Tag Archives: sin

Russell Moore on Fake Love and Fake War

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Russ Moore:

Pornography promises orgasm without intimacy. Video warfare promises adrenaline without danger. The arousal that makes these so attractive is ultimately spiritual to the core. . . .

The answer to both addictions is to fight arousal with arousal. Set forth the gospel vision of a Christ who loves his bride and who fights to save her. And then let’s train our young men to follow Christ by learning to love a real woman, sometimes by fighting his own desires and the spirit beings who would eat him up. Let’s teach our men to make love, and to make war . . . for real.

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Jesus Crucified, Barrabas Released, and Luke’s Picture for Us

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From Barrabas and Me, by David Mathis —

So Luke, it appears, means for us to identify both with Jesus and Barabbas. Jesus in that by identifying with him, through being united with him by faith, his death is our death. His condemning of sin is our condemning of sin. And Barabbas in that we are sinners, criminals who have broken God’s law, guilty as charged, deserving death for our rebellion against our creator and the ruler of the universe. And Jesus, through the grace of giving himself for us at the cross, takes our place and we are released.

As we more greatly understand the depths of our sin, we see with Luke, “I am Barabbas.” I am the one so clearly guilty and deserving of condemnation but set free because of the willing substitution of the Son of God in my place.

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Christian, Five Things to Do If You’re Struggling

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Jerome Weller was a theology student under Martin Luther’s direct influence, living in his home and tutoring his children for nearly a decade. In July 1530, Luther wrote a letter of advice to Weller who was in the midst of a depression.

. . . Excellent Jerome, You ought to rejoice in this temptation of the devil because it is a certain sign that God is propitious and merciful to you. You say that the temptation is heavier than you can bear, and that you fear that it will so break and beat you down as to drive you to despair and blasphemy. I know this wile of the devil. If he cannot break a person with his first attack, he tries by persevering to wear him out and weaken him until the person falls and confesses himself beaten.

Whenever this temptation comes to you, avoid entering upon a disputation with the devil and do not allow yourself to dwell on those deadly thoughts, for to do so is nothing short of yielding to the devil and letting him have his way. Try as hard as you can to despise those thoughts which are induced by the devil. In this sort of temptation and struggle, contempt is the best and easiest method of winning over the devil. Laugh your adversary to scorn and ask who it is with whom you are talking. By all means flee solitude, for the devil watches and lies in wait for you most of all when you are alone. This devil is conquered by mocking and despising him, not by resisting and arguing with him. . .

When the devil throws our sins up to us and declares we deserve death and hell, we ought to speak thus: “I admit that I deserve death and hell. What of it? Does this mean that I shall be sentenced to eternal damnation? By no means. For I know One who suffered and made a satisfaction in my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Where he is, there I shall be also.”

Yours,
Martin Luther

Luther: Letters of Spiritual Counsel, trans. and ed., Theodore G. Tappert, 1960, (Vancouver, BC: Regent College Publishing, 2003), 85ff., paragraphing mine.

Five Actions Summarized

In review, Luther mentions five pieces of advice:

  1. Rejoice because temptation testifies of God’s mercy to you.
  2. Do not dwell on the deadly thoughts of the Devil.
  3. Laugh your adversary to scorn.
  4. Be around other believers.
  5. Proclaim the good news of Jesus for you and your salvation.

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What 1 Corinthians 1:7–9 Says

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1 Corinthians 1:7–9,

as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ,

who will sustain you to the end,

guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

God is faithful,

by whom you were called into

the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Do you know what Paul is saying here?

Waiting

“As you wait.” We’re waiting for something. So that’s what this is called. Waiting. More specifically, we’re waiting for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus is not here right now, not in his person. I can’t see him or touch him or hear his voice. Jesus, the Messiah (to be clear), the Lord (to be clearer). Our Lord Jesus Christ (to say it best). He will be revealed. He will appear. Cue John: we shall “see him like he is” (1 John 3:2).

This is what we’re waiting for.

To the End

And Jesus will sustain you to the end. So this waiting is a sustained waiting and it’s not sustained by ourselves. Jesus, the one for whom we’re waiting is the one who is sustaining our waiting. He knows we’re waiting. He’s not out to lunch. He sees us. He knows. He knows it’s not easy. He knows that some waiting are starving because of famine, that others are persecuted because of their government, that others are tempted because of riches, that others don’t have the Old Testament in their language. He knows and he will sustain us.

