Tag Archives: sin

October 27, 2011

The Lies of Lila Rose and Live Action

By paperthinhymn

Tire-tete
*This abortion intrument’s purpose was to hold the baby’s head with the spiked ends. Once the head was held, a long thin probe was
pushed deep into the skull. The instrument held the baby’s head, so once it was cut off, it would not float around in the uterus.

I abhor abortion. I consider it a grave evil and a terrifying loss. It is the outright murder of babies by their mothers with the help of men and women whose consciences are seared.  Because it is so monstrous I welcome any and all efforts to stop it, especially through the efforts of Lila Rose and the Live Action group. They have become infamous through the use of undercover operations where they go to planned parenthood clinics and pretend to be victims of statutory rape, pimps with underage prostitutes, and so forth. After they give a clever and convincing story, they catch clinic workers offering illegal advice and services. They record these interactions on video and post them on YouTube, the result which has been a fair amount of public outcry and a blow to these abortion clinics and organization.

I love this about them. I love the effort- that they’re doing something and that their efforts have seen tangible results and impact. Some states have opted to introduce or pass legislation to defund planned parenthood, in part based on these videos. That is a wonderful, phenomenal relief.

There’s only one thing though.

Lila Rose and her organization are lying to these people. As pleased and grateful as I am to see such a murderous industry exposed, it does not change the fact that they are using lies, deceit and falsehoods in the pursuit of exposing these people. They are pretending to be people they are not. They are telling the nurses and aid stories about themselves that are made up. They are communicating falsehoods about their backgrounds and the situations they’re in.  That is wrong.

It is sinning in order to expose another sin. Are they helping reduce the number of abortions? Probably. I sincerely hope and pray they are. But just like we don’t murder abortion doctors, and we don’t blow up abortion clinics, likewise we don’t lie in order to further our goals.

So a few questions; 1. Can Lila Rose and Live Action, from a Biblical perspective, justify their actions in light of their lying and deceit? Is there a Biblical case that can be made here? 2. Should they stop these undercover attacks for the very fact that they are lying in the process? 3. What should our attitude be towards Live Action be?

6 comments   |  tags: , bible, lila rose, live action, lying, | posted in sexuality, social justice, theology

October 16, 2011

Church kids need to stop being so gay

By paperthinhymn

There is a microcosm of our popular culture today that is spread and spewed on a daily basis by many members of the Body of Christ, and this is the fact that “gay jokes” are socially and spiritually accepted within the Church. That is  tragic, disturbing, and damaging. Most Christians know that you shouldn’t tell dirty or sexual jokes and if you confronted a man telling a coarse joke, more often than not he’ll become embarrassed, self-conscious, and acknowledge that he probably shouldn’t be saying them. There is no such stigma for “gay jokes.”

Congregation members, especially teens and young men, have made this a part of their daily repertoire of insults and wit, specifically using the term “gay” as a disparaging epitaph. Innuendos and insinuations of effeminacy and queerness come naturally and quick. They do this based on perceived character defects, personal mannerisms,  speech patterns, clothing style, affectations, interests and oftentimes for no reason whatsoever. It doesn’t really matter what the impetus is, if there is an opportunity to burn another soul [usually in jest]  it’s rare that someone would think twice before saying  “that’s pretty gay” in order to frame them as a homosexual and demean and marginalize them. That’s part of it. The other part is when people  thoughtlessly define “gay”  and make it a synonym for stupid, lame, week and boring.  They might say “that restaurant was pretty gay” or that band is so gay”. Its very, very common, and Church kids love saying it.

Church kids are being bombarded by one of the worst dimensions of  Christian culture which says it’s either alright to make fun of homosexuals, or as is far more prominent and is usually the case, that they don’t care when you make fun of homosexuals. It doesn’t register. They are lethargic and apathetic, and they need to be woken. It is  inexcusable. It is an immature, uncaring and unloving practice. Our culture does it all the time, and instead of making this a dividing line where we draw a distinction between the hateful rhetoric of our culture and the loving, welcoming, nurturing character of the Church’s soul towards homosexuals, our young men have joined the party and have become indistinguishable in this regard.  The pastors and leaders need to take them to task and correct them when they say things like that. They need to be told that what they are doing is a sin and that it has no place in that community of faith. The pastors need to rebuke, shame and discipline them. Call them out on it and take them aside and help them develop it as an issue of personal sanctification.

