December 27, 2011

• What is sin? | "the ultimate evil & the ultimate outrage in the universe" & the wrath to come

  In my post yesterday, out of the mouth of an atheist ~ the Christmas sermon you may not have heard, I proclaimed the Good News that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, but at the same time I lamented the great lack of doctrinal understanding in the church today that we are all helpless, depraved sinners who are unable to save ourselves, and that apart from trusting in Christ we are already condemned and we will perish.

  Today I'd like us to consider further what is sin and the implications of our sin...

  First, from John Piper's "The Greatest Thing in the World: An Overview of Romans 1-7":

  When he [Paul] describes the sins of his own people in Romans 2:24, the climax of the indictment is this: "The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you." What makes sin sin is not first that it hurts people, but that it blasphemes God. This is the ultimate evil and the ultimate outrage in the universe.

  The glory of God is not honored.
  The holiness of God is not reverenced.
  The greatness of God is not admired.
  The power of God is not praised.
  The truth of God is not sought.
  The wisdom of God is not esteemed.
  The beauty of God is not treasured.
  The goodness of God is not savored.
  The faithfulness of God is not trusted.
  The promises of God are not relied upon.
  The commandments of God are not obeyed.
  The justice of God is not respected.
  The wrath of God is not feared.
  The grace of God is not cherished.
  The presence of God is not prized.
  The person of God is not loved.

  The infinite, all-glorious Creator of the universe, by whom and for whom all things exist (Rom. 11:36) – who holds every person's life in being at every moment (Acts 17:25) – is disregarded, disbelieved, disobeyed, and dishonored by everybody in the world. That is the ultimate outrage of the universe.

  
  Is this your view of sin? Have you ever considered that sin blasphemes God? Have you considered that your sin blasphemes God? Do you understand that your own sin is the ultimate evil and the ultimate outrage in the universe?

  
  Now here's shai linne's "All-Consuming Fire" (HT: @magistertom ), which reminds us that our God is a consuming fire and that for those who have not received God's free gift of eternal life through Christ, the wages of their sin is death (Romans 6:23) . . .

  
  Back once again to Piper . . .

  Why is it that people can become emotionally and morally indignant over poverty and exploitation and prejudice and the injustice of man against man and yet feel little or no remorse or indignation that God is so belittled? It's because of sin. That is what sin is. Sin is esteeming and valuing and honoring and enjoying man and his creations above God. So even our man-centered anger at the hurt of sin is part of sin. God is marginal in human life. That is our sin, our condition...

  And the consequence of this condition is the wrath of God. Romans 1:18, "The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness . . . . (21) For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks." The failure to make the goodness and glory of God the center of our lives brings the wrath of God upon us...

  * * *

   But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?
  (Malachi 3:2)

  Romans 5:6  For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7  For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8  but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9  Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10  For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11  More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

  If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities,
  O Lord, who could stand?
  But with you there is forgiveness,
  that you may be feared.
  (Psalm 130:3-4)

  Jesus Christ alone delivers from the wrath to come (~ I Thes. 1:10b).

  Revelation 6:12  When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, 13  and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. 14  The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. 15  Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, 16  calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, 17  for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”

  

  Are you hidden from the wrath of the Lamb, by faith in the blood of the Lamb?

  Romans 3:21  But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22  the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23  for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24  and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25  whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26  It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
  

  If you are hidden from the Lamb's wrath,
  are you truly worshiping God as you ought –
  or do you take His glorious gift of salvation for granted?

  
  Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken,
  and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe,
  for our God is a consuming fire.
  (Hebrews 12:28-29)

  Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD!
  O Lord, hear my voice!
  Let your ears be attentive
  to the voice of my pleas for mercy!
  If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities,
  O Lord, who could stand?
  But with you there is forgiveness,
  that you may be feared.
  (Psalm 130:1-4)

  ...how much more will the blood of Christ,
  who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God,
  purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
  (Hebrews 9:14)

  What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?
  (Romans 6:1)

  
  
  

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  Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

  Photo credit: Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Firetora.jpg - PD

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