Morrow Gospel - January 28

WHAT DO I KNOW OF HOLY?

What do we know of “holy”? The adjective “holy” is a very loosely used term these days. We may shout in a moment of amazement “holy cow!” or “holy sh…aving cream!”

            In the campy 60’s TV series, Batman and Robin, Robin would apply “holy” to a number of situations the dynamic duo found themselves in at the time. Robin had 369 different expressions beginning with “holy.” These included “holy popcorn, Batman,” “holy hallucination” and “holy ravioli.” But what did Robin know of “holy”?

            I believe the Christian pop group Addison Road had the right attitude when it came to “holy.” The question in the song “What do I know of holy?” is an apt one. We have overused and abused what we know of holy and have, perhaps, become too familiar with the Holy One.

            Consider the words of the song; the singer confesses, “I think I made you too small; I never feared you at all, no. If you touched my face, would I know you? Looked into my eyes, would I behold you?” And then with the chorus, the singer explodes the reality of her situation (show slide). She admits that God is so great and beyond explaining that she has no idea of the true holiness of God. And what would she do if she met Him?

            Isaiah did meet the Lord. One night, as he was closing up the temple after a day of service, the glory of the Lord broken into that place. A vision of the throne room of God, so real, so awesome, engulfed Isaiah and revealed to him the Holy One. What did he see? What did he feel? What did he do?

            This morning we are studying Isaiah 6:1-13 and we will attempt to understand this great vision. What I hope we will grasp is this: The revelation of God in His glory transforms the lives of God’s people inspiring them for service. Then, perhaps, we will know a little bit more about of what “holy” means.

1. Witnessing the Glory of the Lord (1-4)

Isaiah’s vision of the Lord came at a transitional point in Judah’s history: King Uzziah died that year. That piece of history would be lost on us if it were not so important.

            Uzziah was a good king; the best they had had since David. He reigned 52 years and brought peace and prosperity to the land. Then, in a moment of pride, Uzziah went in to the temple and offered incense to the Lord, something only priests should do. He was immediately struck with leprosy. His pride led to his downfall (2 Chron. 26:16).

            With Uzziah’s death, Isaiah and the people must have worried about what would happen to the nation. Uzziah was, in fact, representative of the people: self-sufficient and proud. The first five chapters of Isaiah reveal how far the people had fallen into every kind of sin: national, social and spiritual.

            It was in this context that Isaiah saw the Lord. Now no one can actually see God. What Isaiah saw was what God allowed him to see. The Lord revealed his glory, a manifestation of his majesty to Isaiah. And that’s what we read here: “I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple” (6:1bc). The throne, the robe which filled the temple, and the attendants or angels were all symbols that a man like Isaiah could understand to grasp the majesty of God.

            Those attending the Lord were called “seraphim.” These are angels whose name actually means “the burning ones.” They each have six wings which suggest that they are in constant motion. Two wings covered their faces to shield them from God’s glory; two covered their feet representing service on the earth; and with two they flew.

            But what catches our attention is their cry or their song. “And one called to another and said: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the LORD God of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!’” (6:3).

            “Holy, holy, holy,” is a super-superlative that is found nowhere else in the Bible except Revelation 4. Holiness is the supreme truth about God. We say that “God is love,” and this is true. But holiness covers even love. What does holiness mean?

            The journey to understand holiness takes us to the brink, and from there the experience of God is beyond words. Every effort to describe God and define his holiness ends up in the same place: God is holy, meaning – God is God. There is no one like Him in the universe. He is absolutely unique.

            If we look at the root of what holy means, we may find that it is to cut or to separate. A holy thing is cut off and separated from common use. We call a lot of things holy to imply that they are distinctly devoted to God. We can speak of holy ground, a holy nation, holy garments, a holy city, holy men and holy women, the Holy Bible, and so on. Almost anything can be holy if it is separated for devotion to God.

            But when the description of “holy” is applied to God Himself…well, what can you separate God from to make him holy? He is holy because He is God. And if the angels cover their faces in His holy presence, how can we dare to act in a familiar manner before the God of the universe? He is so pure, so good, so righteous, no human can stand in His presence.

            So immense is the holiness of God that C.S. Lewis imagined that the seraphim surrounded the throne and shouted, “I see holiness,” while another shouted back, “I see holiness here too!” I don’t know if he was correct, but the implication is that no one person can grasp the wholeness of God on their own. We need each person in the church to share their perspective of our holy God.

2. Confessing Sin in the Presence of Holiness (5-7)

Isaiah was so overwhelmed by this revelation of God’s holiness that, in our colloquialism, “he freaked out!”

            Isaiah cried, “Woe is me! For I am lost (ruined, undone, wrecked); for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” (6:5).

            Isaiah was a good man, a prophet, a servant of the Lord. He could, in most people’s estimation, be set apart from the sins of the people. But the presence of Almighty God revealed to him his true condition. He had to identify himself with his sinful brothers and sisters.

Isaiah identified his sin in a unique way: he identifies his sin by his lips. Back in 3:8 Isaiah rebuked the people of Judah for this very thing when he said, “because their speech and their deeds are against the LORD, defying his glorious presence.” With our lips we may pretend to honor the Lord, but eventually those same lips reveal the true nature of our hearts. (Jesus talked about this in Matthew 15:18-19)

Remember when Jesus told Peter to try fishing again after a hard night of catching nothing? Peter does as Jesus said and caught so much fish it almost swamped the boat. And Peter’s response? “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord” (Luke 5:8). Such is the effect of the holy presence of God.

The good news is the swift response of the Lord in cleansing Isaiah. Isaiah admits he is lost. Isaiah confesses his sin. And immediately the Lord takes the initiative to send a seraph with a coal to touch the place of confessed need: the lips.

            Notice from where this coal originates. The seraph takes the burning coal from the altar. The altar is the place of sacrifice, of blood and fire – the place of atonement. The blood washes; the fire purifies.

             There is no waiting period for this atonement to impart forgiveness. Isaiah is forgiven on the spot. The seraph then says, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for” (6:7).

            There is hope in this cleansing. Isaiah must have thought, “If I can be forgiven, there is hope for my people.” There is hope for us in this too. If even Isaiah needs forgiveness, I must need it. And if I confess my sin…

3. Responding to the Call of the Lord (8-13)

The scene is not finished. For the first time, Isaiah hears the voice of the LORD Himself saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” (6:8).

            Isaiah’s experience with the presence of the holy Lord compels him to respond. He has seen the true King (Uzziah’s death is swallowed up in the reality of the eternal King), and he has been cleansed from his unholiness. Isaiah is ready to go. So he says, “Here I am! Send me.” This is literally “Look – me!” As we used to say on the playground “pick me, pick me.”

