“That God should play the tyrant over man is a dismal story of unrelieved oppression; that man should play the tyrant over man is the usual dreary record of human futility; but that man should play the tyrant over God and find him a better man [read: Jesus] than himself is an astonishing drama indeed. Any journalist, hearing of it for the first time, would recognize it as news; those who did hear it for the first time actually called it news, and good news at that; though we are likely to forget that the word Gospel ever meant anything so sensational.” — Dorothy Sayers, Letters to a Diminished Church, 6-7 (via lifeinthestory)
We Barbarians. Hurley Pro after party
Good dudes.
After reading some recent reports in the news, these 3 big ideas came to mind about sin.
Sin can be in word, thought, and deed (sins of commission) or by not doing what you should do (sins of omission). Sin is not neutral; it ultimately destroys and never leads to life (Gen. 4:7;Rom 8:1-8; 1 Peter 5:8). As John Owen famously said, “Be killing sin, or sin will be killing you.”
Sadly, we see the sins of omission every day:
Loving Jesus, loving your spouse, loving your friends, loving your people looks like confronting sin with truth and love. There is no greater contempt for someone than to leave them in their sin.
You’ve got to confront sin in yourself (Rom 8:1-11), in your spouse (Gen 3), and in your friends (Gal 2:11-14).
Sin always comes out. 1 Timothy 5:24-25 says this, “The sins of some people are conspicuous, going before them to judgment, but the sins of others appear later. So also good works are conspicuous, and even those that are not cannot remain hidden.”
In our era of reputation management and people pleasing, we need to see this. Sin, either because it seeks to destroy or because God will use it to discipline us, will come out. Some people’s sin is flagrant, they wear it on their face. Other people’s sin comes out years down the road, when they least expect it.
“Your sins do not define you. Your identity is as a redeemed, reconciled, justified, cleansed son or daughter of our loving Father.
”
Many men stand idly by, like their father Adam, believing the lies that if they just ignore it, it will go away. They can just deal with it next time it comes up or “it’s just how the other person is.” At the bottom of it all is selfishness and the idol of comfort. It does not love the person the way the cross shows us to. The cross shows us that God saves by first condemning, God heals by first wounding, God builds up by first crushing, God makes alive by first killing. You cannot get to the gospel without suffering, and trying to circumvent that is what Bonhoeffer called “cheap grace.” The sin of omission is giving someone else cheap grace. It belittles both sin and Jesus.
That’s the incredible thing about Jesus: he killed sin. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, he lived the only perfect, sinless life. At the cross, he paid the penalty for our sin to redeem us from sin’s bondage, reconcile us from sin’s estrangement, justify us from sin’s guilt, and cleanse us from sin’s filth.
More so, through the gift of a new heart and the presence of the Holy Spirit, it is his kindness that convicts us of sin and leads us to repentance (Romans 2:4). It is the Father’s love that disciplines us (Hebrews 12:7-11). Jesus doesn’t passively show us contempt, he actively shows us love. Better yet, when we confess those sins, we receive forgiveness and cleansing from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).
Because of that, you, if you are a Christian, have freedom from the fear, shame, and condemnation of sin. Your sins and the sins done against you do not define you. Your identity is as a redeemed, reconciled, justified, cleansed son or daughter of our loving Father. You can be bold in confessing and confronting real sin because the grace God gives is real.
This post originally appeared on the Resurgence.
“The cross, that is, is not quiescent or dead. The cross is itself in the first instance the attack of God on the old sinner and the sinner’s theology. The cross is the doing of God to us. But that same cross itself, and only the cross, at the same time opens a new and unheard-of possibility over against the sinner’s old self and its theology. That means that a theology of the cross is inevitably quite polemical. It constantly seeks to uncover and expose the ways in which sinners hide the perfidy behind pious facades. The delicate thing about it is that it attacks the best we have to offer, not the worst…The preacher-theologian must know this and learn how to use the word of the cross in that combat.” —
Gerhard Forde, On Being a Theologian of the Cross
schmuelnieto asked: Hi, my name is Sam and I'm currently a college student and I was just wondering if you had any recommendations for books to read. I've been in the faith since I've been born, but honestly, I've felt lukewarm at times. I guess I just need something to revive my perception of things. Anyway, thanks.
Hi Sam, good question. If there was a preacher who could revive your perspective it is John Piper. I’d also recommend Mark Driscoll, Tim Keller, or Matt Chandler. Preachers who preach Jesus and the Bible with passion are a great remedy for needing a revived perspective. God has used each of those men to do that for me numerous times. As important is being in community with other believers who know you, know where you’re at, and will point you to Jesus in it. Praying this serves you well.
[video]
Stuff White People Like #2: Religions Their Parents Don't Belong To -
White people will often say they are “spiritual” but not religious. Which usually means that they will believe any religion that doesn’t involve Jesus. Read the rest here.