Weekly Thoughts

1/11/06 – Sin Consciousness

Hi all,

I've been thinking about the sin consciousness in most Christians...I believe we have never been taught and most have never really studied the Word to discover what sin is and is not.

That ignorance keeps us in a sort of inferiority complex, dwelling in a realm where we know intellectually we are saved and Christ lives in us, but down inside still feels like we are sinners in darkness only touching the heavens when we feel particularly spiritual or had a good time of worship or some such thing.

I've thought of a little quiz to see if you really know what sin is, and therefore can be identified in our own lives.

Have you ever:

1.  been rude to a family member in a public event, rude enough that others overheard?

2.  visited a friend's house with the understanding you would stay more than one night, and then the next morning changed your plans and left abruptly?

3.  vandalized and destroyed private property?

4.  physically removed people, literally shoving them out the door of a house, one in which you were a visitor?

OK...we know Jesus lived a sinless life (II Cor 5:21: I John 3:5) so we must explain to ourselves how the following events were not acts of sins against God or man in order to understand clearly what sin is and is not:

1. Jesus speaking to his mother in such a rude way at a wedding reception when told they were out of wine: "What is that to me and you?" or "What do I have in common with you?" (John 2:4) At least the apostle John overheard the conversation (he wrote the gospel)

Mary ignored Jesus and told the attendants to obey Jesus, and he did submit to his mother and turn water into wine. If you were a guest and heard a grown son, some 30 years old telling his mother (depending on the translation) "What is that to me and you" or "What do I have in common with you?" - what would you think?

I would also suggest that Jesus' interaction with his mother was partly cultural and partly just his personality. He started off saying "Woman (dear woman)", a term of endearment, before he hit her with 'what is that to me and you'. Almost condescending to her. But being the mother she was, she ignored her son and told the attendants to get ready to obey him.

Have you ever heard interactions in Wal Mart or the mall between family members and thought someone was being rude? How about restaurants where a loud argument takes place...

Aren't these sins against strangers or family members? Or are they? Does hurting someone's feelings or making someone think you are rude constitute a sin? Jesus offended priests and scholars alike to the point on several occasions they tried to execute him on the spot.

The difference in these cases is that Jesus was in the right. If Jesus causing them to be offended was NOT sin, and in our normal daily life we offended someone while being right, yet we feel guilty for causing offense and ask forgiveness, I'd suggest we not only didn't sin, but we misunderstand sin.

If you are right in a situation, it is not a sin if you've walked in love, stated the truth, and caused people to be offended. You have not sinned---otherwise Jesus sinned a lot because he offended whole towns at a time!

2. Changing plans last minute: In Mark 1:29-38 Jesus stays at Peter's mother-in-law's house, healing her and starting a healing meeting in which "all the city was gathered together at the door". The next morning Peter went to look for Jesus, expecting him to continue the healing meeting for he said "Everybody is looking for you". But Jesus told him they must move on to other towns.

How would you feel if you were either Peter's wife's mom, who was hosting, or the mother or father of a sick or infirmed child that couldn't make it the previous night to the healing meeting? What if you were really counting on getting healed and you weren't able to travel to the other towns? What if you were a lame person at the pool of Bethesda, one of "a great multitude" (John 5:3) who needed healed but only one man got healed?

Is the fact that you took offense because you were not healed an indication that Jesus sinned against you? Is offense against us in any form an indicator that the offending person sinned? In other words, just because you were offended by something someone said or did, does it mean God says they sinned against you?

Or is it needful for a sin against a person to be committed as a true act of sin? Yes. So then how do we define sin? More later.

3. Jesus vandalized and destroyed private property. John's gospel puts the cleansing of the temple at the start of his ministry, Matthew and Luke at the end. It is possible he did it twice within that 3 1/2 year period-a repeat offender. John 2:14-15 says that he "found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting: And when he had made a whip of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers money, and overthrew the tables..."

Jesus kicked men out of their place of employment, caused a stampede of cattle and sheep, overthrew the tills pouring their money all over the floor, actually whipped strangers in driving them out, overturned tables and chairs...in public!

None of the above was a sin.

If you were a money changer wouldn't you think Jesus sinned? Doesn't Paul say that if we sinned against a brother or sister we've sinned against God?

The key is identifying and defining sin. Paul and Barnabus had such a heated argument in Acts 15:39 that they split their ministry partnership. Did either sin against the other? No, they disagreed with each other, but neither sinned.

Again, Jesus was in the right in the cleansing of the temple because the Word says in Isaiah 56:7 "My house shall be called the house of prayer; but you have made it a den of thieves." (Jesus quoted this passage in Mt 21:13)

So we can see that even though people were offended, Jesus did not sin because the letter and spirit of the Law was being violated, and as Christ he had the authority to take action.

