body of his ancestor”. This truth then shows that all mankind was “seminally present” in Adam and that he cannot be blamed for the state of the sinful and fallen person. God then holds all humanity guilty because humanity was there with Adam when he sinned against God for the first time.

           

So how can all this talk about imputed sin and a sinful nature passed down from Adam apply to the life of a human today? This has huge implications for mankind in the world today. In the culture today, weakness is looked down upon. A sense of self awareness and self-focus and self-sufficiency is pushed upon man. This is completely against what the Bible shows us. What matters is a self awareness in that we are fallen and a focus on the deep dark ugliness of what mankind is truly deep down inside. We are disgusting and prideful and selfish. Just like Adam thought he was like God, we today think the same thing and that we do not need Him for anything. Many people do not want to even recognize that God exists and is there to have a relationship with them. God does desire the relationship and His love yearns for communion with His creation. So first we as humans need to understand our place in creation. We as humans are fallen and despicable. But more importantly we humans because of our state cannot do it on our own. The application then is to understand the depth and gap between the creator God, and His fallen creation, man. Man cannot cross that gap on our own will or desires or works. Romans 5:18 reminds us, “Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men”. That is salvation. This gap can be cross back to a relationship with God, by Him extending the cross of Jesus Christ to us over the gap. Only through a realization of how the gap cannot be crossed except by God extending His redemptive cross can a reliance and faith in God be succeeded. Then one is a Christian and a follower of Jesus and His grace. That is why it is so important to understand the sin nature and the imputation and depravity that come with it. To understand where we stand in reference to God and how amazing God is, this understanding to can bring a thankful heart towards God.

Sin pt. 1

*This is the first in a series of post on sin, since i have been reading on this topic, this month from the Bible.*

Diseases are devastating. Diseases are ugly. Diseases are putrid. They are organisms’ that can affect only one person but also have an effect on a large group of people, like a plague. Diseases can take many forms and have different effects, but in the end they bring corruption of the human body. Diabetes is a powerful disease that destroys a person if unchecked. It has no direct outward signs telling that a person has the diseases. Shingles is a disease that is revealed in a physical symptom, red bumps on the surface of the skin that itch but it also includes a hidden pain inside the nervous system. Shingles, when treated can be taken care of, but if left untreated shingles can have very drastic effects. Cancer is another type of disease. Cancer is a spreading disease that can travel throughout the body and slowly kill a person from the inside out if not dealt with. Cancer can be a killing disease even with treatment. Sin is just like a disease. Sin is a killer that can have physical signs or be more internal. Disease can spread slowly, killing us that way, or it can be fast paced and kill us right away. Sin is much worse though. Sin can kill us spiritually and eternally if not dealt with properly with the only true cure, the grace of God.    

            But what is sin? How can we define what sin is or what it has done? The first place to begin the definition of sin is to explain what sin is not. Sin is everywhere and is consumed in every human from birth. So to show what sin is, the human race must not be used because humans are filled with it. The sinless state then is the Holiness of God. Holiness is the absence of sin and the imperfection of the sinful curse. God is Holy because He is perfect, has no blemish or spot of sin or selfish state. God hates sin and the imperfection that it brings. His holiness declares to the universe that He hates sin. Man in his sinful cursed state cannot even fathom the holiness of God. A. W. Tozer explains, “He [man] may fear God’s power and admire His wisdom, but His holiness he cannot even imagine” Tozer adds later, “God is holy and He has made holiness the moral condition of necessary to the health of His universe…. Whatever is holy is healthy; evil is a moral sickness that must end in death”. So holiness is the opposite of sin which means God is the opposite of sin. That means that anything that goes against God or is put before God is sin.

            Sin then is a rebellion toward God and His laws. 1 John 3:4 states clearly, “Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness”. Breaking the laws of God then is sin, and putting yourself before God is sin. Romans 3:23 sets it out from the beginning, “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”. If God and His holiness is the standard, then not meeting that standard is sin and falling short. Putting God first in all actions, words, and thoughts is what sin is not. Putting yourself first in actions, thoughts, or words is sin. Timothy Keller explains this concept further stating, “It [sin] is seeking to establish a sense of self by making something else more central to your significance, purpose, and happiness than your relationship to God”. Sin is pride, thinking of yourself better than you should and not thinking of God first. Sin ultimately then is not meeting the standard of God or what is called “missing the mark” and falling short of what God desires. Romans 14:23 reminds us, “… and everything that does not come from faith is sin”. Keller gives a nice simple definition of sin saying, “Sin is seeking to become oneself, to get an identity, apart from him [God]". We must realize that sin is separate from God.

            But where did sin come from, and what is the original sin and how does that affect the human race? Genesis chapter three talk about the first sin in the Garden of Eden. It tells us about the pride of man and the selfish nature that thought it could be just like God. Because of the first sin of Adam and Eve, all of mankind for the rest of time will be born with a sin nature and a fallen state from the created perfection. All men are born with a sin nature. Galatians 3:22 states, “But the scriptures declare that the whole world is a prisoner of sin…”.Everyone suffers from sin in their life. Sin is with mankind from the very first breath, and it cannot be escaped. This is the original sin or the original state of mankind at birth. Simply put all men sin in their lives because of this sin nature. “Original sin…is humanity’s inherent pride and self-centeredness”. This sin or pride about oneself infiltrates every aspect and part of a person. The sin is in our mind and thoughts, our will and drives, our conscience, our heart and emotions, and in the whole of a person. The sin nature is innate in our being. Romans 7:18 tells us, “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature”.

