The Last Adam

"Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil(Luke 4:1–2a).

What are the differences between the test that Adam underwent in paradise, and the test Jesus experienced in the wilderness? There are several contrasts we can take note of. First, Adam was tempted in the midst of a beautiful garden, a situation that would reinforce God’s light and truth to him. Jesus, however, was led into a lonely, dry, bleak, and dark wilderness, an environment not very conducive for being strong in the Spirit.

Second, when Adam was faced with Satan’s temptation, he enjoyed the support and camaraderie of his wife. When Jesus was tempted, it was in a context of solitude. We find it easier to compromise our ethics when we are alone, and when we are unknown to those around us. There was no one present to see what Jesus would do. And beyond this, Jesus experienced the pain of loneliness.

Third, God had invited Adam and Eve to eat of every tree in Paradise except one, so that when Satan tempted them, he tempted them on a full stomach. They were not being undermined by physical pain. Jesus was physically drained by 40 days of fasting when Satan came to Him.

The similarity of the two temptation accounts is seen in Satan using the same ploy—denying the Word of God. In the guise of a serpent, Satan approached Adam and Eve and asked, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” (Genesis 3:1). By asking this question, Satan was casting doubt upon the trustworthiness of the Word of God. Eve replied that God had only forbidden one tree, on pain of death. Then Satan moved to a direct contradiction of God’s Word: “You will not surely die” (v. 4). Satan succeeded in that they rejected God’s Word of law and promise. However, the same tactic failed with Jesus, the second Adam.

Satan tries to prevent people from learning and memorizing God’s Word, and if they have learned God’s Word, Satan tries to prevent them from believing it. One of the best ways to memorize Scripture is to sing it. Are you involved in any program of learning to sing the psalms and other scriptures? Shouldn’t you be?

The Degrees of Sin

"Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins" (1 Peter 4:8).

In the Middle Ages, Roman Catholic theologians formulated a distinction between venial and mortal sins. Venial sins are relatively slight, being committed without full reflection. Mortal sins, they said, are sins that are so wicked that they destroy the justifying grace of God in the soul. If you die in a state of unconfessed mortal sin, you will not be saved.

The Protestant Reformers rejected that distinction, and because of this, some Christians have come to believe that all sins are equally bad in God’s eyes. In one sense that is true, because every sin is an act of rebellion against God, and in terms of justice every sin deserves eternal damnation. The Reformers went on, however, to state that God does not always deal with us in terms of justice, but that He offers us salvation in the Gospel. Thus, Calvin concluded that all sins are mortal in the sense that we deserve death from them, but no sin is mortal in the sense that it can destroy saving grace.

Beyond this, the Reformers clearly taught that there is a difference between petty sins and gross, heinous sins. The Bible clearly teaches that such sins as adultery and murder are not to be overlooked, but are to be subjects of church censure and/or civil action. At the same time, Christian love covers over a multitude of minor sins.

The Bible teaches us that there are degrees in hell, and that some sins are punished more severely by God than others (John 19:11; Luke 12:47–48). Why is this important? Because if we don’t make this distinction, we will be drawn into worse sins. If a man is having trouble with lust, he may think, “Well, I might as well go ahead and commit adultery, since I’m already guilty.” We must keep in mind that the punishment for adultery will be far more severe than the punishment for lust.

Even our “private” sins affect others since they affect us and our relationship with God. Be honest with yourself today and this week to face those areas in your life where you may be guilty of yielding to a greater sin by erroneously thinking all sins are equally bad in God’s eyes.

Elliptical Guilt

The Westminster Catechism defines sin as “Any want of conformity to or transgression of the law of God.” We notice here that sin is defined both in negative and positive terms. The negative aspect is indicated by the words want of conformity. It points to a lack or failure on moral performance. In popular terms it is called a sin of omission. (I once had a theology professor who denoted a sin of omission as the failure of the second baseman to cover the bag in a double play.) A sin of omission occurs when we fail to do what God commands us to do.

The positive aspect of the catechetical definition of sin refers to overt, actual stepping over the boundaries of God’s law. It is a sin of commission.