It is a shame in every sense of the word, and it needs to be seriously dealt with.  It’s not funny and it demeans the name of Christ when they are being allowed to profligate it with impunity through careless and crass words.  Their joking may not all be overt, but they implicitly bleed superiority and condescension when they  take a facet of a person spirit  that they’ve wept  and trembled over and use it as a dismissive disparagement- when they reduce such an important, raw part of gay person’s identity to a punchline to score points.

A while ago I was in discussions with some people about what I would say if I were apologizing on behalf of the Church for how they’ve treated the homosexual community. I think what I wrote then has some relevance to the topic at hand and I figured would share part of it to close out the post;

“I would not apologize for the theology, but rather how we have presented it. I would apologize that we haven’t been more accepting of homosexuals in the congregation and have not aggressively been evangelizing them. I would apologize that we have related to them as lepers, instead of as image bearers needing Christ- and that we are less “leprous” than they. I would apologize that we have not denounced the young men in our congregations who have made a habit of telling “gay-jokes” and other shameful humor. I would apologize that we have been ambivalent and have not paid attention to the men and women in our congregation who have been struggling with same sex attraction. I would apologize for not ministering to them enough, and for not supporting them enough in their desire to be free from this. I would apologize for the tactlessness that certain ministers have exhibited in public forums and for the lack of loving tone with outsiders and unbelievers. Last of all, I would apologize that we have not been clear, intellectual, concise and consistent in our theology of marriage. We have let people who have no theology of marriage hijack the conversation and speak for us. We have let ignorant people with loveless rhetoric and billboards saying “Adam and eve, not Adam and Steve” represent us, instead of thoughtful, wise and well spoken men and women of God who are  able to intelligently lay out a loving, clear presentation of why and what we believe marriage and sexuality to be and how that relates to the homosexual and heterosexual.”

*note. the title of this blog point is deliberately provocative and ironically tongue-in-cheek. When contrasted with the content and thesis, I believe it serves its purpose well.

4 comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , mga church, | posted in church, fort mcmurray churches, lame christian culture, sexuality, theology

April 22, 2010

Jennifer Knapp Comes Out

By paperthinhymn

“Seven years ago, while at the top of her game, Jennifer Knapp announced what seemed to many a sudden decision: She was stepping away from Christian music, taking an indefinite hiatus. Rumors began to swirl—she was burned out, she needed a rest, she was upset about something, she was gay. Turns out that all the rumors were true,..”

And thus begins a long, rambling, and very honest interview with Christianity Today. In the interview Jennifer Knapp reveals several startling revelations, most of which have to do with her sexuality. Specifically, she shares that she has been living together with her lesbian partner for almost 8 years now and  is very happy and content with her life. This is quite the revelation, though I suspect there will not be that many people who are disappointed by it. Surprised, perhaps, but I think most people will applaud her for her honesty and for being herself and finding a way to articulate her situation and feelings in a manner that is refreshing and genuine.

My concern though, is the theology of the situation. Indeed, what we have is a trainwreck. Jennifer Knapp has found a few ways to justify actions which are, according to scriptures, shameful abominations. She has attempted to in one hand, hold unto the hand of Christ, and with the other hold unto what is clearly unrepentant sin. This is tragic because it will ultimately it will bring her ruin and destruction. And so I want to examine what she has to say about this, and make a few observations.

At one point she writes

“…if you remove the social problem that homosexuality brings to the church—and the debate as to whether or not it should be called a “struggle,” because there are proponents on both sides—you remove the notion that I am living my life with a great deal of joy. It never occurred to me that I was in something that should be labeled as a “struggle.” The struggle I’ve had has been with the church, acknowledging me as a human being, trying to live the spiritual life that I’ve been called to, in whatever ramshackled, broken, frustrated way that I’ve always approached my faith. I still consider my hope to be a whole human being, to be a person of love and grace. So it’s difficult for me to say that I’ve struggled within myself, because I haven’t. I’ve struggled with other people. I’ve struggled with what that means in my own faith. I have struggled with how that perception of me will affect the way I feel about myself.

