Sin is self-eradication

Sin is self-eradication

I was reading a book and I came across this argument that sin was in fact a form of self-eradication. I found this to be very interesting, so interesting that I had to share it.

(the following argument comes from “Things that cannot be shaken” by Oliphint and Mays, though I add to it a little)

The argument starts with the fact that humanity was created in God’s image. Genesis 1:27 records that God made humanity in His own image. “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created him.” All of humanity carries this image. What this image is has been debated for many many years. Is it our minds? That we can rationally think and reason? Is it our relational ability? Is it the fact that we share certain attributes with God? Is it our dominion or ruler-ship over the world? Whatever you might think the image of God is, the fact remains that all humans share in it.

And because we carry this image of God within us, we can’t get rid of God or be removed from God without ceasing to be. That is to say that because this image of God is what makes humanity humanity if we were to remove it or if we were to remove God than we would cease to be. We would no longer be human. So imagine a M&M. The chocolate covered by a thin candy shell is what makes a M&M a M&M. If you were to remove the chocolate, leaving the appearance of an M&M, people after eating it would declare that it is no longer a M&M. It is just a shell. In the same way of a human was to remove the image of God from themselves, what they got might look human, but on closer examination would not be human at all. It would just be a shell, the defining characteristic of humanity would be gone.

If a person lives according to their sin, or if they continue to live in their sin we are trying to remove God from our lives. We are like Adam and Eve whom once sinning and going against God hid from God. When we sin, we are actively trying to hide from God and remove him from our lives. Just think about sin. Sin is going against God, thinking we know better than God, thinking our way is better than God’s way. When we do this, we are stating that we want nothing to do with God, we want to get God out of our lives. And we think that by doing this we will somehow be free and in control.

This is self-deception of the highest sort. For in trying to remove God from our lives (sin) thinking that we will now be in control or somehow our own master, we are in fact attempting to eradicate ourselves. Our true selves are based and grounded in God and his image, which is in us. These true selves are under attack when we continue to rebel and sin.

1 Corinthians 13:11

With Valentine’s Day coming up, the college group took a look at love in the Bible. So of course we read 1 Corinthians 13. This is the famous love chapter of the New Testament. It is read at weddings and such events, and the irony is that it is not talking about romantic love but love within the Christian community and the love God has for us. But within this chapter there was one verse that stuck out. It was verse 11.

1 Corinthians 13:11

“When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.”

I love this verse because I always saw in it a kind of get off your butts and grow up speech. I can see Paul saying this to the people, showing them and urging them to really start down that road of maturity.

Now the verse itself is in a passage about how the Christian’s understanding and expression is imperfect and how their understanding and expression of spiritual things will be perfect in heaven. We see in a mirror a reflection now, but in heaven we will see as if face-to-face. So verse 11 is really an analogy that helps drive this argument. But within this I truly think there is an element of growing and maturing.

The Christian life is one of progress and growing and maturing. When people express with longing how they wish to be a “better Christian”, what they are saying is that they want to mature. They want to mature in the Christian life by putting their faith into action and by living out what they believe. Isn’t that what we all want, to grow in our understanding and in our faith and have that grow us in every aspect of our lives? That is what we should want. For it is the maturing Christian that can say along with Augustine “Love God and do what you want.” For when we are growing toward God, our love for Him will direct our life and make what we want to do what he wants us to do.

Part of growing up is being able to look back and see how you were different. It is like opening a photo album your family keeps and you can look back at how different you looked and how you have matured and changed. Sometimes you run across pictures that make you cringe and wish you could get rid of. I have lots of picture like that. Pictures that are from my “awkward phase” that I am stilling trying to grow out of.

Our level of maturity and development affects all that we are. So when we are less mature our thinking and reasoning and talking will be less mature, or at the very least based on our less mature natures. We can look back upon how we used to think and be amazed about how we have progressed. We can look back and almost be embarrassed that we use to reason and think like that. But the important thing is that we can look back and can see how we have progressed and matured. Maybe this doesn’t mean being totally different, just reasoning deeper or thinking clearer.

As we mature and progress down this life we have our reasoning and our thinking should be maturing and progressing as well. Isn’t this what the Christian life is? Moving forward with what we believe, living it out, having our theology meets real life and growing and maturing from that experience. Isn’t it understanding and perceiving God more and more everyday? Isn’t it learning how to put our faith into action? The Christian should always be seeking to grow and mature. The Christian should always be seeking to progress closer toward God. And so when I read 1 Corinthians 13:11, I see Paul saying grow up.

It is time for us to grow up!

