Yes, we really do, and we’ve sucked for a really, really long time. I mean, just think about it. The second generation of humans recorded in the Bible included Cain, who got so bent out of shape because his brother Abel bested him at a game of Sacrificing Things to God, that he took Abel out into a pasture and beat him over the head with a club. I mean, really? Only a few years earlier, their parents, Adam and Eve, had been living happily in the Garden of Eden, a little piece of perfect paradise where nobody ever did anything wrong and everybody happily ran around naked. And then, after a little run-in with a snake (played in this scene by the prince of darkness), they’re kicked out and shamed, having brought sin into a sinless world. A few years later, one of their sons gets into the record book by being the first person to be guilty of murder. I’m sad to say that we really haven’t come very far since then.
We live in a messed up world. You probably already knew that, though. If you didn’t, just start watching the news. I started typing up this chapter eleven days after a sixty-four year man old used an arsenal of heavy weaponry to rain gunfire down on concert goers on the Las Vegas strip, killing nearly sixty people and wounding another five hundred. Meanwhile, all along that strip are advertisements for escorts and sex shows and pretty much anything somebody might want for a night of revelry. The ground is littered with cards showing pictures of naked women offering their services for the right price. The casinos are full of people gambling away their hard earned money for the hope of something more, many of them emptying their bank accounts and maxing out their credit cards for one more shot and hitting it rich.
Okay, I’ll admit it. I’ve been to Vegas. Twice.
The second time was for the wedding of a relative who just happened to live in Vegas. It was only for a couple days, so it barely counts. Right? I mainly remember that trip for two specific things: the beautiful Chevy Camaro we rented, which was exceptionally fun to drive around, and the buffet seafood I ate that made me sick. Anyway, that’s enough details about that unfortunate night in the bathroom.
The first trip to Vegas, however, was for a five day vacation with my wife, and it was quite a bit of fun. I quickly learned not to take anything that people on the street were trying to hand to me, as they were mostly the aforementioned naked cards. We mainly walked up and down the strip and walked in and out of casinos. We each took one dollar and quickly lost it on a slot machine, just to say we had “gambled in Vegas.” We didn’t have a drink of alcohol. We just walked around together and enjoyed the pretty buildings and stuffed our faces at buffets.
Don’t worry, this book hasn’t somehow slipped into travel planning advice. While we were walking around having a good and innocent time, Sin City was alive all around us. We live in a world of lust and immediate satisfaction, where anything and everything is permissible in the name of entertainment and the almighty dollar, even at the expense of our souls and the wellbeing of others. This is actually not meant as a targeted slight against Vegas, as it is far from the only example of such areas in the world. It just happens to be one of the brighter, more neon examples. All around us, within our own cities, there are establishments that degrade women and exploit anybody who looks like they might have money to burn or something else to offer, such as the children and adults being trafficked as sex slaves. Most of us don’t even realize the evil that is all around us, which is one of the reasons it has been allowed to survive and grow. Whether or not we know these things exist, each of us who stand by and do nothing while there is such evil in the world are enablers for that evil, choosing our own personal comfort and schedules over the wellbeing of those less fortunate. The Bible calls those who do nothing goats (Matthew 25: 31 - 46), rebuking them for never lending a helping hand to those in need, before sending them off to eternal punishment.
We all suck. It’s true. But it gets worse. For, you see, simply being sucky is not the end of it, but since we all suck, then…
[to be continued...]
Monday, April 2, 2018
Thursday, March 15, 2018
Sin is a Lie
We are all sinful beings. It is a truth of our existence, a truth that will continue to follow us until the end of our earthly lives. We fall to the allure of sin every day, and likely more than we even realize. Sins come and go without us noticing, such as a quick impure thought, a condescending comment, or a little white lie. Sin is crouching at the door, ready to pounce on us. Sometimes, it doesn't even need to pounce. We're so accustomed to it, that we willingly let it happen. Other times, it waits for a moment of weakness. Most of the time, especially when we reflect on our lives, we can see many of the sins we’ve committed. We know they’re sins, and we know we shouldn’t do them. And yet, we continue to sin, day after day. Even those who have given their lives to Jesus and have tried to walk with him for years still struggle with sin.
Even after being justified by Christ, having our sins forgiven and our eternities secured, we’re still sinners. We’re still broken people living broken lives in a broken world. You’d think we’d be able to see how we are, see our own sinful ways, and simply decide that we’re going to be righteous. We’re going to live sinless lives, not doing or saying anything bad. And then an hour goes by, and we realize that we’ve already messed up.
