Basic Christianity - Chapter 5 "The Fact and Nature Of Sin" Part 2

The Ten Commandments

I. You Shall Have No Other Gods Before Me

"This is God's demand for man's exclusive worship. It is not necessary to worship the sun, the moon and the stars to break this law. We break it whenever we give to something or someone other than God Himself the first place in our thoughts or our affections." For some people, it might be sports or hobbies; for others, money and possessions. These things aren't wrong or sinful in and of themselves. But it is wrong and sinful when we idolize them, and give to them the place that only God should have. To perfectly keep this commandment would be, as Jesus said, to love the Lord with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind; to seek His will and glory always; to give Him the first place in thought, word, and deed. No one has ever fully kept this commandment save Jesus of Nazareth. All others have failed utterly. "What someone wrote of the Englishman is true of everyman: he is 'a self-made man who worships his creator'."

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II. You Shall Not Make For Yourself A Graven Image.

"If the first commandment concerns the object of our worship, the second concerns its manner. In the first, God demands our exclusive worship, and in the second our sincere and spiritual worship. For 'God is a spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth' (John 4:24)." Although we may have never made a graven image with our hands, what gruesome mental image have we conjured up in our minds? And although this commandment doesn't prohibit the use of all external forms of worship, it does imply that they are futile except there be inward reality as well. "We may have attended church; have we ever really worshipped God? We may have said prayers; have we ever really prayed? We may have read the Bible; have we ever let God speak to us through it and done what He said?" It is pointless to approach the Lord with our lips if our hearts are not sincere (Isaiah 29:13; Mark 7:6).

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III. You Shall Not Take the Name of the Lord Your God in Vain.

"The name of God represents the nature of God... His Holy Name can be profaned by our loose language and most of us could do worse than revise our vocabulary from time to time. But to take God's name in vain is not just a matter of words, but also of thoughts and deeds." Whenever we our actions are contradictory to our beliefs, or our practice is not aligned with what we preach, we take God's name in vain. If we call Him "Lord" and then disobey Him, we are taking His name in vain. If we call Him "Father" and then doubt Him, we deny His name. This is hypocrisy.

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IV. Remember the Sabbath Day, to Keep It Holy.

"To set one day in seven apart is not just a human arrangement or a social convenience. It is God's plan... Man's body and mind need rest, and man's spirit needs the opportunity to worship. The sabbath is therefore a day of rest and worship." We are not only to keep it as such ourselves, for our own well-being, but we are to do everything we can for the common good to make certain that others do not have to work needlessly on this day. Sunday is holy, set apart unto God. It is His day, not ours. Therefore, we are to spend it in His way, and not in our way; we are to use it for His worship and service and not just for our own selfish pleasures.

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V. Honor Your Father and Your Mother.

"... our parents, at least while we are children, stand towards us in loco Dei: they represent God's authority. Yet often it is in their own home that people, young people especially, are at their most selfish and inconsiderate." It is too easy to be ungrateful and negligent, and to fall short of giving our parents the respect, affection, and honor they deserve.

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VI. You Shall Not Kill.

This commandment does not just prohibit outright murder. "If looks could kill, many would kill with a look. If murder can be committed by cutting words, many are guilty." In fact, Jesus clearly stated that to be angry with someone without a cause, and to be insulting, are matters just as grave. John writes, "Whoever who hates his brother is a murderer" (1 John 3:15). "Every loss of temper, every outburst of uncontrolled passion, every stirring of sullen rage, every bitter resentment and thirst for revenge - all these things are murder. We can kill by malicious gossip... studied neglect and cruelty... spite and jealously. We have probably all done so." Note that this commandment also forbids the taking of one's own life. Since God controls all things, and has chosen each person's circumstances, to commit suicide is to rebel against His authority.

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VII. You Shall Not Commit Adultery.

"... this commandment has a far wider application than just to unfaithfulness in marriage." It means that we are to be holy in heart, language, and conduct. This includes reading or watching impure things; speaking or jesting in a coarse, unseemly manner; or acting in any way that would compromise one's own purity or the purity of others. "This commandment in fact embraces every abuse of a sacred and beautiful gift from God."

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VIII. You Shall Not Steal.