Hebrews 7:24-25

Hebrews 7:24-25 “…he holds his priesthood permanently because he continues forever. Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.”

In my guy bible study we have been going through Hebrews and yesterday this just kind of stuck out. It stuck out because in the midst of the Christian life we talk about salvation and the cross and we talk about how Christ died for us and we talk about how we now live in Christ and on and on. All of this needs to be talked about and needs to be stressed and emphasized to the utmost. But there is one topic that at least in my experience takes a back seat. And that is Christ as our high priest.

Now I understand why it takes a back seat. It is one of the harder and more foreign concepts to us Gentiles. The priest hold is not that big of a deal for us. But for the listeners of Hebrews, it was a big deal. For the people still living in the midst of Judaism with a temple and priesthood, this is central to their lives and their faith. The priesthood offered sacrifices for the people’s sins and it was through this that people could be considered clean and in good standing with God. And so the writer of Hebrews seeks to make it clear that while they lived under that priesthood, Jesus is a better high priest that only offered one sacrifice, himself, and that was all that is needed.

What really struck me as I was reading and thinking on these two verses and on the larger passage as a whole, was that Christ is seating on the right hand of God interceding for us. Just think about this for a second. That no matter what, Jesus sits by God and speaks on our behalf. Some people can get caught up in this great guilt spiral about their sins and start to think that they can not really be a Christian anymore or maybe aren’t one of those elusive “good Christians” everyone talks about. This can weigh on people and start to really crush their spirit. But if they truly grasped the fact that Christ is interceding for us I think this would not happen. Now it is important that we experience remorse and are repentant for our sins. It is good and healthy to realize the seriousness of continuing in sin and also the gravity of our sin. But for those who trust in God and for those who call on Jesus as Lord and Savior, this shouldn’t paralyze us from striving to live out our faith even though all to often we fail and fall.

Christ is always making intercession for us! So when we do that bonehead act or when we get out of line or when we are just plain stupid and sinful, we need not worry about the state of our relationship with God. All we have to do is confess and Christ intercedes for us. I get this great picture of God and Christ sitting beside each other in Heaven. They look down on us Christians and watch as we make those stupid decisions and mess up. The Holy God can’t be in a relationship with anyone like us, but then Christ leans over and says, “Its cool. I already paid for that one. Its on me.” Christ intercedes for us to the most Holy God. And it is one because of this that we can have a relationship with Him.

Praise be to God! For we look upon the great mystery of salvation and tremble. We tremble because the Almighty God, the Maker of the Universe, Creator of this world and everything in it, loves us so much that he planed and executed this plan of salvation and redemption through the whole course of human history, all to draw us to Him.

(side note: I love in verse 25 where it says he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him. I love it because in one short sentence it lays out this pattern or people drawing near to God and being saved, but they are drawing near to God through Jesus. It is all through Jesus.)

More or Less

he Christian life. Much can be said and written about the Christian life. We have thousands of books dedicated to “Christian Living.” These books all seek to help us live out our faith within this world. And it is easy to understand why there are so many of these books. Living out your faith can be tricky and frankly hard. And there are so many believers out there that have had no one walk along side them and tell them how it all works.
Many times when the Christian, whether new or mature, seeks to revitalize their Christian walk, they start to add stuff. They start to make commitments to do more spiritual disciplines, to read their bibles more, to pray more, to fell more connected, to be in an accountability group and so on. It is always more. We start to heap on ourselves these things, these disciplines, these tasks. These are not bad, in fact I think all Christians should be engaged more in many of these. We can be lazy and to an extent we need to be disciplined in our pursuit of the Lord. But there is a side, I believe, to this thinking of adding more and more that needs to be addressed.
When we add more and more to what the Christian life should be, do we not in a way start to lose focus on what is central? When we make it all about disciplines and reading and memory and study, we can easily lose sight of Christ. The Cross, which is central and over and under and hemming in all of the Christian life can be lost. Is this not Paul’s message “we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and folly to the Gentiles.” We can’t lose sight of the Cross. That in the midst of the Christian living that we seek, the Cross must remain central. That the person of the Cross must reign supreme even in the midst of disciplines and all the stuff we add to our lives.
So if you struggle sometimes like I do with thinking that you have to do more and more to revitalize your spiritual life, that you have to add memory verses and daily readings and books upon books (all of which are good) and this starts to weigh on you. Maybe you should ask yourself what is starting to become central to your “Christian life.?” Maybe when we struggle with thinking that it is always more, could it not in fact be less that we need?

Strip away the excess. Get back to the center.