Why? Why can’t we just live perfectly? We have free will. Why can’t we decide to follow Jesus in everything, every day, every single second, doing nothing even remotely unholy?
It’s because we're all gullible.
You see, sin is a lie. It’s a lie that we all fall for, multiple times a day. Sin stands there, whispering in our ears, egging us on, sounding like a talking snake in a garden.
Just one more drink. You’ll be fine.
Nobody knows if you look at pornography. You’re smart enough to cover your own tracks. It doesn’t hurt anybody anyway.
Your spouse is out of town, and won’t know what you do when they’re gone. Nobody will get hurt.
You deserve this.
It doesn’t matter what you say to this person. They’re foolish and stupid and not worth your time anyway.
Do what you want. You’re forgiven either way.
Sin is a voice in our heads, feeding us lies, and we believe it. We might not say we do, but that’s what happens. We give into sin’s push because we think we know better than God. We think our actions won’t hurt anybody. We make decisions based on what we can get away with as opposed to what is right.
The unfortunate thing is that there’s nothing we can do to make this stop happening. We’re going to sin, every day, for the rest of our earthly lives. We repent of our sins and choose to follow God, and yet that voice is still there, and we still trip and fall. That doesn’t mean we should give up and just give in, though. It means that we must draw closer to God, lifting our lives to him in prayer every day. The scriptures say that not one of us is righteous, not even one. We are all unworthy of the love of God, and there is nothing we can do to make ourselves worthy. However, the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross makes all that irrelevant. It no longer matters that we’re not worthy, because God has forgiven each and every one of our sins, even the ones we haven’t committed yet. The big ones, the small ones, the ones we don’t even know we do. God has cleansed us of our sinfulness and made us right with God, and that justification doesn’t expire. Ever.
Thank you Jesus for all you have done for us, none of which we deserve. Please be present in our lives. Be our shield and our stronghold from the allure of sin in our lives. Help us follow you and not the world. You are everything we need in this life and the next. Amen.
Even after being justified by Christ, having our sins forgiven and our eternities secured, we’re still sinners. We’re still broken people living broken lives in a broken world. You’d think we’d be able to see how we are, see our own sinful ways, and simply decide that we’re going to be righteous. We’re going to live sinless lives, not doing or saying anything bad. And then an hour goes by, and we realize that we’ve already messed up.
Why? Why can’t we just live perfectly? We have free will. Why can’t we decide to follow Jesus in everything, every day, every single second, doing nothing even remotely unholy?
It’s because we're all gullible.
You see, sin is a lie. It’s a lie that we all fall for, multiple times a day. Sin stands there, whispering in our ears, egging us on, sounding like a talking snake in a garden.
Just one more drink. You’ll be fine.
Nobody knows if you look at pornography. You’re smart enough to cover your own tracks. It doesn’t hurt anybody anyway.
Your spouse is out of town, and won’t know what you do when they’re gone. Nobody will get hurt.
You deserve this.
It doesn’t matter what you say to this person. They’re foolish and stupid and not worth your time anyway.
Do what you want. You’re forgiven either way.
Sin is a voice in our heads, feeding us lies, and we believe it. We might not say we do, but that’s what happens. We give into sin’s push because we think we know better than God. We think our actions won’t hurt anybody. We make decisions based on what we can get away with as opposed to what is right.
The unfortunate thing is that there’s nothing we can do to make this stop happening. We’re going to sin, every day, for the rest of our earthly lives. We repent of our sins and choose to follow God, and yet that voice is still there, and we still trip and fall. That doesn’t mean we should give up and just give in, though. It means that we must draw closer to God, lifting our lives to him in prayer every day. The scriptures say that not one of us is righteous, not even one. We are all unworthy of the love of God, and there is nothing we can do to make ourselves worthy. However, the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross makes all that irrelevant. It no longer matters that we’re not worthy, because God has forgiven each and every one of our sins, even the ones we haven’t committed yet. The big ones, the small ones, the ones we don’t even know we do. God has cleansed us of our sinfulness and made us right with God, and that justification doesn’t expire. Ever.
Thank you Jesus for all you have done for us, none of which we deserve. Please be present in our lives. Be our shield and our stronghold from the allure of sin in our lives. Help us follow you and not the world. You are everything we need in this life and the next. Amen.
