δουλογος: The Blindness of Sin (In 5 Minutes or Less)

	H O M E
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Name:Daniel
Home: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
About Me: I used to believe that evolution was reasonable, that homosexuality was genetic, and that people became Christians because they couldn't deal with the 'reality' that this life was all there was. I used to believe, that if there was a heaven - I could get there by being good - and I used to think I was more or less a good person. I was wrong on all counts. One day I finally had my eyes opened and I saw that I was not going to go to heaven, but that I was certainly going to suffer the wrath of God for all my sin. I saw myself as a treasonous rebel at heart - I hated God for creating me just to send me to Hell - and I was wretched beyond my own comprehension. Into this spiritual vacuum Jesus Christ came and he opened my understanding - delivering me from God's wrath into God's grace. I was "saved" as an adult, and now my life is hid in Christ. I am by no means sinless, but by God's grace I am a repenting believer - a born again Christian.
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Tuesday, April 27, 2010

The Blindness of Sin (In 5 Minutes or Less)

" There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job; and that man was blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from evil." - Job 1:1 [NASB]

Do you see that Job turned away from evil?

The blindness of sin happens when we stop thinking of sin as evil. When we think of sin as just something we struggle with, or worse, just a character flaw, or something that is merely bad.

It is easy to embrace sin and still feel pretty good about yourself if you forget that what you are embracing is actually evil. You are embracing evil. When scripture speaks of having the forehead of a harlot, and refusing to blush (c.f. Jeremiah 3:3) or not knowing how to blush (c.f. Jeremiah 6:5, 8:12), it is talking about what happens when a person stops thinking of sin as an evil thing.

You have heard the expression, "making peace with sin" - and you imagine that it is painting a person who has decided to stop worrying about sin, and just live life as best as they can or something like that. But people make peace with sin long before that. The first step in making peace with sin is to emasculate sin - removing the gender of evil from it - so that when you "struggle" against sin, you are not struggling against evil, you are struggling against something you "shouldn't be doing".

Now I know that victory over habitual behaviours can take time. I likewise know that obeying God is not easy, that there is a war going on between the will of God and the will of the flesh, and that war often includes real (spiritual) battles. But we use the word struggle when we really mean near consistently giving into cyclically reoccurring sinful desires. We mean that we know a thing is sin, and we don't want to do it, and we are struggling under the weight of guilt that comes with this kind of failure, and especially with the certainty in our hearts that we don't really plan to do anything about it beyond feel bad that we are sinning.

That's not struggle friend. That is surrender, followed by guilt. That is loving darkness rather than light because your deeds are evil. That's what it looks like.

One of the ways our enemy snares us, is with blindness. We stop seeing what we are doing as evil, and so we stop turning from it. We are just failing to do what is right. We want to do what is right, but as Paul writes, we cannot find the way to do it. The reason we cannot find the way is because we are double minded - we want to be righteous without actually turning away from sin.

Here is what I want you to take away from this post. Today you have already settled it in your heart that you are either going to make war against every evil you find in your own desires, or you have settled it in your heart that you are going to fail and have decided to live with the guilt of that. I suggest that if you open your eyes and see evil for what it is, if you look and see what you are doing, that you may, at least this day, awake out of your habit of slumber, and turn from evil, calling it what it is, and abhorring it as is fitting a servant of God.

Labels: Advice, quick snips, sin is evil

posted by Daniel @ 6:23 AM

4 Comments:

At 2:44 PM, April 28, 2010, donsands said…

Fine exhortation my friend.

Just last night I snapped at my wife, and used some manipulation to make me feel not so bad about it. I hurt her, and didn't care, as much as I did about me. Stinking pride. It grips my soul and mind as a Bench Vise.

As we prayed together, I was able to confess my sin, and ask God to help me be more caring and less proud. I hope He will help me. He surely has already, but I will need His grace until I die, or He returns.

Thanks for the post. Thinking about how evil our sin is is essential for us.
At 9:45 PM, April 28, 2010, JIBBS said…

Is it wrong to fantasize about visiting Mars Hill in Michigan and walking up to the "pulpit" and punching Rob Bell square in the face and tell him to either repent and embrace the Gospel or quit playing the nonsense Christianity game??

I don't think words have any meaning with that guy.
At 10:43 PM, April 28, 2010, Daniel said…

Matt, let's just hope that he, by grace, figures it out before it is too late.

Don, it's a journey, no?
At 10:48 PM, April 28, 2010, JIBBS said…

I agree.

Of course I was just using an illustration.

I really don't want to punch him.

Although, it would be interesting to see his response to someone punching him. How does a post-modern Emergent anti-authoritarian like Bell respond to that??