Romans 6:23–Dead in Sin, Alive in Christ

Romans 6:23–"For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Sin is one of the most verifiable truths in life and yet its existence is still one of the most intellectually rejected.  Sin is so pervasive that it has rendered hearts hard, minds dull, and spirits empty.  But all of those consequences pale in comparison to the ultimate consequence of sin: eternal separation from God. There is no more severe repercussion reckoned to humanity than to be separated from God eternally.

Enter Jesus.  Christ Jesus has saved us from our sin and offered us life through faith in His name, faith in who He is as the Son of God, and faith in what He did on the cross.  This is the very essence of Christianity.  In fact, the whole of Christian theology hinges upon this truth: that God saves people from sin through Christ Jesus.

Let us never, ever forget this.

Adam Gained only the Loss of Everything

Whether film or theology, the beginning is always a good place to start.  The Bible starts with the story of creation: God speaking creation and the created order into existence merely by the power of His spoken word.  Then comes the apex of God's creation: man.  Made in the image of God, man is purposed to reflect God's image and glory not only back at God but also throughout creation.

It is important to note that there is a change of name in Genesis 2.  In Genesis 1 it is God creating, but in Genesis 2 there is a transition to the Lord God.  This is a significant change, for the Lord God refers to the covenant name of God, Yahweh.  Although space is not permitting for an exhaustive look at this point, suffice to say that Moses is making a clear point to ensure the original Israelite readers (and us too) that the same Lord God who brought them out of Egypt is the One who created Adam, the original man.  Moving on...

Think about the scenario: the Lord God creates Adam and gives him everything, even a wife.  The emphasis is that the Lord provides everything for Adam.  Adam lacks nothing.  Again, Adam already had everything in God.  There was not a single thing in all creation that Adam lacked.

However, Adam willfully disobeyed God by eating of the fruit of that one tree that God forbade.  Adam did not believe that God actually had provided everything.  Instead, in the most powerful act of volition he challenged God's goodness and His promises by eating of the fruit.  This is the very essence of sin.

But it is important to note: because Adam already possessed everything, there was no thing, nothing he could do or say to merit more because he already had it all.  Therefore, when Adam ate of the fruit, he did not gain anything, it turns out he lost everything.  The willful act of disbelief in the provision of God caused a separation from the source and giver of life that Adam could not bear in life; he had to die.  This needs to be said again: by willfully not believing what God had promised, Adam gained nothing but the loss of everything.  Let us not forget this when we see the traps and snares of temptation trying to woo us away from the glory of God.

David, Bathsheba, and Sin

The story of David and Bathsheba is chronicled in 2 Samuel 11.  Although many people remember David for his faith in facing Goliath, or his steadfast integrity in submission to Saul, or his strong and faithful leadership in administrating Israel, but his great shame comes when he, enticed by the beauty of another man's wife, commits adultery with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah.

Much can be said about this episode, but suffice to say that the narration has profound implications for how we should live and handle desire when we are tempted to commit sin.

A short synopsis: David, although he should have been at war for Israel, was up on his roof in the day's heat.  He gazes across the city to see the beautiful Bathsheba, whom he decides is too beautiful not to take for himself.  He sends for her, she comes to him, and they know each other.  However, Bathsheba is a married woman, wed to one of David's chief military general.  David, still overcome with ravenous passion, executes a plan to have Bathsheba's husband killed.

Much has been said in the past about David's great sin, both in committing adultery but even more so in his devious plot to have Uriah killed.  And although David is the main character of this story, the role of Bathsheba in the adultery and sin should not be downplayed or overlooked.  Bathsheba was equally sinful for her part.

The point of this story, beyond the value of historical narration, is to exhort God's children to be mindful of desire when it entices us to transgress the righteousness of God.  We need to be on guard, not so much against the external locus of sin, but the internal one.  Let us then take heed to the story of David so that we might not be led astray by our own desires.

Adam's Original Sin: Neglecting His Wife

Genesis 3 records the Fall of mankind, and by by association creation.  The story is one of the few essential narratives in all the Bible, on par with the story of David killing Goliath, and death of Jesus.  Even non-Christians who have never opened the pages of the Bible know these stories.  For the purposes of this dialogue, the Fall will be under closer examination. 

A brief synopsis: Adam and Eve, the apex of God's creation, have been created and given the whole of creation as their gift and task.  Yet God has given a single command to not eat one thing, the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  At some point, Adam and Eve are sitting around in the cool of the day, and a sly serpent comes and tempts Eve to eat the forbidden fruit.  She then hands some fruit to Adam, who eats, their "eyes are opened," and they are cast out of the presence of God for their disobedient sin.

