Tag Archives: sin

Goodness

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Romans 7:14-25

When the rich young ruler in Luke 18 called Jesus “Good,” Jesus asked him why he addressed Him like that. Was the young man acknowledging Jesus was God? There is no goodness apart from God.

This world is corrupt – not because God isn’t a good God – but because our hearts are desperately evil. Those who question the goodness of God ought first to look in the mirror, then look at the cross. While we were still sinners Jesus died to save us. It doesn’t get much more gooder than that!

Look at this amazing creation. The warmth of the sun, the air we breathe, love and laughter, hearts that beat, and the ability to enjoy it all. It all points to a good God.

God’s good Spirit in us produces attitudes and actions that are good. I love how Paul explains it because I relate. No matter how hard I try to be good, I end up failing. I desire to do better, but the harder I try, the harder I fall. If I can be as honest as Paul is in these verses, I will admit that there really isn’t a whole lot of good in me.

So who can save me from this body of death, this pitiful excuse for goodness?

Jesus! When I accept His grace and submit to His will, He is free to live His goodness through me. What an awesome privilege. May God’s goodness, not a poor imitation of my own doing, be seen in me today.

PEACE

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Ephesians 6:10-20

Peace is not necessarily a calm feeling, although that feeling can be evidence of peace. Peace isn’t necessarily absence of conflict, either. In fact, the Holy Spirit often reveals Himself in the midst of conflict. Jesus demonstrated that while He slept in the boat during a severe storm.

The aspect called peace in the Fruit of the Spirit is actually harmony between God and a repentant sinner saved by grace. It’s the restored relationship we lost in the Garden when sin entered the world for the first time.

As God’s adopted child, I can rest in Him, His protection, and provision. I don’t need to worry about today or eternity. I have peace with God, peace in my soul because Jesus died on the cross to purchase my redemption, fixing my broken relationship with the Father.

But this peace is why we put on the armor of God every day, too. We prepare to fight the principalities of evil that would keep us from furthering the gospel of peace. Satan sure doesn’t want any more people with a restored relationship with God. So there is a battle we are called to fight.

Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers.” We think that means keeping peace between siblings or warring countries. The peace Jesus was concerned with was peace between God and man, disciple-making. It’s the sharing of the gospel that brings peace when a person accepts the grace of God for salvation.

The Fruit of the Spirit brings peace to our souls, is the peace we have concerning what happens today and in eternity, and it’s the peace that reaches out to the lost so that they can know this blessed peace as well.

Disposition

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Matthew 5:21-22

I’m using Oswald Chambers, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount; God’s Character and the Believer’s Conduct, (Oswald Chambers Publishing, updated 2016) as I spend time in God’s Word these days. Chambers uses the word “disposition” regarding these two verses. He says we’re born with it. I had to stop and consider that for a moment, but I get it. We see it on display in newborns. Some are pleasant, joyful, sweet from the moment they’re born. Others are cranky and fussy right off the bat. No one had to teach them. It’s who they are from birth. And traces of that original disposition follows most throughout their lives.

Chambers says our disposition fashions our character. So when Jesus is using murder as an example of serious sin, we suddenly realize He’s not just about the taking of a life. He’s actually referring to grumpy old men (and women), the “Karens” of the world, the Debbie Downers, the Sarcastic Susies, and the Nasty Neds. He is speaking to people who use others as the butt of jokes, or who delight in making even their friends look like fools. Some people have to put someone down in order to feel good about themselves. Jesus is telling us that’s a problem. He says people with that disposition are subject to judgment.

I would say people born with that disposition cannot talk themselves out of it. They are incapable of changing who they are. They need a personality transplant. And that’s exactly what God offers! He wants to remove the diseased disposition and replace it with his own.

Consider Jesus’ disposition, His temperament, and personality. That’s what he’s offering to any who receive Him. For a Christian to say, “That’s just how I am,” is denying the power of God. Look how Peter’s disposition was changed. Or Paul’s. You have no excuse to continue being the “old nature” when God wants to, and can, make it new.

That old disposition might be who you were. But it can’t be who you are if the Holy Spirit lives in you.

What is Good?

