Sin is sin | Ray Noah

PREVIEW: Though the number of those who flout God’s laws is growing in strength and numbers today, like flourishing grass, one day they will stand before a Righteous God who has established an unchangeable moral code for the universe. Here is how the psalmist, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, said it in Psalm 92:7,9: “Though the wicked sprout like weeds and evildoers flourish, they will be destroyed forever… Your enemies, Lord, will surely perish; all evildoers will be scattered.” It is a harsh truth—but it is still the truth: Those who have flaunted their freedoms and lived in disregard to God’s law will be forever destroyed. And from that perspective, as the psalmist said, they are senseless fools. They just don’t get it. But you do! So, stick by what you get, and in the end, you will really get it—the eternal favor of the Lord.

MY JOURNEY OF WORSHIP // Psalm 92:6-8

Only a simpleton would not know, and only a fool would not understand this: Though the wicked sprout like weeds and evildoers flourish, they will be destroyed forever. But you, O Lord, will be exalted forever.

I usually don’t watch beauty pageants—I’m not a big fan and I have a philosophic aversion to them—so I pay them no mind. However, one from a few years back got a lot of press, which caught my attention. It wasn’t so much that I was intrigued, I was dismayed with the way the first runner up to the crown was viciously treated by so-called cultural elites. What was her crime? It was for what I thought was a sane and sensitive answer to the question she was asked on gay marriage.

This beautiful young woman, who many felt should have won the title if she had given the politically correct answer, was vilified and marginalized, and called everything from homophobic, ignorant, intolerant … and even worse.

She gave the same answer that a vast majority of Americans would have given, and that I hope all born-again Christians would have given: That while we live in a country where you have the freedom to do certain things, including being gay, her moral beliefs and value system led her to believe that marriage should be preserved for a man and a woman. She said it respectfully, she said it calmly, she said it gracefully. She shared her opinion, which, the last time I looked, was still an American value. And then, for her, all hell broke loose.

So, what’s the deal with an increasingly vocal, radical, and hateful bunch in our country who preach tolerance the loudest but themselves are the most intolerant, and viciously so, when anyone doesn’t kowtow to their elitist dogma? How about this:

They just don’t get it!

They don’t get the fact that though they are growing in strength and numbers today, like flourishing grass, one day they will stand before a Righteous God who has established an unchangeable moral code for the universe. Here is how the psalmist, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, said it in Psalm 92:7,9:

Though the wicked sprout like weeds and evildoers flourish, they will be destroyed forever… Your enemies, Lord, will surely perish; all evildoers will be scattered.

It is a harsh truth—but it is still the truth: Those who have flaunted their freedoms and lived in disregard to God’s law will be forever destroyed. And from that perspective, as the psalmist said, they are senseless fools. They just don’t get it.

But you do! You get that God will be exalted and unrepentant sinners will be destroyed. You get that those who have put their trust in God, who have submitted to the rules he has established for his creation, who love, honor, and respect him, will, as Psalm 92:12-14 says,

Flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the LORD, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age; they will stay fresh and green.

Don’t be surprised that there will be people who don’t get that! But you do; you get it. So, stick by what you get, and in the end, you will really get it—the eternal favor of Lord.

MY OFFERING OF WORSHIP: It is important to remember that when we talk about the surety of God’s judgment against sin, that “there for the grace of God go I.”

Being With Jesus:
John 7:7

Jesus said, “[the world] hates me because I accuse it of sin and evil.”

One of the things an authentic, fruitful, effective Christ-follower must master in life is balance. Balance isn’t listed as a virtue in New Testament theology; it is not a mark of discipleship that Jesus articulated; it is not the tenth fruit of the Spirit. Yet balance is the byproduct of Christian virtue. It demonstrate that we have a grasp on what it means to live as a true disciple and it is evidence of the Holy Spirit’s production of spiritual fruit in our lives.

If we are to live as Jesus lived and think like Jesus thought, then like Jesus, we must learn to balance truth with grace, tolerance of flawed humanity with fidelity to God’s standard of holiness, working out our salvation with resting in God’s effort, and on and on the list of needful balances will go. But balance for the Christian is neither easy to achieve, nor to maintain, because the drift of the sin nature still fighting for mastery of our lives is always toward an extreme.

Nowhere is this imbalance more apparent in our contemporary American experience of Christianity than in our posture toward sin. It is especially noticeable in our current American cultural debate on same-sex attraction where many spiritual leaders are now rejecting this idea that the believer must “love the sinner but hate the sin” as un-Christlike. Yet Jesus did exactly that. So that, too, is a balance that we must learn to achieve.

Of course, some will passionately disagree with my statement. I understand that push back. There is a legitimate discussion these days about how to approach the issue of sin in our culture. But my fear is that because the secular mindset is increasingly pressuring the church to not only condone same-sex lifestyles, but to celebrate them as perfectly healthy and appropriate, and because of our growing fear that the world will hate us if we stand in their way, many Christians—leaders and lay people alike—are going to great lengths to avoid calling out sin where sin desperately needs to be called out. A too large percentage of believers now live with a consuming phobia of being labeled—labeled a homophobe, a hate-monger, intolerant and ignorant, and worse.

But let’s remember that Jesus was hated and called names precisely because he pointed out the evil and sin in the world. Sinful man didn’t reject and ultimately crucify him because he came saying “everything is alright; go your merry way.” Jesus was murdered because he said things like, “You are slaves of sin, every one of you.” (John 8:34) Believers by the thousands have not been martyred throughout Christian history because of their tolerance of sin; they were killed because they rubbed against the grain of evil cultures.

Now again, balance is the key. Jesus didn’t come to condemn sinners—they were already under condemnation—but by his righteous lifestyle and message of holiness, sin was condemned. Jesus didn’t condemn the woman caught in adultery in John 8, but he wasn’t afraid to tell her to go and “sin” no more. The very first words out of Jesus mouth as he began to proclaim the Gospel of the Kingdom was “repent”! “From then on, Jesus began to preach, ‘Turn from sin and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.’” (Matthew 4:17)

Jesus wasn’t afraid to use the “s” word. Sin is sin, and it separates from God. As C.S. Lewis said, “Jesus Christ did not say – Go into all the world and tell the world that it is quite right.” If we are to truly love people as Jesus did, then at some point their sin must be a topic of conversation. For people to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, sin must be acknowledged and repentance must be expressed. There is no other way. To point that out is truly the most loving thing a believer can do with an unbeliever.

“Jesus Christ did not say – Go into all the world and tell the world that it is quite right.” (C.S. Lewis)

Of course, it is all in the delivery. People must know that you truly love them if the call to repentance is to be received from a loving heart. But even them, since the message of righteousness rubs against the grain of a fallen world, we must be prepared to be labeled. But remember, it won’t be the first time.

________________

“The greatest want of the world is the want of men—men who will not be bought or sold; men who in their inmost souls are true and honest; men who do not fear to call sin by its right name; men whose conscience is as true to duty as the needle to the pole; men who will stand for the right though the heavens fall.” (Ellen G. White)

Getting To Know Jesus: Don’t ever be afraid to call sin, sin. Jesus did, so should you. But you must figure out how to do it as Jesus did—from a posture of love, grace and mercy. And one of the best ways to get into that posture is to, first, truly repent of your own sin, and secondly, humbly live in the knowledge that you are nothing more than a sinner saved by grace.

Tag Archives: Sin is sin

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