Breathe.  Something is striking about this story, though, where is Adam while Eve is being tempted.  In the Hebrew, there is a preposition about Adam indicating that he was right next to his wife while she was being enticed by the shrewd snake.  But despite Adam's close physical proximity, he did not speak up, he didn't even think to ask, "Hey babe, what's going on over there?"

Instead, Adam neglected what was going on with Eve and the serpent.  In truth, Adam abdicated his primary task, which was to care for and protect his wife.  Thus, Adam's first sin, which is different than Eve's, was actually neglecting his wife, Eve.  Notice how this sin carries through the bloodline of Adam to today.  Men should take heed, then, to the sin of Adam and think about it every time we hear the television calling us away from our wives.

A True Story about Hypnotism

I recently read this story about an English woman who, after a long day of work, came home to find her husband transfixed, staring at the bathroom mirror.  The woman tried with all her might to break her husband's gaze to no avail.  The woman noticed that his pupils were small as pinheads.  It was then that she realized what had occurred.

The Londoner called a friend, specifically her husband's teacher, to talk with her husband and release him from his gaping.  Within seconds, her husband snapped back to normal, blinked several times, and then walked slowly into the living room to sit down.

For several weeks the husband, named Helmut, had been studying hypnotism and learning advanced techniques to the point that he had began practicing for an upcoming show.  What had happened is that Helmut, practicing in the mirror, had accidentally hypnotized himself and was stuck staring into the bathroom mirror for over five hours.

While this story is an incredibly humorous story about the risk in getting in over your head, it is also a  colorful painting of trying to live a righteous life apart from the guidance and fellowship of Christ.  Many people live their lives as zombies staring into the mirror, stuck in their life without any ability within themselves to snap out of the gaze.

Normally, I would spend time supporting the point by the weight of Scripture, however, today it would suffice to say that, while the above story is both factual and hilarious, it is also a good metaphor for life spent apart from God and apart from Christian fellowship, unable to break the hypnotized stupor without outside help.  Therefore, let us break the zombie-esque self-hypnotized state and seek after God whole-heartedly!

An Archery Story about Sin

Quite literally, sin can be understood, especially in the Greek, as an archery term for utterly missing the mark.  While this is a functional understanding of sin, that is, man missing God's mark, it would be a gross misunderstanding to assert that sin is mankind aiming at God's target and "flubbing" the shot.  To get at the serious and egregiousness reality which is our sin, a story might be in order.

The English countryside of the late middle ages is full of undulating pastoral plains and pristine grasslands interlaced into rocky hills.  Villages are fairly secluded, distanced little contact with each other apart from traveling salesman, tax collectors, and itinerant preachers.  However, there was an annual archery contest in one of the smaller towns (if it could be called a town) that every year would attract the greatest archers from around the world for a chance to win the coveted prize.

Over a thousand yards, from the farside of the brook that formed the mouth of the valley to a small, blood-red target painted into the rocks across the village at the base of the mountain range that hugged the other side of the valley.  Every archer was given one shot.  A single shot.  But for this prize, archers would travel from the far-reaches of the world for that shot.

It is said, passed from the holy men and sages of the past, that if any man could make the shot with a perfect bullseye on that certain day he would be given life eternal.  However, if the shooter missed even in the slightest, he would instantly die and dissolve into the babbling water of the brook.  For decades, shooters tried and although some got close, everyone of them died.  After years, people stopped even trying to hit the mark and the yearly event slowed to just a couple of brave archers a year.  As more time passed, the day of the event faded into memory and then into legend.

Years later, a traveler was passing through and stopped at the inn for a meal and perhaps a place to sleep.  As he was talking with the barkeep, the legend of the archery shot of eternal life was brought up.  The barkeep said that no one had ever hit it and that people just stopped trying.  The traveler mentioned that the barkeep had to be mistaken because he noticed that as he was coming down the mountain trail, he saw the target with a single arrow in the direct center of the bullseye of a rock.

The barkeep just burst out laughing and poured the man another drink.  The traveler looked up at him in confusion.  "That was Harold," said the barkeep.  "Well, did he get life eternal?" answered the traveler.  "No! He shot the arrow and then painted a target around it before he died!"

