What to do about sin

In a dream last night, I realized something I’d not seen (or admitted) in the daytime; I’ve a very bad attitude towards another person, even to the point of wishing that person would die. I woke up feeling terrible and not at all happy with myself.

Should I be shocked? I know what God says about sin, but had not recognized this particular sin was in my heart. The Lord drives home the truth of today’s verse:

“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.” (Romans 5:12)

Chambers’ devotional is pointed right at the problem. God’s estimation of humanity is based on the disposition of sin that began with Adam and has permeated all of us. Sin is that disposition to run my own life, be my own god, insist on my right to myself, rather than letting God change my life.

When theologians say that sin is total depravity, they are not saying that people are totally evil, but that this sinful selfishness has permeated every part of us. As Chambers says, this sinfulness “may work out in decorous morality or in indecorous immorality, but it has the one basis, my claim to my right to myself.” It is that selfish disposition that produces sin.

Jesus pays no attention to whether people live according to “all the forces of evil in them” or are “clean living and moral and upright.” Rather than considering the “moral degradation of the one or to the moral attainment of the other” He looks at that sinful nature, that disposition to have my own way, do my own thing, even to save myself as I forget, ignore, or refuse the will of God.

Like the color of my skin, or my DNA, I am born with sin. I can cover it up, but I cannot change it. Only God in Jesus Christ through the Redemption worked on the cross can anyone escape sin’s condemnation.

Sin is a terrible heredity. No one can escape it. We all do sinful things, yet our sinfulness is not the final condemnation. Jesus came to die for our sin and grant us eternal life. Does that mean every sinner is set free from the penalty for rebelling against God? No, because the sins we do are not what separates us from God.  To this, Jesus says a most remarkable thing:

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.” (John 3:16–19)

When Jesus Christ confronted me more than forty-five years ago, He opened my eyes to what He had done to deliver me from a life of sin and the horror of sin’s consequences. The response called for was putting my faith in Him. Had I had refused, that would be what Chambers calls “the moment I began to get the seal of damnation.” Unbelief and refusing the remedy of Christ’s redemption is what separates sinners from God.

This morning I’m reminded that my sin is covered by the blood of Christ, but I am still fighting that selfish old nature. I’m to abide in Christ and be obedient, but still fight that sinful nature and sometimes go back to running my own life. When I do that, Jesus has this answer:

“If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” (1 John 1:6–10)

The only remedy for sin after becoming a Christian is the same as it was before I became a Christian: admit that I sin; don’t try to hide it. Confess it to God and He is faithful. Because of Jesus Christ, He stands ready to forgive me, to purge that sinful hatred from my heart, and replace it with His love.

As soon as I do that, my sinful attitude begins to fall away — because Jesus keeps His promises.

Our need – God’s supply

Lamentations 1:1–2:22, Romans 15:8–21, Proverbs 30:1–33

In 586 B.C. after God’s people were taken into captivity, Jeremiah expressed his deep sorrow over their fall into sin and the result of that fall. He speaks of their loneliness and how the city that was once great became like a widow, even like a slave. Jerusalem weeps bitterly with no one to comfort her; her friends have become her enemies. (Lamentations 1:1–2)

Further, the enemy has taken her precious things by entered her sanctuary where God had forbidden them to enter. Her people searched for bread (during the two year siege) and traded their treasures for food, crying out to God that they are despised. (Lamentations 1:10–11)

They also found themselves bound as by a yoke, with failing strength as they were given “into the hands of those whom I cannot withstand” and rejected by the Lord and crushed, “trodden as in a winepress.” (Lamentations 1:14–15)

Sometimes we must break before we can be rebuilt. Sometimes we must fall before we can rise to the greatness God has called us to. Certainly these people were broken. They cried out to God saying, “The Lord is in the right, for I have rebelled against his word; but hear, all you peoples, and see my suffering; my young women and my young men have gone into captivity. I called to my lovers, but they deceived me; my priests and elders perished in the city, while they sought food to revive their strength. Look, O Lord, for I am in distress; my stomach churns; my heart is wrung within me, because I have been very rebellious. In the street the sword bereaves; in the house it is like death. They heard my groaning, yet there is no one to comfort me. All my enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that you have done it. You have brought the day you announced; now let them be as I am.” (Lamentations 1:18–21)

Jeremiah saw the anger of the Lord as He “cast down from heaven to earth the splendor of Israel” and he told the people, “Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the night watches! Pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord! Lift your hands to him for the lives of your children, who faint for hunger at the head of every street.” (Lamentations 2:19)

This is a sad and brutal time. Babies and children become food for their starving parents during the siege, a story of human depravity that demonstrates how much humanity needs God, how much we need a Savior.

Solomon did not write all of the Proverbs. Agur also expresses the root of human depravity: “I am weary, O God; I am weary, O God, and worn out. Surely I am too stupid to be a man. I have not the understanding of a man. I have not learned wisdom, nor have I knowledge of the Holy One.” (Proverbs 30:1–3)

He goes on to describe how we sinners resist God. Even though “every word of God proves true” and “He is a shield to those who take refuge in him” we “add to His words” and “are clean in (our) own eyes but are not washed of (our) filth.” (Proverbs 30:5–6, 12) 

Without the grace and mercy of God, we are like Jerusalem. Without the redemption that is found in Jesus Christ, we would also be given over to our enemies and perish in our sin.

