More Active Posts
Front Page
Set free from sin
 |
 3 Comments |
“If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins” (1 Corinthians
What an interesting way to put it. You might have thought Paul would say, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and the notion of sin is hogwash.”
But no, whether Christianity is true or not — and even if Nietzsche is right that “God is dead” — we are still in our sins. I know, I know, philosophically you can give me a good argument that where there is no God, there is no such thing as sin: Sin is a meaningful concept only where there is a Personal lawgiver. True enough.
But my earliest memories are of shameful thoughts and deeds that have no better description than the word “sin.” Sin as a concept has a quality that should please the 14th century English logician William of Ockham, and succeeding practitioners of the scientific method. It contains all the facts of my experience with nothing spilling over and unaccounted for. It is economic, parsimonious, simple, elegant.
I for
And now the inverse is gloriously true:
“Christ has been raised, my faith is not futile, and I am not still in my sins.” Glory!
 |
Topic: Front Page, Odds & Ends |  |
Email a friend |
 |
Keywords: christianity, faith, resurrection, sin |  |
RSS 2.0 |
 |
Both comments and pings are currently closed. |  |
Share this: |
One more diversion
Sin….do you know how great it is for Catholics to go unload every week? It is rather elegant, simple and economic. I too remember Ravi Zacharias’ tale in one of his books where like the child who ’spoiled his chalk slate’ so too we come to the Father and having spoilt our slate ask if we can erase it and start anew….daily? I think they too must have liked Luthers well-known statement to ’sin boldy’ so grace would abound even more. We’ve all toyed with that one no doubt.
As for Paul, we can jump from ‘I do what I don’t want to’, therefore it’s sins’ doing; to if we’re really sons we’re putting to death the deeds of the body; to ‘Who will deliver me from this body of death?’ We all like to of course land on the one that’s an ‘out’ and ponder there for a while.
But we all have to face reality…and we will face Him! Yikes! Except, we must and do trust in his faithfulness to forgive and wash away…our spoiled slates.
I ran across this great quote via Steve Brown from Reformed Theological Seminary, quoting his late friend Jack Miller….speaking of grace..He said the Bible can be summed up in 2 statements: 1) Cheer up, you’re alot worse than you think you are; and 2) cheer up, God’s grace is a lot bigger than you think it is! (On this I’m defintely counting…..)
C.S. Lewis in the first chapter of Mere Christianity remarks that two things are certain: we live under a natural moral law and that we are often unable to obey it. We may only hope and pray that Christ atoned for our sins and that God is merciful in addition to being just.
When it comes to sin and our somewhat sad state of affairs in this wonderful terrible life, I think the lyrics of the late Rich Mullins sum it up the best. Thankfully, Christ and God’s grace have given us hope.
We Are Not as Strong as We Think We Are
Well, it took the hand of God Almighty
To part the waters of the sea
But it only took one little lie
To separate you and me
Oh, we are not as strong as we think we are
And they say that one day Joshua
Made the sun stand still in the sky
But I can’t even keep these thoughts
Of you from passing by
Oh, we are not as strong as we think we are
CHORUS
We are frail
We are fearfully and wonderfully made
Forged in the fires of human passion
Choking on the fumes of selfish rage
And with these our hells and our heavens
So few inches apart
We must be awfully small
And not as strong as we think we are
And the Master said their faith was
Gonna make them mountains move
But me, I tremble like a hill on a fault line
Just at the thought of how I lost you
Oh, we are not as strong as we think we are
CHORUS
And if you make me laugh well I know
I could make you like me
Cause when I laugh I can be a lot of fun
But we can’t do that I know that it is frightening
What I don’t know is why we can’t hold on
We can’t hold on
CHORUS
When you love you walk on the water
Just don’t stumble on the waves
We all want to go there somethin’ awful
But to stand there it takes some grace
‘Cause oh, we are not as strong
As we think we are