This is what sin is about.  Not only do we miss the target, we don't even get close.  In fact, we are so far from even hitting the target that it could be though that we aren't aiming at all, which in some cases is the truth.  However, the target of sin has been hit and definitively.  Christ has hit that mark and, because of who He is, we can take part in that victory through faith.  This is the most beautiful event and truth that has ever occurred.  Period.  Let us then take joy in Christ and cling to Him in faith so that we would not have to shoot that shot, but that He has taken it for us!

Recognizing Sin By Remembering Love

The essence of friendship is love.  The essence of love is compassion.  The essence is mercy.  The essence of mercy is sacrifice.  And the essence of sacrifice is humility.  All of this boils down to Christ.  Jesus is the ultimate example of friendship and love.  He gave every it of his very life to save humanity from sin and to reconcile a broken creation to a Holy God.

This is utterly and devastatingly beautiful.  God Himself has overcome sin, cleansing all who come to Him in faith by the blood of the Holy Lamb.  Unfortunately, from time to time, our understandings of sin can become cavalier and nonchalant, as if we lose sight of how disgusting sin actually is.

For the essence of sin is disobedience and seeking to take things into our own hands.  Whenever we sin, we esteem that which is not God to be more valuable than God.  If we recognize sin with the sober seriousness that it warrant, we can then begin to understand why God treats sin with such disdain.

When we sin, we are, in action, indicating that the friendship, the love, the compassion, the mercy, the sacrifice, and the humility that Christ Himself fulfilled in His flesh is insufficient to change us.  As in what Christ did was not enough to stop us from sinning.  As has always been true, every generation of Christianity has its own theological posture.  The last few generations has downplayed sin to such a degree so that some people don't even believe in sin at all.

Needless to say, this is blatantly blasphemous disbelief.  When we neglect or diminish sin, we are in fact equally diminishing and neglecting the work of Christ.  For Christ's work was purposed on overcoming and defeating sin.  When we forget sin, we are in turn forgetting Christ.  Let us then always remember what Christ has done for us, and strive to never diminish sin in light of what Christ has done!

Seeing Sin

No matter how it's sliced, sin is sin.  This is a simple and convicting reality.  Yet, despite the facts humanity continually, since the very beginning, will always try to rationalize our sin, claiming it to be either something less-than sin or calling sin not sin.  Neither one of these is acceptable.

The key to this is perspective, God's perspective.  As we come to Christ in faith, our perspective is sanctified.  Paul writes, "Do not be conformed any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, so that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect (Rom. 12:2)."

This world is full of sin.  Everywhere we turn, we see debauchery, immorality, idolatry, unbelief, paganism, and political correctness.  Additionally, sin creeps and lurks at the doorsteps of our hearts, waiting to devour us by trapping us in our own desires (Gen. 4:7; James 1:14-15).

Sanctification is all about transforming our vision so that we start to see sin the way God sees sin, which is far different from how our culture would like to view sin.  To God, sin is disgusting and foul.  There is no acceptable measure of sin to God.  Therefore, there should be no acceptable measure of sin to us either.  Let us then take sin as seriously as death, because that's what it is.

The Fall of Man

Genesis tells the tales of beginnings.  One of these beginnings that has had long-lasting effects to every human since occurs in Genesis 3, known generally as The Fall.  Although the crux of this episode is chronicled is told in chapter 3, chapter gives us the necessary background information.  Because it is so needed to understand chapter 3, a brief synopsis of the relevant material from chapter 2 is in order.

This is the story of Adam, the prototypical man, and Eve, the prototypical woman.  Adam was created first, formed from the clay and dust by God's own hands, with life breathed into his nostrils straight from the breath of God Himself.  Adam was placed in a beautiful and complete garden, Eden, and given the freedom to take joy at eating any and every one of the fruits in the garden, save one, the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

It is at this point, the first time ever, that God esteemed something not good (Gen. 2:18), for man is a relational creature and is not to be alone.  God then tasks Adam with naming all the beasts and animals  before creating Eve.  Eve was then taken out of man while man was put into a deep, sedative sleep.  And thus the stage is set for chapter three.

In chapter 3, the apex moment of creation, sin, occurs.  Briefly, the serpent comes and entices Eve to take of the forbidden tree.  In a sequence that leads right to death, the serpent lies to Eve, she misinterprets the command of God and eats the fruit to gain the serpent's proposed effect of "god-like" knowledge.  Eve then passes the fruit to her husband who eats, their eyes are then opened to their loss of innocence, and they hide from God who, after confronting their disobedience, curses them for their actions.  There is so much more to this, far more than can be discussed here.  For this, read these two chapters after prayer and God will reveal Himself to us through His Word.