I have been a free agent since last spring, teaching and preaching where invited. I taught at SBC last fall. So at a SBC luncheon for faculty I overheard Prof. Dave R. saying he needed someone to fill in for something, Dr. Terry H. offered my name. I immediately said, “I’ll do it.” A few minutes later I asked, “What did I say ‘yes” to?”

That was like Isaiah’s response. He was eager to serve the Lord out of gratitude and the awe of God’s presence. But he didn’t know what he was saying “yes” to exactly.

The Lord then gives the mission: “Go and say to this people: ‘keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ Make the heart of this people dull…” (6:9-10).

Wait a minute. What kind of a revival message is this? Does God not want people to be healed or to be forgiven? What an odd message. Actually the message is described by its effects and not its content.

The message that Isaiah preaches to the people will be rejected for one peculiar reason: it’s too simple. In Isaiah 28:9-10, Isaiah is accused of having so simple a message the people will say it is meant for children. This is nursery school stuff, they will say. This same passage (6:9-10) will be quoted by Matthew describing why Jesus spoke in parables. Jesus told stories to convey kingdom principles. And the intellectuals, the academics didn’t get it. They thought it was nonsense. It was too simple. The gospel was not philosophical enough for them.

The Lord goes on to say that the unresponsiveness of the people is an aspect of God’s judgment on them. They have chosen arrogance and indifference; they don’t want to hear the Lord, so they won’t. Their hearts will be hardened and their land will be devastated (11-12).

            But the Lord still says, “Preach!” Tell them anyways. There is mercy in this. God is a God of mercy and compassion even as He speaks judgment on His people. A slender hope is revealed in v. 13: the land and its people are likened to a stump of a tree after it is felled. Judah is a great tree that is put to the axe and brought down because of their sin. Yet the stump remains. And that stump symbolizes the truth that God is not done with these people. The seed suggests regrowth, renewal, restoration. A new people shall grow up out of the devastation and become the people of God.

            So Isaiah, preach the Word!

The revelation of God in His glory transforms the lives of God’s people inspiring them for service.

            What can we take away from such a great revelation of God’s glory? What are the applications to your life?

1) We need to meditate on passages like Isaiah 6 and Revelation 4 to gain an appreciation for the holiness of God. My own opinion is that Christians, the church in general, has taken God for granted. We have become too familiar with him. Hipsters will begin their prayers with “Hey God…” and bring their shopping lists into the petition.

            As one writer put it, “Your God is too small.” He is beyond our comprehension. He is transcendent and holds the universe in His hand. Fear Him! And yet He has condescended to us in the person of Christ, a poor man, a peasant. He came to us at the ground floor of life and showed us his glory in the flesh. Can we see what Isaiah saw?

            We do see the glory of the Lord. Read 2 Corinthians 3:12-18.

2) When the Word of the Lord convicts us, we are compelled to confess our sin. That is the only way we can fully know God’s will. We are forgiven through the cross of Christ. Jesus’ blood and righteousness are ours every day. But we cannot take this lightly. It was a costly grace that was displayed on the cross. So who am I to pretend to be immune to sin each and every day? As my dear departed brother, Dr. Chuck Nichols used to say, “Every day I pray: Lord Jesus, I confess my need of your grace today knowing that it is sufficient for all my needs.”

3) We must be willing to go where God sends us and to speak what God wants us to speak, even if it is not popular. The simple, clear, concise gospel of Jesus Christ is our message. It is not popular today. But the Lord calls out, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”

            Read 2 Corinthians 4:3-6.

Can you see what Isaiah saw?

Can you feel what Isaiah felt?

Can you do what Isaiah did?

            And what do we know of holy? We know Jesus Christ, the holy Lamb of God.

                                                            AMEN

Prayer:

Thank you, our Father, for this marvelous revelation of your unceasing labors on behalf of mankind. Grant to us who have felt the touch of the cleansing coal from your altar that we should be like the prophet, eager and available to go. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

           

           

Blumenort EMC - November 5, 2017

THE TESTIMONY

Have you ever been to court? Have you ever been on trial? Have you ever been on trial for your faith?

            It was 1940-something when my father received a brown letter telling him that he was required to enlist in the army. The war was raging in Europe and young men were being called up to fight the Germans.

            As you can imagine, my dad was a Mennonite and did not want to fight. In order to register as a conscientious objector, dad had to appear in court before a judge and state his case. The justice on the bench for Manitoba was a no-nonsense kind of guy who did not like shirkers.

            J.E. Adamson took an aggressive approach to handling objectors.[i] Dad said Adamson stared him down and said something like, “Are you a coward? Don’t you love your country? If the enemy invades are you just going to run and hide in the woods?”

            Dad, and other young Mennonite men like him, had no representation and stood alone accused of being unpatriotic. My father was not a theologian or a pastor and not one for explaining his faith in grand terms. So he simply stated what he believed, “I believe that Jesus Christ commanded us to love our enemies, so I cannot go to war and kill.”

            Each one of us stands trial every day. Whether you know it or not your faith is being examined by what you do and what you say. Friends and co-workers are looking for authenticity in your walk of faith and they need to see Jesus in you. What is your response?

            In a similar way, Paul stood trial for his faith in Jesus and his gospel of the risen Christ. He was falsely accused of not loving his country and his people. His response ought to be our response as we testify to our faith in Jesus. I want to share this truth with you today: The heart of the Christian testimony is the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

            Let me explain why from Acts 26:1-23.

The Context

We will not look at every detail of Paul’s trial in chapters 24-26, but I do want to give you the context of this event.

            Following the ruckus in the temple and Paul’s subsequent arrest, Paul faces three different trials in 24-26.

            First he faces the Roman governor, Felix. Hoping for a bribe, Felix keeps Paul in prison for two years.

            Festus takes over from Felix and hears the case against Paul again. But he does not understand the issue. Paul appeals to Caesar and Festus can’t refuse him. But he doesn’t know how to write up the charge. So Festus calls on the Jewish puppet king, Agrippa II (great-grandson of Herod the Great).

            Paul’s third trial is before Agrippa and his sister-lover Bernice (yes, it’s weird).

            The original charges by the Jewish authority three years past seem to have faded but are still on the table. Paul is accused of

1) Stirring up riots throughout the world (The Jews called Paul a “pest” as in pestilence; like a disease that rots the body).

2) Being a ringleader of a sect (illegal religion).

3) Profaning the temple (bringing a Gentile into the sacred area).