Monday, March 5, 2018
Temptation
Temptation is something that each and every one of us deals with each and every day. It's not the fact that we're being tempted that should worry us, for that is inevitable. It's how we respond to that temptation that should get our attention. There are two main things we should do if we are struggling with temptation.
The first is to get closer to God. Every person, even those who have a close walk with God, are bombarded with temptation, and sometimes they fail. It is part of the human condition: we, despite being saved and justified by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, are still flesh and bone beings that are limited and weak. We are still affected by our sinful nature. However, those who pull closer to God through prayer, reading his word, and trying to walk with him in obedience will be less likely to trip and fall at every step. One of the main goals in each of our lives should be to get to know Jesus better, day by day. As you draw nearer to God, it allows God and his spirit to have a greater influence on every aspect of your life. Reading God's word daily will imprint his truths onto your heart, allowing you to pull from memories pieces of scriptures that will help you power through moments of temptation. God is our shield and our stronghold and our strength, and the closer you are to him, the more protected you are from the evils of temptation.
The second thing is more practical. If you are struggling with temptation in a particular area, it is wise to attempt to remove or limit that temptation in your life, or at least make it less directly appealing. If you struggle with lust and pornography, put blockers on your computer or phone and get an accountability partner. If you struggle with overeating, don't go to buffets or other places where you tend to overeat. If you drink too much, stay away from bars and liquor stores and other places that may tempt you. Whatever your temptation is, remove its influence from your life. It is better to lose an eye than to be cast into damnation with two eyes, as the scriptures say. Being aware of one's one limitations - and we all have them - is one of the key steps you can take to limit sin's grasp on your life. Admit that you are weak and accept God's strength as the foundation of your life. Those who do not admit their weaknesses are more likely to fall by them. Do not feel shame at the weaknesses you have, for we all have them. Accept them, draw close to God, and do what you need to do to ensure that those weaknesses will not gain a foothold on your life.
Whether or not most of us or the world understands this, the single most important thing in life is not our job description or our bank account. It is our relationship with Jesus. It is drawing closer to him while living in a broken world. It is what we do with the gifts he has given us in this life and following his will. If we have no self-control and allow our lives to be overrun by temptation, we are hampering our own relationship with God. We will never be perfect in these bodies, but walking a life not dictated by temptation and drawing closer to God are important steps to fulfilling God's will for our lives.
The first is to get closer to God. Every person, even those who have a close walk with God, are bombarded with temptation, and sometimes they fail. It is part of the human condition: we, despite being saved and justified by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, are still flesh and bone beings that are limited and weak. We are still affected by our sinful nature. However, those who pull closer to God through prayer, reading his word, and trying to walk with him in obedience will be less likely to trip and fall at every step. One of the main goals in each of our lives should be to get to know Jesus better, day by day. As you draw nearer to God, it allows God and his spirit to have a greater influence on every aspect of your life. Reading God's word daily will imprint his truths onto your heart, allowing you to pull from memories pieces of scriptures that will help you power through moments of temptation. God is our shield and our stronghold and our strength, and the closer you are to him, the more protected you are from the evils of temptation.
The second thing is more practical. If you are struggling with temptation in a particular area, it is wise to attempt to remove or limit that temptation in your life, or at least make it less directly appealing. If you struggle with lust and pornography, put blockers on your computer or phone and get an accountability partner. If you struggle with overeating, don't go to buffets or other places where you tend to overeat. If you drink too much, stay away from bars and liquor stores and other places that may tempt you. Whatever your temptation is, remove its influence from your life. It is better to lose an eye than to be cast into damnation with two eyes, as the scriptures say. Being aware of one's one limitations - and we all have them - is one of the key steps you can take to limit sin's grasp on your life. Admit that you are weak and accept God's strength as the foundation of your life. Those who do not admit their weaknesses are more likely to fall by them. Do not feel shame at the weaknesses you have, for we all have them. Accept them, draw close to God, and do what you need to do to ensure that those weaknesses will not gain a foothold on your life.
Whether or not most of us or the world understands this, the single most important thing in life is not our job description or our bank account. It is our relationship with Jesus. It is drawing closer to him while living in a broken world. It is what we do with the gifts he has given us in this life and following his will. If we have no self-control and allow our lives to be overrun by temptation, we are hampering our own relationship with God. We will never be perfect in these bodies, but walking a life not dictated by temptation and drawing closer to God are important steps to fulfilling God's will for our lives.
