3 Day Lent - The Disappearance of Sin

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ Jesus

We are now observing the 3 Day Lent or also known as The Nineveh Lent. The Nineveh lent symbolifies the repentance of the people of the city of Nineveh and they coming back to God. As we come to the close of the first day of the lent, I would like to bring to your notice the mind boggling scenario of the disappearance of sin or the notion of it from our lives.

Author Peter Barnes, in an article titled "What! Me? A Sinner?" wrote,

In the twentieth century England, C. S. Lewis noted that, "The barrier I have met is the almost total absence from the minds of my audience of any sense of sin." And in 2001, New Testament scholar D. A. Carson commented that the most frustrating aspect of doing evangelism in universities is the fact that the students generally have no idea of sin. "They know how to sin well enough, but they have no idea of what constitutes sin."

In many of our cultures, we can see that the entire concept of sin has virtually disappeared and in most of our churches the notion of sin has been softened, to accommodate modern sensibilities.  Strong biblical words for sin have been excised from our vocabulary. People no longer commit adultery, instead they have an affair. Corporate executives do not steal, they commit fraud.

In many of the churches and conservative societies, the idea of sin has not disappeared, but in many instances, it has been deflected to those outside our circles who commit flagrant sins such as abortion, homosexuality, and murder, or the notorious white-collar crimes of high-level corporate executives. It's easy for us to condemn those obvious sins while virtually ignoring our own sins of gossip, pride, envy, bitterness, and lust, or even the lack of those gracious qualities that St. Paul calls the fruit of the Spirit (see Galatians 5:22-23).

Many a times, the attitude towards sin can be seen reflected in our prayers. Many of us appear to be concerned about the sins of the society than we are concerned of our own sins - sins committed by the saints, people sanctified by God, for God. Our gossip or unkind words about a brother or sister in Christ Jesus roll off our tongues without any awareness of wrong doing. We also harbor hurts over wrongs long past without any effort to forgive as God has forgiven us. We look down our religious noses at "sinners" in the society without any sense of a humble "there but for grace of God go I" spirit.

We are ready to cry out in anger and are incensed when something wrong is done in the society. But why do we not mourn over our selfishness, our critical spirit, our impatience, and our anger? We find it so easy to let off our sins from the hook by saying that our sins not as bad as the flagrant ones of the society. But God has not given us the authority to establish values for different sins. Instead, He says through the writing of James, "Whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for (is guilty of) all of it" (James 2:10). That Scripture is difficult for us to understand because we think in terms of individual laws and their respective penalties. But God's law is seamless. The Bible speaks not of God's laws, as if many of them, but of God's law as a single whole. When a person commits murder, he breaks God's law. When a Christian lets corrupting speech (that is, speech which tends to tear down another person) come out of his mouth (see, Ephesians 4:29), he breaks God's law.

We all understand that some sins are more serious than others. I would rather be guilty of a lustful look than of adultery. Yet Jesus said that with that lustful look, I have actually committed adultery in my heart. I would rather be angry at someone than to murder that person. Yet Jesus said that whoever murders and whoever is angry with his brother are both liable to judgement (see Matthew 5:21-22). The truth is, all sin is serious because all sin is breaking of God's law.

The apostle John wrote, "Sin is lawlessness" (1 John 3:4). All sin, even sin that seems minor in our eyes, is lawlessness. It is not just breaking of a single command; it is a complete disregard for the law of God, a deliberate rejection of His moral will in favor of fulfilling one's own desires. The Bible states simply states that sin - all sin without distinction - is lawlessness.

In the Greek culture, sin originally meant to "miss the mark", that is, to miss the center of the target. Therefore, sin was considered a miscalculation or failure to achieve. There is some truth in that even today. A person, for example, when genuinely repentant over some sinful behavior and is earnestly seeking to overcome it but fails frequently. He wants to hit the bulls-eye every time, but he can't seem to pull it off. However, many a times it would seem that our sinful actions do not stem from a failure to achieve but from an inner urge to fulfill our own desires. As Apostle James wrote, "Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire: (James 1:14). We gossip or lust because of the sinful pleasure we get out of it. At that time, the lure of that momentary pleasure is stronger than our desire to please God.

Sin is sin. Even those sins that we tolerate in our lives are serious n God's eyes. Our religious pride, our critical attitudes, our unkind speech about others, our impatience and anger, even our anxiety (see Philippians 4:6); all of these are serious in the sight of God.

The apostle Paul, in stressing the need to seek justification by faith in Christ alone, quoted from the Old Testament, "Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them" (Galatians 3:10). That is the standard of obedience that is expected of us. St. Paul goes on to assure us that Christ has "redeemed us (that is, all who trust in Him as their redeemer) from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us" (Galatians 3:13). But the fact still remains that the seemingly minor sins we tolerate in our lives do indeed deserve the curse of God.

Yes, the whole idea of sin may have disappeared from our cultures. It may have softened in many of our churches so as not to make the audiences uncomfortable. Also, sad to say this, the concept of sin among many Christians have been redefined to cover only the obviously gross sins of our society. The result is that for many morally upright believers, the awareness of personal sin has effectively disappeared from their consciences. But it has not disappeared from the sight of God. Rather, all sin, both the respectable sins which are often tolerated and the flagrant sins of the society, are a disregard for the law of God and are reprehensible in His sight. Both deserve the curse of God.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ Jesus, during this period of the 3 day lent season, let us remember and recollect all of the sins that we have committed against God, for no sin is worthy to be placed before God. Let us become clear in our consciences so that we can stand upright in the presence of God. 