"To steal is to rob a person of anything which belongs to him or is due to him. The theft of money or property is not the only infringment of this commandment. Tax evasion is robbery. So is dodging the customs. So is working short hours. What the world calls 'scrounging' the Bible calls 'stealing'. To overwork and underpay one's staff is to break this commandment." Yet these negative commandments also entail a positive counterpart. To truly abstain from killing, we must do everything in our power - so far as it is lawful and God-honoring - to nurture the health and protect our own lives and the lives of our fellow men. It is not enough to merely refrain from the act of adultery. The commandment requires the proper, healthy, and honorable behaviour of each sex towards the other. "Similarly, to keep from stealing is no particular virtue if one is miserly or mean. Paul was not satisfied that a thief should stop stealing; he had to start working. Indeed, he had to continue in honest labor until he found himself in a position to give to those in need." 

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IX. You Shall Not Bear False Witness Against Your Neighbor.

This commandment forbids not only perjury, but also slander, scandal, idle talk, lies, and deliberate exaggerations or distortions of the truth. "We can bear false witness by listening to unkind rumors as well as by passing them on, by making jokes at somebody else's expense, by creating false impressions, by not correcting untrue statements, and by our silence as well as by our speech."

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X. You Shall Not Covet.

"The tenth commandment is in some ways the most revealing of all. It turns the decalogue from an outward legal code to an inward moral standard. The civil law cannot touch us for covetousness but only for theft. For covetousness belongs to the inner life. It lurks in the heart and the mind. What lust is to adultery and temper is to murder, that covetousness is to theft." When a man covets, he not only breaks this commandment, but the first commandment also. He is allowing his desire for someone else's property to usurp the place of God. This is idolotry (Colossians 3:5b). By contrast, Paul tells us in 1 Timothy 6:6 that godliness with contentment is great gain.

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Taking a careful look at these commandments has revealed a hideous catalogue of sins. Stott says, "So much takes place beneath the surface of our lives, in the secret places of our minds, which other people do not see and which we manage to conceal even from ourselves. But God sees these things. His eye penetrates into the deep recesses of our hearts (Hebrews 4:13). He sees who we really are, and His law shows up our sins for what they really are. Indeed, it was the purpose of the law to expose sin (Romans 3:20)... nothing can convince us of our sinfulness like the lofty, righteous law of God."

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Persevero,

Basic Christianity - Chapter 5 "The Fact and Nature Of Sin" Part 1

Having examined and established the evidence for the unique deity of Jesus Christ, we will now move on to a new subject: the Fact and Nature of Sin. The reason why it is so essential that we examine this issue is simple: we not only need to know who Jesus was, but what he came to do. John Stott reminds us, "He is presented not simply as the Lord from heaven but also as the Saviour of Sinners. Indeed, the two cannot be separated, for the validity of His work depends on the divinity of His person."

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Yet before we can appreciate the work which Christ accomplished, we have to recognize who we are as well as who He is. After all, the work He did was done for our sakes. "It was the work of a person for persons, a mission undertaken for needy persons by the only person compentent to meet their need." Christ's compentence is found in His deity; our need is found in our sin. We have thoroughly examined His compentence; we must now take a honest, straightforward look at our sin. "Only then, after we have clearly grasped what we are, shall we be in a position to perceive the wonder of what He has done for us..."

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Of course, sin isn't a popular subject to deal with. Many would rather leave it alone. Christians are often critcized for giving the matter too much consideration. "But," Stott responds, "it is only because Christians are realists that they do so. Sin is not a convenient invention of parsons to keep them in their job; it is a fact of human experience." 

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In fact, Stott points out further, a lot of what we take for granted in "civilized" culture is founded upon the assumption of man's sinfulness. "Nearly all legislation has grown up because human beings cannot be trusted to settle their own disputes with justice and without self-interest. A promise is not enough; we need a contract. Doors are not enough; we have to lock and bolt them. The payment of fares is not enough; tickets have to be issued, inspected and collected. Law and order are not enough; we need police to enforce them." All of this owing to man's sin. We can't trust each other. We have to be protected from one another. It is a terrible reflection of human nature.

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We will first touch upon the universality of sin. This fact is one which is clearly and strongly affirmed by the biblical writers. Here are a few examples:

• Psalm 14:1-3; 53:1-3; 130:3; 143:2
• Ecclesiastes 7:20; 9:3
• Isaiah 53:6; 64:6
• Jeremiah 2:29; 16:12
• Micah 7:2
• Romans 3:10-12; 3:22 -23; 5:12;
• 1 John 1:8; 5:19

After reading such passages as these, the universal extent of sin is plain. But what is sin? What is its nature? The answer to this important question can be best summed up this way:

"Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the Law of God."

Thus, sin is both 1. a shortcoming (failure to conform or obey) and 2. a transgression (willful trespassing or disobedience). In other words, when we sin, we are not only falling short of God's requirements, but we are also willfully disobeying God's requirements. If I were to steal, my wrong would be twofold: first, I would be failing to love my neighbor as myself (Matthew 22:39); second, I would be deliberately disobeying the 8th Commandment "You Shall Not Steal" (Exodus 20:15).