Monday, February 26, 2018
Back to Basics
Some people have grand stories of the day they believed. They saw God move mountains in their life and bring them through deep, dramatic things to lead them to the place where they finally put their trust in Christ as their savior. Maybe they had been running from him or ignoring him for years, and then one day, everything changed. Such tales show the lengths that God will go to find every lost soul. I love those stories. But it isn't mine.
I was born as the fourth child of a Baptist minister, and I was at church every week. My parents raised me to pray, to read the Bible, and to trust God with my life. I don't have a period in my life that I remember ever not believing. It is simply the way it has always been. When I was seven, I was baptized by my father, publicly declaring my choice to follow Jesus. And my life has been perfect ever since.
Except, not at all. Yes, I consider myself to be very blessed, for many reasons. I was raised in an imperfect but loving home, where I was given a solid foundation on which to build my life. I made friends in junior high school that are still my friends today, and I love them and my family more than they know, and more than I could express. Nearly twelve years ago, I married a woman that I love more than the world, who has put up with me despite myself. While our employment over the past decade has been shaky, with several layoffs, we have always been able to get back on our feet and with jobs that allow us a comfortable life, one where we are able to give back to those in need. There is much in my life to be thankful for, but we all have our struggles. Life is full of ups and downs, lefts and rights, and stretches of time standing still and falling down.
This blog will be about life: the good and the bad, the moments of joy and the moments of pain. It will be about issues we go through as individuals and as groups. It will be about the one who is there who can be trusted with all of it, no matter what we're going through, no matter where we are in our walk.
Thank you Jesus, for you are my rock, my salvation, and my stronghold.
I was born as the fourth child of a Baptist minister, and I was at church every week. My parents raised me to pray, to read the Bible, and to trust God with my life. I don't have a period in my life that I remember ever not believing. It is simply the way it has always been. When I was seven, I was baptized by my father, publicly declaring my choice to follow Jesus. And my life has been perfect ever since.
Except, not at all. Yes, I consider myself to be very blessed, for many reasons. I was raised in an imperfect but loving home, where I was given a solid foundation on which to build my life. I made friends in junior high school that are still my friends today, and I love them and my family more than they know, and more than I could express. Nearly twelve years ago, I married a woman that I love more than the world, who has put up with me despite myself. While our employment over the past decade has been shaky, with several layoffs, we have always been able to get back on our feet and with jobs that allow us a comfortable life, one where we are able to give back to those in need. There is much in my life to be thankful for, but we all have our struggles. Life is full of ups and downs, lefts and rights, and stretches of time standing still and falling down.
This blog will be about life: the good and the bad, the moments of joy and the moments of pain. It will be about issues we go through as individuals and as groups. It will be about the one who is there who can be trusted with all of it, no matter what we're going through, no matter where we are in our walk.
Thank you Jesus, for you are my rock, my salvation, and my stronghold.
Monday, February 19, 2018
People Suck and Other Biblical Truths
I have been ramping up my writing over the last year or so (see my other blog for info on my fiction writing), I am hoping also to increase my non-fiction writing, which is mainly done through this blog. I am going to be doing somewhat of a reboot on Don't Feed the Hypocrite, which includes (hopefully) posting on at least a weekly basis. I will be trying to write quite a bit of new content, (I'm currently compiling a list of potential ideas), but I will also occasionally be reusing older content, either by simply reposting it or rehashing the ideas or stories. I am hoping that, having new posts over some period of time, I will be able to increase the blog's readership and get it listed in some blog directories. Some of the new content will come from what I had thought about as a book idea in the past, tentatively titled People Suck and Other Biblical Truths. Writings from that are meant to be a humorous and different take on certain things from the Bible. Several of the chapters for that were already written and will become blog posts instead, while I have a full list of potential blog posts from my notes.
Also, while the usual URL for this blog will continue to function, I've also registered and set up www.dontfeedthehypocrite.com to use going forward.
There you have it. As always, if you have any ideas or questions you'd like me to address on this blog, feel free to let me know!
Also, while the usual URL for this blog will continue to function, I've also registered and set up www.dontfeedthehypocrite.com to use going forward.
There you have it. As always, if you have any ideas or questions you'd like me to address on this blog, feel free to let me know!
