I was listening to a radio program by Chuck Swindoll and he was talking about how Jesus' trial was possibly the worst case in the history of jurisprudence. Jesus had 11 charges placed on him but was found guilty for none. His charge had been changed from blasphemy (which was not punishable by a Roman court) to treason. And so I wondered, how it could it possibly be that such an event could happen to a man who was innocent on all accounts despite having done nothing deserving of death or even some punishment. Yet he received many ruthless beatings, the cat of nine tails, being spit on by those who once welcomed him with "Hosanna", and a horrible crucifixion. By the time the Roman soldiers were done with him, the bible says that he barely looked like a man.
And when I thought a little more carefully, i realized that it was sin. Christ was not up against the devil. He was up against sin. Christ stood in the face of sin and sin could not bear the presence of one so holy and one who spoke truth like He did. And so against all logic and without any real reason for death sin took our savior beat him senseless, left no skin on his body unbroken and buried those nails into his hands. Our world has become so sin saturated that sin seems so normal and rational and its only when we look in to what Jesus and the Apostles said about us that we start to realize that there is something really wrong with the sin in our lives. Many of us cling to our sin in some secret compartment of our lives (myself included) and cling onto it tightly because sin feels better or seems better. And so there is a need to see sin for what it is and how it rationalizes the illogical. Or else it continues to creep into our lives slowly killing off every existence of truth or love in our life till we are an empty shell.
Know your enemy. When we start to realize the nature of sin with all our hearts then we move one step closer to enjoying Christ and being able to savor him for what he truly is.
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3 comments:
Question 1: What exactly is sin? Many people agree that sin is something "morally wrong" but how do you interpret what the Bible says about sin?
Question 2: Is doubting considered a sin? James tells us "he who doubts is like a wave of the sea" and Jude 1:22 says "Be merciful to those who doubt." But when we doubt, are we sinning?
I guess sin is really choosing to remain separated from God. When we make choices in life we choose to either make them in context to a relationship with God or on our own. When Adam and Eve sinned against God, they essentially said I don't need God.
One of the things that I feel that is really important for Christians to grasp is the idea of striking a balance in the Christian life. I was listening to a radio message and this guy, John Piper, mentions one of the many paradoxes in the bible and says that perhaps these paradoxes are there to help us not stray into either extremes. Example faith and logic. You don't want to have so much faith that you ignore logic and jump of a building without a chute. Nor do you want to abandon all faith and lean on logic alone. You strike a fine balance in between. In the same way, doubt to a certain extent is healthy. But if it becomes overwhelming to the point of us losing sight of the fact that God is faithful and good and will take care of us, then i think it becomes sin.
Another interesting question to ask in light of your first question, is sin something that is the same for all or differs from people to people?
To Kirsten's first question, I think the basis of sin is essentially rebellion. That is, choosing to willfully do something that you know is wrong, and is against God and not caring. My pastor was talking about sin the other week in church, and he said that there's a distinction between slipping up every now and then (because no one's perfect and we all make mistakes), and consciously choosing to sin just because you feel like it.
Granted, this probably applies more to Christians since we're supposed to be able to recognize right from wrong with the help of the Holy Spirit and stuff like that, but I guess that's how I define sin - rebelling against God.
And I agree with there needing to be a balance between things. I guess when I look at those two scriptures, I just take it that yes, we should not doubt God, but at the same time, I don't think we should be following everything blindly either. We need to be asking questions sometimes, because if you don't question some things, then how do you know what you truly believe?
Lastly, as for the question of is there a difference in sins... I don't know. I mean, just like God is no respector of persons, I therefore don't think He'd be a respector of sins, so to speak. In other words, sin is sin, and I think God would be more concerned about the person's heart rather than the act itself. And really, when it comes down to it, I think a lot of the times, we really just need to focus on what's going on within, what's the source of things, rather than paying attention to any one action.
After all, words and actions and really just a reflection of what's going on in our hearts.
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