When we drive down Temptation Lane there are many detours into the Badlands of lawlessness. God does not tempt us, it is the tempter’s job, but it is our own desires that bait the tempter’s sin trap, drawing us into sin once the trap is sprung by our conceived desires. First John makes an important distinction between sin, singular, occasional sinning, and sins, plural, practicing sin. Jesus advocates Grace before the Father for all who occasionally sin... that would be all the saints, inviting us to boldly approach the throne of Grace in confession. When practiced sin becomes a habit of death, for habitual sin, be it a besetting sin or sinning in general, leads to lawlessness. The Apostle Paul’s strong repudiation of “over-abounding” Grace in the face of willful sin must be noted lest we cheapen Grace in our presumption: “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it”? How indeed! Truly sin dead people... with nail scared hands and feet, don’t practice sin. Jesus spoke of professing Christians who said they did great things for God’s Kingdom... but they practiced sin... practiced lawlessness, and this lawlessness ultimately separated them from God’s covenant of Grace: “I know you not.” We can sin our way out of Grace, becoming “unknown” to God, lost in our lawlessness, not possessing that which we profess.
Sin, under The Law, is missing the mark... God’s mark, specific acts offensive to God. The Law defined sin by actualizing sin and revealing its true character, discharging its holy function by unmasking sin as sin. Under Grace the commands and precepts of the New Testament... the new will, define and actualize sin. New covenant sin has became an attitude of the heart, more subtle and pervasive, where, for example, mental lusting becomes adultery and anger in one’s heart becomes murder... the bar has been raised considerably under Grace. The “Holy Road” is much more difficult under Grace so God indwells us with His Holy Spirit to teach, guide, direct and comfort us... helping us stay on the narrow gated difficult Way to transformation... if, a big IF, we willfully want to be helped.
Sin under Grace is still missing God’s mark, but our loving Father only inputs to our account the marks we knowingly miss -- for sin to be sin to us it must be known as such -- stretching His awesome Grace to cover sins committed without our understanding. We are accountable to God to live within the revelation of His will that we have received; as God grows us from babies into mature sons and daughters our accountability changes with our progression of understanding. Sin then is a choice between demonstrating our love for God in obedience... turning from our desires that bait us, or demonstrating our love for Self by giving in to the desires and pleasures of this earth-life. When we take the devil for a ride... he’ll want to drive... you know. And he will take us farther and keep us longer then we really wanted to go... he knows all the back roads to nowhere! Frequent trips to the throne room will keep the Holy Spirit in the driver’s seat and us out of the Badlands of lawlessness.
OBEDIENCE IS A TEST OF LOVE
“IF YOU LOVE ME...
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