Wednesday, August 2, 2017
The Sin List
When we, as Christ followers, see people out in the world, how do we see them? Do we see them as sinners? Do we see them for their mistakes and their moral shortcomings? I believe we often do see them in these ways, but is that how we should be seeing them? How does God view them?
When I look out at the world, I try - and often fail - to see people the way God sees them, because God doesn't see them as sinners. God sees them as his creations that He loves. He seems them as people who have been separated from God by their sins, yes, but the cost has been paid for those sins to be forgiven. God is pursuing each of them to bring them back to Him. The people out in the world are not defined by the particular sins that they have committed; they are defined by the fact that they have not yet found their way back to God. They are still lost.
By the way, so were we once. We are no different from the people of the world who have not yet accepted the forgiveness that is available to them. Perhaps they do not know it is available, or they have rejected it. Either way, they are people who are in need of it.
I admit that I feel judgmental sometimes when I see people of the world living in certain ways. I see them cohabitating before marriage or being unfaithful to their spouse, or otherwise using sex in ways God did not intend it. I see them getting divorced or aborting unwanted babies. I see them living their lives in whatever other ways I believe to be sinful. However, judgment is God's, not mine. I should not be doing such things. I should not be thinking of people in such ways.
Here is the truth: we're all sinners. If I look at the world, the evidence of sin is overwhelming, but it's not just coming from unbelievers. Christians are doing the same things. Even though we are saved by Jesus, we are still sinners, and we still do sinful things. Christians are not altogether less likely to get divorced or cohabitate or be unfaithful. This is not the way it should be, but it is the way it is, because we're still sinners living in a broken world. We all make mistakes and have great moral shortcomings, and yet we often view ourselves as being better than those in the world who are living in certain ways. We're no better than anyone else. It's not even about being better. It's about being saved.
If we look at people of the world and simply see a sinner, and not someone in need of a savior, then we are missing the opportunities that God has placed before us to be His church, to spread the good news of Christ Jesus to the world. The point of this is that it doesn't really matter what sins a specific person has committed. It doesn't matter what they're doing. It doesn't matter how they're living. When they're lost in this world without a savior, the only thing that truly matters is that they need Jesus. They need to know that God loves them and always has loved them, no matter what. They need to know that He sent his only son to die on a cross so they may have eternal life. It is what we are called to do. Salvation is what matters for every living soul on the planet, not the list of specific sins they are committing. When our lives are over, it's not that list of sins that will determine where they spend eternity, because we all have that list of sins. We all have a list of sins that has separated us from God. Where we spend eternity is based on whether or not we accepted the sacrifice of Jesus, the one son of God, to sanctify us and set us right with God. When we accept the forgiveness of Jesus, our salvation is set and our eternity is secure. It is then that we try to live a more Godly life. We should be holding ourselves to the standards of righteousness, because we should want to live more like Jesus. But the world isn't there yet. We don't need to be worrying about how the world is living. We just need to be worrying about where they're going.
When I look out at the world, I try - and often fail - to see people the way God sees them, because God doesn't see them as sinners. God sees them as his creations that He loves. He seems them as people who have been separated from God by their sins, yes, but the cost has been paid for those sins to be forgiven. God is pursuing each of them to bring them back to Him. The people out in the world are not defined by the particular sins that they have committed; they are defined by the fact that they have not yet found their way back to God. They are still lost.
By the way, so were we once. We are no different from the people of the world who have not yet accepted the forgiveness that is available to them. Perhaps they do not know it is available, or they have rejected it. Either way, they are people who are in need of it.
I admit that I feel judgmental sometimes when I see people of the world living in certain ways. I see them cohabitating before marriage or being unfaithful to their spouse, or otherwise using sex in ways God did not intend it. I see them getting divorced or aborting unwanted babies. I see them living their lives in whatever other ways I believe to be sinful. However, judgment is God's, not mine. I should not be doing such things. I should not be thinking of people in such ways.
Here is the truth: we're all sinners. If I look at the world, the evidence of sin is overwhelming, but it's not just coming from unbelievers. Christians are doing the same things. Even though we are saved by Jesus, we are still sinners, and we still do sinful things. Christians are not altogether less likely to get divorced or cohabitate or be unfaithful. This is not the way it should be, but it is the way it is, because we're still sinners living in a broken world. We all make mistakes and have great moral shortcomings, and yet we often view ourselves as being better than those in the world who are living in certain ways. We're no better than anyone else. It's not even about being better. It's about being saved.
