My
last post got a number of pushbacks, which was not surprising. One common deduction
I got from comments of those who had a problem with it was that it seemed
to encourage sin. This response was not unexpected and that’s why I stated in
that post that I’ll write this following post on “sin”. Before I do that,
though, I do think it is necessary to provide some clarity and clear out the
confusion from the previous post. I can only hope I am successful this time.
So I thought
about an easy way to explain this…
Okay,
so let’s assume Salvation was a beautiful car – say, an Escalade. (This is just an illustration – a very
simple one – which canNOT explain the concept of salvation). That cleared,
we have our salvation – a beautiful car, all fueled and completely a gift. We each
have our own “Escaladed” salvation car and we are to ride in it till we see Him
in glory. I have my car and I realize that I can ride in it in either of two
ways. One, I can choose to ride it by myself, find my way by myself, and figure
it out by myself. Or, two, I can let the One who gave it to me take the driver’s
seat, navigate the path He formed, and lead me Home safely, while I enjoy the
ride in the car He gave me. My previous post only stated that I chose the
latter. I have come to trust Jesus to take me Home safely. It has nothing to do
with my good driving skills or the lack of it. I have realized in these few
years of mine that my skills have done nothing but fail me. Each time I usurp
the steering wheels of my Escalade from Him and tried to do things myself, I
ended up in potholes and ditches and on the wrong path in sin. But every time I
let Him do the driving, I never go wrong.
Now,
does this spell complacency and carelessness in running the Christian race? How
could it? If the Master takes on the steering wheels while I consistently yield
to Him (Romans 6:13), knowing that I am nothing but an expert in screwing up my
own life and the beautiful gift He’s given me, how can that mean I am not
careful enough?
It’s
like buying a complex machine – let’s say, an equipment you’d like to set up in
a huge factory, and since you know you are no skilled engineer, you decide to
call on the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) to come over to your factory
to install or set up the equipment for you. He gladly comes over, and in a
couple of hours, your equipment is ready to start producing stuff. Across the
street is this other guy who buys the same machine and is also no skilled
engineer. But rather than beckon on the OEM, He decides to carefully,
patiently, “wisely”, watchfully, etc-ly try to install/set up the equipment by
himself. I bet ya, he could take one month trying to do that and still mess up
the entire machine. If I am asked to choose who the careful person is out of
the two, it’s a no-brainer, I’ll choose the one who called the OEM. My previous
post only showed that I chose to beckon on the OEM of my life and salvation ‘cos I cannot fix stuff by myself; and He’s perfectly fine with that (John 6:39; John 10: 28-29; Jude 24; Hebrews 7:25; 1 Thessalonians
5:23-24; Philippians 1:6; Hebrews 12:2a; 2nd Timothy 1:12b). That in no way promotes complacency; rather it shows that I've chosen to let the One who began the work finish it. He is the Author & Finisher of my faith. And this is exactly what Paul was addressing in Galatians 3 where He told the Galatia Christians that it was foolish of them to attempt to complete what God had started.
Now,
does this permit sin in anyway or form? That’s insane. Does this permit
complacency with your Christian life? God forbid.
Romans 6:2 – “... How shall we,
that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?”
Romans 6:6 – “Knowing this, that
our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed,
that henceforth we should no longer serve sin.
Romans 6:7 – “For he that is dead
is freed from sin”
Romans 6:12 – “Let not sin
therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts
thereof.”
Romans 6:14 – “For sin shall not
have dominion over you: FOR YE ARE NOT UNDER THE LAW BUT UNDER GRACE.”
Romans 6:23 – “For the wages of sin
is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
1 Thessalonians 4:7 – “For God hath not
called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.”
2 Timothy 2:19 – “… And, Let everyone
that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.”
1 John 3:8 – “He that committeth sin
is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the
Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.”
There
is nothing about grace (God’s gift in Christ) that supports or condones sin.