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Of course, all this implies the existence of a moral standard, something by which we may measure ourselves and our actions. This standard is the Law of God, summed up in the Ten Commandments. But we fall far, far short of it. We are desperate sinners who have failed the test miserably.

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There are many people who reject this idea. They have their own "standards", their own "ideals", and believe that they attain them more or less. They do not indulge in much inward examination, nor in undue self-criticism. They know they have lapses every now and then; they are aware of certain character deficiencies; but they are not especially alarmed by them, and they consider themselves to be no worse than other men. Stott says, "All this is understandable enough, until we remember two things. First, our sense of failure depends on how high our standards are. It is quite easy to consider oneself good at high-jumping if the bar is never raised more than waist-high. Second, God concerns Himself with the thought behind the deed and the motive behind the action. Jesus clearly taught this in the Sermon on the Mount. With these two principals in mind, it should prove a healthy exercise to take the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20 as our standard and see how very far short of it every man falls."

To be continued...

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Persevero,

More From Roosevelt On American Boyhood

"The best boys I know - the best men I know - are good at their studies or their business, fearless and stalwart, hated and feared by all that is wicked and depraved, incapable of submitting to wrong-doing, and equally incapable of being aught but tender to the weak and helpless. A healthy-minded boy should feel hearty contempt for the coward, and even more hearty indignation for the boy who bullies girls or small boys, or tortures animals. One prime reason for abhorring cowards is because every good boy should have it in him to thrash the objectionable boy as the need arises.

~

"Of course the effect that a thoroughly manly, thoroughly straight and upright boy can have upon companions of his own age, and upon those younger, is incalculable. If he is not thoroughly manly, then they will not respect him, and his good qualities will count for but little; while, of course, if he is mean, cruel, or wicked, then his physical strength and force of mind merely make him so much the more objectionable a member of society. He cannot do good work if he is not strong and does not try with his whole heart and soul to count in any contest; and his strength will be a curse to himself and to everyone else if he does not have thorough command over himself and over his own evil passions, and if he does not use his strength on the side of decency, justice, and fair dealing.

~

In short, in life, as in a football game, the principal to follow is:

Hit the line hard; don't foul and don't shirk, but hit the line hard!"

~ Theodore Roosevelt, The American Boy

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Persevero,

Parental Discretion

Courtesy of Student News Daily

From the School Library...

"A major requirement for sucessful investing is the constant awareness that there is a new religion in the world. The god of this new religion government, and the ritual the worshippers perform is legislation. Faith in this new religion is deep and profound. The worshippers are convinced their god can solve almost any problem, if only the right legislation can be performed...

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There is an abundance of legislation for every problem known to mankind, especially financial problems. The worshippers are convinced that this legislation is truly protecting them from financial rip-offs, so they feel less need to protect themselves...

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The ritual does not work. The god is a false god, and we are on our own."

~ Richard Maybury, Investment Frauds, Rip-offs, and Cons (1984)

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Persevero,

Created for Work ~ Ch. 18 "The Plumbline"

"Important principals may, and must be, inflexible."

~ Abraham Lincoln

For those of you not familiar with the term, a "plumbline" is a line (as of cord) that is weighted at one end and is used especially to determine the verticality or straightness of something (you can make a simple one by taking a piece of string and tying a rock to one end). And when we say something is "plumb", we mean that it is exactly straight or true.

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Accurate measurements and calculations are fundamental to any project. They form the foundation of all well-laid plans.

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With them, you're sure to succeed. Without them, you're toast.

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With them, you can work smoothly, knowing the particular specifications your project must meet. Without them, your work will be slow and full of the unecessary hinderances which arise from poor planning.

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With them, everything will fall into place in the end. Without them, forget it.

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Notice the word "accurate". It's not enough to just have measurements and calculations. They must be accurate measurements and calculations. Any other kind is insufficient, misleading, and ultimately harmful. The importance of this fact cannot be over-stated.

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Furthermore, if accurate measurements and calculations are key in earthly affairs, are they not even more important in eternal affairs? If it is essential that houses and towers be built plumb and square and level, is it not much more essential that lives be so? Indeed, yes. A rock and a piece of string serves as a trustworthy plumbline to build a house by; and the Bible serves as a trustworthy plumbline to live by. God's Word is the universal plumbline, the only thing by which a man may accurately measure himself and his work.   