May the Lord Almighty bless you and keep you in all your ways.

Your Brother in Christ Jesus

Jobin George

P.S. The above portion has been taken from the book "Respectable Sins" by Jerry Bridges

Gospel Reading for Feb 2nd - St. Luke 2:22:40

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ Jesus

Today we have crossed 1 month into the New Year and today we are celebrating the dedication of baby Jesus to the Temple of God in Jerusalem. Today's Gospel reading is from the book of Luke 2:22-40. I would like to bring forth a few points that has been going around in my head on understanding this portion of the Gospel.

In the Old Testamental laws that were provided by God Almighty, in the book of Leviticus (Chapter 12) whenever a woman bears child, she would be unclean to enter the house of God and on the eighth day, the male child would undergo circumcision. And after forty days the mother and the child are declared to clean to come and enter the temple of God. In the Orthodox tradition, the mother and the child are specially blessed on the fortieth day. As per the old laws, the family had to offer an unblemished lamb to be offered to God. If the mother is not able to bring an unblemished lamb, then she brings a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons. 

In the current scenario, the baby is brought and dedicated to God Almighty during the baptism of the infant. The baptism holds two meanings:

1. The baby is dedicated to God, who is the giver of all life. We all are in that sense dedicated to God on our baptism and we are to meant to be His instruments in this world. 

2. Through baptism, we are bought into the Christian fellowship, so that our faith in Jesus Christ might develop such that we are dead to the pleasures of this world and are made new creation in the image of God. 

Through baptism, we are brought into the fold of believers who will help us to realize our shortfalls and help us to develop our faith in Jesus such that we lose our sinful selves and we are called "to be saints" (1 Corinthians 1:2). First of all, who is a saint? We normally describe a person as a saint because of his unusually Godly character. We have given the title of saints to people who had a Godly character in them and who were close to God. But I found it very astounding that St. Paul addresses the Corinthian church as people who are set apart to be saints. Now I will tell you the reason why.

The Corinthian church, if you look at them from today's point of view, they had many many faults in them. They were really messed up, both theologically and morally. They were proud and fractious; they tolerated gross immorality, sued each other in court, flaunted their freedom in Christ, abused the observance of the Lord's Supper, misunderstood the purpose of spiritual gifts, and were confused about the future resurrection of believers. Yet when writing to them, Paul addresses them as "saints" (2 Corinthian 1:1) or as those "called to be saints" (1 Corinthians 1:2). I clearly did not understand why Paul of all people would address the people of Corinth as saints in such a situation. But as I read his letters to the other churches, I found that this form of address was a favorite of Paul's address and reference to the believers (for example, Romans 1:7; 16:15; 1 Corinthians 1:2; 2 Corinthians 1:1; Ephesians 1:1; Philippians 1:1; 4:21-22 and Colossians 1:2). 

The answer to this lies in the meaning of the word as it is used in the Bible. The Greek word for saint is hagios, and it refers not to one's character but to a state of being. Its literal meaning is "one who is separated unto God." In this sense, every believer - even the most ordinary, and the most immature - is a saint. The actual wording of St. Paul's address in 1 Corinthians is to "those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints" (1:2). Hence a saint is simply someone who is separated for God. Every true believer, through his/her baptism has been separated or set apart by God for God. Christ Himself through His death on the cross and gave Himself for us, redeemed us from all lawlessness to purify for Himself a people for His own possession who are zealous for good works (comparing Titus 2:14 and 1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

Thus through our dedication to God through baptism, every new believer has been set apart by God, separated unto God to be transformed into the likeness of His Son, Jesus Christ. In this sense, every believer is a saint - a person separated from his old sinful way of life and set apart by God to increasingly glorify God as his life is transformed.

In the biblical sense of the term, sainthood is not a status of achievement and character, but a sense of being - an entirely new condition of life brought about by the Spirit of God. We don't become saints by our actions. We are made saints by the immediate supernatural action of the Holy Spirit alone who works this change deep within our inner being so that we do, in fact, become new creations in Christ (see 2 Corinthians 5:17). This change of state is described prophetically in Ezekiel 36:26: "I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh."

It would have been nice to end the story here, because above paragraphs might suggest a saint is someone who no longer sins. But that is not true. If we are rather honest to ourselves, we know that nearly every waking hour we sin in thought, word and deed. Even our best deeds are stained with impure motives and imperfect performance. Why is there a disconnect between what god has seemingly promised and what we experience in our daily lives? The answer to this can be found in Galatians 5:17, which says, "The desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep from doing the things you want to do." This guerrilla warfare between the flesh and the Spirit described in Galatians 5:17 is fought daily in the hearts of every Christian. So Paul begins his first letter to the Corinthian church by addressing them as "those sanctified (set apart by God) in Christ Jesus, called to be saints (set-apart-ones)". Then he spends the remainder of his letter vigorously exhorting them to act  like saints. That is, be in your behavior what you are in your state of being. So although the word saint basically describes our new state of being as people separated unto God, it carries with it the idea of responsibility to live as saints in our daily lives.

So in the future, remind yourself when we gossip or become impatient, or get angry, that we are to conduct ourselves as saints because we are a people who are set apart by God for God, to His wish in this land that He has provided us to till and toil.

May the grace of our Almighty Father, and love of His Son Jesus Christ and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all during this week and in all the days to come. 

My humble request is to keep this sinful servant in your prayers.

Your views and comments are always welcome and you may please mail them to jobin.george 2012@gmail.com

Your brother in Christ Jesus

Jobin George