Only three kinds of sin?

Genesis 3; Matthew 3; Ezra 3; Acts 3

This week I heard a pastor say in a radio sermon that there are only three kinds of sin. He quoted 1 John:

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. (1 John 2:15–17)

He said that sin involves wanting what we see that is not meant for us, desire pleasure or comfort that is not intended for us or wanting what we think will in some way make us better than others. This morning I see these three in the original sin in the garden of Eden . . .

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. (Genesis 3:6–7)

The rest of the chapter describes the results: they were ashamed, hid from God, did not admit their disobedience but shifted the blame, and were placed under a curse. The enemy was cursed and doomed. The woman was cursed to pain in having children and wanting to be the boss all the time. The man was cursed for not taking his leadership role by a lifetime of hard work to make a living. They were also cursed with physical death even though it was delayed.

God is merciful. He clothed them to take away their shame, then took them out of the garden to protect them from eating the tree of life and living forever with the curse. He had a plan. The curse came with a promise — a curse on their tempter who would meet his demise through the woman’s offspring — who would “bruise his head.”

This story has been called a myth to explain the origin of sin but not an actual event. Some say things like that to avoid admitting that sin is an issue. Odd idea. That sense of right and wrong gets blurred these days but it remains. We know. The daily news gives evidence of sin, as does the conflicting desires in our own hearts. Besides, sin had to start somewhere and God’s version makes sense.

Three sins are hard to generalize. I suppose sin with my eyes includes stealing, covetousness, and a host of other things. Sin with my flesh equals sexual stuff and excessive desires for comfort in things and total selfishness. Sin rooted in the pride of life starts with “I will run my own life” and disobedience to all the good that God wants for me. Every day there are temptations in these areas, from eating too many cookies, to bragging, to lazing around instead of taking care of my responsibilities. I cannot imagine being without the ability to recognize good and evil. Yes, sin wants the evil and makes all sorts of false assumptions about what is good, but by the Word of God, at least I can recognize the evil.

These three sins are seen in Eve’s response to the suggestions of the evil one. She saw the tree would be good to eat. It delighted her eyes and appealed to the pride that can come with being wise. The difference now is that God sent Jesus and my heart can respond to Him instead of temptation. His lessons may take a lifetime to learn but He shows me that disobedience is not good for me, even if it looks good. He shows me that human wisdom is folly compared to God’s wisdom. He also shows me that when I share my sinful desires and encourage others to join me (like Eve invited Adam to eat too), it will bring great disaster.

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— (Galatians 3:13)

Jesus came to reverse the curse, and the only way I can enjoy the benefit of that goal is by cooperating with Him. The pain of life does not disappear entirely but the power of the curse is broken by faith in the One who forgave me and takes away my shame, the One who died on a tree and who lets me have the abundant life He created for me, allowing me to feast on the life that He graciously grants. Because of Him, I look forward to living forever with Him and in total freedom from the curse of sin.

Black and White

Jeremiah 16:1–17:27, Romans 1:18–2:11, Proverbs 16:1–11

I like zebras, perhaps because I’m also attracted to clear boundaries with black and white explanations. For instance, God says people either have faith in Jesus Christ or they don’t. I cannot be ‘partly’ a child of God, just as a woman cannot be partly pregnant!

I also like reading the OT prophets who spoke in black and white terms. In today’s reading, Jeremiah contrasts the person who trusts himself and the person who trusts the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord. He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land.”

“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.” (Jeremiah 17:5–8)

Sometimes it’s not easy to discern faith because we look at outward appearance. Also, many of us assume we are okay; the condemnations of Scripture apply to others. However, Solomon reminds me that God knows who we are: “All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirit . . . . Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the Lord; be assured, he will not go unpunished.” (Proverbs 16:2, 5)

Solomon also reminds me that when a person lives by faith, God blesses that person: “When a man’s ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him. Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues with injustice.” (Proverbs 16:7–8)

Lest anyone think that this Old Testament black and white perspective fades into shades of gray in the NT, a lengthy passage from Romans overviews issue of unbelief also, and uses strong blessing/cursing language just like the OT prophets did.

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things.” (Romans 1:18–32, 2:1)

God reveals Himself in nature, but sinful humanity rejects Him. So God lets sinners go their own way, and it seems the deeper their rejection, the deeper the muck they get into. Yet I notice that God doesn’t put sin into a hierarchy. He says disobedience to parents is just as evil as murder and hating God.

Without repentance, all are doomed: “But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed . . . for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth . . . . there will be wrath and fury.”

But there is a white side to contrast the blackness. Those who by faith and obedience live lives of patience and doing well bear the marks of people to whom God has granted everlasting life.

Blessed because of Jesus

Deuteronomy 28:1–68, 2 Corinthians 7:1–7, Psalm 41:1–13

In the Old Testament, the covenant God made with His people was about their faith in Him and their obedience because of that faith. In other words, if they genuinely believed, they would behave accordingly — and God would bless them for it. These verses give a general idea of how this was communicated. The first one is about the blessings . . .