And

“…I’m the happiest I’ve ever been. But now that I’m back in the U.S., I’m contending with the culture shock of moving back here. There’s some extremely volatile language and debate—on all sides—that just breaks my heart. Frankly, if it were up to me, I wouldn’t be making any kind of public statement at all. But there are people I care about within the church community who would seek to throw me out simply because of who I’ve chosen to spend my life with.

First of all, I think it’s terrible that the Church has not acknowledged her as a human being and that they have been cruel to her, That’s not what the Church ought to do. We ought to uphold and support as much as we can any brother or sister who is either struggling with sin or caught up in sin, and seek to bring them to repentance. We in the Church ought to love and edify and connect with anyone who is struggling with sexual sin, especially that of a same-sex nature. These people aren’t second class citizens, nor is their sin grotesquely repulsive compared to our own. Not at all! All sin is dirty and distasteful, and I’m crazy if I think I can say something like “yeah, but they’re gay“.  Ridiculous!

On the flip side, it’s clear that she does not understand the purpose and use and legitimacy of Church discipline.  We see this by her line  “there are people I care about within the church community who would seek to throw me out simply because of who I’ve chosen to spend my life with.” What she has done is she has minimized her sin and then played the victim when someone seeks to magnify it in order to place it  into its proper context. Does the woman engaged in premarital sex while living common law with her boyfriend have the right to say the same thing? To act indignant and disbelieving and hurt when she’s confronted by it? How about the man who is committing adultery and has spent years in a relationship with another woman?  In 1 Corinthians 5, do we say that it was unfair for Paul to throw out of the church the man who was sleeping with his fathers wife? Should we have instead opposed him, because after all, Paul was going to throw him out simply because of who he chosen to spend his life with”? I don’t think so. What she is doing is a big deal. It’s not something than can be overlooked, but rather must be dealt with for the health of the Body of believers.

“I’m in no way capable of leading a charge for some kind of activist movement. I’m just a normal human being who’s dealing with normal everyday life scenarios. As a Christian, I’m doing that as best as I can. The heartbreaking thing to me is that we’re all hopelessly deceived if we don’t think that there are people within our churches, within our communities, who want to hold on to the person they love, whatever sex that may be, and hold on to their faith. It’s a hard notion. It will be a struggle for those who are in a spot that they have to choose between one or the other. The struggle I’ve been through—and I don’t know if I will ever be fully out of it—is feeling like I have to justify my faith or the decisions that I’ve made to choose to love who I choose to love.”

…The Bible has literally saved my life. I find myself between a rock and a hard place—between the conservative evangelical who uses what most people refer to as the “clobber verses” to refer to this loving relationship as an abomination, while they’re eating shellfish and wearing clothes of five different fabrics, and various other Scriptures we could argue about. I’m not capable of getting into the theological argument as to whether or not we should or shouldn’t allow homosexuals within our church. There’s a spirit that overrides that for me, and what I’ve been gravitating to in Christ and why I became a Christian in the first place.

This is where much confusion comes in. Most people aren’t oblivious to the fact that there may be people in Church and especially in our communities who are dealing with same-sex attraction. We know they’re there.  But here’s the thing- God’s law is clear. His intentions are clear. His desires for mankind within creation are clear. And part of that clarity, as revealed in the sacred scriptures- the revelation of God, is that he hates the sin of homosexuality. You cannot bridge this gap. You cannot say on one hand  ”I love you, Lord, and I want to be obedient to you and rest in the grace of your son’s blood and death on the cross” and yet on the other say “that having been said, I don’t care that you consider this an abomination. I don’t think it is, and I don’t have to justify everything to you. I will live how I please and refuse to give up these actions. I won’t be clobbered by your word. I don’t have to justify whom I love and how I express that love. ” There is a huge disconnect there. This is wilful, arrogant, purposeful defiance and unrepentant disobedience. Don’t accept her games where she tries to confuse Old Testament dietary laws with New Testament revelation of morality. We read in Romans 1 that Homosexuality is a consequence of mankind’s abandonment of the truth, a just punishment for exchanging the truth for a lie (1:24) and thus a revelation of the wrath of God upon unrighteousness (1:18). The context reveals homosexuality as a further manifestation of the “ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness”(1:18). You can’t get clearer than that.