If we look at people of the world and simply see a sinner, and not someone in need of a savior, then we are missing the opportunities that God has placed before us to be His church, to spread the good news of Christ Jesus to the world. The point of this is that it doesn't really matter what sins a specific person has committed. It doesn't matter what they're doing. It doesn't matter how they're living. When they're lost in this world without a savior, the only thing that truly matters is that they need Jesus. They need to know that God loves them and always has loved them, no matter what. They need to know that He sent his only son to die on a cross so they may have eternal life. It is what we are called to do. Salvation is what matters for every living soul on the planet, not the list of specific sins they are committing. When our lives are over, it's not that list of sins that will determine where they spend eternity, because we all have that list of sins. We all have a list of sins that has separated us from God. Where we spend eternity is based on whether or not we accepted the sacrifice of Jesus, the one son of God, to sanctify us and set us right with God. When we accept the forgiveness of Jesus, our salvation is set and our eternity is secure. It is then that we try to live a more Godly life. We should be holding ourselves to the standards of righteousness, because we should want to live more like Jesus. But the world isn't there yet. We don't need to be worrying about how the world is living. We just need to be worrying about where they're going.
Friday, May 12, 2017
The Irrelevance of Sin
Sin is a strange thing.
On the one hand, it is a terrible truth of the human existence. We all sin. Each and every day, each and every one of us does things that go against God. Sometimes we know the sin that we're committing, and sometimes we don't. Either way, each of us sins against the God who created us. That sin created a divide in our lives - a divide so large that it separated God from the entire human race. We were once on a level field, side by side. When Adam and Eve walked the Garden of Eden, they were sinless. They were naked and not ashamed. Sin then entered the world, and everything changed. That level field was split, as though a great earthquake had shaken everything that we know and everything that we are. A canyon now separated the creator of the universe and his prized creations: a deep, treacherous canyon we could not cross or circumvent. Suddenly we were alone with no hope, and what was the cause of this? It was sin, that terrible force of evil, that brought the divide between us.
Sin is indeed a terrible force, one that we must be aware of and can never ignore. What would God do in the face of the sin that inflicted his creations? Would he leave us to be alone for all time? Would he surrender victory to sin and forfeit his creations away? No; in a way that only God can, he went ahead and made sin completely irrelevant.
There's an asterisk by that statement, of course.
Around two thousand years ago, a man walked this Earth and lived his life in a way that no other man ever did or ever will: he was sinless. Not a single blemish can be found on his record. There was no hidden darkness. There were no covered scandals waiting to be found. There is simply the truth that Jesus was a completely innocent man. In today's world, we have good people. We have people who we see as righteous and living moral lives, but every human is a sinner, even those we see as good. Every human except Jesus, who was the only man to ever complete the feat of a sinless life.
He also happened to be the son of God.
So how did God make sin irrelevant? He send a part of himself down to Earth in physical form to live among us, to teach us, and then to die for us. It was us, the very people who he came to save, who nailed him to a cross and hung him to die in humiliating fashion. That single event summed up what Jesus came to do: the murder of Jesus was, in fact, a sin. It was a sin that was being committed at the exact same moments in which it was being forgiven.
Every sin creates a debt between us and God, and it is a debt that must be paid. In Biblical times, the Jewish people would sacrifice animals to be forgiven for their sins. The person sinned, and the animal was given up to pay the debt. There were detailed instructions in the scriptures on how they were to make such sacrifices, and they had to make those sacrifices over, and over, and over again. Because they kept sinning, and debts kept on being created. And all debts must be paid.
On that day, around two thousand years ago, when the son of God hung on a cross, dying, the blood that was being spilled became the payment for so much more than one sin by one man. The death of Jesus paid the debts created by all men, for all the sins they had ever committed, and all the sins they ever will commit. Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice - one that covered all sins for all time. The canyon was filled back in, and sin no longer separated us from God. Sin no longer had the power over us that it once did. Sin had become irrelevant.
* And now we come back to that asterisk.
