Category Archives: Sin

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

July 31, 2014

Posted under

I John, Salvation, Sanctification, Sin

A Declaration of Insanity

It is odd that a book that is usually the cornerstone of a doctrine of sinless perfection begins with an extended section on the nature of sin, which removes any doubt that we are sinners. I just finished preaching I John 1:5-2:2. Here are some thoughts from this great passage.

God’s character restricts who he fellowships with. God cannot have communion with darkness therefore we must be light (Ephesians 5:8) if we are to be in fellowship with God.

A man cannot be a Christian and live a life dominated by sin.

People can claim to be Christians and yet be lying. They are shown to be liars by their actions (walking in darkness) or by their theology (I am sinless). There is such a thing as a false profession.

When we have fellowship with God by walking in his ways we also have fellowship with other Christians. We cannot claim fellowship with God and live in bitterness and antagonism towards our fellow believers. Yet this does not mean that everyone who claims to be a Christian we must be in fellowship with. See point above.

A claim to be without sin is a declaration of insanity. Any man who believes this about himself is living in a fantasy land.

Few of us will say we are sinless. However, many of us function as if we are not sinners. When we are confronted with our sin our mouths drop open and we say, “Impossible!” So while theologically we may not claim to be sinless, practically we live as if we are.

The truth and God’s Word are equivalent (See also John 17:17). Notice this pattern
I John 1:6 We lie and do not practice the truth
I John 1:8 We deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us
I John 1:10 We make him a liar and his word is not in us

Truth is not just a person, Jesus Christ, nor simply a set of beliefs, though it is both of those. Truth is something we practice or do. True grasp of the truth produces actions formed by that truth.

Regular confession of sin is the antidote to an elevated view of our own holiness.

I John 1:9 is not an excuse to keep on sinning. Anyone who uses God’s mercy in forgiving sins as excuse to keep on sinning does not understand God’s mercy. (See also Psalm 130:4).

One goal of Christ’s death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and sending of His Spirit is so we might not sin. Jesus, John, Paul, and Peter all believe we can make substantial progress in holiness in this life. We can never be perfect. We just begin to obey in this life, but it is real Spirit fueled obedience that is conforming us to the image of Christ.

Jesus’ blood is the key to our forgiveness and cleansing. It is easy, much easier than we would like to admit, to forget the cross.

God is faithful to his promises to forgive our sins and make us clean. He has shown this faithfulness in the death of His Son.

Christ is our propitiation, a covering our for sins that turns God’s wrath away from us. Trying to remove God’s wrath from the equation is a compromise.

Jesus Christ is our ever present intercessor. This means we always need intercession. There is never a day when we don’t need Christ pleading before the Father on our behalf.

Our Intercessor is righteous. We can put complete faithfulness in our High Priest. He will never do us wrong.

I John 2:2 does not teach that Christ’s death on the cross was a covering for all the sins of all the men who ever lived. But it does teach that he covered our sins at the cross.

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

June 5, 2014

Posted under

Heidelberg Catechism, Jesus, Sin

Happiness Begins with Knowing That You are a Great Sinner

The 2nd question in the  Heidelberg Catechism is this:

Q: 2. How many things are necessary for you to know, that you, enjoying this comfort, may live and die happily?


What a great question! What do I need to know that I might live and die happily?  Isn’t this what everyone wants? What man, woman, or child does not want to live a happy life? Who doesn’t want to die happy? But what is the answer? How much do I need to know that my life might be a happy one? Do I need to know how to get rich? Do I need to know how to be a good person? Do I need to know how to get married? Do I need to know the joys of freedom from law? What do I need to know to live and die happily? Here is the answer given by the Heidelberg:
A: Three; the first, how great my sins and miseries are;  the second, how I may be delivered from all my sins and miseries;  the third, how I shall express my gratitude to God for such deliverance. 