That means that if you are in the right, and have the authority, and you offend someone, you still did not sin against them even though they are hot as can be against you...remember that though Jesus was right, this incident contributed to the case against him. He was right, but he got executed for being right. So balance out the desire to prove you are right with the ramifications of your zeal. Point is, Jesus didn't sin because he was right and had the authority to act.

4.  Shoved people out the door of a house. Mark 5:40 relates the story of Jairus' daughter who had died. Jesus, Peter, James and John, along with Jairus, arrived at Jairus' house to find the whole neighborhood there mourning. "...and came to the house...and saw the tumult (confusion) and those that cried and wailed loudly...and they laughed him to scorn. But when he had put them all out..."

My understanding is that the Greek indicates 'put them all out' means he literally and physically shoved the mourners out the door by force.

We look back in hindsight and say that he raised the girl from the dead and that makes up for any rudeness, for he was trying to do a work. True, but at the time put yourself in the shoes of a next door neighbor. That girl played with your girl. They are best friends. You are devastated by her death and are truly crying and wailing out of pure heartbreak. Then you are physically shoved out the door. How do you feel? Didn't Jesus sin against you?

Why isn't this act of social rudeness not a sin? Because Jesus was moving by revelation that would cause an immediate change in circumstance. He had clearly stated that her condition was temporary, but 'they laughed him to scorn (jeered at him)." Once they chose not to believe, he acted properly in shoving them out the door.

Space doesn't allow me to discuss his rudeness to the Canaanite woman of Mt 15:21-28 (that is explained in my "Through Jewish Eyes" 2 CD set), Judas' offense in John 12:5 when Mary anointed Jesus' feet, the Nazarene's offense with him in Luke 4 at his first sermon where they tried to throw him off a cliff or the leaders picking up rocks to execute him in John 8 for his "I am" statement.

Suffice to say that in each case where Jesus caused offense he did so because he was right and the others were wrong.

I've taught in Bible schools and asked for a show of hands for those (that morning) who had not sinned that day. Everyone thinks it is a trick question and not a hand goes up. They stare at me like a deer caught in the headlights.

So I take them through the morning: "Did anyone sin between the time you fell asleep and the time the alarm rang? Did anyone sin while preparing for the day-brushing your teeth, shower, eating a bowl of cereal or drinking coffee? Did you sin in your drive to school? Have you sinned since school started?

There is a mind set out there, in spite of teaching otherwise, that we are sinners who only rarely touch sinless-ness. But the truth is that we are in fellowship with Christ and the Father 24/7 until we commit an act of sin. And then all we need do is ask forgiveness and correct our error and we are restored to the previous fellowship.

Jesus was angry in Mark 3:5 because he couldn't get an honest answer out of some religious leaders. Yet most Christians think being angry is a sin, ignoring and failing to investigate the life of Jesus and examine why they believe what they believe. Jesus was certainly angry at the cleansing of the temple as well, yet without sin.

Most definitions of sin, both in Strong's OT and NT references state 'an offense". Other sources say 'disobedience to God's Law'.

It is NOT a sin to be a human being going through a day...in one on one interviews with students along these lines I have heard over and over..."I figure I must have done something wrong this morning".

That is the mentality I'm talking about, one that automatically assumes that just because I got out of bed this morning I must have sinned somewhere along the line. Wrong. A sin is an offence against God, or an error committed against another person in which you violated God's law against them.

For instance...you steal your roommate's coat and sell it at the pawn shop...sin! You stole, and therefore sinned against God and man.

Had an argument with your roommate over who didn't put the wet clothes from the washer into the dryer...not sin! 

We are so geared towards sin it would sound like the height of arrogance in our ears if someone said, "I have not sinned in 3 days". Yet it may be perfectly true. Just going to work, doing your job, coming home to eat and watch some TV doesn't mean there is sin somewhere in there. Just being a human being is not an act of sin.

In the OT the external and written law was the means by which a person discovered if they had sinned or not. There were 613 laws of Moses, and you could find exactly which one you violated and make sacrifice to receive forgiveness. Those 613 laws contained offenses and the remedies for sins against God (vertical) and man (horizontal-man to man)

In the New Testament Christ lives in us, and it is the grieving of the Holy Spirit within that indicates if we have violated God's Law, whether against God or man.

The trouble comes when a person has been taught things which make them sensitive to man's traditions, equating violations of those rules as a violation against God. That is exactly what Jesus dealt with, for he regularly violated the Pharisee's laws, but never violated God's law.

This is where most Christians have trouble not understanding what is truly sin. But...

I must continue this next week...I offer these thoughts to provoke you to examine your own beliefs about God and yourself...and that you might have confidence before God.

 

More next week,
John Fenn
cwowi.org