Denying Sin

The idea that we are all sinners is not congenial to modern man. We want to believe that human beings are basically good in spite of all evidence to the contrary. We then blame whatever is bad in us on our environment. It is all society’s fault, it is all our parents’ fault, it is all other people’s fault. But the question is where do the bad things in society, our parents, and other people come from? Granted there are physical catastrophes-- earthquakes, hurricanes, disease--the majority of our environment that we normally blame our misbehavior on is from human sources. But the big problem with blaming my moral deficiencies on someone else is it makes them unfixable. If my sinfulness is a result of what other people do, I can never really deal with it till my environment is fixed. (Don’t hold your breath). But if I am a responsible person who has real guilt before God, then I can come to Him to be forgiven and He can change me. That’s why the bad news that we are all sinners (Romans 3:23; Jeremiah 17:9; Isaiah 64:6) is in a sense good news when put with the good news of the gospel--that God has done something about it (Romans 5:6-8; 1 John 4:10; 1 Peter 1:18-21). 

But if I am a sinner, if I am dead in my sins (Ephesians 2:1; Colossians 2:13) and a captive of Satan (Hebrews 2:14,15; Ephesians 2:2) and do not on my own seek God (Romans 3:10,11), then if I am ever to come to God, He must seek me. Scripture says that the Spirit convinces the world of sin, righteousness and judgment (John 16:8-11), that when Christ is lifted up He will draw all men to Himself (John 12:32), and that no one comes to Christ unless the Father draws them (John 6:44). Jesus is the Shepherd who goes after the lost sheep (Luke 15:1-7; 19:10). His sheep come to Him because He calls to them (John 10:27-29). A beautiful picture of this in the Old Testament is the story of Isaac and Rebecca (Genesis 24). Abraham is seeking a bride for his son Isaac. He sends a servant back to his homeland and the servant, by the leading of God, finds Rebecca. The servant then brings Rebecca back to be the bride for Isaac. In the same way, God the Father sought a bride for His Son. (We are that bride; see Ephesians 5:25-27). The servant pictures the Holy Spirit who seeks us that we might be Christ’s bride. It is not Rebecca who does the seeking, but rather she is found and brought to Isaac. In the same way we have been sought by God to become those who are called and beloved (Romans 1:5-7). Let us rejoice in this fact. And if you are reading this and have not yet responded to the voice of the Shepherd, accept His invitation that those who wish to come should come (Revelation 22:17).

Did Christ Rise from the Dead?

The Christian faith is based on the fact that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. There have been various alternatives proposed to evade this fact. While it is not reasonable in the scope of one post to give a full-scale answer to all the issues involved, I would like to look at some of the alternative answers and see if they make sense. One possibility is the resurrection was something that grew up slowly over time. The problem with this is that the resurrection is the heart of the Christian message. There are miracles that are added to stories over time, but they are window dressing. There are those who claim the original message of Christianity was something else and was changed into what has come down to us. This is really not very plausible. Why should Christians have totally changed their message? And how did they manage to totally destroy all evidence of the previous message? And why did the critics of Christianity (and Christianity had them from the very beginning) not point this out? If Jesus was originally just a failed Messiah, an ordinary rabbi, a philosopher, or even non-existent, why would people make up this story about Him? 

Another possibility is that this was a mystical experience that later became confused with a historical event. The description given by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:1-19 does not fit a mystical experience. People with a mystical experience say, “Here’s the experience I had; you can have it too.” They do not refer to witnesses, and they do not say their faith is worthless if something did not happen. (Who can say an experience did not happen?) Also, why would they go from a mystical experience, which is safe, to a historical event that might be disproved. And where were the opponents of Christianity when this was going on? If the body was still in the tomb or even dumped in a mass grave, could they not have found evidence to support this?

Or it could have been some sort of a plot by Jesus or the disciples, with either Jesus not really being dead or the disciples stealing the body. As Chuck Colson points out based on his experience with Watergate, if a few men with the full power of the presidency could not keep Watergate a secret without getting caught, how are we to expect a batch of poor, powerless Galileans would manage to pull it off? Also, it is hard to see what they got out of it other than hardships and a nasty death.

The bottom line is that it is not a mistake to trust in Christ and what He did on the cross for us (Romans 5:8) because it was established by His rising from the dead (Romans 1:4). Therefore, we can trust Him for our salvation from sin (Romans 3:21-28) and, based on what He has done for us, live in newness of life (Romans 6:1-14). Then we may, as those on the road to Emmaus, continually gain new understanding of Christ and who He is (Luke 24:13-35) and may live in the light of it.

Finding Ourselves

What matters is not what others think of us, or even what we think of ourselves, but what God thinks of us. It is easy to get caught up in the treadmill of trying to please others. We act, look, and dress in such a way as to please other people. And we always fail, because it is just not possible to please everyone. Also, let’s face it; most of us do not fit the image our society has of the perfect individual. In fact, I suspect that the image is rigged so almost no one can live up to it. But we can spend our whole life trying to get that carrot on a stick. What, then, do we do when we recognize this and become disillusioned?   

So we reach that point where we reconsider whether we ought to live our lives to please others and decide we are going to just be ourselves. But then we must face the question of who we are if we eliminate what other people think of us. And we decide to find ourselves, but we are not quite clear where to look. The idea that a person can define themselves is like thinking we can pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps when we are not quite sure if we have hands or bootstraps. We need some grid, some focus point to define ourselves by. Also, it is hard to avoid the sneaking suspicion that we ourselves may not be quite as good as we ought to be. That deep down in our souls there may be things that really should not be actualized. But if we cannot be sure we can trust ourselves, who can we trust?

It is at this place that God comes in. First, He does not just flatter us. He sees that imperfect character deep within us, sees it more clearly then we see it ourselves (Romans 3:23; Jeremiah 17:9; Isaiah 64:6) and loves us anyway (Romans 5:6-8; John 3:16; 1 John 4:10). As a result, He sent His Son to pay the penalty for all the wrong things we have ever done (1 Peter 2:24,25; Colossians 2:13,14; 2 Corinthians 5:21). He can therefore offer salvation freely to those who put their faith in Him (Romans 4:4,5; Ephesians 2:8,9; Philippians 3:9). This results in our being declared righteous in the sight of God (Romans 3:28; 8:33,34; Galatians 2:21). We are made His children (John 1:12,13; Romans 8:14-17; Ephesians 1:5). And because of that, it is His judgment that really matters, not what other people think of us or even what we think of ourselves (1 Corinthians 4:3-5; Romans 14:4; James 4:11,12). Now if we put our faith in Christ, God will begin to work in our life to transform it (2 Corinthians 3:18; Ephesians 2:10; Titus 2:11-14). But our identity is not based on what we can do, but on what Christ has done for us. And it is only in this that our identity is secure.