Both sins of omission and sins of commission are real sins. They incur real guilt. When we do what God forbids, we are guilty of a sin of commission; when we fail to do what God commands, we are guilty of a sin of omission. In both cases the law of God is violated.

Sometimes God expresses His laws in negative terms (Do not do …) and sometimes in positive terms (Do …). The Ten Commandments contain both forms (Do not steal; Honor your father and mother).

That God’s commands appear in both positive and negative forms hints at the elliptical character of the law. Calvin stated it this way:

There is always more in the requirements of the Law than is expressed in words.… It is true that, in almost all the commandments, there are elliptical expressions, and that, therefore, any man would make himself ridiculous by attempting to restrict the spirit of the Law to the strict letter of the words (Institutes II/VIII/8).

Calvin’s distinction between the letter and the spirit of the Law follows Augustine, and more importantly, the teaching of Christ. It is not intended to say we are to keep the letter of the Law and ignore the spirit, or keep the spirit of the Law and ignore the letter. The spirit and the letter of the Law may be distinguished but never divorced. God requires that we keep both the letter and the spirit of the Law.

The spirit of the Law is often elliptical to the letter. That is, it is not overtly stated but is left implied or tacitly understood. This is the crucial point the Pharisees missed and which Jesus carefully expounded in the Sermon on the Mount.

It is usually clearly understood that when God positively commands some good, by implication the evil opposed to it is forbidden. For example when God says, “Honor your father and your mother,” we understand that we are not permitted to dishonor our parents.

It is not so clear to us when we work in the opposite direction from vice to virtue. When the Pharisees looked at the prohibitions “Thou shalt not kill” and “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” they assumed they were guilt-free if they merely abstained from the letter of the prohibition. They missed the ellipse that called attention to the whole complex of the commandment. Jesus explained that the prohibition against murder contained implicitly within it the whole complex of inflicting injury against our fellow man. To hate a person or be angry against a person is implicitly forbidden along with the explicit prohibition against murder. Likewise, sexual impurity including lust, is prohibited on the full import of the Law against adultery.

But the Law goes deeper. Just as when good is commanded, its opposite evil is prohibited, so when evil is prohibited its opposite good is commanded. The Law against adultery is a law for sexual purity. The Law against idolatry is a law for true worship. The law against murder is a commandment for the sanctity of life. Again Calvin comments:

When evil is forbidden, its opposite is enjoined.… Censure of vice is commendation of virtue.… Hence the commandment. “Thou shalt not kill,” the generality of men will merely consider as an injunction to abstain from all injury, and all wish to inflict injury. I hold that it moreover means, that we are to aid our neighbor’s life by every means in our power (Institutes II/VIII/9).

If we fully grasped the elliptical character of the Law, I trust, for example, that the argument among Christians over abortion on demand would be ended once and for all.

When we consider the elliptical character of the Law we discover that God’s law is far deeper and broader than we ever imagined. We also discover that our guilt is far deeper and broader than we ever imagined. It is the elliptical guilt we often overlook when we flatter ourselves for our virtue. When we see it and see it clearly, we fly to the Savior and His fountain of grace.

God's Providence and Sin

"You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives" (Genesis 50:20).

How does God’s control of all things relate to man’s sinful actions? Does God reach down and compel innocent people to do evil things’? To ask such a question is to answer it. Obviously, the holy and righteous God never compels men to sin.

Ultimately, the relationship between God’s providence and human freedom is a mystery. In theology, the term concurrence is used to express the idea that God is working in the universe, and at the same time man is also working. God brings His providential government to pass through real human agency.

To see into this mystery somewhat, we can look at the story of Joseph. Joseph’s brothers hated him because they envied his status with their father. They attacked him, intended to kill him, and wound up selling him into slavery in Egypt. God brought Joseph into a position of power in Egypt, however, and a decade or so later the other sons of Jacob had to go to Egypt to buy grain, because of a famine. There they encountered Joseph and were reunited.

