DON’T TOUCH MY CRAYONS

Sin, as defined by the Bible is simply “missing the mark, God’s mark. We can think of sins as colors, every sin a crayon, red, blue, green and so on. The Bible teaches we all have colored, we all do color and we all will color, because we like to color. This is not a license to grab a large box of crayons and go play, but rather a consequence of the Self appeasing nature we were born with, the very thing that needs to die so Christ’s divine nature can come forth. Our Christian life is all about transformation, being changed into the very nature of Christ, a replacement process where we reckon bits of our self nature dead and Christ replaces those pieces with bits of His nature. For example, unforgiveness is a condition of one’s heart, a sin, unjustifiable regardless of the circumstances (yes, this is a tough one), a purple crayon. Unforgiveness is often directed at one’s Self... we can’t forgive our Self for something we did. When the Holy Spirit reveals through God’s word that unforgiveness is present and is a sin, the only option is to consider it dead by placing it on the cross of Christ and refusing to yield to it again – quit grabbing the purple crayon. Now this will involve a struggle for Self loves to be in control and we can become enslaved to sin, especially habitual sin that has festered like an infection in our heart. God has promised we will prevail if we persevere, so we can only lose by giving up. Everyone stumbles in a spiritual battle, it’s ok as long as we get back up, the victory is in the “getting back up.” During this struggle God is replacing every little bit of our unforgiving nature that dies with his forgiving nature until one day the old unforgiveness has passed away and His forgiving nature is alive thriving in us. The reason death to sin is the only option is simple: God’s standards for our conduct are nonnegotiable – He’s God! And perseverance, determined steadfast resolute endurance, is the “Big Wrench” in God’s transformation toolbox.

Transformation is a process and processes involve time, so along the way we still color, some more than others, but hopefully less and less. And when we slip and miss the mark, Jesus, who already paid the penalty for our sin on the cross, seeks forgiveness from the Father on our behalf – this is grace. What gets us in trouble is not that we color, but that we keep grabbing the same crayon, say orange or pink, creating strongholds of habitual sin gratifying our Self nature. God’s children simply cannot habitually sin, continually grab the same crayon, and expect God’s transformation process to continue. Habitual sin will, over time, suffocate Christ’s nature within, killing the only thing that can give us true life, eternal life with Him.

Is one color worse than another, is my gray worse than your yellow, is murder worse than hatred, adultery worse than lust, homosexuality worse than failing to love one’s enemies, or suicide worse than unforgiveness. Are any of these worse than lying, idolatry, pride, divorce without cause, worse than failing to love God? Are they not all crayons? When it comes to sin, God is colorblind, seeing only neutral: Whatever the sin, big or small, subtle or blatant, socially acceptable or repulsive in man’s eyes, all are neutral to God. Man makes distinctions between sins looking at the effect; God ignores the effect and looks at the root cause, the condition of our heart. Murder, oh that’s hatred. Adultery, oh that’s lust. Lying, oh that’s protecting Self, and so on. God’s transformation process is heart surgery, and as our heart changes we will quit coloring altogether, we will become like Him. We all need heart surgery, we all still color, but my coloring is no better or worse than your coloring, to Daddy. He wants to break all the crayons of this life by giving us something better, His life, where we won’t need or want to color.