This is the dark side of spiritual reality. The bright side is Jesus Christ. In Him we have forgiveness and new life. In Him we can start over, serving God with His power instead of our own. God has accomplished this for us; our part is to believe Him.

When we do, the “God of hope fills (us) with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit (we) may abound in hope.” (Romans 15:13) What a far cry from the Lamentations of Jeremiah. Paul could declare our hope, even that, “In Christ Jesus, I have reason to be proud of my work for God.”

The Apostle denied pride and did not depend on or boast of himself, refusing “to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience—by word and deed.” His rejoicing was in “the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God.” (Romans 15:17–19)

There are days when I feel like Jerusalem. I’ve failed to bow to God and He chastens me. In that, I also know the humility of Agur. How foolish is sin, and how miserable I am apart from trusting the Lord in all things. Yet by grace, God gives me moments when I can relate to Paul’s hope and joy. In Christ Jesus, I can see the power of God in my life. May the former days decrease, even disappear, and those moments of blessing increasingly become hours and days that mark the work of the Holy Spirit in me.

Why depravity is total

After a brief Bible study on the deceitfulness of sin, I understand why William Carey, a missionary and godly man, didn’t want a glowing tribute in his eulogy. Near the end of his life, he was asked about it. He replied, “Oh, I feel that such a poor sinful creature is unworthy to have anything said about him.” He went on to say if a funeral sermon must be preached, the first verse from Psalm 51 would be his selection. 

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! (Psalm 51:1–2)

Carey knew what God teaches us about ourselves — that even the best of us are still sinful humans. Some who profess to be Christian might boast, but those in whom Christ dwells cannot boast. Instead, we cry for mercy. We know that apart from Him, our lives are totally unprofitable. We His mercy on our good works, prayers, teaching, giving and all our sacred duties.

Spurgeon reminds me of this. He says that the blood of the lamb that spared the Israelites in Egypt was not only sprinkled on their doorposts, but later required on their sanctuary, the mercy-seat and even the altar where they worshiped. Sin intrudes into our holiest things. The blood of Jesus, the ultimate Lamb of God, is needed to purify even the most God-honoring activities from the defilement of our sin.

Carey knew it and I know it too. Mercy is required for our blatant sins to be sure, but mercy is also needed in regard to the exercise of our Christian duties and ministry. There is no part of who we are or what we do that is pure. A kindness may begin with unselfish thoughts of others, but so quickly slides into a reason to pat myself on the back. Prayer might begin as a helpless cry to Almighty God, yet can so easily descend into the arrogance of me telling Him what to do.

The term “total depravity” is used for the extent of sin. This does not mean that every life is as evil as it could possibly be (or does it?) but that sin has touched our total being. It affects everything we think, say and do. I cannot bring even the tiniest thing to God and claim that it is totally pure and without sin. Only Jesus can do that, and that is why I need Him.

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Lord, I am instructed to pray “in Jesus’ name” because I dare not come in my own. I’ve no merit, no qualifications to speak to You or ask anything of You. Yet according to Your steadfast love and abundant mercy, You blot out my sin and cleanse me from it. You see me in Christ, not in my sinful self. I have no claim of my own, yet You allow me to claim the righteous of Your Son. This is an incredible mercy — and I am truly grateful.

To Live is Christ — staying out of the dirt

The word “unclean” can have many connotations. It could be me after digging potatoes or a boy after scrubbing an off-road vehicle. It could be the condition of that perfect strawberry that falls into a mud puddle. It could be a leper’s cry in New Testament times as a warning that others should not come near. It is the way a woman feels after she is raped. It could be some foods forbidden in the Old Testament. In the following context, it is none of those.

Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” Therefore “Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you.” “I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.” (2 Corinthians 6:14–18)

In the dictionary of God, unclean is thinking and acting contrary to His will, including the worship of idols. I’ve heard the expression, “He has a dirty mind” or “He has a dirty mouth” referring to illicit sexual desires and saying bad words. Nevertheless, God says all sin is unclean, thoughts, words, and actions.

In this context, as in the rest of the Bible, unbelief is also sin, as are the plans and activities of those who are not motivated by faith. In fact, Paul wrote in a passage about eating food offered to idols, “whatever is not from faith is sin.” (Romans 14:23)

The implications of this are huge. It means that a great deal of life could be “unclean” and not acceptable, not because it is gross sin like idolatry or murder, but because it is done my way, with self-centered motivations, not thinking about God or what He might want in each situation. One definition of sin is “falling short of the mark.” I do that — often.

Theologians talk about sin as “total depravity” which means that sin affects my total being. Every aspect of my life is touched by sin. Nothing is pure — apart from the work of God to forgive and cleanse sin from my life. (See more)

When I was a new Christian, my first mentor gave me an exercise. She told me to define sin and use the entire Bible to do it. When I was finished, if I’d had any thoughts that I could earn or deserve my salvation, they were gone. I realized just how much I needed mercy and a Savior to rescue me from sin.

Being willing to have sin exposed so it can be confessed and cleansed by God is a blessing from Him. I don’t enjoy the process, but these devotional verses from 2 Corinthians remind me once again how important it is. God wants me clean and pure. He wants me to stay away from anything that has a corrupting influence.

The purification process is God’s design. He uses the blood of Christ in a legal sense, and the power of the Holy Spirit in a practical sense. When I agree with Him about sin, He somehow washes it away, not just the guilt of it, but also the desire to do it. The process can be instant, or it can take some time. Either way, He is thorough and effective. He knows how to remove the dirt and change my life. My part is to stay out of the dirt.