“And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.” (Deuteronomy 28:1)

After more description of blessings for obedience, such as good crops and protection from their enemies, the text describes the curses for disobedience . . .

“The Lord will send on you curses, confusion, and frustration in all that you undertake to do, until you are destroyed and perish quickly on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken me . . . . The Lord will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of mind, and you shall grope at noonday, as the blind grope in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways. And you shall be only oppressed and robbed continually, and there shall be no one to help you.” (Deuteronomy 28:20, 28–29)

In the new covenant, God still promises blessing for obedience, but the blessings are not necessarily about power or protection from harm. Instead, the reward for obedience is a deeper knowledge of God, a greater righteousness, and a richer holiness in our relationship with God and with others. In contrast, obedience to the old covenant could easily slip from a loving response to God into a “if I do it, I’ll be blessed” – which is not what God had in mind. His people are supposed to obey Him because He is who He is, not for selfish reasons.

Obedience in the new covenant is motivated by love for Jesus Christ. A quote from God found in the OT says, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.” (2 Corinthians 6:16–18)

The very next verse is the response to those words: “Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.” (2 Corinthians 7:1)

God’s redemptive power is at work. Because of Jesus Christ, Christians are being restored to the image of God in which human beings were created. The ruin of sin has been forgiven and is being reversed by the power of God. We have the life of Christ and the Holy Spirit living in us. Our minds are changed; we don’t want to sin as we used to, but want to be holy people. This isn’t about escaping a curse, but about serving a loving Lord who took our curse upon Himself and died for us. He is worthy of our praise and our very lives. The new covenant is new because it isn’t about what we do, but about what God has done for us, and about the fact that He has changed our lives so we want to do His will.

The psalmist said, “By this I know that you delight in me: my enemy will not shout in triumph over me. But you have upheld me because of my integrity, and set me in your presence forever.” (Psalm 41:11–12)

For him, the old covenant was a reality. For me, the new covenant is about God delighting in His Son. He also delights in His children because of what Jesus has done. He protects us because of Jesus, upholds us because of Jesus, and sets us in His presence forever — because of Jesus. The old covenant had a threat of curses. The new covenant set us free from that curse and gave us Jesus so we can faithfully obey the voice of our God.

More Glory

Deuteronomy 11:1–12:28; 2 Corinthians 3:9–18; Psalm 35:12–28

Many churches and Christians dismiss the Old Testament as old, out-of-touch, not for them. This is sad. If nothing else, ignorance of the OT leaves people without an understanding of redemptive history. It also puts the law of God on a top shelf to gather dust, yet there are blessings in that law that benefit those who keep it.

In today’s OT reading, I wondered about the difference in my life or the life of every Christian if they took these words to heart and put them into practice. (And we cannot keep the law apart from Christ, but if we don’t know it, and He asks us to do something, how will we know if it is Him speaking?)

“And if you will indeed obey my commandments that I command you today, to love the Lord your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, he will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, that you may gather in your grain and your wine and your oil. And he will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you shall eat and be full. Take care lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them; then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and he will shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain, and the land will yield no fruit, and you will perish quickly off the good land that the Lord is giving you . . .

“ . . . For if you will be careful to do all this commandment that I command you to do, loving the Lord your God, walking in all his ways, and holding fast to him, then the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than you. Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours. Your territory shall be from the wilderness to the Lebanon and from the River, the river Euphrates, to the western sea. No one shall be able to stand against you. The Lord your God will lay the fear of you and the dread of you on all the land that you shall tread, as he promised you.

“See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way that I am commanding you today, to go after other gods that you have not known.” (Deuteronomy 11: 13–17, 21–28)

Obedience to God means prosperity, victory over opposition, and total blessing. Disobedience means disaster, defeat, and death. Is that true for me? Actually, I would rather know by experience all those blessings, and have no idea at all of what those curses mean. Twice, the writer of Deuteronomy agrees: “You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes, for you have not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance that the Lord your God is giving you . . . Be careful to obey all these words that I command you, that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God.” (Deuteronomy 12:8-9, 28)

Interestingly, the second reading says something about the blessing/cursing of this OT “obey-you live, disobey-you die” as it compares that notion with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It says, “For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory.” (2 Corinthians 3:9)

In other words, if the OT law had glory in it for obedience even though no one could fully obey it, imagine the glory of having the righteousness of Christ freely bestowed so we can live a new life out in the freedom of doing the will of God . . .

“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:17–18)

This is the way it works . . . keep my eyes on Jesus. As I gaze into His glory, He works in my life that I might be like Him. Now that is glory!

Ignoring the OT means missing out on the fullness of redemption and the fullness of God’s blessing on those who pay attention to the way we will live as we gaze at Jesus Christ. As He says through the psalmist, “Let those who delight in my righteousness shout for joy and be glad and say evermore, ‘Great is the Lord, who delights in the welfare of his servant!’ Then my tongue shall tell of your righteousness and of your praise all the day long.” (Psalm 35:27–28)