While there is long list of relavent and important points of comment about The Fall, because of the length and scope of this dialogue, the act of disobedience itself will be examined.  There are many misconstructions associated with this event, the chief of which deal with the deceptions of the serpent.

For one, the so-called knowledge to be acquired from eating of the forbidden tree did not make man god-like, nor was it nearly as fulfilling as promised.  This the truth is attributed to all sin.  There is another major point to be associated both with the Fall and with all sin: Eve and Adam, in eating the fruit of the tree, attempted to accrue knowledge apart from God.

This is the very essence of sin: any attempt of man to gain something that is God, such as get knowledge or wisdom or even find salvation, is a deliberate act of unbelief and disobedience.  Put plainly, it is sin.  Although this has been an all-too-brief exegesis of Genesis 2-3, the point is to show that sin has been the same act since the very beginning, though perhaps the particulars have changed.

Freedom from the Fungi of Sin

Armillaria Ostoyae, or Honey mushrooms, are some the largets living organisms on the earth.  They are parasitic fungi that spread across root systems with its lace-like stems that grow under the bark of trees and shrubs, robbing the plant of its vital nutrients, killing the host-plant as it grows.  Although the mushroom begins from a single spore they can spread for miles.  In Oregon's Malheur National Forest, one such fungi has spread for some 2,200-plus acres.  It is estimated that this particular organism is over 2,400-years-old.

Oddly, while this fungi is present, it is very difficult to trace unless the tree is cut into as the fungi grows primarily under the bark, tapping directly into the nutrient source.  The "hidden" killer.  Often times researchers are not even aware of the fungi's presence until a cluster of trees is found dead and, upon dissection, the fungus is found.

The story of the Honey mushroom is much like the story of sin, which hides just under the skin, stealing the vital nutrients of the host and eventually killing him/her.  Something so small, hidden just beneath our skin with tremendously devastating effects.  Sin, like the fungi, eats away at its host to eternal destruction, and prevents the nutrients of God's grace from transforming our lives.

Fortunately, we have an advocate in Christ Jesus who has cured us of our disease and has removed the parasite of sin.  Sin entered into mankind through one man just as the Honey mushroom spread form a single spore.  But Jesus, through His obedience unto death, made a way to cure us of the pervasiveness of sin so that we could be free from its parasitic pull (Rom. 5:12-21; 1 Cor. 15:19-26).

God, by the work of His Son, has saved us utterly.  As a result, we can come to Him in faith so as to receive the perfect remedy for sin.  As Jesus enters into us, by the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit,   God's holiness applied directly into us and the sin that had so destroyed the innards of our beings is removed wholly from our lives.  Let us then press into God in faith as to be fully cured from the fungi of sin that eats away at us from the inside out!

Freedom from the Stiffest Debt

Going to the mailbox is one of the most tormenting and hated acts in all of America.   The scene is so normal, as we dread opening the box and seeing those evil white envelopes housing their bills, we are left with a bitter gall at the power of these little pieces of paper, for they are sure to afflict the bank accounts and leave us feeling beaten and broke, like slaves to our debts and our creditors.  And while this may seem caricatured, the emotion is valid and more widespread than we would care to concede.

Fortunately, financial debts can be managed and overcome a persistent prescription of diligent prudence.  Additionally, finance is a finite ordeal, having no eternal affects in and of itself.  However, humanity has another, eternal debt.  And this debt, unlike the credits of finance, cannot be overcome by judiciously managing resources.  This debt is sin.

Sin is a stain on the credit scores of our souls that prevent us from receiving the heavenly and eternal King, known through the shed blood and broken body of Christ by faith.  Sin and its pervasive effects prevent us from entering into a right and restored relationship with the Lord Almighty.  Luckily, in this regard, we have One who has paid our sin debt in full: Christ Jesus.

The Bible speaks of sin a record of debt that Jesus has zeroed, nailing it to the cross in His body (Col. 2:13-14).  In doing so, God has secured for us an eternal inheritance, of the imperishable.  When we come to God, in faith, we receive this inheritance as adopted children into the family of God (Eph. 1:3-14).  Additionally, His Word declares that in Jesus, through repentance in faith, may our debt be cancelled definitively (Acts 3:19-20).  Let us then turn to God in faith to be cleared of the most severe and eternal of debts!