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Matthew 5:21-30

Jesus, in verse 20, just got done saying our goodness must exceed that of the Pharisees, those professional do-gooders. They were men who went out of their way to be and do good, and held themselves up as what goodness should look like. Exceed that?

Then, if that’s not impossible enough, Jesus goes on to make it more impossible!

We humans look at a person’s actions and evaluate the level of good or evil. A good man is someone who does NOT murder, does NOT cheat on his wife, does NOT steal or lie or throw tantrums. A good man is someone who DOES value life, fidelity, honesty, and self-control and demonstrates these virtues by his good choices. We see his actions and say, “That is a good man.”

Most of us, if we try, can reach a level of goodness using those indicators. But Jesus reminds us we look on the outside, God looks on the heart. And that’s where the rubber meets the road.

If I have hate in my heart for anyone, if I nurture anger toward someone, if I gossip about someone or reveal things that could ruin a reputation, if I consider myself superior to anyone and treat them like I think they’re unimportant or ignorant, my righteousness does not exceed that of a Pharisee, and Jesus says heaven is closed to me.

Then Jesus throws in lust. Most people don’t literally have sex with their neighbor’s wife. But infidelity extends to our thought life, the choice to look at someone and think about having sex with them, perhaps looking at pornography, or daydreaming about sex.

We can commend the guy who has been a faithful husband for 50 years, but not realize he is addicted to pornography. We can commend a woman for her commitment to her husband and family, and not realize she thinks about leaving them every day. We don’t know what goes on inside a person’s mind. God knows. And God judges what goes on inside a person’s mind as though they were actions.

Thank God for Jesus, who took the punishment for our sins of thought and action. Thank God for the Holy Spirit who changes our hearts so that our thoughts and actions are pure.

Oswald Chambers, in his book on the Sermon on the Mount points out purity is not innocence. “Purity is not a question of doing things right, but of the doer BEING right on the inside.” (p 22). He goes on to say purity isn’t something we’re born with like innocence. Purity comes from conflict. Purity comes from wrestling with sinful thoughts, with ungodly attitudes, and defeating it. Purity is a result of coming through the refiner’s fire.

God doesn’t accept our goodness as a tradeoff for sin. In fact, there is no goodness in us to give. All you and I have is our badness, but when we give God our badness, He gives us the goodness of Jesus! He refines the badness into Jesus’ goodness.

Our righteousness will exceed that of the Pharisees when we are wearing the righteousness of Jesus. An impossible righteousness to achieve on our own. But wonderfully possible through the blood of Jesus.

I’m Free!

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Galatians 3:27-4:11

A little boy was standing in his front yard when a man, just freed from prison, ran past him, hands waving in the air, and shouting, “I’m free! I’m free!” The little boy watched the spectacle a bit confused, not understanding the man’s excitement. “So what?” he shouted after the man. “I’m four!”

I wonder if we are ever underwhelmed by the freedom we have in Christ because we don’t really understand it. The little boy in my story certainly didn’t understand what “free” meant. Do we?

We do this or that. Or we don’t do this or that. We say the right things. We smile, lend a hand, and all the while we hope it’s enough. We struggle with sin, we are paralyzed by guilt, we doubt, and we hold back. We stand in a prison God has freed us from by the blood of Jesus.

Satan loves to convince us that God’s grace is not enough. But he is a liar. What he doesn’t want you to believe is that if you repent of sin and accept Jesus as your Savior… YOU ARE FREE!

You’re free from the punishment of sin, you are free from the power of sin over your life. In Jesus, there is victory, cleansing, joy. Satan cannot confine you with the chains God has already broken.

So don’t let him. Yes, there will be struggles. Surrender them to God. There will be failures. Ask God to forgive. There will be doubts and fears, but God wants to free you from those and replace them with the assurance of His presence and strength.

Dear one, if you have accepted the free gift of God’s grace, don’t live like you haven’t. Don’t stay a prisoner when the prison walls have already been destroyed and your chains have already been broken. My prayer is that you, and I, will surrender today to the One who has freed us, that we will allow Him to be our strength. We will be reminded that Jesus has set us free from the bondage of sin and death. His death is enough.

I’m free to love Him! I’m free to receive Him! I’m free to call Him Father! I’m free to go to Him boldly in prayer! I’m free to rest in Him! I’m free to obey Him, not out of duty or out of hope He will accept me. I’m free to show Him how much I love Him by the things I do so that others can find Him, too.