Not what you expected? We don’t usually put the fact that our sins are great at the top of things that will help us live and die happily. In fact, sin is usually considered the beginning of all our problems. But here is where happiness begins. Your best life now begins with the fact that your sins are so great that if they were drops of water the oceans would be too small to hold them all. The life of joy and happiness begins with your heart being black and your hands being covered in blood. 

Why does happiness begin at such an odd place?

First, the fact that we are great sinners is reality. Human beings, even Christians, often think we are not really that bad. We justify our sins. We minimize our sins. We pretend we don’t sin. We blame our sins on other people. We cover up our sins. We do anything we can to make sure our sins don’t look great.  But reality is never defined by us. It is always defined by God’s Word. Psalm 130:3 states that our sins are great. Romans says the same thing. In fact, it is assumed from Genesis 3 on that our sins are so great that we cannot save ourselves. Understanding that we are great sinners helps us see the world (and ourselves) the way it is and not the way we want it to be.  
Second, only when we understand that our sins are great will we understand Jesus and His substitutionary work on the cross for us. When we minimize sin we minimize the cross and Jesus. When we minimize Jesus happiness, joy, comfort, delight, and peace are all lost.  Without sin there is no need for Christ. Without Christ all good things disappear. Until our sins are seen for what they are we cannot see Jesus rightly. And only by seeing Jesus rightly can we have pleasures forevermore. 
As odd as it sounds, happiness begins with seeing yourself as a great sinner.  
Are you a happy person? Do you enjoy life? Do you enjoy the comfort of the great salvation given to us in Jesus Christ? Would your spouse, your children, your co-workers, your neighbors describe you as a joyful person? If you died tomorrow would you “die happily?” If the answer is no, then perhaps you think too much of yourself. Perhaps you do not realize how great your sins are. Perhaps you spend a lot of time hiding your sins, pretending they are “mistakes” or “flaws.” Perhaps you are more concerned about how you look to others than about the reality of who you are. Step into the light. Your sins are great. That is a fact. But Jesus is greater. And only in a great Jesus can true happiness be found. 
Standard

Posted by

Posted on

March 20, 2014

Posted under

Pastoral, Sanctification, Sin

We Are Blind

I keep coming back to Paul Tripp’s excellent book Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands. It is one of the best books I have read on how to counsel people and really how to counsel myself. In one the appendices he lists ten ways in which people are blind when they come to him for counseling. Read this list and see if we don’t all think this way. They:

