Saturday, February 27, 2010
A New Hope
There is a new hope on the horizon, one no one can take away nor hinder. This is what is pictured with the root out of a dry ground and the tender plant or sprig of Isaiah 53:2. Christ was predicted to come and did. So also shall He fulfill His work of redemption of the church, those who believe, and the consummation of the age--to judge the unbeliever and reward and perfect the believer. It shall come about and no one can stop it. All things shall be made new and without sin or the destruction caused by sin. All will be well forever. A new hope has come and its fruition will be had. God be glorified in all His work!
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Saints Living in Sin?
Romans 6:1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for he who has died is freed from sin. (NASB)
The one who has continued in sin is the one who has proclaimed he has no salvation experience. It is not the one who merely believes who is saved, but the one who believes unto repentance. Cessation from sin as a lifestyle, as a part of one's way of living, is a certain fruit of salvation--true salvation, not just profession. To profess salvation from sin and to continue living in sin is a definite contradiction. To be saved means to be delivered. To be delivered means to be taken away from or out of the circumstances one was in. To be saved, or delivered from sin means to be taken out of or away from the penalty of sin and the practice of sin as a lifestyle. I once sinned with impunity, without concern (except the fear of getting caught or exposed to be what I was). I had no conscience about it or feelings of guilt, except for periods of time which were short-lived and distant from each other, which were also usually accompanied with and caused by fear of death or exposure. But now I do not sin as a way of life, but out of weakness and failure at a particular moment. It is not the pleasure of my life, the habit of my existence. I do still have sin, or a sin nature in me that works hard to get me to sin, and I do at times give in to it--more times than I like to think of, for I have not yet arrived at perfection--but I do sin in opposition to my true desire to be pure in the sight of God and perfect in Him. As the apostle Paul says it, “It is no longer me but sin that dwells in me” (Romans 7:17,20). “For I do not understand what I am doing; for I am not practicing what I wish to, but I am doing what I hate (Romans 7:15). This is, in fact what Romans 7 is all about, along with Galatians 5:16-18 and sundry other passages that lend light on the subject. I cannot fully understand or explain this reality, but experience it daily. It is as if I am--as John Piper calls it in a sermon series on the subject--a “divided man.” (Piper’s sermon series is called “Who Is This Divided Man?”. It is well worth listening to as a solid introduction on the subject. John Owen’s works on indwelling sin in the believer and mortification of sin in the believer are the magnum opus on the subject.)
To put it simply, when I was unsaved I sinned without concern. Since I have been saved I cannot sin without sorrow and repentance, however “small” the sin is, and it makes no difference whether or not anyone else does or even could know about it. I am the opposite of what I was. And when I sin it is as if it is someone else inside me and not me at all. Such does not excuse sin, nor does one truly saved, born again, practice excusing sin, especially in his conscience. He now loves the law of God and wants it and a closeness to God more than anything else in the world. He would give all for that. Hence, to be saved from sin and yet live in sin is a very definite contradiction, an outright lie.
The one who has continued in sin is the one who has proclaimed he has no salvation experience. It is not the one who merely believes who is saved, but the one who believes unto repentance. Cessation from sin as a lifestyle, as a part of one's way of living, is a certain fruit of salvation--true salvation, not just profession. To profess salvation from sin and to continue living in sin is a definite contradiction. To be saved means to be delivered. To be delivered means to be taken away from or out of the circumstances one was in. To be saved, or delivered from sin means to be taken out of or away from the penalty of sin and the practice of sin as a lifestyle. I once sinned with impunity, without concern (except the fear of getting caught or exposed to be what I was). I had no conscience about it or feelings of guilt, except for periods of time which were short-lived and distant from each other, which were also usually accompanied with and caused by fear of death or exposure. But now I do not sin as a way of life, but out of weakness and failure at a particular moment. It is not the pleasure of my life, the habit of my existence. I do still have sin, or a sin nature in me that works hard to get me to sin, and I do at times give in to it--more times than I like to think of, for I have not yet arrived at perfection--but I do sin in opposition to my true desire to be pure in the sight of God and perfect in Him. As the apostle Paul says it, “It is no longer me but sin that dwells in me” (Romans 7:17,20). “For I do not understand what I am doing; for I am not practicing what I wish to, but I am doing what I hate (Romans 7:15). This is, in fact what Romans 7 is all about, along with Galatians 5:16-18 and sundry other passages that lend light on the subject. I cannot fully understand or explain this reality, but experience it daily. It is as if I am--as John Piper calls it in a sermon series on the subject--a “divided man.” (Piper’s sermon series is called “Who Is This Divided Man?”. It is well worth listening to as a solid introduction on the subject. John Owen’s works on indwelling sin in the believer and mortification of sin in the believer are the magnum opus on the subject.)
To put it simply, when I was unsaved I sinned without concern. Since I have been saved I cannot sin without sorrow and repentance, however “small” the sin is, and it makes no difference whether or not anyone else does or even could know about it. I am the opposite of what I was. And when I sin it is as if it is someone else inside me and not me at all. Such does not excuse sin, nor does one truly saved, born again, practice excusing sin, especially in his conscience. He now loves the law of God and wants it and a closeness to God more than anything else in the world. He would give all for that. Hence, to be saved from sin and yet live in sin is a very definite contradiction, an outright lie.
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