After their father died, the brothers were afraid that Joseph might take revenge on them. Joseph assured them, however, that though they were sinning when they attacked him, God was working good through the situation. God was not guilty of causing them to sin, but God was mysteriously working out salvation through their sin.

The Westminster Confession of Faith expresses the mystery of God’s providence this way: “God from all eternity did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass: yet so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures.…” What a comfort it is to realize that God never sins, and never causes men to sin, and yet His purposes are not thwarted by our sins. In fact, God is able to bring good out of our sinful actions. There is nothing evil men can do that will prevent God from fulfilling His good intentions toward us. Remember this truth today when confronted by evil—your own or someone else’s.

The Problem of Forgiveness

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9).

It may seem strange to speak of a “problem” of forgiveness. After all, as Christians don’t we rejoice in our forgiveness, freely given to us in and by Jesus Christ our Savior? Certainly we do. Yet all of us from time to time have problems with this free forgiveness.

One problem we have is that we don’t clearly focus on the difference between objective forgiveness and feelings of forgiveness. Yesterday we saw that there is a difference between true moral guilt and guilt feelings. Similarly, there is a difference between objective forgiveness and feelings of forgiveness.

Sometimes people feel forgiven when in fact they are not forgiven because they have not confessed their sin to God. For the Christian the reverse is often the problem. We want to feel a certain way—to have an experience of release from guilt feelings—before we will accept the fact that we are objectively forgiven. In fact, though, if we have confessed our sin, God has forgiven us, and that is true whether we feel it or not.

The second problem Christians have with forgiveness can be illustrated by a story. A man once told me that he had confessed a sin to God over and over again, and yet he did not feel forgiven. I told him that he needed to confess a different sin: the sin of arrogance. He needed to confess the fact that he had arrogantly refused to accept God’s objective forgiveness, which God had already given him. All of us are proud, and so there is a part of us that does not want to receive a completely free forgiveness. It is humbling to have to admit that there is absolutely nothing I can do about my own sin.

If we worry that maybe God has not forgiven us after we have confessed our sin, that worry can turn into a second sin of disbelief. Does today’s lesson describe any area in your life? If so, go to your knees now and tell God that you believe His Word despite nagging feelings to the contrary, and that you accept His forgiveness. If doubts come to your mind during the day, argue with yourself from 1 John 1:9. God’s Word is true; our hearts are often liars.

Dealing with True Guilt

"For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight" (Psalm 51:3–4).

What is true guilt? Guilt objectively occurs when we break the law of God. Guilt feelings are the result of that. Sometimes a person may feel guilty when he does something that is not really objectively wrong in God’s eyes. This is because his conscience has been misinformed. In the same way, however, we sometimes don’t feel guilty when in fact we are guilty. Thus, though guilt feelings can be an important signal to us, alerting us to sin, we need to be more concerned with true guilt than with guilt feelings.

The first thing we have to do in dealing with guilt is to acknowledge it. The normal thing for us sinners to do is to deny our guilt. We don’t want to face it, so we push it down. But the more we push guilt down, the deeper it goes, and the more pervasive its destructive influences on our lives become.

We live in a society today that has sought to deal with guilt by denying its reality. We want to see people happy and healthy, and sometimes in order to make someone feel better we tell him that it’s okay, and that what he did is not all that bad. However, real guilt must be dealt with by facing the sin that caused it. We see this principle clearly in the life of David.

King David used his power to take the wife of Uriah the Hittite. After committing adultery with her, David had Uriah killed in order to cover up his sin. Then God sent Nathan the prophet to confront David. Nathan did not tell David that what he had done was not so bad after all. Rather, he told David that he had sinned against God, and that what he had done was horrible (2 Samuel 11–12).

David’s response is seen in Psalm 51. David did not minimize his guilt; instead he confronted it and confessed his sin. It was through this confrontation and confession that he found forgiveness.

Is there some area in your life where you feel guilty? Confront this problem by asking two questions. First, am I really guilty of breaking God’s law, or am I feeling guilty about something I shouldn’t feel guilty about? Second, if I am guilty before God, have I confronted this sin and confessed it? Avoid compounding your guilt through your failure to acknowledge it. Set aside time today for reflection, and if necessary, confession.