It is difficult to understand how one can read Romans 1 and not conclude that homosexual behavior is wrong and antithetical to the divine order. Paul, like Moses in Leviticus, clearly uses terms and expressions w which leave no doubt as to what he means. He states that God has given the Gentile world over “in the lusts of their hearts to impurity” (1:24). In this he identifies both lesbianism and the gay lifestyle. The list of expressions used for these vile affections clearly condemns homosexuality: “dishonored among them” (1:24) “degrading passions” (1:26) “exchange the natural function” (1:26) “unnatural” (1:26) “burned in their desire” (1:27) “indecent acts” (1:27) “penalty of their error” (1:27) “worthy of death” (1:32). As such, I have heard no hermeneutical gymnastics clever enough to convince me that God has revealed in the Bible any other plan for families than one man loving one woman for life as a clear picture of the love of Christ for the church.

It comes down to the simple fact that her experiences and senses tell her that her relationship is enjoyable and pleasing to her, and so she disagrees with the Word under the guise of humility. It comes off as if she’s struggling and searching and initially I read this interview and felt bad for her. I really did. Because she didn’t try to make excuses for herself or justify her homosexuality, or try to find some clever hermeneutic to absolve her of guilt. She didn’t say “Back then the sin of homosexuality was that of forced rape, or was only temple prostitution, and therefore…..” and went that route.  I found that refreshing to a point. But then I read more and more, and I think what she has done is actually something much worse. The people who argue those verses, they are least recognize that they are a problem and that they have to do SOMETHING with them. But not Jennifer.  She way of rationalizing involves simply bypassing them altogether. To wit- her heart isn’t soft, but rather it is hardened. 8 years of unrepentant sin and abuse of God’s grace will do that to a person. I don’t want to belabour the point, but it’s not just lesbian sex that is the sin, but pre-marital sex as well. And if she justifies it by saying they’re married in their hearts, then they have a illegitimate, sinful marriage in God’s eyes- one which again defies his intent for creation and for humanity, as the Lord’s purposes for marriage are the oneflesh union of a man and woman.

…I’ve always struggled as a Christian with various forms of external evidence that we are obligated to show that we are Christians. I’ve found no law that commands me in any way other than to love my neighbor as myself, and that love is the greatest commandment. At a certain point I find myself so handcuffed in my own faith by trying to get it right—to try and look like a Christian, to try to do the things that Christians should do, to be all of these things externally—to fake it until I get myself all handcuffed and tied up in knots as to what I was supposed to be doing there in the first place, If God expects me, in order to be a Christian, to be able to theologically justify every move that I make, I’m sorry. I’m going to be a miserable failure.”

Scripture makes it clear that they will know we are Christians by our love for others, and by our fruits.  Jesus says if we love him, then we will obey his commandments. The whole arc of Scripture shows that we were dead in our sins, but once we are born again we are new creatures in Christ, we have a new nature, are no longer enslaved to sin, and now have the power and ability to be sanctified into Christ’s likeness.  We read in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11. “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,  nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God”. That’s the thing. They WERE  those things. There were some people who were homosexuals and who probably felt exactly as Jennifer Knapp does regarding their emotions and feelings and attraction. But then we see that though there were deeply engaged in those sins, that they were washed, sanctified and justified by Christ, and are no longer those things. “You used to be a homosexual, BUT NOW you’re sanctified and saved, and that’s not what or who you are anymore”