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Sadly, many people do not acknowledge this to be the case. They ignore the Bible and the divine instructions it gives. They throw away the yardstick God has provided them, and then substitute their own. They arrogantly assume they can live by their own rules. Some live based on how they feel; others let selfish desires take control; still others have no rule but lawlessness. In every case, the end result is misery, chaos, and failure.

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If our lives, including the way we work and do business, do not match up with the specifications given in the Bible, we're headed for disaster. Bob Schultz says, "Some folks mistakenly think that the Bible is for the religious world and not the business world. That kind of thinking leads any society into chaos. God intended His Word to be the standard measurement for industry and commerce. By it, men exchange goods and services in a way where everyone profits. Wherever men align their businesses with a practical understanding of the Bible, their society prospers."

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"Suppose," Schultz continues, "you go to a garage sale and see a $600 table saw with a $200 sign on it. You've been looking for one just like it. Do you slap down the cash and buy it before somebody else sees it? Maybe, but maybe not. As you talk with the woman holding the garage sale, you find that her husband died six months before and she is selling his tools to help make ends meet. She has no clue to the worth of the saw. What is the right thing to do? Here's a quote from God's Plumbline, 'Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees... To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless!' (Isaiah 10:1-2). If you ever take advantage of a widow in  a business transaction, watch out. God will surely reprove you. Look through the Bible, observe God's heart for widows, and align with Him. If you need that table saw, buy it. However, don't pay the $200 dollars she ignorantly asked for. If you have it, pay the $600 it's worth before someone else comes along and takes advantage of her. If you dont have $600, tell her what it's worth and offer her as much as you can. That's God's standard."

~

The Bible is the godly business man's instruction manuel. He aligns his work with it and with it alone. He rejects personal feelings, selfish desires, and lawlessness as contrary to God's commands. He measures his business by God's Word, and flourishes accordingly.  "The simple rock and string set the standard for every building in the world, from the skyscrapers of New York to the wooden huts in the Congo. The simple Bible, in the same way, sets the standard for business and work, from the most complex corporation to the lemonade stand on the sidewalk. As you go about life's business, may you learn to be a good builder, aligning all your affairs with God's Plumbline."

"Thus he showed me: and, behold, the Lord stood upon a wall made by a plumbline, with a plumbline in his hand. And the Lord said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A plumbline. Then said the Lord, Behold, I will set a plumbline in the midst of my people Israel..."

~ Amos 7:7-8

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Persevero,

Beowulf

Beowulf got ready,

donned his war-gear, indifferent to death;

his mighty, hand-forged, fine-webbed mail

would soon meet with the menace underwater.

It would keep the bone-cage of his body safe:

no enemy's clasp could crush him in it,

no vicious armlock choke his life out.

To guard his head he had a glittering helmet

that was due to be muddied on the mere bottom

and blurred in the upswirl. It was of beaten gold,

princely headgear hooped and hasped

by a weapon smith who had worked wonders

in days gone by and adorned it with boar shapes;

since then it had resisted every sword.

And another item lent by Unferth

at that moment of need was of no small importance:

the brehon handed him a hilted weapon,

a rare and ancient sword named Hrunting.

The iron blade with its ill-boding patterns

had been tempered in blood. It had never failed

the hand of anyone who hefted it in battle,

anyone who had fought and faced the worst

in the gap of danger. This was not the first time

it had been called to perform heroic feats...

~

Beowulf, son of Ecgtheow, spoke:

"Wisest of kings, now that I have come

to the point of action, I ask you to recall

what we said earlier: that you, son of Halfdane

and gold-friend to retainers, that you, if I should fall

and suffer death while serving your cause,

would act like a father to me afterwards.

If this combat kills me, take care

of my young company, my comrades in arms.

And be sure also, my beloved Hrothgar,

to send Hygelac the treasures I received.

Let the lord of the Geats gaze on that gold,

let Hrethel's son take note of it and see

that I found a ring-giver of rare magnificence

and enjoyed the good of his generosity.

And Unferth is to have what I inherited:

to that far-famed man I bequeath my own

sharp-honed, wave-sheened wonderblade.

With Hrunting I shall gain glory or die."

~ excerpt taken from Beowulf,
lines 442-463 and 473-492,
translated by Seamus Heaney

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Persevero,

Brake Problems

Courtesy of Student News Daily

Lego Orchestra: "The Imperial March"

 

No, I'm not a big fan of Star Wars. But I do enjoy the music of John Williams, and this creative lego version of the "Imperial March" was just too neat to pass up.