The Struggle of the Christian

"So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members" (Romans 7:21–23).

In verse 21, Paul states a “law,” by which he means an axiom or proverbial truth. He says whenever he wants to do something good, evil is right there to trip him up. It seems in our most dedicated moments, in our times of greatest personal devotion to Christ, that’s when the most wicked of thoughts will creep into our minds. It seems such horrible temptations are cast up out of our hearts right when we are serving Christ most intensely.

Verse 22 is the proof that Paul in Romans 7 is not describing a pre-conversion experience, or even an experience of being backslidden. Paul states that he delights in God’s law in his inner being. The unbeliever hates the law of God, so Paul must be describing his present condition, a condition of true spirituality. Notice that it is Paul’s innermost self that delights in God’s law. There is another inner self that is at enmity with God and delights in sin. Which self is the deepest? It is the innermost self, and this is the self that has been regenerated by the Holy Spirit.

The law of sin, Paul says, is at work in his “members.” Paul is not saying that his physical body is evil while his mind is good. Rather, he is using this language to contrast the innermost regenerated self with the peripheral aspects of his personality. Sin is still raging powerfully in the peripheral parts of his person, and these “members” go pretty deep. But at the bottom, at the core of his being, there is love for God and His law.

Only the redeemed man really hates sin and his sinful tendencies. Only the redeemed person will cry out “What a wretched man I am!” as Paul does in verse 24. Do you ever feel this way about yourself? Much of what Paul is describing concerns his sinful motives, intentions, and desires, all of which give rise to sinful behavior. Do you ever experience the kind of moral anguish and brokenheartedness Paul displays here? If so, rejoice, for it shows that you are one who loves God and His law. It was our Lord Himself who said, “Blessed are they that mourn (their sin); they shall be comforted."

Paul, the Carnal Christian

"For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin" (Romans 7:14 NKJV).

In this verse we see a contrast between the law and Paul himself. He contrasts the law as spiritual with himself as carnal. There have been those in evangelical Christianity who have set up a rigid distinction between “spiritual Christians” and “carnal Christians.” What we see in this verse should give us pause for thought.

Paul says, “I am carnal.” Remember that Paul is writing this after his conversion—he is using the present tense. Thus, if anyone was ever a carnal Christian it was the apostle Paul. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit Paul declares that he is—at the time he is writing this letter—carnal. That should be a warning for us lest we think that there are Christians today who have transcended carnality beyond what Paul himself achieved.

The word 'carnal' here is a form of the Greek word sarx, which is usually translated “flesh” in the New Testament. Sometimes this word refers to our physical existence, and is a synonym for the Greek word soma, meaning “body.” Sometimes, however, this word refers to our old nature, our sin nature. It refers to the condition of the whole man prior to his conversion.

The whole man, body and mind, outside of Christ is “flesh.” In Romans 7:14, Paul contrasts “flesh” and “spirit,” and indicates that it is the moral sense of “flesh” that is involved here. The word Spirit should be capitalized, because the reference is to the Holy Spirit. The law is spiritual because it comes from the Spirit of God.

But haven’t Christians been liberated from bondage to sin and from the “flesh”? What Paul means is that even though he has been redeemed and made a new man, he is still afflicted with a principle of indwelling sin. He is still to some degree a creature of the “flesh,” sold under sin.

Romans 7:14–25 describes the inner conflict of the believer. It seems confusing partly because what goes on inside the believer’s heart is confusing and distressing. The more we come to know of God, the more we see our remaining corruption. Paul’s attitude, of grieving over sin and wrestling with it, is that of the truly spiritual person. He is diligently pursuing the new life in Christ, but continues to lament the ongoing ravages of his sin.

The Misuse of God's Law

"For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death." (Romans 7:11)

We notice here, and throughout Romans 7:7–12, that it is not the law that is the enemy but sin. It was not the law but sin that deceived me and killed me. What was the instrument that sin used to slay me? It was the commandment of God.

