Tags
I am still on my never-ending mission to clarify “sin,” because it seems to me as if we are living in a world bound and determined to shrink and edit sin until it hardly exists in our minds at all.
We’re scared of it, aren’t we? We think it makes us “bad.” Well, perhaps it does, but I don’t perceive sin that way at all, I see it as the pavement on the path to redemption. The bigger the sin the bigger the grace. I look past the word “sin” and just see grace, mercy, healing, redemption, Jesus Christ. The good news!
Jesus says in Luke 5:32, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” So we are simply people living in a broken world and called to repentance so we can heal and grow and be transformed into someone who more closely begins to resemble the righteous of Christ.
Sin is a bit like those wild rose thorns that embed themselves in your finger and hurt and fester but you can’t see the darn thing. When you finally spot it it’s like, hallelujah! Call the Great Physician, He’ll have it out in no time!
I admit, my enthusiasm for sin may sound a bit weird, but it is attached to the idea of setting the captives free, relieving us of our burdens, making our hearts light and free with the abundance of His grace. Healing, peace, transformation.
Sin has always been a problem in the world I suppose, but it bothers me more today because I see so much evidence of its symptoms spilling out all over the place, pride, guilt, shame, fear, more pride, regret, condemnation, more shame, afflictions, ailments. In the Western world, we have got to be the most afflicted and ailing people on the planet. Sin makes people fearful, insecure, and sometimes outright hostile. People really need grace, to be more forgiven, not by one another, but by God. We can reflect grace, but we as people don’t traffic in redemption, salvation, we can’t heal another person’s soul, not really. Jesus Christ can and He does.
In Christ there is no condemnation and if you read the bible, He actually goes to the cross, despising the shame on our behalf. So condemnation and shame are not ours to carry anymore. One of the symptoms of being trapped in shame and condemnation is guilt, defensiveness, attempts to rationalize or dismiss sin, endless excuses, and a powerful need to attack other people and declare our own virtue.
I’ve been there! Most likely I’ll be there again at some point, so it is not as if this is a big secret, as if sin is not a common theme that impacts absolutely everyone. Sin after you have been justified, redeemed, claimed, saved is simply a blip on the radar, a bit of our old nature breaking through.
2 Corinthians 12:19 says, “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”
We want the power of Christ to rest upon us, because that is genuine strength, that is what gives us the courage to go boldly before the throne of grace, that is what enables us to walk in the full power and authority of Jesus Christ.
Psalms 139:23 says, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts..” Job 31:6 says, “Let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know mine integrity.” 1 Thessalonians 2:4 says, “But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts.”
So, all through the bible, refine me Lord, search me, know me, weigh me, judge me, test me, try my heart, mold me like the Great Potter into someone who will be pleasing to you. So sin, rather than something to flee or repress or deny, is something to be handed over to our Father so He can purify us, hand us back beauty for ashes. The cure for sin is not our own resistance, but surrender to Christ.
People need to be more forgiven even when things happen that are not really our fault. Perhaps we need massive grace the most of all! I once knew a guy who was wracked by guilt, he had killed a teen ager wearing dark clothing and laying in the middle of the road. Everyone told him it wasn’t his fault, to not blame himself, but those words fell on deaf ears and he began to drink more and more. One day another guy, a veteran said, “that’s right you killed someone, you’re a rotten person, we all are.” I never got to hear the end of the conversation, but those words resonated, they stuck with me and I was blessed by them. Something clicked that day because I too was wracked with guilt and shame that didn’t really belong to me and I learned that the fastest way out of pain is right down the middle of it. Confess it, repent of it, and let God sort it all out for you.
Sometimes our own desire to pour grace over someone else, to tell them it’s not their fault, deprives them of the healing they need to seek at the foot of the cross. A rather bitter, caustic old veteran in a bar taught me that and it changed everything.
As to “living in sin,” I see it more as just a symptom of walking in a broken world, passing through an endless thicket of wild roses with invisible thorns. One can go tip toeing through the thorns as delicately as possible, but only One ever made it through unscathed.
craftysurf said:
I agree- although I have to add that there’s a lot of people ringing their hands about the “increase of sinfulness” in the world today, and it’s not true.
Nope, Man has ALWAYS been just as sinful as he ever was, just in new ways, and much more public than we ever wanted to know about. Add that with the fact that there are MORE humans on the earth than ever, and it may seem bleak.
We’re not at the end yet, but when we are, everyone in the know will be asking,
“What were we bitching about?”
😂😂😂
LikeLiked by 2 people
insanitybytes22 said:
Ha! Well said. 🙂
LikeLike
patrickhawthorne01 said:
I think it was Oswald Chamber’s who said, “Only a fool would pray the prayer, “Search my heart O’ God…” We seem to be on a similar thought path this morning.
LikeLiked by 1 person
T. F. Thompson said:
It may be true that we are not sinning any more than in the past, but now people have a host of excuses built-in that eliminates the entire concept of sin. Yet, a rose by any other name… good post. thank you.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Debbie L said:
Amen! Well done. Another favorite IB post! It reminds me the day I returned to the Lord as the Prodigal daughter!!! Grace, God’s AMAZING Grace!!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
themoneyfast said:
In my mind, confessing is the first step in moving toward something else. To move toward anything, one will be moving away from something else. In my experience, confessing my sin was absolutely the key to letting go of the sin and reaching toward God. Without confession, a wavering was still about.
I’d like to say I wish I didn’t have the experience…but because I have it, I know something that I didn’t know before…so I guess in the end, I am thankful for both my sin and God. Do not get me wrong – I do not want my sin back! And I guess I feel if I am thankful for my sins/mistakes and thankful for how God has changed my desires, retrospectively, I will stand a better chance to not repeat the sin.
LikeLiked by 1 person
christinewjc said:
Beautifully and wonderfully written! Belief in God, repentance and forgiveness of our sins through the cross of Christ, delivers us from the dark powers that rule the world and bring us to joy in God’s Kingdom of light. There is no greater love than salvation from sin and death through what our Lord did for us!
LikeLiked by 1 person
MJThompson said:
‘Infirmities’ is a substitute term Paul uses to convey the universal application of sin in the broadest, general sense. When things are beyond human ability to resolve, the stage is set for a miracle. But it is usually ONLY through such circumstances that people accept the miraculous. If logic and reason can in any way contrive a solution, then the miraculous can be voided.
Even in the plan of salvation, it was through sacrificial suffering – the Bible declares, Christ became sin for us! A miracle, no human effort could ever remedy. The greater the miracle, the greater the humanistic resistance. The lost prefer sin to God.
“By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing PLEASURES of SIN, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in[a] Egypt; for he looked to the reward” -Heb. 11:24-26.
LikeLiked by 1 person
wingandprayer said:
You are so right about how the concept of sin can become so easily blurred as to become unrecognizable. After all, who wants to be unsympathetic to someone who is struggling with some sort of guilt? It is especially difficult when someone you care about gives you the silent treatment and you’re not sure how to respond. I look on line for answers how to relate to difficult people, but in the end I realize only God can give me the wisdom I need.
LikeLiked by 1 person