  1. Believe they have an accurate view of self. 
  2. See their primary problem as being sinned against. 
  3. See the difficult things in their lives as trials rather than consequences of their own choices and behavior. 
  4. See problems as a direct result of their neediness. 
  5. Think they are wise and have received much wise counsel. 
  6. Have analyzed their lives and believe they have insight into what is going on and why. 
  7. Think they have a clear sense of what is valuable and important. 
  8. See themselves as having a mature knowledge of Scripture and theology. 
  9. See themselves as holy; that is wanting and doing the right things. 
  10. Already see themselves as repentant. 
Tripp uses II Corinthians 10:3-6 as a paradigm for how to remove our blindness.  So what should that list look like if our eyes are opened? These my formulations, not Tripp’s, but they are derived from his book. Direct quotes from his book are in quotes. 
  1. I see only a distorted view of myself in a carnival mirror.  I am blind to who I truly am. I need God’s Word brought to me through preaching and the Christian community to help me see myself accurately. 
  2. My primary problem is that I sin against others, not that they sin against me. My life will change when I kill my own sin, not when dwell on how others are treating me. 
  3. I reap what I sow. I harvest what I plant. The difficult things in my life are a result of my own selfish and sinful choices. What I have gotten is fair. I am not being ripped off by God or anyone else. When God gives me hard things it is for my good. Again he is not being unfair. 
  4. I am not needy. God has given me all I need in Christ. When I make my needs important I put myself on the throne and make myself the sun around which all things move. I enter every situation with “silent demands” and I “respond with anger” when someone does not meet my needs. My needs have been met in Christ. Therefore I should enter every situation giving, not taking. 
  5. I am not wise and usually I listen to people who tell me what I want to hear. Therefore I pretend I am getting good counsel, but I am lying. I pretend I am “on a quest for wise counsel” when really I am on a “quest to support [my] point of view.”
  6. I do not understand my life nor do I have a good interpretation of what is going on and why. I spend time analyzing my life, but I only see what I want to see. I need someone to remind me that” real insight comes from God’s Word, not from my ability to analyze my life.” 
  7. I do not act on what is truly important and valuable. I give lip service to the things that matter to God, but I act on the things that matter most to me. I pretend that my world revolves around the values that God has set, but in reality it revolves around what I need, want, and value.  The things that truly matter are often left undone. 
  8. I do not have a mature understanding of Scripture or theology. My belief that I do stunts my growth, increases my pride, and causes me to refuse to listen to others.  If I am to grow I must begin with my own immaturity. I must realize that knowledge does not equal obedience. 
  9. I believe I am okay and righteous. I give lip service to my sinfulness, but in reality I think I get most things right and I think most of my desires are holy. The reality is that indwelling sin is in my heart and life. My desires can be twisted. My actions can be devious and filled with malice. I am usually blind to my own sinfulness. 
  10. My repentance is shallow and weak. It does not go deep enough because I do not see myself as I really am. I take my sins lightly and glide over them. Therefore I do not bear the fruit of repentance. I talk about confession and repentance and at times I even weep over my sins. But I do not change and therefore true repentance has not happened.  
One further thought on this. Tripp is not saying that we are perpetually stuck in this blindness. A lot of “grace” people talk as if we can never get past this. He is saying that until we see ourselves as we really are we cannot begin to grow. Growth begins with recognizing we are blind. But when we realize this, we really start to grow. 
Standard

Posted by

Posted on

November 12, 2013

Posted under

Sin

The Anguish of a Mass of Unrepented and Unexamined Sins

In the quote below C.S. Lewis is commenting on this phrase from General Confession in the Book of Common Prayer, “But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us miserable offenders.” At Christ Church, we say this confession, but replace “offenders” with “sinners.” The quote is one of the best I have ever read on how to confess our sins and the results of confession. Almost every line, especially of the last paragraph, is worth your careful time. 
“It is essential to use the plain, simple, old-fashioned words that you would use about anyone else.  I mean words like theft, or fornication, or hatred, instead of  ‘I did not mean to be dishonest’ or ‘I was only a boy then’ or ‘I lost my temper. I think that this steady facing of what one does know and bringing it before God, without excuses,  and seriously asking for Forgiveness and Grace, and resolving as far as in one lies to do better, is the only way in which we can ever begin to know the fatal thing which is always there, and preventing us from becoming perfectly just to our wife or husband, or being a better employer or employee.  If this process is gone through, I do not doubt that most of us will come to understand and to share these old words like ‘contrite,’miserable’ and intolerable.’
Does that sound very gloomy? Does Christianity encourage morbid introspection? The alternative is much more morbid. Those who do not think about their own sins make up for it by thinking incessantly about the sins of others.  It is healthier to think of one’s own. It is the reverse of morbid. It is not even, in the long run, very gloomy.  A serious attempt to repent and to really know one’s own sin is in the long run a lightening and relieving process. Of course, there is bound to be a first dismay and often terror and later great pain, yet that is much less in the long run than the anguish of a mass of unrepented and unexamined sins, lurking in the background of our minds. It is the difference between the pain of a tooth about which you should go to the dentist, and the simple straight-forward pain which you know is getting less and less every moment when you have had the tooth out.” 
Standard

Posted by

Posted on

August 13, 2013

Posted under

Pastoral, Sin

As Common as Bluegrass in Kentucky


No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. I Corinthians 10:13

Most of the time the truth is painful. We are going along our merry way and some Nathan (II Samuel 12) comes up and tells us how it really is. All of this can feel a bit like getting punched in the gut. I Corinthians 10:13 contains several of these Nathan moments. We learn here that we can resist temptation. We learn here that God is faithful. We learn that God provides a way out for us every single time. One could leave this verse feeling like they have no excuse for sinning. And that would be correct.