            We could look in great detail at how Paul responds to these charges, but I would rather focus on one detail. Each time Paul’s case is heard, one element concludes his defense like the final word on the whole matter: the resurrection. This is what struck me as I studied this passage.

            This is more than a personal defense. Paul defends the gospel and the ministry with the resurrection. He is not trying to prove his innocence so much as he is trying to explain the reasons for the Jewish opposition to his ministry.

            In fact, the book of Acts, the resurrection emerges as the key to most sermons and testimonies in Acts as the main reason for faith in Jesus.

1. The resurrection is where people stumble

As Paul addresses Agrippa and explains his position, he takes pains to show how the gospel of Jesus does not oppose Jewish faith, but actually grows out of it. Paul did not abandon the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but sees them fulfilled in Jesus. As Paul said, “And now I stand here on trial because of my hope in the promise made by God to our fathers…” (6).

            This is the same God who created the world with the breath of his mouth. This is the same God who delivered the Israelites out of Egypt in a series of miracles. Then, Paul asks, “Why is it thought incredible by any of you that God raises the dead?” (8)

            And yet, that is where many people stumble. God can do amazing things in your life, but can he raise the dead?

            Think back to Paul’s speech on the Areopagus (17:22ff). He notices the altar to the “Unknown God” and proceeds to tell them about God. Interesting, they think. Then he concludes with a challenge (read 17:30-31). When they heard this teaching on the resurrection, they mocked him.

            Just last week we heard how Paul was before the Sanhedrin, and Paul, being the scamp that he was, declared that “It is with respect to the hope and the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial” (23:6). This caused a great division in the council so that the attention was taken off of Paul.

            Here in our present chapter, Paul tells how the Christ must suffer and that, by being the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light to all people (26:23). To this, Festus cannot contain himself and says, “Paul, you’re out of your mind. You’re nuts. Give me a break. No one survives Roman crucifixion,” (my version).

            The resurrection of the dead troubles people – they can’t handle the idea.

            I have stood at many gravesides to conduct committals. Often I will have the mourners look around at the cemetery and consider it as a crop that will one day spring up. I will point to the body of the deceased and say, “God’s not done with this body. At the voice of Jesus, the earth will give up the dead and they will rise to life and have a transformed body.”

            Do you know what kind of looks I get? Incredulous! And this from Christians. They look at me like, “Hey, we’re grieving here. This is sad. Don’t tell me this old, broken body with its diseases is going to rise. Tell me Grandma’s in heaven.” Resurrection makes for a nice theology, but we miss the reality, and we stumble over it and can’t really grasp it.

            But Jesus is the first-born of the dead. He conquered sin on the cross and conquered death by being raised from the dead. That should be our great hope.

2. The resurrection is foundational to the witness of the church

For the past several months we have studied the book of Acts in our morning worship. What is the main thrust of Acts? We might say that the overall theme is that the Holy Spirit empowers the church to witness. And you would be right. But witness about what?

            As much as the Holy Spirit plays a major part in the story of Acts and the early Church, that part is primarily to hold up the resurrection of Jesus Christ as the central message of the gospel. The first significant words in Acts come from the resurrected Christ to wait for the Holy Spirit (1:5).

            Then we hear Peter’s sermon at Pentecost. And his argument centers on the prophetic proofs for the resurrection of Jesus and why these once-shy apostles are now preaching in the streets. He says, “This Jesus God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses” (2:32), and in this resurrection receives validation and vindication as the Son of God. “Let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified” (2:36). How do the people respond to the message of resurrection? They are cut to the heart! And then they repent and believe. The resurrection of Jesus is cause for belief.

            When Peter and John heal a lame man, they are taken into custody to explain this healing and why they are teaching the resurrection of Jesus (4:2). Their answer to the Sanhedrin shakes the establishment. “…let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead – by this man is standing before you well” (4:10). The resurrection of Jesus is the power behind the healing of the sick and the lame.

            Later on, Peter has the opportunity to cross the Jewish-Gentile boundary and preach to Cornelius. Again, Peter said that the Jews put Jesus to death by hanging him on a tree, but that God raised him on the third day. Peter concludes by saying, “To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name” (10:43). The resurrection of Jesus, then, is the basis for belief AND the forgiveness of sins.

            The Church in Acts persistently declares that everything they do and say is rooted in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Why do we as Christians insist that Jesus is the only way? Because that is what Jesus says about himself. We believe him. And we believe him because he has demonstrated that he knows life better than anyone else who ever lived. The supreme demonstration of that fact is that he rose from the dead.

3. The resurrection was the hinge of Paul’s defense

Before Agrippa, Paul relates, for the third time in the book of Acts, his conversion experience. This time he adds an odd quote from Jesus, “It is hard for you to kick against the goads” (26:14c).

            You men from Steve’s Livestock know what a goad is; a goad is like a cattle prod. It is a sharp pointy stick that a shepherd might use to get the sheep going. A goad is also a sharp point on a chariot so that when a horse kicks its legs too far back it gets a reminder not to back-kick so far.

            When Paul meets Jesus on the road to Damascus, he meets the risen Lord. Jesus tells him to stop kicking the goads; stop resisting what you now see is true.

            Paul described his life to Agrippa before meeting the risen Lord. He was a man who was convinced he knew the truth. He was zealous for Jewish culture, tradition, and practice. Paul was so convinced that he was right about his worldview and his paradigm for living that he persecuted the Christians, throwing them in jail, voting for their deaths. Paul was a religious man; a privileged and educated man; a man in whom few could find fault (Philippians 3:4-6).

            Then Paul met the risen Christ and it radically changed his life and his worldview. He got crushed. Paul wasn’t just persecuting some weird cult members; Jesus told him “you are persecuting me.” Note: what happens to the church happens to Jesus. But it wasn’t a rebuke Paul received, it was a calling. The resurrected Jesus raised Paul from the deadness of his legalism and religiosity. (read 26:16-18)

            From that point on – I don’t think I exaggerate in saying this – Paul was obsessed (in the positive sense) with the resurrection of Christ. It was the hinge of his testimony. Everything rested on the historical fact of Christ being raised from the dead. He considered all of his gains, his birth rights (as a Mennonite), his education, his righteousness and all else as loss compared to knowing Christ Jesus as Lord (Phil. 3:7-8). Why would he risk everything now and throw away his reputation as a learned teacher of the Law? “…that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain to the resurrection from the dead” (Phil 3:10-11).

            Oh that we all would be so obsessed…

My dad was not an articulate man when it came to theology. I have told you that already. He could gab with the best of them, but he never learned to express his faith in deep terms.

