sin

Spurgeon: Figs and Olive Berries

March 21, 2012

in everything

Awesome:

This fact ought also to promote in us brotherly admiration. It is one of the most beautiful exhibitions of a Christian spirit when a Christian man admires the gifts and graces of others more than he admires his own; when, instead of thinking of anything in which he excels others, he delights in those things in which they excel him. We ought to emulate the spirit of that noble Roman who, when he was beaten at an election, said he was glad that his country had so many better men than himself. It is not always easy to feel, “I am happy in knowing of a brother who is so much more brilliant than I am, for the world sadly needs far more light than I can give.” It is not alway easy to play the least important instrument in the band, and to rejoice that somebody else can beat the big drum, or blow the silver cornet; yet that ought to be our feeling. You remember how prettily Bunyan speaks of Christiana and Mercy admiring each other after they had been in the bath: “They could not see that glory each one on herself which they could see in each other. Now, therefore,they began to esteem each other better than themselves. ‘For you are fairer than I am,’ said one; ‘and you are more comely than I am,’ said another.” So should Christians see and admire the work of the Spirit in other Christians, and should bless God that there are such gracious men and women in the world; while those who are thus admired should, in their turn, see greater excellence in others than they see in themselves.

Interesting:

May God save all of us from bearing two kinds of fruit in this unnatural and dishonouring fashion! Suppose the whole Church of God should act thus, and at one time be eminent for holiness and at another time be notorious for sin, what would be the consequence? Suppose, for instance, that certain people were very particular about their attendance at public worship, and yet were known to frequent the theater, would it not be a strange state of things?

Awesome again:

I have often heard and read that England is a Christian country, but I have never seen any evidence of the truth of that statement, though there are some Christians in England, as there are some in India, China, Africa, and other countries which no one regards as Christian. Yet according to some people, all Englishmen are Christians, though some of them never enter a place of worship, and others are drunk every night in the week, and many do not even believe in the existence of God. To call a horse an angel will not make him an angel, and to call a man a Christian will not make him a Christian. You may label, and enroll, and number the unsaved as much as you like, but you will not make even one of them a Christian by that process any more than putting the name “olive” on a fig tree will change its nature, and make it produce olive berries.

And to the point:

Perhaps someone asks, “But, sir, what is it to be born again?” Well, it is not a mere outward change of life; it is not simply a giving up of certain sins, and a desire to possess certain virtues. It is as great a work as if you were to be annihilated,to pass absolutely out of existence,and God were to make a new man in your place.

Sermon text.

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My debt…

November 20, 2010

in everything

Jesus paid it all,
All to him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.

Oh praise the One who paid my debt
And raised this life up from the dead.

One of the things that I am not known as is a ball of emotion, but this song wrecks me every time; and, honestly, I’m not sure why.

I don’t mean “I’m not sure why” because I disagree with it or because I don’t “get” the theological implications of the truth of this hymn/song. What I mean is that the truth of the stain of my sin and the costliness and effectiveness of Jesus’ payment doesn’t often hit me consciously. Why is it that this song brings it up? Why does that three-tone quarter-note progression consistently bring me to the point of real tears and help me really, really get it and own those things?

Despite it not being often conscious, I think I really do know the depth of my own sin. I know that it is all-encompassing. I know that I am constantly under its sway to abandon what I want to do and to pursue those things that bring rot to my heart. I also have experienced my inability to change myself. I struggle just to change my actions, to throw off the lies that I believe that hold me down, to press forward to own the strength that God has given to overpower my own faults – and I fail to do those things. And those things stain. They stain in a way that leaves a blot on my life – and my life is under a debt. The stain is like blood on a wedding dress, the debt is deeper and more life-destroying than a foreclosure on a dream house.

Yet, there is Someone who can clean it!

There is Someone who has paid it!

I was quite literally damned without it. I am quite literally helpless without His cleansing.

For this I am thankful – and that is why the tears come. Not out of the fear of what could have been – but out of gratitude of what has been done to save me from it.

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The Law, the Lie of the Garden and Undertakers

June 17, 2009

in everything

I think most Christians don’t know what to do with the Law, by that I mean that we often speak about the regulations given to Abraham by God as if they are defective and somehow not good. The Law is full of things that we don’t get – when do you do this kill this animal this way, don’t mix fabrics, don’t grow a goatee (I’m looking at you youth pastors), don’t even touch your wife during her “special time”.

I’ve been reading a book that we got for free from Advance09 – Total Church: A Radical Reshaping around Gospel and Community. Honestly, I didn’t expect that it would be a book that I would underline all that much, but I was underlining within 6 pages. One of the things that I underlined had hit me like a slap in the face:

The Law of Moses is given as the word by which God rules his people as they wait for the coming Savior. It is a liberating law given to bless God’s people. It was the lie of the serpent to portray God’s rule as harsh and tyrannical. The reality is that the rule of God is a rule of life, blessing, peace and justice. God rules through his word, and his rule brings freedom and joy.

The author is right! The thing that I do so often is portray the Law as something that was intended to be a limiting shackle on the people of Israel. Quite the opposite, it gave freedom by giving boundaries. Our Americanized idea of freedom says that where there are any boundaries there is no freedom, but real freedom requires boundaries; how free would we really be if there were no laws to restrain murder and theft? We’d spend all of our days protecting ourselves and our stuff.

The Law did the same thing.

In the nations that surrounded Israel, the polytheistic faiths gave no liberty – no freedom to live life unshackled by guilt and doubt. Think of all of the stories even of the ancient Greeks and Romans, they were always trying to appease some god or making sure they weren’t stepping on some goddess’ toes (I’m looking at you Hera); they were never sure if they were in good standing.

Think about it, you’re following a God that just held back the sea and then drowned the most elite soldiers of one of the most powerful nations on earth at the time, a God who had made a tangible darkness hang over the whole country, that turned the Nile into blood and supernaturally killed hundreds to set you free – and not just random hundreds, but only the firstborn and only in unmarked houses. You want to know whether or not you’re in good standing with that God. So, what does that God do? He gives you guidelines so you can know.

You no longer have to guess whether or not you’re doing things right, you have the Law to make reference to. You can know whether God is pleased with you or wanting a closer walk with you.

One thing to remember – unclean was not sin. You have this trichotomy of holiness. You have things that are clean (this is set apart or holy or able to be in God’s presence), you have things that are sinful (things that God is against and are an affront to him in some personal way) and you have the middle ground of the unclean (which is just common, banal, vulgar). The unclean was not bad (or else undertakers were never able to be in God’s good graces and the dead would just lie where they died), it was just common. The reason that this is talked about so much in the Law – God had called his people to be set apart, to be holy and a light that shined His holiness. They were not better than other people, they were just to imitate God more closely.

I think the lesson that I need to take from this is to understand why those in the Old Testament loved the Law.

Psalm 119:97

Oh how I love your law!
It is my meditation all the day.

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excerpts from my journal – #1 question (for God)

August 17, 2008

This question and prayer came after reading a portion of the history of the Protestant Reformation where Luther actually had someone executed for preaching a differing understanding of baptism than himself… Is there an example of anyone in the scriptures who died because of bad doctrine on par with a bad understanding of baptism (or [...]

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