I’m free! I’m free!

Wonder No More

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Gal 2:11-21

To anyone who wonders if, or hopes they’ve done enough good to go to heaven – READ THESE VERSES! Paul answers your questions clearly:

You are not good enough!

No amount of law-abiding behavior, no matter how loving or compassionate you are, no matter how many times you go to church, or how well you are thought of at work – you aren’t good enough to earn your way to heaven. Good people go to hell the same as bad people.

The fact is, Jesus died on the cross to pay the death penalty for sinners. We all have sinned. Even you. What Jesus did there on the cross is the difference between heaven and hell. You can’t come close to equalling that.

If we could somehow pay the death penalty for our sin then live again, or if we could do enough good to erase the sins we’ve committed, Jesus should have just stayed in heaven. His painful death would be worthless.

Paul tells us he was crucified with Christ. We know he wasn’t put on that cross with Jesus. But Paul often talks about the surrender he made to Jesus that changed his life. He calls it dying to self. Paul doesn’t live on his own anymore. It’s Jesus living in him! I hope you can say the same.

Do you wonder if you’re going to heaven? Answer this: have you repented of your sin and accepted the work of Christ on the cross as the payment for your sin? Have you surrendered to God and is Christ living in you in the person of the Holy Spirit? Are you, like Paul, allowing God to live through you?

If you can’t say yes to those questions then Scripture tells us you aren’t going to heaven. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and no one goes to the Father except through Jesus. There is no room for, “well he’s such a good person. Certainly God will accept him.”

My prayer is that you can honestly say yes to those questions. I pray that Jesus is your Savior, that you have surrendered to Him and accepted His grace, the forgiveness of your sins. Heaven awaits you.

If you wonder if you are going to heaven, wonder no more. The answer is as plain as day.

Grace and Peace

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Galatians 1:1-5

I finished my study of Genesis with Warren Wiersbe, and decided to go to the New Testament for my next personal time in God’s Word. Howard F. Vox wrote a commentary on Galatians entitled, A Call to Christian Liberty as part of the “Everyman’s Bible Commentary” published by Moody Bible Institute in 1971. I’m going to consider his opinions as I look at this letter of Paul for the next few days.

Vox says that “grace” was a common Greek greeting among Gentiles, while “peace” or Shalom was a Hebrew greeting. He thinks Paul purposely combined the two greetings as a demonstration of the joining together of Jews and Greeks as equals in God’s kingdom, the veil being destroyed by Jesus’ death, so that now there is no difference between the two.

And, Vox points out, Paul always used “grace” before “peace” in his greeting. That is the experience of all believers. First, God pours out His grace upon repentant sinners, applies Jesus’ blood to our account and saves us from the punishment we deserve. What follows is the peace that passes all understanding. No one can have the peace of God without first receiving His grace. So it is fitting that Paul would use these two words in this particular order whenever writing to the churches.

Jesus sacrificed Himself to rescue us, to pluck us out of the grip of evil in this world. And because we can contribute nothing to our salvation (Jesus’ death was enough) God gets all the glory, both now and forever! Amen!

I have read the book of Galatians many times, heard I don’t know how many sermons and lessons on it, and most of the time I’ve skimmed over the greeting to get to the meat. But today I am so blessed by having stopped and considered these five verses as penned by Paul.

I am saved by grace alone. It’s not a “I hope I’m saved,” or “I hope I’m good enough” kind of a thing. I am saved because I have put my faith in the only One who can save me. That’s why today, with all the trouble in this world, I can go with peace in my heart, fully trusting that the One who saved me can also keep me.

“Grace and peace from God our Father,” is my greeting to you all. Have you accepted His grace or are you still trying do earn you salvation? I pray that you will stop, listen, humble yourself and accept what Jesus died to give you… complete forgiveness. I promise you, when you experience His grace you will have His peace.

Then, let’s continue together through this book of Galatians and discover more about what that all means to each of us. May God teach us, grow us, and prepare us to be used by Him to reach those who don’t yet know the wonder of a relationship with Almighty God.