And that’s to the end. The end, oh that’s explained in the next line: “the day of our Lord Jesus Christ” (there’s that best title again, “our Lord Jesus Christ”). The end is the “day of our Lord Jesus Christ.” That’s the day when he will be revealed. Bring the OT in here, the great day of YHWH, the day of judgment and salvation. The wicked are put down and the righteous are saved. That’s the end. And it’s to this end that the Jesus of whom we’re waiting to be revealed will sustain us.

Guiltless

And this sustaining to the end will mean that he keeps us guiltless. We will be guiltless. Innocent. But we’re not. We’re sinners. We sin. We’ve got lots of guilt.

But he died for us. He bore our guilt. He took it upon himself. He suffered in our place. He went to the cross and absorbed the wrath of God that should have been blasted against us, forever. Our sins are forgiven. Removed. His rightousness, all the benefits of being in him are now ours. And he speaks our faith in this great work. He prays for our faith in this great work so that it won’t fail. And as guiltless as we are in him is as guiltless as we’ll be on that day.

God Is Faithful

Let me explain why. God is faithful.

This is the ground. God is faithful. That’s why it’s going to go this way. God the Father who elected us, the one by whom we have been effectually called, he is faithful. He doesn’t say things he doesn’t do. All his works, well, work. No mistakes. No hiccup. He called us and he meant it.

And this calling, this is into the fellowship of his Son. His Son, the one with whom he is well-pleased. The one of whom is also “Jesus Christ our Lord” (there it is again). The Father has called us into fellowship with him. Fellowship. You mean, like, communion? Participation? Union? Yes, yes. That’s it. Fellowship. The Father has called us into fellowship with his beloved Son. See, I told you we’d be guiltless. We’re in Christ. In him. Fellowshiping with him, sharing in his inheritance, delighted in by the Father as his own workmanship, created in Jesus. In Jesus the Messiah who is our Lord.

Jesus Christ Our Lord

We’re waiting for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain us to the end, who will make us guiltless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom we’ve been called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, the one for whom we’re waiting. The one who is sustaining the wait.

Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Jesus’ Sacrifice Overcomes Our Fear of Judgment

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In the first two posts we considered what it means to draw near to God, and then what keeps us from drawing near. We highlighted two potential fears that inhibit our fellowship with God: the fear of judgment and the fear of disappointment.

Now we ask, is there anything in Hebrews 10:19-25 that answers our fears? In short, this text tells us this: that what Jesus has done and does abolishes every fear we might have that keeps us from a rich relationship with God. First . . .

Because of Jesus’ sacrifice, we can have a rich God-accomplished relationship with God (verses 19-20)

Look back at verse 19 and notice one of the reasons or grounds to the command to draw near. The writer says, “Therefore, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus” — he means here, we have access to God now because of Jesus’ sacrifice. He says the same thing in verse 20, but a different way, this access we now have to God is a new and living way that has been opened to us by Jesus’ death.

The death of Jesus is the topic of discussion in chapter 10, verses 1-18. The point is made over and over that the offering of Jesus, the sacrifice of Jesus is better than the former animal sacrifices. “For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (v. 4). But it’s different with Jesus. He came to do God’s will, living in obedience and offering himself as the single, once-for-all sacrifice (v. 10).

This once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus has completely absorbed God’s anger towards us. Yes, we are sinners. Yes, we have sinned. Yes, we deserve punishment. But Jesus was the sacrifice for us. He died in our place. He bore our sins in his body on the tree. He suffered the wrath of God on our behalf. There is forgiveness of sins, and v. 18, “Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.”

But we’re afraid of his judgment? No, don’t be afraid of his judgment. The anger is gone. The punishment has been paid. There is nothing more to pay for. Nothing more to be judged. It’s finished. If you are in Christ, God doesn’t look at you with a grumpy frown, irritated by your struggles. He looks at you as a loving Father with his arms wide open and he says to you, he says this morning, “it’s finished, it’s done, draw near by the blood of my Son.”

Because Jesus has died, suffering in our place, we don’t have to be afraid of judgment, but we can have a rich God-accomplished relationship with God.

So here’s the first way Jesus answers our fears and we see it in verses 19-20. Tomorrow we’ll look at how Jesus answers our fears of disappointment.

What Keeps Us From Drawing Near?

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Now, we’re called to draw near, to live in this relationship with God, and I wonder how we’re doing? How is your relationship with God?