Dead to Sin like a Tree in Winter

Towards the end of summer into fall, trees take on an interesting character.  Green chlorophyll production ceases and the process of photosynthesis closes down, as the leaves change color in preparations for the dead of winter.  As a result, by the time the snow hits the bark, the tree is void of any photosynthetic leaves and the tree goes through seemingly no energy production or cellular respiration throughout the winter months, only to begin the process of growing green, photosynthetic leaves in the spring.  In a sense, the tree is dead for the winter, unable to feel or to utilize the sun because it does not have the necessary receptors in place to do so.

Humans are much like a tree in the winter of this world, dead to the warmth of God and unable to feel His presence or receive His grace because our leaves have long blown away, leaving us cold, calloused, and dorment to the Lord.  As Paul says clearly, that before we have accessed God's grace in Christ through faith, we are "dead in our sin and trespass (Eph. 2:1-3).

This death, like a supreme dullness to God, is pervasively holistic in that it has permeated to the very depths of our beings, preventing us from receiving God or the things of God due to the fact that we have become dorment in our minds, in our hearts, and in our souls (Eph. 4:18).  And because the things of God are spiritually discerned, the fleshly, darkened, hibernating-to-death man is unable to access God (1 Cor. 2:14).

Fortunately, God has made a way for us to shed the dullness of our winter hibernations in order that we may experience the warmth of the Holy Lord.  It is by His grace that, though we were dead to Him in our sin and trespasses, He died for us in order that we may be made alive to Him (Eph. 2:4-7).  It is as if God has taken our barren limbs and caused them to grow new leaves so that we may be alive in and to Him.

In truth, we all are snow-laden trees, hibernating in the winter of this world, unable to feel the warmth of God's grace and love because our photosynthetic cells are not working.  Only through the work of the Holy Spirit, who causes us to receive God's grace, will we be able to bask in the light of the Lord and take part in the work of His Son.  Our part in this is repentance.  We recognize our state and we seek out the warmth to change it from death to life, from wintered inaction to summer blooming.  Let us then take part in the awesomeness of God in repentance and faith and, like a spring tree, shed ourselves of the snow in order to bud in Him!

Sin: A Matter of the Heart

An extremely wealthy man wakes up one sunny morning, picks up his coffee cup that's been poured by the maid, and steps outside onto his deck to read the paper and take in the morning.  The man sits and sips his coffee in supposed contentment, surveying the splendor of the day as he looks across his expertly-manicured lawn.  He should be at work but he felt like staying home to enjoy the splendor of a day like today.

Suddenly a sight catches his eye.  Over his fence, through his neighbor's window, he sees a woman bathing.  She is stunning and steals his breath.  He tries to look away but her alluring beauty is intoxicating.  Before long he can stand it no longer.  The rich man asks his gardener who this woman is, knowing her to be his neighbor's wife, and has her summoned so as to covet her for her sex.

David and Bathsheba is the well-worn biblical story of adultery (2 Sam. 11).  David, a king of remarkable wealth and stature, covets the sight of Bathsheba and devises a heinous plot to seduce the woman, to cover up his adultery, and, ultimately, to covertly kill her husband.  And although David repented of his sin when confronted by Nathan (2 Sam. 12:1-13), the perennial question remains: at what point did David sin? when he saw Bathsheba and didn't turn away? When he beckoned for her? When they had sex? When he covered it up? When he had Uriah killed?

The core of the issue is sin, although it has often been reduced to a how-far-can-I-go-before-I-sin quandary.  There are two remarkable passages that shed light upon this challenging story.  The first is Jesus' teaching in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7).  Jesus says, "everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Matt. 5:28)."  Jesus is speaking about the state of a person's heart.  In this way, Christ indicates that the root of sin goes beyond mere external expressions, but in fact lies much deeper.

Secondly, Solomon writes in Proverbs, "Whoever plans to do evil will be called a schemer.  The devising of folly is sin, and the scoffer is an abomination of mankind (24:8-9)."  The point is that temptations abound in a world that is in the hand of the evil one, and guilt is not measured by whether we are tempted or not, but in how we react to those temptations.  If we scheme and plan to do evil, we have sinned in our heart already.  God wants more.

In reference to David, it was not a sin for him to see.  But at the moment of scheming, he sinned.  The moment that desire conceives to give birth to sin (James 1:13-15) is the moment of claiming that sin and devising of plans to make the desire a physical reality.  Sin then becomes a much more intimate, much more integral part of who we are.  Therefore, only when we really utterly on God, from every single moment to every single moment, will we be able to withstand the desires that lure us away.  Let us fix our eyes upon the Lord, so as to be freed from the enticements to sin!