But I want to focus on the very first clause of this verse. In this clause, the Holy Spirit through Paul says something amazing. All of our temptations are common. None of our temptations are special or unique. Millions of men, women, and children experience the exact same temptations you and I do. Abraham felt them. David did. Paul did. The peasant in the middle ages did. Your mom and dad did. Your brothers and sisters at church do.  Paul has just walked the church at Corinth through the wilderness wanderings (verse 1-10). He has told them how God was not pleased with Israel even though he delivered them. Why? They lusted (vs. 6). They worshiped idols (vs. 7). They committed sexual immorality (vs. 8). They tempted Christ (vs. 9). They complained (vs. 10). Then Paul says that all of this was written as an example to us. Then he warns the church to not get proud (vs. 12).  He closes with verse 13 where he reminds them that they are not special. The situation at Corinth was not a once in a lifetime experience. What they were going through was as common as the sand on the seashore.

When we sin (or want to sin) we often excuse our sin by claiming that we are different or that our situation is unique. Sin feeds us the lie that we are special and therefore we can or must go ahead and sin. Of course, we would never say this out loud. But in our minds we directly contradict what Paul says here. We think, “My temptation is not common to men. I am going through something no one else has ever had to go through. Therefore my sin is excused.” There are at least two ways we do this.

First, we claim that our situation is special . If you had my parents you wouldn’t honor them. If you had the day I had you would yell at the kids too. If your wife was the ice block mine is you would look at porn also. If you had my husband you wouldn’t respect him either. All these “ifs” are code word for “My situation is special and therefore my sin is excused.” Or we talk about our upbringing and blame our parents. My parents did not train me right. Blame them for my sin. We can also blame the actual tempting situation itself. If that woman in a bikini had never shown up on my computer I would never have looked at porn. If that man in the red Corvette had not cut me off in traffic then I would not have gotten angry. If my boss gave me more work I would not waste my time. If the people at my church were kinder I could really love them. Over and over again we put ourselves in a special category the “I have an excuse for my sin category.” But your situation is not unique. It is common. No temptation you face is special to you.  Millions of men throughout history have experienced the exact same thing as you. Stop excusing your sin because you think your situation is unique.

Second, we claim that our personality gives us an excuse for sin. We are special because we have a particular personality trait. We excuse our sin by saying, “I am just wired this way.” I am withdrawn (i.e. I am not kind). I am moody (i.e. I go into fits of rage). I am outgoing (i.e. I spend my day at work talking instead of working). I am generous (i.e. I blow my money). I am frugal (i.e. I refuse to share). I am a visual learner (i.e. I can’t sit still and listen to a sermon). My personality clashes with hers (i.e. I am mean to her).  We blame our personality for our sins. But again no temptation is unique. Your personality is not brand new in the history of mankind. Stop excusing your sin because of your personality.

Let me clarify a few things. People do have leanings toward particular sins. Our personalities draw us toward vices. And some people do have trying circumstances. All of this is true. But none of this is an excuse for sinning.

So one of Paul’s points here to the Corinthians and to us is that we are not special. Our situation is not special. Our personalities are not special. Our temptations are not special. Who we are and what we face each day is the common lot of all men.

Once we realize that our temptations are as common as bluegrass in Kentucky then we can start dealing with our sin and stop excusing it.  We can look to Christ for forgiveness. We can look to Christ for victory over our sin. We can look for the way of escape our faithful Father always provides us. We will not fight and overcome sin if we keep excusing it because we believe our situation is unique.