Are you frustrated? Do you feel like its messy or confused or just that it should be more? Wherever you’re at, let’s consider a couple things that may keep us from drawing near. There are of course several things to keep us from a rich relationship with God, but just to name two this morning:

Fear of Judgment

The fear of judgment keeps you from a relationship with God because you just can’t believe that God can forgive your sin. You know your heart and your sin and although you want a closer relationship with God, you wouldn’t dare pursue it because you just think that a person as messed up as you is not supposed to be close to a God like that.

This fear of judgment sees God in a certain way. If we were to think big picture — and I think we should do this often — imagine what kind of look God has on his face when he thinks about you. He sees you, everything in your heart, everything you do, when he looks at you, how do you picture his face?

Well, I think this fear of judgment imagines him frowning, crossing his arm, annoyed, angry, fed up with your mess-ups. He is not a Father running to meet you, he is waiting to judge you. And you can’t draw near to him like that.

Fear of Disappointment

Then there’s another fear. Maybe you’re not afraid of judgment, you’re afraid of disappointment. This fear of disappointment is a fear that says, “oh yeah, I get that relationship stuff, I’ve tried it before. But have you seen how crazy my life is?”

This is a fear that doesn’t tempt us to stop believing, but it tempts us to forfeit a life of intimacy with Jesus because we just don’t think that kind of life is for us. We’ve tried it, we can’t do it, and so we’re just going to sit back and try to survive the chaos. You’ve tried for it to be more and it doesn’t work.

This kind of fear reminds me of our oldest daughter Elizabeth. A couple months ago we were at a park with a big sand box. Well she has these rain boots that are really girly, they’re pink and yellow and have flowers on them. She likes them so much that she prefers to wear them any day, including this sunny afternoon in a giant sandbox. It was time for us to go so we’re packing everything up and I told her to empty the sand from her shoes before getting in the car. The sand was bugging her so she easily obeyed and took off her boots to empty them out. The problem was that she was still standing in the sandbox when she did this. So she emptied the boots out while standing on the sand in her sweaty socks, then putting the boots on again she scoops up a little more dirt. Now I just watched her for a while (and thought, here’s sermon illustration). She got frustrated. Not because it happened once, but it happened about three times until I intervened and suggested that she get out of the sandbox before trying again.

And there’s some of your relationships with God. You have wanted to get closer, but you’re boots just keeping filling with sand.

We’re called to draw near to God, that is, to live in a rich God-accomplished relationship with God. But we’re not there. And there are at least two fears that keep us from getting there: fear of judgment and a fear of disappointment.

Tomorrow we’ll look at how what Jesus has done and does answers these fears.

Sin as Contradiction

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John Murray:

All sin in the believer is the contradiction of God’s holiness. Sin does not change its character as sin because the person in whom it dwells and by whom it is committed is a believer.

It is true that the believer sustains a new relation to God. There is no judicial condemnation for him and the judicial wrath of God does not rest upon him (Romans 8:1). God is his Father and he is God’s son. The Holy Spirit dwells in him and is his advocate. Christ is the believer’s advocate with the Father.

But the sin which resides in the believer and which he commits is of such a character that it deserves the wrath of God and the fatherly displeasure of God is evoked by this sin. Remaining, indwelling sin is therefore the contradiction of all that he is as a regenerate person and son of God. It is the contradiction of God himself, after whose image he has been recreated.

Redemption Accomplished and Applied (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1955) 144.

The End of Shame and the Rise of Humble Hope

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John Newton:

When we are deeply conscious of our defects in duty. If we compare our best performances with the demands of the law, the majesty of God, and the unspeakable obligations we are under; if we consider our innumerable sins of omission, and that the little we can do is polluted and defiled by the mixture of evil thoughts, and the working of selfish principles, aims, and motives, which though we disapprove, we are unable to suppress; we have great reason to confess, “To us belong shame and confusion of face.”

But we are relieved by the thought, that Jesus, the High Priest, bears the iniquity of our holy things, perfumes our prayers with the incense of his mediation, and washes our tears in his own blood.

This inspires a confidence, that though we are unworthy of the least of his mercies, we may humbly hope for a share in the greatest blessings he bestows, because we are heard and accepted, not on the account of our own prayers and services, but in the beloved Son of God, who maketh intercession for us.

“The Intercession of Christ,” Sermon 47, The Works of John Newton, vol. 4, 1820 (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 2007), 531, paragraphing mine.

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