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 of God -- 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 into transformation. But there is one
string attached: God helps us if... and this is 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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