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Persevero,

Bonehead Legislation

In Whatever Happened to Justice?, Richard Maybury recommends a book entitled The Trenton Pickle Ordinance and Other Bonehead Legislation. In this book, journalist Dick Hyman cites 600 examples of absurd laws in America. Here are just a few...


In Massachusetts, it is illegal to put tomatoes in clam chowder.
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In South Carolina, you are breaking the law if your trousers have hip pockets.
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In Vermont, it is against the law to whistle under water.
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A Texas law says that when two trains meet at a railroad crossing, each shall come to a full stop and neither shall proceed until the other has gone.
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The Arkansas legislature once enacted a law forbidding the Arkansas river to rise higher than the Main Street bridge in Little Rock.

... yes, you did read that correctly. No, I didn't make it up.

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Persevero,

On the New Birth

Earlier this afternoon, as I was reading from John Piper's Finally Alive, I came across some great points about the new birth which I thought I'd share...

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1. Apart from the new birth, we are dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1-2).
"Dead implies lifeless. Not physically or morally lifeless, but spiritually lifeless... we are not dead in the sense that we can't sin. We are dead in the sense that we cannot see or savor the glory of Christ... we are unresponsive to God and Christ and this word."

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2. Apart from the new birth, we are by nature children of wrath (Ephesians 2:3).
"Apart from the new birth, I am my problem. You are not my main problem. My parents are not my main problem. My enemies are not my main problem. I am my main problem. Not my deeds, and not my circumstances, and not the people in my life, but my nature is my deepest personal problem."

~

3. Apart from the new birth, we love darkness and hate the light (John 3:19-20).
"We are not neutral when spiritual light approaches. We resist it. And we are not neutral when darkness envelops us. We embrace us. Love and hate are active in the unregenerate heart. And they move in exactly the wrong directions - hating what should be loved and loving what should be hated."

~

4. Apart from the new birth, our hearts are hard like stone (Ezekiel 36:26; Ephesians 4:18).
"At the bottom of our problem is not ignorance. There is something deeper... our ignorance is a guilty ignorance, not innocent ignorance. It is rooted in hard and resistant hearts... we suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Ignorance is not our biggest problem. Hardness and resistance are."

~

5. Apart from the new birth, we are unable to submit to God or please God (Romans. 8:7-8).
"... without the Holy Spirit, our mind's are so resistant to God's authority that we will not, and therefore cannot, submit to Him... and if we cannot submit to Him, we cannot please Him."

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6. Apart from the new birth, we are unable to accept the gospel (Ephesians 4:18; 1 Corinthians 2:14).
"The problem is not that the things of God are over [our] heads intellectually. The problem is that [we] see them as foolish... in fact, they are so foolish to [us] that [we] cannot grasp them... the heart is so resistant to receiving them that the mind justifies the rebellion of the heart by seeing them as foolish. This rebellion is so complete that the heart really cannot receive the things of the Spirit. This is real inability. But it is not coerced inability. The unregenerate person cannot because he will not. His preferences to sin are so strong that he cannot choose good. It is a real and terrible bondage. But it is not an innocent bondage."

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7. Apart from the new birth, we are unable to come to Christ or embrace Him as Lord (John 6:44, 65; 1 Corinthians 12:3)
"It is morally impossible for the dead, dark, hard, resistant heart to celebrate the Lordship of Jesus over his life without being born again... we so strongly prefer self-reliance that we cannot come. That is what has to be changed in the new birth. A new preference, a new ability, is given."

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8. Apart from the new birth, we are slaves to sin (Romans 6:17)
"Until God awakens us from spiritual death and gives us life that finds joy in killing sin and being holy, we are slaves and cannot get free. That's why the new birth is necessary."

~

9. Apart from the new birth, we are slaves of Satan (Ephesians 2:1-2; 2 Timothy 2:24-26)
"Our deadness is not unresponsive to the devil. It is perfectly in tune with the devil... the mark of unregenerate persons is that their desires and choices 'accord with' the prince of the power of the air. The unregenerate may scoff at the very idea of a devil. And of course, nothing is more in line with the father of lies than the denial that he exists... until God does that that miracle of new birth, we stay in bondage to the father of lies because we love to tell ourselves whatever we please. We keep fondling smooth roaches and warm, fuzzy tarantulas in the dark."

~

10. Apart from the new birth, no good thing dwells in us (Romans 7:18)
"Faith is good. The Holy Spirit is good. The new spiritual nature is good. Growing holiness is good. But in [our] flesh, that is, in the person [we] are by nature apart from the new birth, there is no good thing. All that was created good was ruined by being made the servant of man-centered concerns, not God-centered concerns."

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Persevero,