Let’s take an analogy. Is there anything evil about a sword? No. A sword is just a sword. It has no will or mind. If I pick up a sword and kill someone with it, it is not the sword that is put on trial and sentenced, but rather it is I who am guilty of using the good sword in an improper manner.

Just so, Paul says that my sin deceived me and killed me by using the law. The enemy is my sin, and since it is my sin, ultimately the enemy is myself. I have destroyed myself by misusing God’s law. Instead of using the law as a list of things to do to please God, I used it as a list of things to rebel against. The more I knew about the law, the more consistent and ferocious my rebellion became, says Paul.

Paul wants to make it clear that the law is good. Verse 12 reads, “So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good.” How much more clearly could the apostle speak? It is not that grace is good and law is bad. Rather it is that the law is good and sin is bad. Obedience to God’s law never brought about spiritual death. The problem is with me. The more of God’s law I see, the more I misuse it against myself. Thus Paul says that “in order that sin might be recognized as sin, [the law] produced death in me through what was good” (v. 13). The law, which was given to produce life and good works in me, was actually producing death in me because of the perversity of my sin and the way my sin was misusing the law.

Do you find it irksome to obey people in authority over you—employers, teachers, parents? Do you find that there is something in your heart that wants to disobey, even if only in some slight way, the things you have been instructed to do? These are some of the ways in which our sinfulness uses the commandments of others to cause us to act in self-destructive ways. Where in your life would you make a change from self-destructive patterns of rebellion to an attitude of willing obedience?

Guilt and the Christian Life

"Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him" (Zechariah 3:1).

One of the main ways Satan and his legions have of paralyzing the believer is through accusation. One way is for the Devil to get us to commit some public sin or indiscretion, and then accuse us and destroy us. But beyond this, Satan works with our guilty consciences to make us feel despair. Every Christian sins every day, and thus the problem of sin and guilt continues to be a roadblock to Christian holiness and health.

We see a picture of this in Zechariah 3. This chapter is part of the “night visions” of Zechariah, and in one of these visions, the prophet sees the current high priest, Joshua, standing before the Lord. It was the task of the high priest to minister before the Lord on behalf of the people.

Zechariah saw Satan standing next to Joshua to accuse him. Of what was Satan accusing Joshua? We can see it in verse 3: “Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel [of the Lord].”

Normally the high priest wore “garments of glory and beauty,” which symbolized his position as God’s anointed and glorified leader. Now, however, Joshua was dressed in degrading garb. His filthy garments represented the defilement of his life and of his office. Satan was pointing these out to the Lord, and Joshua was standing ashamed. But then “the Lord said to Satan, ‘The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you!’ ” (v. 2). The Lord refused to hear Satan’s accusations, and instead stripped Joshua of his filthy garments and reinvested him with beautiful clothes (v. 4). This is how God deals with us as well. God refuses to hear Satan’s accusations because He deals with us only through His Son.

This story in Zechariah 3 shows us what happens when we bring our sins and ourselves before the Lord. We shouldn’t allow Satan to burden us with them. Rather, we are told to confess our sins, confident that God will forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). Has Satan been weighing you down with guilt over some sin? Confess it and forsake it, and then arise in the confidence that you are now once again robed in Christ’s glory.

Holiness and Eternal Life

"But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 6:22–23).

As Romans 6 draws to a close, Paul speaks of the consequences of our lives. In verse 21 he writes, “What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death!” Think back, Paul says, to the days before Christ turned your life upside down. What good did that life do for you? It could only lead to death and shame. By way of contrast, in Christ you are now reaping benefits that result in eternal life.

Romans 6 ends with a glorious summation of the Gospel in verse 23. Paul says that “the wages of sin is death.” You were a slave of sin, but you were a slave who earned some wages. Wages are given in response to merit. What did you merit from your sin? What did you earn? Paul makes it clear: You could only earn death.

On the other hand, “the gift of God is eternal life.” Notice that life is not earned but is given freely by God. You once lived as a wage-earner to sin, but now you live a life that is graciously given apart from merit.