            So when J.E. Adamson confronted him about his conscientious objection, well…let me put words in Adamson’s mouth. “You mean to tell me that you are refusing to join the army because you say that God raised Jesus from the dead, and now you are ordering your whole life around this one event 2000 years ago? Is that what you are saying Abe?”

            Dad said, “Yes.”

            I believe that was my dad’s one defining moment of faith. That day he stood larger than he ever stood before. His “yes” declared before the judge that he believed in the resurrection of Christ and that changed everything for him.

            And I want you to know this morning that you are a testimony of the risen Christ if you believe He is the Son of God. If you call yourself a Christian, your co-workers can automatically assume that you believe in the resurrection.

            This church building stands as a silent, immovable testimony to the fact that the people who gather here every week believe that Jesus rose from the dead.

            But the problem with Christianity today is that the things we believe in principle, we refuse to believe in practice. Just like the people at the graves of their loved ones. Yes, we grieve, but not without hope. We put more stock in the idea of “going to heaven” than we do in the resurrection of the dead. And in so doing we allow death to defeat us. Why? Because we surrender this world to sin and Satan and bank everything on “going to heaven.” As a result, we leave justice for the End Times, we allow the world to go to pot, because at least we’ve got heaven.

            The resurrection of Jesus transforms our beliefs. I will order my thinking, speaking, and behavior on the basis of the resurrection so that I am not the same. The Holy Spirit takes the introvert and makes her a lioness for the gospel because of the hope of the resurrection. The Holy Spirit gives new courage to the weak and the scared to stand up and simply say “yes” when asked “Do you really believe the resurrection?”

            The gospel we declare begins with the resurrection. What about the crucifixion? The death of Jesus is important but it does not make a person stumble like the resurrection does in principle and in practice.

            How core is the resurrection to our gospel?  Allow me to summarize Paul’s argument from 1 Corinthians 15:12-20

If there is no resurrection – Christ has not been raised.

If there is no resurrection – our preaching is in vain/your faith is in vain.

If there is no resurrection – we are misrepresenting God in saying that he raised Jesus from the dead.

If there is no resurrection – the dead are not raised.

If there is no resurrection – your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.

If there is no resurrection – those who have died are lost forever.

If there is no resurrection – we can only hope for this life; woe is us.

BUT, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first of those to be raised from the dead. Hallelujah.

                                                            AMEN

           

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[i] CBC video “The Last Objectors” from the TV series “Absolutely.”

Whatever happened to sin? #3

SINNERS IN THE HANDS OF JESUS

How are we to respond to sin in our community? How do we imagine a confrontation of sin playing out?

            On July 8, 1741, Jonathan Edwards was invited to preach at a church in a neighboring town. It was the height of the Great Awakening in the colonies, but the town of Enfield, Connecticut stood out numbly against the revival. Despite the fact that he had delivered the sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” to his own congregation with little effect, Edwards felt led to use it in Enfield.

            Edwards’ preaching style was unimpressive. He read his sermons in a monotone voice and when he did look up he stared at the back wall. Edwards was not theatrical, did not shout, but spoke with great conviction.

            The result of “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” was unexpected. People began to moan and cry out that they felt they were going to hell. Some even thought that the very fires of hell were licking at their feet through the floor boards of the church. Edwards taught them the horrors of hell and the dangers of sin. And the people were awakened to Christ and his saving power.    

            For that time and context, the message was clearly effective. I don’t think that message would work today. I’m not saying that the truth of hell and the dangers of sin should not be shared; I just don’t think people are scared of hell anymore. We wish they were. Certain sins anger us and we would like for sinners to feel the heat of hell on their feet and repent. But fear doesn’t motivate.

            How does Jesus respond to sin and the sinner? In the controversial passage of John 8:1-11, we get a great picture of how Jesus feels about sin.[i] We could examine a lot of passages about Jesus and sin, but this one dramatically reflects the heart of Christ toward the sinner. What we learn from this passage is this: When confronted with the sinner and his sin remember that Jesus displayed both truth and grace to us.

How we handle Sin and Sinners

“It is a terrible thing for a sinner to fall into the hands of his fellow sinners” – F.B. Meyer.[ii]

            Though we revile and look down our noses at the scribes and Pharisees in this episode, we cannot deny that there is a little bit of them in us. Meyer was bang on in his statement that sinners are hard on sinners. We are hard on sinners because, perhaps, we are afraid of what we see in them – ourselves.

            Jesus was teaching at the temple during the Feast of Booths. This was likely a Sabbath day when the scribes and Pharisees approached him with their captive. She had been caught in adultery.

            There are all kinds of things wrong with this picture. They got the girl, but where’s the dude? Was she a pawn in their scheme and the guy a patsy, bait for the girl? Did the schemers follow the couple as they went out for drinks and then back to his place? If so, they were guilty of voyeurism. Why wasn’t the man brought to Jesus? Why did they choose a sexual sin over a murderer or a thief? They clearly wanted to trap Jesus. Why clearly?

            The place where Jesus taught was the temple, and around the temple were Roman guards keeping the peace. Now the scribes and Pharisees came to Jesus and said, “Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” (8:5). If Jesus says let her go, he is breaking Moses’ law; if Jesus says stone her, the Romans can charge him with sedition because Jews did not have the power to execute anyone. It’s a trap.

            But as for the scribes and Pharisees, how can this preacher say that they are us? I think that as Christians we can slip into a pious exterior. For instance, like the scribes and Pharisees we like to be offended by sin. Identifying the sins of others can make us feel better about our own sins. We can say “I’m not as bad as that.” Other people’s gross sins allow us to feel like we are on a better path. In the same breath, we feel compelled to judge the sinner. If they choose to live a lifestyle that contradicts our sense of godliness, they are begging us to condemn them. And deep in our hearts, don’t we want sinners to pay the penalty? Sin has its consequences and you have to pay the piper. If you abuse your body, you have to expect that cancer, disease, or an early death will be the bill to pay. If the child-molester goes to prison and gets beat up daily…well, that’s justice.

            In the end, what the scribes and Pharisees really desired was to regain their turf. Jesus had invaded their world and upset their lifestyle with his teaching and behavior. Compassion, bah! What mattered to this group was the law; the law matters, people do not. Control was more important than truth or justice, or people. We don’t want control do we? We want new people to worship with us, right? If we bring in new people they come with baggage, sin, a different worldview. Don’t tell me you don’t want them to conform just a little bit. We want to be in control…even here.