Lastly, Jennifer does two interesting things in that last paragraph, The first is that she twists the scripture. In Matthew 22, Jesus is being tested by a man. Regarding the greatest commandment, he says “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” That’s the summary of the law. Two things. The first is that she says she has found no law to command her other than this one, when the apostles Paul and Peter and Jude, as well as James give some clear laws that Christians ought to follow. The second is that love  is the law.  This vague, esoteric, amorphous and all-purpose love is not what Jesus was talking about, but rather the first commandment is love for the Father. Jennifer is deceived if she thinks that she is indeed fulfilling the law and loving God with her whole heart and mind and soul when she is engaged in open rebellion and defying the Lord’s plans for human sexuality by living in an open, unapologetic homosexual relationship. That’s a a problem. She wants to hold unto it as a belief and a banner- she just doesn’t want to be open or responsible for the implications of what is required of her. The last issue is her comment about how she can’t, and shouldn’t have to theologically justify every move that she makes. That’s not good enough. Again, we don’t let the adulterer say “God can’t expect me to theologically justify every move that I make. If i want to have sex with another woman’s husband-I shouldn’t have to justify that. ” The word of the Lord is our canon, and we must accept that and honor it as such.

Let me unpack it one last time- I know this seems honest and genuine and real- this interview where she lays it out. Perhaps on a level it is, but at the same time it’s incredibly arrogant and defiant. It’s like she’s saying “I don’t think it’s a sin, you do, let’s move on from that.”  She’s not dealing with the Scriptures or the implications of Scripture or what God says and has revealed- she just knows that God is a God of love and that she’s happy and how could this be wrong? Because of this, it is defiance under the veneer of honesty- flagrant disregard for scriptures existing under the guise of personal piety. It’s reminiscent of the humble hermeneutic  employed by the emergents, except Jennifer is not interested in what God really said, but rather what her heart really tells her. She’s not speaking from a tender heart, but rather as one whose foolish heart has been darkened and hardened.

Lastly, I hope people who read this blog know I’m careful enough to differentiate between someone who has homosexual thoughts and inclinations and struggles to resist acting on them, and someone who is unrepentantly homosexual. Because I do, and this post is not talking about the former at all. What Jennifer needs to see though is that God does in fact have sexual standards, and they’re  based on His creative intent which is made clear in both the Old and New Testament. He did not put forth this standard to enslave us but rather to free us. When God prohibits something He always has something better for us. All of us are inclined to trust our own instincts and desires more than the revealed will of God. Whatever our desires may be and however right and/or powerful they may seem, God’s desires for us must always take precedence. That may not bring immediate gratification, but it will bring the slow burn of sanctification and a genuinely beautiful walk and relationship with Christ.

5 comments   |  tags: bible, , , Jennifer knapp, , truth | posted in Uncategorized

March 2, 2010

We battle against sin with Faith, not with the Law

By paperthinhymn

I tend to be very critical of the typical Christian evangelical response to how to fight sin. Their answer is invariably some form of “If you want to defeat sin, you need to just love God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength”. And I understand why that is, as on the surface that seems to be the advice that scripture gives. I also think when we glance over it, it seems possible and likely and satisfactory, but the reality is quite different.  When we challenge ourselves to see if we really can hold to that, we quickly see that it is no answer at all, but rather is a recipe for despair. The command to love God with our entire heart is the law; and in fact is the summary of the entire law.  The letter kills, since it announces God’s will without granting the power to keep it. And so when we are despairing because we can’t keep the law, why are we being told that the solution is even more law? “You aren’t loving God with your whole heart? Well, to fix that all you have to do is love God with your whole heart.” You might as well tell someone dying of thirst in the desert “Just dig deep and will yourself to find more water.” that’s no solution at all, and that is why I believe there is another way, which is that we battle against sin and unbelief not with more law, but with faith.

We know that as Christians we have died. These words are seared into the flesh of every Christian: “YOU … HAVE … DIED” [Colossians 3:3]. When we were born again something inside of us died, and that something is “the flesh”.Every believer holds as their heartfelt confession, “I have been crucified with Christ” [Galatians 2:20]  and “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh” [Galatians 5:24]. When we say the “flesh” has died though, we don’t mean some organic structure of skin, bone or blood. It is not a biological thing, as if we could kill off some part of our physical body, but rather the “works of the flesh” are things like idolatry and strife, and anger and envy[ Galatians 5:20] which are attitudes, not just immoral acts of the body.

