Theological Thoughts for Thursday - On Sin, part 2.

Part One

Christians don't need to fear our sin, nor do we need to be content with it. John Wesley said, "When our hearts are filled with the love of God there will be no more room for sin." We live in this tension, exploring this beautiful paradox:

When we wish to sin less we must love more.

We could tear off our arms and pluck out offending eyes ... or we could accept the grace and forgiveness of Christ. We could spend an eternity choosing to run from our sin or an eternity embracing Christ. In Psalm 119, David continually refers to “God’s perfect law.” But, in Matthew Jesus says that he came to complete the law. I had the hardest time reconciling these two thoughts until Dr. Fred Smith explained that God’s perfect law is Christ and the law that Jesus is completing is the Old Testament law. Two different laws. It makes perfect sense.

The Bible is often confused for a rule book; and while it does contain many rules we must be careful to avoid this association. The law (the rules found in the Old Testament) only serve to guide and to judge. Christ brings freedom. There’s a huge difference.

"But each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death." - James 1:14-15 Sin comes from somewhere inside us, from our fleshly desires. But those desires are not sin – they can produce sin. And a lifetime of living in those sins ends in death.

We pick and choose sins that offend us most and supply them with labels like “lifestyle sin.” Few designations seem more idiotic and less Christian than this label, and (I think that everyone can pick up which sin I’m writing about!) I can’t believe that we allow this non-biblical categorization to continue. All sins are lifestyle sins if we let them be. Every sin has the potential to consume us and redefine us - to take Christ’s place as our defining element.

Pastor David told our Sunday School class a story of when his son got his first cell phone. Andrew ran up a hefty bill from text messages. Andrew’s first thought, upon being punished was to take a sledge hammer to his phone. Pastor David used the moment to explain the great struggle that we will face for all of our lives. Will it control us or will we control it?