            This sin nature then, leaves all mankind totally depraved of all good or any actions in doing what is right in the eyes of God. Even actions by humans that are deemed good in the human eyes can never be good in the eyes of God because God is holy and we as humans can never have a perfect loving motive behind our best actions. Even with the good actions man still does them with a depraved, sinful and sometimes selfish motive. Genesis 6:5 reminds us of this truth, “The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only of evil all the time”. Yes, this verse is talking about before the flood of Noah, but the same truth about man is still applicable today.  The entire human race is totally depraved in the sight of God. This means that human beings can do nothing in and of themselves to get in right standing with God. Humans are born with the sinful nature and die with the sinful nature. Human beings are even slaves to sin as Paul reminds us in Romans 6:17, “But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin… ”. Every person then is “spiritually dead” as Ephesians 2:1 states, “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sin”.  Another great verse talking about the totally depraved and sinful state is Psalms 14:3, “All have turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one”. Everyone is lost and in the dark because of sin. Man can do nothing on his own, whether it is works or actions, man can never get away from or leave behind the sinful nature. It is there with us all the time. Only by the works of Jesus Christ and the saving grace and mercy of God the Father, can a person escape the depraved and sinful state. But even then, a saved and forgiven person cannot escape the human sin nature; they just escape the eternal punishment for the sin nature. So even Christians, who are saved from eternal punishment through Jesus Christ blood, still have a sin nature and will continually sin throughout their saved and forgiven life. 

I hate suffering!

"In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed."

1 Peter 1:6-7

I have been rolling these verses over in my head all week. The purpose of Peter writing his first letter was to encourage and strengthen the members of the church as they faced trials and suffering in this life. So these 2 verses are important to the flow of Peter's thought and letter as they give encouragement but also to challenge the church to a stronger faith.

Everyone that is alive will at some point in this life face suffering and troubles of some sort. If we are true lovers of Jesus and telling others about Jesus we will also face some persecution to go along with our suffering and troubles. So what is it that challenges us, is it money problems, health problems, family issues, work issues, or even church problems? We all have some things that give us frustration, if we are not facing anything right now, I can guarantee that sooner rather than later something in this life will creep up. So how do we look at these trials? Do we cry out to God in pain or do we bury our feelings deep down inside? How we view our trials I have discovered says a lot about who we are as a person and who we are in Jesus. 

What if we never faced a single trial in this life? These verses in 1 Peter show us that trials and suffering in our life make our faith genuine and true. So if we had life always going our way could we actually say we have faith? I do not think so. The faith we have is strengthened and made genuine by the facing of trials and sufferings. God walks right beside us as He allows us to face these trials. God is holding our hand because He know that as we face trials in this life and overcome them in Him our faith is made true. Jesus death and our faith in Him is what saves us. But how can we know we have faith in God without it ever being tested and made genuine by trials. So I would say that the trials and suffering we face in this life proves our faith and is part of our salvation in God. 

So next time you think about the suffering you are in the middle of or the trial that is right around the corner, realize that these things make our faith genuine before God and hold us fast into His hand so our future salvation in Him is true and secure. That is why it is called perseverance of the saints.

Reason and Faith

The Apostle Paul stated, “For what can be known about God is plain to them [the people in the world]. For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world” (Romans 1:19-20). He also made clear, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16). In these 2 quotes Paul understands that God can be discovered and known through science and the human mind in the general way God reveals Himself, but to truly know God in a deeper more intimate way, a person must come to know God’s written word, His special revelation.

As Paul points out in the verse above and as King David also points out in many of his Psalms, God can and will be known through his creation. This means that humanity can discover and come to know the things about God through the study of the sciences, both in nature and social fields. As human’s reason or as Webster’s defines, “exercising the faculty of logical thought”, mankind can come to a logical conclusion that God is real and is active in the world.  Reason and the study of God in a logical way is also very important in the field of apologetics. As William Craig asks in his early thoughts on the topic of apologetics, “what rational warrant can be given for the Christian faith”. Craig is pointing to the fact that God can and will be known through rational thought.

But human reason and the general revelation of God is not enough for salvation. Yes, human thought and logic can lead to a knowledge and understanding of God, but without the Word of God made known and His special revelation, humanity can’t know the saving and graceful work of God. As Paul also says in 1 Corinthians 2:9, “what no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him” . This means that man will never know or come to have a heart that understands, the work that God is doing for the salvation and reconciling of the world to Himself. Only special revelation, through the word of God, will do this, not simple rational thought or reason.

Special revelation is the revelation of God that He gives in a special or unique way. The special revelation of God in all history has been through miracles, visions, dreams, His audible Word, and special messengers. In the church and world today 99.9% of God’s special revelation is through His written Word to His people. So when God specially reveals Himself through His Word, then and only then can humanity and the hearer come to know what God is intimately, lovingly, and graciously doing in the world, especially in redeeming a people to Himself. A person needs this true knowledge of faith found in the Word of God. This special revelation of God gets beyond thinking logically and rationally and comes to feel and sense the true nature of God.

Jonathan Edwards said, “There is a difference between having an opinion that God is holy and precious, and having a sense of the loveliness and beauty of that holiness and grace”.  Edwards makes the point then that having reasons and knowledge of God is nice, but without the special knowledge and faith of God, a person cannot taste and see that the Lord is good. So Christians must come to realize that reason and logic, especially in apologetics, is a good thing and can lead others to God. But without the special revelation and true faith of God, God will never be fully discovered. A Christian must use reason to introduce others to God. But to fully lead others to a saving, knowing, and sensing of the beauty of God, a Christian must use the special revelation and faith that God brings in clear ways outside of reason and the general logical understanding of God. This is why Christian need to understand the relationship between reason and faith.