When we survey the biblical literature, Romans 8:7-8, gives us a pretty decent definition of what “the flesh” actually is, which is “The mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, indeed it cannot; and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” So the flesh is the old “me” who used to rebel against God. In the flesh I was hostile and insubordinate. I hated the thought of admitting I was sick with sin. The prospect of having to confront the idea that I didn’t have it all together and that I could never be whole or well or good on my own was sickening and laughable to me. When I was in the flesh I trusted in my own wisdom to navigate my life, and rejected the idea of God’s wisdom. Because of this, nothing that I could do in the flesh could ever please God, because “without faith it is impossible to please God” [Hebrews 11:6]. The flesh does nothing from faith, but rather is actively hostile to it. The flesh in every sense of the word is cosmically engineered to be an enemy of faith.

I hope that definition makes sense.  “The flesh” is the old self-reliant, faithless me and this creature shrivelled up and died inside of me when I was saved by God. God clamped the arteries on my old unbelieving heart of stone, and when it died He took it out and gave me a new heart [Ezekiel 36:26]. God took out what was dead and decaying and put in something new and fresh and vibrant and immortal, and the difference between this new heart that lives and the old heart that has died is given in Galatians 2:20, where it says “I have been crucified with Christ. . . and the life I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.” The old heart that died trusted in itself; the new heart banks on Christ every day.

That’s one aspect of how we battle against sin; we do it by trusting God. We are dead to the lies of the devil which say that we will be happier if we trust our own ideas about how to be happy instead of trusting the counsel and the promises of Christ.  We see through that deception, and we war against those satanic lies by trusting that the paths and promises of Christ are better than his. This way of doing battle with sin is called the “fight of faith” [1 Timothy 6:12] The victories of this fight are called the “works of faith” [1 Thessalonians 1:3] And in this warfare Christians “become holy by faith“ [Acts 26:18]

So when we war against sin, we are in this fight of faith. Romans 8:13 tells us : “If you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live.” This is written to professing Christians, and the point is that our eternal life hangs on our battle with sin. That doesn’t mean though that if we kill sin that we will gain heaven. No, it is “by the Spirit” that we fight. God will get the glory, not us. Nor does Romans 8:13 mean that we fight with an anxious sense of uncertainty about winning. On the contrary, even as we fight we have confidence that “He who began a good work in us will complete it at the day of Jesus Christ” [Philippians 1:6]. Nor does Romans 8:13 mean that we must be perfect now in our victory over sin, as Paul renounces the claim to perfection [Philippians 3:12].

The demand in Romans 8:13 is not sinlessness but mortal combat with sin. This is utterly essential in the Christian life. Otherwise we give no evidence that the flesh has been crucified. And if the flesh has not been crucified we do not belong to Christ. If the flesh hasn’t been crucified, we are still lost and dead in our sins. This isn’t some silly, esoteric game that we play, but rather heaven and hell are in play and eternity is at stake. How then do dead people “put to death the [sinful] deeds of the body”? “By faith!”

To give an example of how one fights sin with faith,  suppose a man or woman is tempted to lust. Some sexual image pops into their brain and beckons them to pursue it. The way this temptation gets its power is by persuading them to believe that they will be happier if they follow it. The power of all temptation is the prospect that it will make a man happier. No one sins out of a sense of duty when what they really want is to do right. All sin is tied to the promise of pleasure in some way, regardless of the sin. The line goes “If I do this thing, I will gain a modicum of pleasure or satisfaction  in some area of my life which will benefit me and enhance my life.”

