Lies we believe about sin

It's easy to listen to that voice in your head instead of the truth of Scripture. Here's three lies we may get trapped into believing, instead of the reality of being in Christ.

1. "I'm a good person". OK most Christians admit that they are a sinner, but how often is that just a technicality? Really, we see ourselves as basically upright citizens who actually do a lot of good things... Essentially we believe that we are good people just like any non-Christian who gives to charity and does his neighbour a favour every now and then. The problem with this lie is that at its heart, it's comparative. What do we base the fact that we are 'good' on, except for being able to find someone who seems 'worse'? But labelling ourselves as 'good', we are thinking about the people who are easy to label as 'bad' - the prostitutes, the swindlers. But oh wait, those guys, those 'bad' people, those real 'sinners', are the ones Jesus was always hanging out with! (see Luke 15:1-2) It's the elder brother vs the prodigal (read the rest of Luke 15). If you're not the humbled sinner coming home, you're susceptible to be the wrongly aggrieved one standing in the background with arms folded. You'll miss out on the joy of grace and the party. And this standpoint has just as much sin in it as the colourful history of the prodigal; it just looks different. As JI Packer writes in 'Respectable Sins': 'every sin that we commit, even the subtle sin we don't even think about, was laid upon Christ as He bore the curse of God in our place.' We can't start 'grading' sins. The truth is that even our 'righteousness' is as filthy rags before a holy God (Isaiah 64:6).

2. "My sin doesn't matter, I'm saved by grace." Perhaps we get flippant sometimes because we know God will forgive us. Look at what Paul writes in Romans 6:

'Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.' (Rom 6:1-4)

To wilfully keep on sinning means we haven't really understood the gospel, and we have to realise that sin has a hardening effect on our hearts. Read Hebrews 6 for a sobering reminder of the result of apostasy: being cut off from God. A true fear of God will lead us to obedience. We can have no assurance of our salvation if we live lives that are unchanged by the gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit.

3. "I can't beat this sin." Going back to Romans 6, Paul says that we are 'set free from sin' (v7). This is not to say we attain sinless perfection this side of glory, but it does mean that we now have power NOT to sin, whereas before we were sinners, in darkness, and without the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives to sanctify us. It is possible for us to say no to sin, not in human strength but by being 'strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might' (Eph 6:10). Sometimes the reason we aren't seeing victory over sin is because we haven't confessed to others and asked for prayer and accountability.

So there you have it, three lies we get duped into believing about sin. It's only the truth of Jesus in His Word that sets us free, so learn some key Scriptures which will help you fight this battle.

Lessons from Numbers- the danger of rebellion (part 4)

One of the reasons I find reading Numbers so difficult is not so much the chapters which record lists of names and genealogies, but that it focuses on several acts of rebellion on a micro and macro level - rebellion by one or two individuals, or by the whole of Israel - and all of them are judged swiftly by the LORD. Miriam is given leprosy. The sabbath-breaker, at God's command, is stoned to death (ch 15). Moses is told he will never enter the promised land because he didn't follow God's instructions to speak to the rock, not strike it (ch 20). Phinehas is commended by the LORD for spearing an Israelite and his pagan woman (ch 25). And Korah, Dathan, Abbiram along with their families and followers are swallowed up by the earth in an act of devastating judgement from the LORD. (ch 16)

It all seems so harsh; so sudden; so irrevocable. What happened to grace? I'm sure this is one of points where people say 'Look, the God of the Old Testament is just full of judgement. The God of the New Testament if one of love. The Bible contradicts itself!' Or at least, maybe some Christians feel that as we're under grace not law, thankfully these kinds of things don't happen anymore and don't apply to us.

But that viewpoint is not taken by the New Testament writers. In fact, they are hugely influenced by the book of Numbers. Look at what Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 10:

'For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers,a that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.
Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.'

Paul says that Christ Himself was with Israel all those years in the wilderness! This isn't a case of Jesus coming in the New Testament and suddenly it's all about love. Moreover, Paul sees these accounts as 'examples for us'. Numbers warns readers not to make the same mistakes as Israel, of taking God's commands lightly, forgetting His goodness, hankering after the past and coveting what you do not have. It links all these sins to the heart issue: unbelief. This is still relevant for us today. Whenever we fail to believe God's promises; whenever we choose the pleasures of sin above obedience; whenever we question God's appointed leaders and their authority, we run the risk of behaving in exactly the same way as Israel, and 'with most of them God was not pleased... and were destroyed.'

Hebrews is another epistle very influenced by Numbers, and very focused on warning God's people not to harden their hearts, let sin deceive them, and walk away from the truth.

'For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.' (Heb 6:4-8)

In Numbers, there is no atonement for apostasy. Those who knowingly reject God's covenant promise are disinherited and destroyed. Their unbelief led to disobedience and treating God with contempt. There was no way to undo their sin. They could never enter the land; they died outside the land of promise. The writer of Hebrews similarly gives a stern warning to believers because if they commit apostasy (entering a covenant with God then rejecting Him; this may be done consciously or through persistent, deliberate unrepentant sin), they cut themselves off from Christ, the only sacrifice for sins under the new covenant. As the New Bible Commentary states:

'Nothing is impossible for God, but He offers us no hope of reclaiming those who take a continuous and hard hearted stand against Christ. Those who harden their hearts may reach a point where they are hardened beyond recall.'

The message of Numbers is that none of us can ever get complacent about our relationship with God, and that is supported by the New Testament as well. We are responsible for diligently making our call and election sure (2 Peter 1:10), knowing that if we are still standing at the end, it's because of God's phenomenal grace to us. We can't stay faithful without His enabling, so knowing our own human capacity for weakness and disobedience, we should throw ourselves upon His mercy and grace daily in prayer and ask Him to keep us faithful to the end.