How Jesus handles Sin and Sinners

The beauty of this episode is how Jesus navigates the trap and shows us how to balance hating sin while showing mercy. What does Jesus teach us about confronting sin and the sinner?

a) Jesus shows compassion on the sinner – The woman caught in adultery was frightened, trembling, and poorly covered. Since the men caught her in the act, it is likely that they dragged her as she was from the bed. She may have been half-naked. Someone suggested that Jesus wrote on the ground to distract the crowd from her nakedness. He took the spotlight off of her and put it on himself. Maybe.

            The men wanted justice. But what is justice? Is it the strict application of the law? Deuteronomy 22:22 states that she must die for her adultery. Or is justice found more purely in the Messianic song of Isaiah, “A bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice” (Is. 42:3). Jesus takes the risk of himself getting hurt to save her. He would not reject her even though she violated a sexual code. She is a faintly burning wick and Jesus will not allow her to be snuffed out.

            Jesus loves sinners. You know that right? He was often accused of eating and drinking with sinners and tax collectors. Why, they asked, why do you do this Jesus? He replied, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners,” (Mk 2:17). The kicker is that the righteous are sinners too, they just don’t know it. The sinners know what they are.

b) Jesus upholds the law – The eighth day of the feast was a Sabbath. You don’t work on the Sabbath; you don’t even write – writing is work. Writing, they said, was making some kind of permanent mark on paper. That’s why Jesus writes in the dirt – it leaves no lasting mark. Jesus isn’t stupid. He knows the law and the laws that uphold the laws.

            Concerning the law of Moses itself, Jesus was never against the law. He said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Mt. 5:17).

            So what did Jesus write on the ground? No one really knows. But one scholar is convinced he wrote, “death” or “kill her” or “stone her with stones.”[iii]Why? Because the insinuation of what he says next is that he decreed the death penalty. Jesus said, in effect, “go ahead.” She broke the law. And the law states that both the man and the woman be stoned. Jesus did not contradict the law or tell them they were wrong, as they expected he would.

c) Jesus takes sin seriously – Let us not become wistful in our impression of Jesus, where we imagine that his grace and compassion blind him to the seriousness of sin. Jesus gives the green-light to stone her, but then adds the caveat: “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her” (7b). Jesus puts a name and a face on each person in the crowd. He says, “Okay, ‘fess up.” Never mind your voyeurism, your seedy perverted stalking of this girl and your conspiratorial minds, if you are truly without sin – throw! Anyone who steps out and claims to be sinless would be shamed by the others. You wouldn’t dare.

            Jesus takes sin seriously. Our companion passage (Matt. 5:27-30) shows us just how seriously. Jesus took sin to a new level of understanding when he said that looking at a woman with lustful intent is adultery. Not just the act is condemned, but the attitude as well. We are to cut off in drastic measure the avenue through which this lust finds root. And it’s not just adultery – all sin begins in the heart, before it becomes an act. That is why these men knew they were busted.

            One by one, beginning with the eldest of the men, the crowd disperses. Elders were more respected for their wisdom in those days. If the older guys walk away, that says a lot. Jesus goes back to writing so that they can keep their dignity. He doesn’t look at them. Jesus is pretty cool that way.

            With everyone gone, Jesus asks, “Has no one condemned you?” “No one, Lord.” And then Jesus says the most profound thing any sinner would love to hear, “Neither do I condemn you.” He could have. Jesus was the one person in the crowd who was without sin. He could have stoned her. That’s not his mission.

            Jesus said, “…God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:17).

d) Jesus Challenges the Sinner and his/her lifestyle – Incredible grace has been shown to this woman, but there is more needed than just grace. Jesus came to us full of grace and truth (John 1:17). Love tells the truth. If Jesus truly loves this woman, he can’t just tell her to go. Jesus wants what is best for her and so he says, “…from now on sin no more” (11c). You can’t do this anymore. You can’t live this lifestyle of sin. God wants more for you.

            Jesus has walked the fine line between trivializing her sin and condemning her. She is not acquitted, but neither is she judged. Just as the crowd had to reform their thinking concerning sin, the woman must reform her way of life. She cannot justify her actions in any way.

            Oprah once aired an episode on her program with women who were having affairs with married men. When the women were challenged on the morality of their adultery, one woman said, “Wait a minute. I’m a Christian, but I want everyone to know that my personal life and my religion don’t interfere with one another. I believe in a God who wants me to be happy. And if this man makes me happy, then God approves of the relationship.” In response, I recall a preacher once saying, “God does not want you to be happy. He wants you to be holy.” And I challenge you to find a verse that says otherwise.

e) Jesus lives out the message of the cross – Love is costly. Jesus does not condemn the woman, but takes the condemnation she deserved on himself and allows his body to be nailed to the cross.

            How did the woman respond? We have no idea. But can you imagine that she sniffed contemptuously at this act of grace? You and I, the readers of this narrative, are obliged to consider how the woman responded, and in the process consider our own response to the costly love of God offered on the cross.

            Can you deny so costly a love? And if such amazing love has been shown to us, how can we condemn others who have sinned and are waiting, even longing, for compassion? Sinners don’t need a rock to the head; sinners need grace and truth, understanding and forgiveness. They need a gentle hand to help them and correct them.

Consider one last word picture. I had a math teacher who carried a yardstick (a meter stick if you have converted) and would use it to get our attention. If the class was chattering too much or not paying attention to him, he would slam that yardstick down with the edge on one of the student’s desks. (I think he had anger issues – but back then we just called them “teachers”). Do you think that we learned math better because of the stick?

            Jesus did not come with a stick to beat us into conformity to the law. He came with a gentle hand and loving countenance to draw us into obedience. The motivation was costly love – the cross; not condemnation.

            Aren’t you glad we are sinners in the hands of Jesus, instead of sinners in the hands of an angry God? Jesus came as an example of truth and grace. We are challenged this day to be Jesus to the sinners among us.

                                                                        AMEN

Prayer:

Father God, we confess that there are times when we have stood in the midst of the crowd, condemned. And there are times when we have stood in the crowd, condemning. There are times when my own heart has been filled with adultery. There are times when my hands have been filled with stones. Forgive me, forgive us, for hearts that are prone to wander, to forget the grace that has been shown to us. Forgive us for being too willing to bring the sins of others before you, and forgetting to bring my own to you. Help me, help us all, to be like you, Jesus, full of grace and truth, to show compassion to the sinner, and to say along with you to them “neither do I condemn you.” And in the strength of those gracious words, we will go forward and sin no more

                        In Jesus name we pray, amen.