Protecting Sin

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Genesis 44

Joseph’s brothers had changed. Twenty years earlier they didn’t give one thought to their father when they walked away from Joseph in that pit, then sat down to dinner. Now, they couldn’t walk away from Benjamin for fear of what losing him would do to their father. Judah was the spokesman, but all the brothers tore their clothes at the thought of their father’s reaction should Benjamin be forced to stay in Egypt.

But sorrow and regret are not the same as repentance. They had lived with the guilt of their sin for twenty years. They’d gotten pretty good at carrying that load while living life. They needed to repent.

And so do we. We, too, can become comfortable carrying around the guilt of a sin we’re protecting. We tell ourselves we deserve to be happy, or that we’re not hurting anyone, or that no one knows. We might have to lie to protect the sin, but even that gets easier with practice.

We can go to church, maybe even serve God with a smile on our face. And we can put the matter out of our minds as we live life, just like Joseph’s brothers.

We can feel guilty. We can tell God we’re sorry. But until we submit that sin to God and walk away from it, we have not repented. And true reconciliation is dependent on repentance.

God prompted Joseph to test his brother. It wasn’t just for Joseph’s sake. His brothers needed to know for themselves how deep the change in them ran in their own hearts.

Are you protecting a sin in your life? Don’t just be sorry. Don’t just get used to carrying the guilt. Repent. Submit to God and walk away from that sin. The reconciliation we’re going to read about in the next few chapters of Genesis could not have happened without repentance.

And reconciliation between you and God can’t happen without repentance, either.

Guilt is Not Just A Feeling

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Genesis 43

In his book Be Authentic (David C. Cook Publisher), Warren Wiersbe points out that the brothers were relieved when they were invited to a banquet at Joseph’s house instead of being thrown into prison for the confusion over the silver the last time they were in Egypt. But, as Wiersbe says, “it’s one thing to be relieved and quite something else to be forgiven and reconciled.” The brothers had not confessed their sin from twenty years earlier, and they were not reconciled with Joseph.

Recently I heard of a newly retired man who shared that there were certain pieces of equipment he had used on the job that he wanted to keep for himself. The thing was, he was required to turn in everything on his last day. So, he went to the warehouse where the company kept old equipment that would eventually be sold or trashed, and found pieces of equipment like the ones he wanted. On his last day, he turned in the equipment he’d stolen from the warehouse, and took home the things he had used for years on his job. He rationalized that the company wasn’t using those things and they would eventually get rid of them anyway. He said that he didn’t feel guilty about what he’d done.

I thought of that as I read about the brothers in Genesis 43. They thought they were in trouble, and felt relieved, safe, maybe even thankful that they weren’t going to jail. But how they felt didn’t change the fact that they were unrepentant sinners.

The man I told you about might not feel guilty. But he is. Feelings aside.

How easily we all are to rationalize our own sin. We might tell ourselves it’s no big deal, no one is getting hurt, or everybody does it. We most likely convince ourselves we deserve whatever it is we’re doing because it makes us happy. And we can harden our hearts and not feel guilty.

Dear ones, every sin is serious. Every sin is a slap in the fact to God. Every sin comes with a death sentence – no matter how good you feel about yourself.

Guard Your Heart

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Genesis 39:7-20

Warren Wiersbe entitled this portion of his study on Genesis, Be Authentic, “Overcoming Great Temptation.”Joseph did that. When Potiphar’s wife tried to seduce him day after day, Joseph steadfastly refused her. He showed a great deal of self-control.

Wiersbe quotes Proverbs 25:28: “Whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down, without walls.” I believe Joseph had built walls around his spirit by considering integrity, purity, obedience, and honoring God way before he ever even met Potiphar’s wife.

Proverbs 4:23 tell us “above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” I think Joseph was able to overcome great temptation because he was able to overcome gentle temptation first.

It goes back to taking sin seriously. Scripture tells us to flee temptation before it becomes a sin. I doesn’t say just flee the big ones.

My sister tells about a time she and her young son (7 or 8 years old at the time) were standing in line at the grocery. Right at his eye level, there was a magazine cover of a half-naked woman. Before she could say something to her son, she saw him look at the picture, then intentionally turn away. Even at his young age, he was building a wall around his spirit. He was guarding his heart.

You will be tempted in some way today. Are your walls up? Are you guarding your heart?