NOTHING! In fact, if you’re a person who understands your place in Christ –
based on what Christ did for you, you’ll know that sin doesn't flow right with your new nature and you'll feel like crap if you sinned. A believer in
Christ who understands grace avoids sin not primarily because he wants to make
it to heaven (although, he will) or
because people say it is bad or because it might cost him a position in church;
rather, he doesn’t dabble with sin because he loves the God who has called him
out of darkness into His marvelous light, for God loved Him first; because he
knows that He is freed from sin and cannot keep on living in what he is dead
to; because he knows that he is not under the law but under grace. But does such
a believer sin? Yes, sometimes he does – when he chooses to usurp the steering
wheels from the grip of His Master. When he does, do things go wrong? Of
course! Let’s see a few dangers of sin in the life of a believer. We’ll look at
only three or four for this blog post. There are several more.
1.
Sin steals from the believer.
Sin tampers with what we have freely in Christ. For example, peace and joy. Imagine
that our Escalade wasn’t a salvation car anymore, but is a simple beautiful Honda
SUV you recently purchased for a good sum of money and you parked nicely in
your garage. But then you happen to have a set of very energetic twin boys who
are eight years old and who like to experiment with everything. And so, they
scratch the body of your car today with metals; tomorrow, they throw a stone
and break windshield. Then they got a hold of the keys one evening when you
weren’t watching and decided to take turns at testing their car-moving skills. Your
Honda in a week has become nothing but a wreck. First thing we note in this
illustration is that your Honda is still YOUR Honda. You didn’t lose the Honda;
but it has been seriously tampered with that you cannot use it for the intended
purpose anymore.
This is kind of the same way
sin messes with us. A believer who has joy, peace, love, righteousness, etc. in
the Holy Ghost realizes that because of sin, he is unable to express them the
way God wants Him to.
2.
Sin gives Satan access
to mess with your life. John 10:10 – “The thief cometh not but for to steal to
kill and to destroy…” Many times, Satan has access to the believer’s life, not
mainly because he sins; but because the believer dwells on the attachments that
comes with sin and refuse to move on. Attachments such as shame, guilt,
depression, self-unforgiveness, fear, etc. Satan capitalizes on these and cause
more pain to the believer. Any believer who falls into sin should remember that
God is faithful and has forgiven you. So pick yourself up and move on. Do not
give place to the devil (Ephesians 4:27). 1
John 1:1b – “And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus
Christ the righteous.”
3.
Sin in the life of a
believer steals from the Body of Christ. (Yes, and I mean “one” believer). This
may seem too extreme, but I realized recently through my own life that it is
very true. As believers, God has given us a mission to the world. We are to
preach the gospel (Acts 1:8), teach the word (2 Timothy 4:2), pray for the sick
(Mark 16:17-18), pray for the unsaved (1 Timothy 2:1-6), pray for saints and ministers/spiritual
leaders (Ephesians 6:18-19), pray that the gospel will gain entrance in
difficult terrains (Colossians 4:3), yield to the Spirit so that we can be used
of Him for the edifying of the Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12), etc.
Now imagine if as a believer
who is meant to be doing all this, you’re dealing with one sin and rather than
making prayers for the entrance of the word in places like North Korea, you are
crying that you’ve “done it again”.
Sometimes, God places a burden
in our hearts to pray for someone somewhere we know nothing about; perhaps
someone in danger, and as we pray in the Holy Ghost, such person is being delivered
from trouble wherever he is. Imagine how many people your prayers could have
helped that it didn’t because when you knelt or laid down or walked to pray, your
mind strayed off to the sin you just committed “again”, and of course, you’re
beating yourself up rather than praying.
You’re a couple and you know
the Bible says when two agrees concerning a thing, it shall be established. But
you two don’t agree, you argue and fight. Imagine the number of younger couples
who would have learned from you that didn’t, because you couldn’t even get your
own relationship together.
You see that your one or
recurrent sin actually steals from Christ’s Body. And there’s no way that is
God’s plan.
4.
In addition to the above
three, sin also messes with the believer’s relationship with God. Sin doesn’t
destroy the believer’s position – he is still God’s child and God’s arms are
ever open to receive him; but sin messes with his fellowship with the Father. He’s
too afraid to come to Him because he knows he’s messed up again.
All he needs do though is, like
the prodigal son in Luke 15, shake off the dirt and pigs’ food from off himself
and run into Dad’s open arms for restored fellowship.
How
careful or complacent you are as a believer on this Christian race is dependent upon the one you select to steer the
wheels of your salvation. I choose my Master. Who do you choose?