At first glance it looks as if verse 23 contradicts verse 22 which says that eternal life is the end point of the fruit of holiness and righteousness. Holiness and righteousness are the result of yielding as a slave to Christ. But this does not mean that eternal life comes to us as a result of our earning it through righteousness. Rather, the entire process, from conversion to glory, is a gift of God. Our salvation is gracious from beginning to end. All that we have is of God’s grace, from regeneration to glorification.

As Romans 6 comes to a close, consider this: God assures you that your old life is dead, and that you have full access to a new life. Are you taking advantage of this gift? Are there areas in your life—behavior patterns, relationships, secret desires—that you know are incompatible with the new life in Christ? Take time to ask the Spirit of God to bring before your mind things that need to be changed, and then resolve to live in the newness of the resurrection life that is guaranteed you in Christ Jesus.

Who Shall Be Our Master?

"But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted" (Romans 6:17).

It is interesting to see the real act of charity in this verse. Paul does not know by name the people he is addressing, and he certainly does not know the state of each soul. Paul knew, though, that surely there were some in the church at Rome whose profession was invalid. Jesus had warned there would be those who would say, “Lord, Lord,” but whose hearts would be far from Him. All the same, Paul addresses them all as believers.

Paul does not try to separate the true believers from the false, but rather he encourages all those who have professed Christ. He says that he praises God that they have turned from sin to God. Now they are obeying the form of teaching that the Gospel brings.

Paul has no fear of teaching or doctrine. Paul speaks of doctrine not as an abstract science, but rather as something obeyed. It is that “you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness” (v. 18).

Being Christ’s slave and thus a slave of righteousness is one of Paul’s central themes. As he argued in verse 16, “Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?” All men serve something. The question is whether they serve sin and die, or serve God and live.

Paul’s first words to the Romans were “Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus” (Romans 1:1). As Christ’s slave, Paul had been turned from sin to newness of life and that is what he was encouraging the Roman Christians to do.

Americans have a particularly difficult time understanding this teaching because of the memory of slavery in our own land. We must not focus on the condition or state of slavery as much as on the Master. When Jesus is the Master, obviously the state of slavery is redefined. Paul, who knew the horrors of one form of slavery was yet willing himself to be the slave of Christ. Ironically, teaches Paul, this slavery actually leads to freedom. Have you discovered this in your own life?

Sharing in the Life of Christ

"The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus" (Romans 6:10–11).

Christ did not die for Himself. Neither was He raised from the dead merely for Himself, but He was raised for us, that we might also participate in life everlasting. We will participate in the exaltation of Christ. He is the first-fruits of all those who will be raised from the dead.

Paul is particularly concerned here, however, not with that future glory, but with our living with Christ right now. Christ is alive now, and the power of His life is alive in us now. If we identify with the Cross in justification, then we must also identify with His life in the present. “If we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him” (v. 8). According to verse 10, Christ died to sin and now lives unto God. Now, if we are identified with Christ’s death in our baptism (v. 3), then we must also be identified with His present life. Just as He now lives unto God, so must we.

All of this flows from our justification. In justification, God took my sins and put them on Jesus. When God killed Jesus, He killed my sin. If God reckons our sins dead on the cross with Jesus, then we also ought to reckon ourselves dead to sin. We need to agree with God. God counts us dead to sin, and so we ought to count ourselves dead to sin and alive to God. Thus, Paul is saying that we need to consider our old life is dead. It’s over. Let it be buried. We can’t go back.

If we have embraced Christ, what we now must do is live a new life following Him. We have no choice. The old life is dead. In this way Paul makes it clear that anyone who has been declared justified by God must inevitably lead a new life in righteousness.

Paul speaks of “counting ourselves” as dead to sin and alive to righteousness. This is an act of the will and the mind. Often we have to argue with ourselves, to remind ourselves that the old life is indeed gone and that we really do have the power to live new lives. Although Paul cannot say everything in a single verse or chapter, later in Romans he will remind us that the power to live this new life comes by the Spirit. Do not be deceived into thinking you can walk independently. The new life is a supernatural one which requires more than the natural resources you possess.