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." - John 3: 16
That's it. Jesus came and died for all of us, but we must accept his sacrifice in order to fully receive the forgiveness that he brings us. We must acknowledge that God is God, and that Jesus is the son of God sent to die for our sins. And then, in the eyes of forever and the eternal destination of our souls, sin becomes irrelevant. We should be striving to live godly lives, of course. We should be striving to live by God's moral standard and not our sinful nature. However, our lives should become more about living for God and spreading the good news of Jesus to a lost world, than about living a perfect life. Because we won't, and truthfully, for Christ followers, our lives shouldn't be about that anymore. While sins we commit may still have consequences on this Earth, our sins have been forgiven and there is no more debt to be paid. We should not live in guilt or shame of our past or present sins, for God has remembered them no more. Just as Jesus then rose from the dead and defeated sin and death once and for all, we should wave sin goodbye as it is no longer the defining truth of our relationship with God. We should live as lights to the world, seeking to make everybody else's sin as irrelevant as ours.
On the one hand, it is a terrible truth of the human existence. We all sin. Each and every day, each and every one of us does things that go against God. Sometimes we know the sin that we're committing, and sometimes we don't. Either way, each of us sins against the God who created us. That sin created a divide in our lives - a divide so large that it separated God from the entire human race. We were once on a level field, side by side. When Adam and Eve walked the Garden of Eden, they were sinless. They were naked and not ashamed. Sin then entered the world, and everything changed. That level field was split, as though a great earthquake had shaken everything that we know and everything that we are. A canyon now separated the creator of the universe and his prized creations: a deep, treacherous canyon we could not cross or circumvent. Suddenly we were alone with no hope, and what was the cause of this? It was sin, that terrible force of evil, that brought the divide between us.
Sin is indeed a terrible force, one that we must be aware of and can never ignore. What would God do in the face of the sin that inflicted his creations? Would he leave us to be alone for all time? Would he surrender victory to sin and forfeit his creations away? No; in a way that only God can, he went ahead and made sin completely irrelevant.
There's an asterisk by that statement, of course.
Around two thousand years ago, a man walked this Earth and lived his life in a way that no other man ever did or ever will: he was sinless. Not a single blemish can be found on his record. There was no hidden darkness. There were no covered scandals waiting to be found. There is simply the truth that Jesus was a completely innocent man. In today's world, we have good people. We have people who we see as righteous and living moral lives, but every human is a sinner, even those we see as good. Every human except Jesus, who was the only man to ever complete the feat of a sinless life.
He also happened to be the son of God.
So how did God make sin irrelevant? He send a part of himself down to Earth in physical form to live among us, to teach us, and then to die for us. It was us, the very people who he came to save, who nailed him to a cross and hung him to die in humiliating fashion. That single event summed up what Jesus came to do: the murder of Jesus was, in fact, a sin. It was a sin that was being committed at the exact same moments in which it was being forgiven.
Every sin creates a debt between us and God, and it is a debt that must be paid. In Biblical times, the Jewish people would sacrifice animals to be forgiven for their sins. The person sinned, and the animal was given up to pay the debt. There were detailed instructions in the scriptures on how they were to make such sacrifices, and they had to make those sacrifices over, and over, and over again. Because they kept sinning, and debts kept on being created. And all debts must be paid.
On that day, around two thousand years ago, when the son of God hung on a cross, dying, the blood that was being spilled became the payment for so much more than one sin by one man. The death of Jesus paid the debts created by all men, for all the sins they had ever committed, and all the sins they ever will commit. Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice - one that covered all sins for all time. The canyon was filled back in, and sin no longer separated us from God. Sin no longer had the power over us that it once did. Sin had become irrelevant.
* And now we come back to that asterisk.
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." - John 3: 16
That's it. Jesus came and died for all of us, but we must accept his sacrifice in order to fully receive the forgiveness that he brings us. We must acknowledge that God is God, and that Jesus is the son of God sent to die for our sins. And then, in the eyes of forever and the eternal destination of our souls, sin becomes irrelevant. We should be striving to live godly lives, of course. We should be striving to live by God's moral standard and not our sinful nature. However, our lives should become more about living for God and spreading the good news of Jesus to a lost world, than about living a perfect life. Because we won't, and truthfully, for Christ followers, our lives shouldn't be about that anymore. While sins we commit may still have consequences on this Earth, our sins have been forgiven and there is no more debt to be paid. We should not live in guilt or shame of our past or present sins, for God has remembered them no more. Just as Jesus then rose from the dead and defeated sin and death once and for all, we should wave sin goodbye as it is no longer the defining truth of our relationship with God. We should live as lights to the world, seeking to make everybody else's sin as irrelevant as ours.
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