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[i] John 8:1-11 is controversial because most early Greek manuscripts do not include it in their copies of John’s Gospel. Some scholars are not even sure it belongs in John at all since it is the only place in John where scribes are mentioned together with Pharisees. Early Church Fathers did believe, however, that though it was not Johannine in character, it did fit the personality of Christ very well. Kenneth Bailey, among others, suggested that early copyists were told to leave it out because it appeared to show Jesus being too light on sin. So it may have an early origin but if copyists were paid to leave it out…

[ii] F.B. Meyer was a British preacher, a contemporary of D.L. Moody and A.C. Dixon (1847-1929)

[iii] Kenneth Bailey, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, 235.

Whatever Happened to Sin #2

THE OT PERSPECTIVE OF SIN:

MARRIED TO GOD, BUT DATING THE WORLD

How do we typically view sin in the OT? When you and I read the OT we often see a God who is angry, who wants to pour out wrath on all humankind, and who eagerly judges the world. God seems pretty grumpy. (By "OT" I mean "Old Testament")

            We can focus on those emotions and write off the God of the OT altogether. But we need to pause for a second and think about why God is angry? We could look at this theologically and point out that God is holy and he hates sin. When his people sin they are breaking his commandments. This is true, but there is more to it than that.

            Suppose a woman’s love language is quality time spent together with her husband. Quality time doesn’t have to be romantic dates at fancy restaurants. She just wants to have a meaningful time together. So they may sit together on the couch watching TV. But while they are watching her shows, he plays a game on his phone or scrolls through Facebook. If they do go out for a coffee, he sits there with nothing to say until an acquaintance walks by and all of a sudden he’s a chatterbox. Shouldn’t she begin to feel angry that her significant other finds everything and everyone else more interesting than her?

            This is a very simple illustration, but it is meant to turn off your theological perspective for a moment and think relationally. God is a relational person. The reason we see his anger, wrath, and judgment in the OT is not just because his rules were broken, but because man’s relationship with God has been disrupted. Sin disrupts our relationship with God in the same way that adultery breaks down a marriage.

            Our text today relates how Ezra, a priest who is sent to minister to returning exiles in Israel, reacts to the sins of his people. They had begun to take pagan wives for themselves after coming home from captivity in Babylon and Ezra begins to pull out his hair. Let me tell you why.

Remembering Covenant Promises

For those of us who are married I ask this jarring question: How often do you go back and read your wedding vows? Do you ever think of them and evaluate how you are doing in your role as a husband or wife?

            One of the first things Ezra did when they returned to Israel was to read the Scriptures to the people. They had not heard these words in a long time and it convicted them.

            Some of the officials, leaders in the community, came to Ezra and confessed that “The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands with their abominations, from the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites” (9:1b). Now this is an odd confession because some of these peoples did not exist at this stage of history. Why would they mention these people groups if they aren’t around?

            The key is that these names are a link to a commandment of God. Those leaders were referencing Exodus 34:11-16 where these names were first mentioned (read).    

            Now the men of Israel were taking wives who were not Jews. Likely there were few Jewish wives to go around. Thus they were intermarrying with unbelievers and so threatening the purity of their faith. It was not a threat but a reality that if they married these pagan women their hearts would be turned from God to idolatry. It was inevitable. They would replace the living God with gods that are not gods.

            When the people heard the words of Moses it was like a husband and wife reading their wedding vows and seeing how far they fell short of their promises. God had chosen this people to be a holy people, his own people, and had made (in effect) a marriage covenant with them, and they were breaking it with this seemingly insignificant act. But it was not insignificant in the big picture of faith.

Breaking Covenant Promises

Marrying an unbeliever is a risky choice. Some people call it evangelism, but it seldom works out that way.

            According to the Exodus passage it breaks God’s commandment and his intention to create a holy people. If we disregard this commandment we declare that to be married is the most important goal in life, more important than obedience to God.

            This is why Ezra confesses in v. 10, “We have forsaken your commandments, which you commanded by your servants the prophets…” The commandments were there to protect the people. But if the people don’t understand or appreciate the commandment, they choose another option. That option is none other than “sin.”

            The most common word for sin is found in the Hebrew word chata (in Greek it is harmatano). This verb is found in the OT over 600 times. It means “missing the mark.” Picture an archery target – we place it in the center aisle and I take aim. But instead of shooting as accurately as I can at the target, I deliberately aim to the far left and miss.

            We may think of “missing the mark” as making a mistake rather than a willful chosen sin. But in the Bible the term suggests not failure, but a decision to fail. “Missing the mark” is a voluntary and culpable mistake.

            When we choose these other things as more important than God, we make them ultimate. Ezekiel 14:3 says, “these men have taken their idols into their hearts and set the stumbling block of their iniquity before their faces.” God was saying that the human heart takes good things like marriage, career, possessions, and family, and turns them into ultimate things. Our hearts make gods of them, making them the central focus of our lives, because we think they can give us significance and security, safety and fulfillment. Idols are not just bad things; they can be good things – and the greater the good, the more likely we will expect it to satisfy our longings.

God’s view of Covenant Promises

Anything can serve as a counterfeit god, especially the very best things in life. An idol is anything that is more important to you than God. If it is an obsession, absorbing your heart and mind more than God, it is an idol.

            Think again of our opening illustration: a husband and wife that are distracted from their relationship by “other” things will be relationally broken.

            Consider how God views sin then. First of all, whatever distracts you from obeying him is an idol. The Bible sometimes uses a marriage metaphor to describe idolatry. God should be our true spouse, but when we desire and delight in other things more than God we commit spiritual adultery. Idolatry and adultery are synonyms in the OT.

            The best illustration of this metaphor comes to us from the prophet Hosea. God tells Hosea, “Go take for yourself a wife of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the LORD” (Hosea 1:2). Hosea becomes a walking parable of how the Lord feels about his people and their flirtation with idols. The people felt that they could worship Yahweh and mingle pagan idolatry on the side. They probably felt that they were covering their bases in this way.

            But this is what we call syncretism. It has always been a problem for God’s people. We don’t deny Christianity, but we add to our faith the beliefs and practices of our culture. Then, in a rather short time, we are virtually indistinguishable from the world in how we think and live. We want so desperately to blend in and not stick out in the crowd by being too holy.

            God calls this infidelity. We are married to God, but we want to date the world. We say we are happy with God, but we can’t shake the allure of the world and its temporary pleasures and satisfactions. But John said, “Do not love the world or the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15).

Renewing our Covenant Promises with God

After 25 or 50 years, some married couples will have a little ceremony to renew their wedding vows. They haven’t forgotten their promises per se, but they want to remind themselves and everyone that they are committed to loving each other. That’s a good thing.

            When we have broken our promises of faithfulness to God, and we do often, there is only one way to come back to God: confession. And then we can renew our promises.