Man's Indebtedness to God

"Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors." (Matthew 6:12).

Sin has three dimensions or aspects that are dealt with in Christ’s atoning work. Sin involves debt, crime, and an estrangement between the persons of God and man. I want to focus on the difference between pecuniary and penal debt.

If I borrow $10,000 from Bill, I owe him a pecuniary debt. Suppose I simply cannot pay it back, but my best friend comes forward and says that he will give me the money to pay it back. Is Bill obligated to take this repayment? Certainly, because the only responsibility I have to Bill is to pay the money back. Once I’ve repaid him, even if it’s with my friend’s money, I am debt-free.

But now suppose I stole $10,000 from Bill, and I am arrested for robbery. Then my best friend comes forward and says that he will pay Bill the $10,000. Is Bill morally obligated to take that repayment? No, not at all, because in addition to the financial dimension, a crime has been committed. There is more involved than mere money.

In a robbery, there is a pecuniary debt that must be paid off with money, but there is also a penal debt that must be paid by punishing the criminal. Suppose my best friend also offers to take my punishment? He can offer it, but it will be up to Bill to accept.

In order for Jesus’ payment of our debts to be accepted, God had to decree that He would accept that payment on our behalf. Suppose Jesus had simply appeared and died for my sins. Would God be under any obligation to accept that payment? No. There first had to be a judgment by the Governor of the Universe that He would accept a substitutionary payment for my debts. This prior decision by God the Father is pure grace on His part.

In light of our two-fold indebtedness to God, consider how presumptuous it is when people refuse the work of Christ and replace it with their own “good” works. Aside from their inability to perform even a single “good” work, they would obligate God to accept their offering. In your prayer time today pray for those who teach and preach that they might have significant opportunities to speak the Gospel truth regarding the only way of salvation.

A Land Flowing With...Porn and Heroin?

Being a minister means being an observer of culture. Kind of like "people watching" at the airport, but in a more comprehensive (think societal) and spiritual way. Which is why I am interested in two cultural insights making the rounds right now. 

The first is the announcement of a Barna Group research project called The Porn Phenomenon, (you can read a summary of the 150-page report here) -- a new nationwide study about pornography. It is a massive research project examining teenagers, young adults, and Americans in general as well as ministers and youth ministers – more than 3,000 interviews in total across a range of questions. The results of the study are sobering and support what many of us already suspected...that pornography is a HUGE problem. Do read the summary here to get up to speed. Take home for ministers is that we have a problem with porn, as do our church members, and there needs to be biblical, helpful teaching on biblical sexuality which takes into account the prevalence of porn in the sexual lives of our people. We have to help people beat this addiction and understand that pornography use is sin.

The second item of note is our country's HUGE (there's that word again) heroin (and opiate) addiction. The faces of heroin include the young, middle-to-upper class and suburban. It is THE major drug problem in the United States. What was once thought of as an inner-city problem is now a national epidemic and heroin use is showing up everywhere, including high schools. The reasons for the rise of the epidemic are very interesting, and are chronicled in a significant newer book titled Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic by Sam Quinones. To get a flavor for what Dreamland records, you can watch the most recent 60 Minutes segment which focused on heroin use in small-town America. They focused mostly on Ohio. What's so striking about it all is how pervasive the problem is and how many folks around us are likely affected by it. Case in point, one of the young women interviewed - a fresh-faced young suburban Ohio woman and recovering heroin addict who told 60 Minutes correspondent Bill Whitaker about shooting up in the high school bathroom. Her name is Hannah Morris. It started with pot, then went to pills, then to smoking heroin, then shooting it up:

Bill Whitaker: So you were what, 15?

Hannah Morris: Yeah. And I was like, oh my gosh that was amazing.

Bill Whitaker: You remember it even now?

Hannah Morris: Oh yeah. Let’s say I’ve never done a drug in my life. I would normally be happiness at a six or a seven, at a scale out of 10, you know. And then you take heroin and you’re automatically at a 26. And you’re like, I want that again.