So what should they do?  Some people would say, “Remember God’s command to be holy [1 Peter 1:16] and exercise your will to obey because he is God!”  Or they would will will quote Mark 12;30 “you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” and tell them to just do that. But something crucial is missing from this advice, namely, faith A lot of people strive for moral improvement who cannot say, “The life I live I live by faith” [Galatians 2:20]. A lot of people try to love who don’t realize that, “What counts is faith working through love” [Galatians 5:6]. The fight against lust [or greed or fear or malice or anger or covetousness or any other temptation] is a fight of faith. Otherwise the result is legalism.

When the temptation to lust comes, Romans 8:13 says, “If you kill it by the Spirit you will live.”When it says “by the spirit” it means that out of all the armor God gives us to fight Satan, only one piece is used for killing—the sword. It is called the sword of the spirit, and so when Paul says, “Kill sin by the Spirit,” we ought to understand that as depending on the Spirit, especially his sword. What is the sword of the Spirit? It’s the Word of God [Ephesians 6:17]. Here’s where faith comes in. “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God” [Romans 10:17]. The Word of God cuts through the fog of confusion of Satan’s lies and shows me where true and lasting happiness is to be found. And so the Word helps me stop trusting in the potential of sin to make me happy, and instead entices me to trust in God’s promise of joy

I wonder how many believers today realize that faith is not merely believing that Christ died for our sins. Faith is also being confident that His way is better than sin. His will is more wise. His help is more sure. His promises more precious. And his reward more satisfying. Faith begins with a backward look at the cross, but it lives with a forward look at the promises.

We become satisfied with Christ and his promises when faith is ruling in our hearts. Jesus spoke of this when he said, “He who believes in me shall never thirst” [John 6:35]. If my thirst for meaning and passion and joy are satiated by the presence and promises of Christ, the power of sin is broken. We do not yield to the offer of inferior pleasure when we have the promise of the greatest pleasure at our disposal. The fight of faith is the fight to stay satisfied with God. “By faith Moses. . . forsook the fleeting pleasures of sin … He looked to the reward” [Hebrews 11:24-26]. Faith is not content with “fleeting pleasures.” It is ravenous for joy. We read in the scriptures that  “In God’s presence is fullness of joy, and in his right hand are pleasures forevermore” [Psalm 16:11]. Faith isn’t going to be distracted and sidelined by si, nor will it give up so easily in its quest for maximum joy.

The role of God’s Word is to feed faith’s appetite for God, and in doing this it weans the heart away from the deceptive taste of lust. At first lust begins to trick people into feeling that they would really miss out on some great satisfaction if they followed the path of purity. But then a man takes up the sword of the Spirit and begin to fight. He reads that it is better to gouge out his eye than to lust [Matthew 5:29]. He read that if he thinks about things that are pure and lovely and excellent the peace of God will be with him [Philippians 4:8]. He read that setting the mind on the flesh brings death, but setting the mind on the Spirit brings life and peace [Romans 8:6]

And as that man prays for his faith to be satisfied with God’s life and peace, the sword of the Spirit carves the sugar coating off the spiritual terror and poison of lust. He sees it for what it is. And by the grace of God, its alluring power is broken. This is the way dead people do battle with sin. This is what it means to be a Christian. We are dead in the sense that the old unbelieving self [the flesh] has died. In its place there is a new creation. What makes it new is faith. Not just a backward-looking belief in the death of Jesus, but a forward-looking belief in the promises of Jesus. Not just being sure of what he did do, but also being satisfied with what he will do.

With all eternity hanging in the balance, we fight the fight of faith. Our chief enemy is the lie that says sin will make our future happier. Our chief weapon is the Truth that says God will make our future happier. And faith is the victory that overcomes the lie, because faith is satisfied with God. The challenge before us then is not merely to do what God says because He is God, but to desire what God says because he is good. The challenge is not merely to pursue righteousness, but to prefer righteousness. The challenge is to get up in the morning and prayerfully meditate on the Scriptures until we experience joy and peace in believing “the precious and very great promises” of God [Romans 15:13; 2 Peter 1:4]. With this joy set before us the commandments of God will not be burdensome [1 John 5:3] and the compensation of sin will appear too brief and too shallow to lure us.

Leave a comment   |  tags: death, faith, law, | posted in theology

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