            Ezra’s response to the sins of his people and his prayer are an outstanding model in the OT of renewal. Check out Ezra’s response to sin:

a) First, he is appalled at sin. Twice it says that Ezra “sat appalled” and pulled hair from his head and beard (3-4). One writer said, “Rare is the soul who is so shocked at disobedience that he is appalled.”[i] Does sin shock us? We see the tabloids at Sobey’s or Superstore while checking our groceries and we see that a superstar couple has split. Are we horrified or curious? What about when a step-father shakes his baby to death? Are we horrified to the point of dropping to our knees in confession before God? Ezra was beside himself with shock over the sin he witnessed.

b) Second, he mourns the sin. The source of this mourning was the realization that God’s commandments had been broken. “Then all who trembled at the words of the God of Israel…” (4). A distinguishing mark of a true Christian is that he mourns over sin, both his own sins and the sins of others. Jesus said, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Mt. 5:4). He wasn’t talking about people at a funeral; Jesus meant that the person who grieves sin will be blessed.

c) Third, he confessed the sin. Ezra makes no attempt to separate himself from the transgressions of the people. He doesn’t go before God and say “Look at these people; look how sinful they are.” No, he includes himself in the guilt of the people and says not “they” but “our.” “O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift my face to you, my God, for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has mounted up to the heavens” (6). Ezra was ashamed and yet did not hesitate to go directly to God and confess this breech. Adam and Eve tried to hide, and who wouldn’t? But the guilt and shame are too much of a burden for us to bear, why wouldn’t we go to God.

d) Fourth, he makes no excuse. Ezra recognized that God had punished the people less than they deserved even though God knew they would sin again. But Ezra plainly says, “we are before you in our guilt, for none can stand before you because of this” (15b). Ezra doesn’t cover up the guilt but throws himself on the mercy of God.

            Should a husband and wife have a severe disruption in their marriage, denying the existence of this issue between them would begin as a wedge and grow to become a chasm. Only confession and repentance could heal the marriage.

            So too with God, the lover of our souls, we find one who would show mercy and embrace us once again, if only we would agree with him that sin is not just law-breaking but is relationship-destroying.

This OT perspective changes our understanding of sin. Now we see that sin is personal, it pains the One who loves us and rejects the One who adores us. Sin can no longer be seen as a dusty law journal in a lawyer’s office. Sin can no longer be swept aside as culturally irrelevant. We cannot scorn our marriage vows with God.

            The marriage analogy continues in the NT. Paul speaks of Christ as the bridegroom and the Church as the bride in Ephesians 5. All at once he speaks of how a husband ought to treat a wife and vice versa, and then says “This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church” (32). What you do affects your spouse; if you hurt your body, you hurt “our” body. And when you sacrifice yourself for the other, you show the same crazy love that Christ showed on the cross.

            But just like a good marriage, with open communication, readiness to admit fault, quick to repair the hurts, God is gracious and merciful and ready to hold us close. So let’s not date the world and flirt with its toys. Christ is the lover of our souls and he died to set us free from the world.

                                                            AMEN

Prayer:

            (This prayer sounds like a wedding vow. It is a call to renew our covenant with God just as a couple renews their wedding vows at 10, 25 or 50 years)

            O Lord, Our God,

            I, Darryl (______insert your name), take you God , to be my God, to have and to love you from this day forward, in good times and in bad times, believing that you want my best, whether I am sick or well, poor or rich, I accept that you love me and I will not give myself to another, till death takes me and I enter into your eternal presence,

            In Jesus name, Amen.

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[i] Edwin Yamauchi (Expositor’s Bible Commentary [Zondervan], 4:664)

Whatever Happened to Sin? #1

LET’S TALK ABOUT SIN

“Sin” is a word that we use very carefully. We cannot talk about sin, or that which we designate as “sin,” as openly as we once used to. Calling something “sin” suggests condemnation or judgment on our part, and we paint ourselves negatively to others if we throw the “sin” word around too loosely.

            If you want to know what Western society thinks of “sin,” television provides a very accurate gauge of public opinion. Consider the last time you have heard “sin” mentioned on your favorite show and in what context. No one talks about “sin” on prime time. If a commercial advertises a chocolate treat of some sort it might be described as “sinfully delicious.” In this way, “sin” becomes an adjective for “good stuff that you shouldn’t have.”

            “Sin” suggests guilt. And no one wants to feel guilty. Yet even with the removal the word “sin” people still feel guilty. A recent US survey revealed that 87 percent of American adults believe in the existence of sin – something that is always considered wrong. But some sins, like gambling, pre-marital sex, and drinking, no longer draw condemnation. So the list gets modified by popular culture.

            And popular culture influences the church. The drift of Western preaching today veers away from talking about sin. The result is that people know what sin is, they just don’t believe in it anymore. Pastors preach happiness instead of holiness; believers seek personal fulfillment instead of moral purity.

            But I believe that we need to talk about sin as a church. I believe that having a biblical view of sin leads us to a greater understanding of salvation through Jesus Christ. Acknowledging sin and the sinful nature accentuates the Good News of Christ in a way that ignoring it can never do.

            So let’s talk about sin…

How do we define sin?

Our first biblical encounter with sin comes to us in Genesis 3. Until this moment there was a perfect world. For a reason we are not told about, a crafty serpent enters the garden where the man and the woman live and work.

            Ray Stedman said that it was unfortunate that translators identified the word here as “serpent” when it is actually a shining creature. This is apt since the NT calls the devil a deceiver masquerading as an angel of light. And here the devil deceives the woman concerning God. The deception comes in stages:

First, the serpent says “Did God actually say…” creating doubt in the mind concerning the Word of the Lord.  

Second, the woman responds concerning the forbidden tree but adds that they should not even touch the tree. She adjusts the Word of the Lord to her own liking.

Third, the serpent refutes God’s command that they will die if they touch the tree saying “You will not surely die…” and then casts doubt on God’s love by inferring that God just doesn’t want the man and the woman to be as wise as him.

Fourth, the act of rebellion. The woman considers that the food on the tree is good and delightful to look at, so she takes and eats the fruit. She gives some to the man and he eats.

            As James later writes (1:14-15), this is the pattern leading to sin: desire, temptation, sin, followed by death. That’s the pattern, but what is sin itself?

            Sin is the transgression of the law of God. God said, “…of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat” (2:17). They had one law and they broke it. Why is this bad?