Hannah says the heroin was so addictive that rather quickly she and several other students went from smoking it at parties to shooting it up at high school.

Hannah Morris: Like, doing it at school in the bathroom.

Bill Whitaker: A syringe?

Hannah Morris: A syringe. I would have it in my purse, all ready to go.

Why the interest on my part? Because I want to reach our culture with the gospel, to see the captives set free in Jesus Christ. And this is us. A land flowing with milk and honey but also porn and heroin. And not only are these medical and addiction problems, they are ultimately spiritual problems. If this is the country we've become, what will the Church do?

Desires That Come From the World

15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever (1 Jn 2:15–17).

The Apostle John often teaches about the importance of love and that God is love (1 John 4:7-8), but he also reveals that God hates a certain type of love: love of the world (John 15:18–20). 

In this text, John expresses a particular kind of test - let's call it the "test of love." Positively, the Christian loves God and fellow Christians. Negatively, an absence of love for the world must habitually characterize the love life of those to be considered genuinely born again. “Love” here signifies affection and devotion. God, not the world, must have the first place in the Christian’s life (Matt. 10:37–39; Phil. 3:20) 

When John speaks of the 'world,' this is not a reference to the physical, material world but the invisible spiritual system of evil dominated by Satan and all that it offers in opposition to God, His Word, and His people (1 John 5:19; John 12:31; 1 Cor. 1:21; 2 Cor. 4:4; James 4:4; 2 Pet. 1:4). 

John tells us that the person who loves this system (or world) cannot have the love of the Father in him. Either one is a genuine Christian marked by love and obedience to God, or one is a non-Christian in rebellion against God, i.e., in love with and enslaved by the satanically controlled world system (Eph. 2:1–3; Col. 1:13; James 4:4). No middle ground between these two alternatives exists for someone claiming to be born again. The false teachers that John was battling in the community to which he is writing had no such singular love, but were devoted to the world’s philosophy and wisdom, thereby revealing their love for the world and their unsaved state (cf. Matt. 6:24; Luke 16:13; 1 Tim. 6:20; 2 Pet. 2:12–22).

James said a similar thing in James 4:4 - "You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God."

While the world’s philosophies and ideologies and much that it offers may appear attractive and appealing, it is deception. Its true and pervasive nature is evil and harmful. Its deadly theories are raised up against the knowledge of God and hold the souls of men captive (2 Cor. 10:3–5). 

How is it that men's souls are held captive? Through lust and the desires of the flesh and eyes. John uses the term 'desire' (or lust) negatively here for a strong desire for evil things. The term 'flesh' refers to the sin nature of man; the rebellious self dominated by sin and in opposition to God (Rom. 7:15–25; 8:2–8; Gal. 5:19–21). 

Satan uses the evil world system to incite the flesh and the eyes. Satan uses the eyes as a strategic avenue to incite wrong desires (Josh. 7:20, 21; 2 Sam. 11:2; Matt. 5:27–29). Satan’s temptation of Eve involved being attracted to something beautiful in appearance, but the result was spiritual death (Gen. 3:6 “pleasant to the eyes”). 

John also uses the phrase 'the pride of life.' The phrase has the idea of arrogance over one’s circumstances, which produced haughtiness or exaggeration, parading what one possesses to impress other people (James 4:16). All these things are "not of the Father." The world is the enemy of the Christian because it is in rebellion and opposition against God and controlled by Satan (1 John 5:19; Eph. 2:2; 2 Cor. 4:4; 10:3–5). The 3 openings presented - the desires of the flesh, the eyes, and the pride of life - if we allow access to sin, result in tragedy. Not only must the Christian reject the world for what it is but also for what it does.

As John notes, the Christian must not love the satanic world system because of its temporary nature. It is in the continual process of disintegration, headed for destruction (Rom. 8:18–22). But he who does the will of God abides forever! In contrast to the temporary world, God’s will is permanent and unchangeable. Those who follow God’s will abide as His people forever. While God offers eternal life to His children, the present age is doomed (cf. 1 Cor. 7:3; 2 Cor. 4:18).