            Karl Menninger wrote, “The wrongness of the sinful act lies not merely in its nonconformity, its departure from the accepted, appropriate way of behavior, but in an implicitly aggressive quality – a ruthlessness, a hurting, a breaking away from God and from the rest of humanity, a partial alienation, or act of rebellion.”[i]

            Sin is the usurping of God’s rightful place as God by the rebellious human who thinks he knows better than God what is good. And the essence of this aggressive departure from God as Lord of your life is a violent “NO” to God. Sin puts “my self” first before God and others.

When did “sin” begin to vanish?

In truth, humankind has been trying to make sin vanish from the beginning. Adam blamed God for making the woman; Eve blamed the serpent. The guilt of sin is too heavy a burden and so we try to shift it onto someone or something else.

            No one described this better than the prophet Isaiah when he wrote, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness…” (5:20). In his own time, Isaiah saw how the people toyed with sin and morality, but he could have been describing our time as well (i.e. Abortion is called “a woman’s choice”).

            So the human effort to make “sin” vanish is ancient. But in the last few decades we have seen a ramped-up effort to annihilate sin. In the 1950s, the US Congress voted to require the President to proclaim each year a national day of prayer, beginning in 1952. The next year, President Eisenhower made his first proclamation and in it he made a reference to sin. He never did again. The word was not compatible with the President’s vision of a proud and confident people. No president since has ever mentioned the word.[ii]

            Do you see the stumbling block that is sin? It stands in the way of the ability of humankind to triumph and succeed. As of 1953, quipped Menninger, the US stopped sinning.

            Around this same time, the positive-thinking sermons of Norman Vincent Peale rose to popularity. Church-goers craved these “you-can-do-it” messages and groaned inwardly at the mention of sin (“here we go again”). Out of this arose Robert Schuler, and today we have Joel Osteen, who, in an interview with Larry King, was asked if Jews, Moslems and non-Christians were wrong. Osteen replied, “Well, I don’t know if I believe they’re wrong…But I just think that only God will judge a person’s heart.” If we are judged by our hearts, I think I’m in trouble.

What has “sin” become?

Sin may not have vanished exactly, but in the West we call it by different names. And by those different names come different solutions.

            In the world at large, sin is sometimes called “crime.” We address crime, not with theology, but with courts and a justice system and with fines and sentences. Sometimes sin is called a symptom. Bad behavior may be the product of an illness. And if one can be treated with medical science it would be absurd to punish the person.[iii]

            But if we remove sin from the human dilemma, what results? If no one is supposed to feel guilty, how could anyone be a sinner? Modern culture responds: people are victims. Victims are not responsible for what they do – they are casualties of what happens to them. Victimization covers over the idea of sin.[iv] Society does not see sin as the human problem, but illness, syndromes, and disorders which can be treated.

            What has sin become in the church? The fundamentalists of recent decades had their “sin lists” for which you could be condemned. Many of these major sins were never mentioned in Scripture. Sin was reduced to “sins.” Sins can be managed to some extent. When I wanted to go to the movies my mother would often ask, “Would Jesus go to the movies?” I can stop going to the movies; I can say no to alcohol. We feel better if we can manage our sins. But the Bible mentions actual sins that are not easily managed: gossip, envy, strife, coveting.

            The church has also helped to trivialize sin by reducing it to actions rather than a condition. If it were possible for me to stop doing ____ then it is logically possible that I can stop doing other sins. The truth is, sin is first of all a condition and only then, actions. So no matter what sins I conquer, I’m still sinful. No matter how well I do at managing my sin before God, one truth remains, “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks God” (Rom 3:10-11). “All our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment” (Is. 64:6).[v]

            Can we get away with renaming sin? “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8).

Why does “sin” still matter?

Sin matters if we can put aside for a moment the “sins” we all have on our lists. Put aside “sins” and think of the real problem with humanity, with you, with me – the sin condition.

            In Romans 5, Paul takes us back to the Garden, to Adam’s act of disobedience, and breaks down the problem for us. “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned” (12).

First, we see that sin entered the world through one man. We know that man as Adam (note that Eve is not mentioned). In the light of this context it is best to say, “When Adam sinned, we all sinned.” God appointed Adam as the federal head of the human race. His sin involved all of us and was imputed to us when we were born. We call this “original sin.” We were born sinners.

Second, death entered the world through sin. The Lord God warned the man and the woman “the day you eat of (the tree) you shall surely die” (Gen. 2:17). They did not die immediately after taking a bite of that Macintosh, but they did die spiritually that day. But death came eventually.

Third, in this way death came to all men, because all sinned. The question people sometimes ask is, do we sin because we imitate our parents, or do we sin because we are of Adam’s race? As I said before, we all sinned when Adam sinned and were included in his sinning because he was the federal head.

            But that’s not fair, is it? Where else do we pay for the sins of a representative head? Well, when the leader of a country declares war we go to war and some soldiers die; when the CEO changes to an OS that no one understands and the company falters…their decision is by virtue of our association with them our decision because they represent us.

            Is it fair that Adam’s lust for an apple got us all messed up in this sinful condition? If it’s not fair that Adam represented you when he sinned, neither is it fair that Christ represented you when he died on the cross. Christ became the federal head that represented us because he was innocent and untainted by the Adamic curse (he was born of a woman and the Holy Spirit). “For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ” (5:17).

            This is a bad news/good news issue concerning the matter of sin. The bad news is that we don’t have a disorder or an illness and sin cannot be managed by mere human effort. This is bad news, not just for unbelievers and backsliders, but for the most pious believers who believe they have any righteous deeds to present God.

            The good news is that God in Christ has conquered the sin condition on the cross and offered to us a free gift of life. Before you can begin to enter into a program to deal with your sexual sins, you have to come before the cross of Christ and admit your sinful human condition. There is such freedom and deliverance in this. Only then can you begin to conquer your sins.

Let’s talk about sin. Let us not be afraid to utter that horrible condition that afflicts us all. When we have brought sin into the light, only then can we nail our sinful flesh to the cross where all sin has been dealt with in finality.

            The church must take sin seriously. If we do not talk about sin and its universal effect on all of us, we run the risk of numbing all kinds of people to the transforming truth of Jesus Christ and His Word. If there is no such thing as sin, there is no need for a Savior!

            But you and I see the evidence of our own actions and the secret thoughts in our minds. We know the truth about ourselves. And we know the One who has set us free from the power of sin.

            So let’s talk about sin and about Jesus who forgives our sinful natures.

                                                AMEN

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[i] Karl Menninger, Whatever Happened to Sin?, 19.

[ii] Menninger, 14.

[iii] Menninger, 48.

[iv] John MacArthur, The Vanishing Conscience, 21.

[v] Michael S. Horton, “What Ever Happened to Sin?” Westminster Seminary article.