SIN AND TRUTH

 Daniel 9:13 “As it is written in the law of Moses, all this calamity has come on us; yet we have not sought the favor of the LORD our God by turning from our iniquity and giving attention to Your truth."  

This verse shows us that sin or iniquity and falsehood art equal. In order to turn to and know the truth one has to turn away from iniquity or sin. One cannot violate God in sin and still hold to the truth because God is truth. Everything that is truth is in God. God is more than truth itself but truth is not more than God. Because of this, I believe we can declare that the best way to turn from sin is simply to turn toward truth—all truth, not merely a part of it. To accept some truth but reject other truth is to flirt with wickedness. One can not accept a part of God and not all of God and be in line with God. Some people seem to think they can accept what they want of God and of truth but reject what they don't want. They think God and truth are divisible, but nothing could be farther from the truth. To reject truth is to reject God. As we see God we see reality and what reality is. To live in reality is to live and be commanded by God.

God created us in his own image and likeness. Now, this has nothing to do with our physical appearance or being but with our spiritual and moral being. Therefore, when we violate God's laws we are violating the nature He created in us which is in accordance to His own nature. That being said, when we sin we are not living and acting in accordance with truth. The truth, in this case, deals with our creation as being our nature. Therefore, sin is a violation of nature, that is, God's original creation, and so truth. This is why if we live a sinful life we are destroying ourselves. Only that which is in accordance with God's nature into which He created us can proceed in life and be fulfilled. All else is self-destructive.

A good illustration of this is too liken sin to poison. The reason poison is poison is because it is a chemical that works in violation to our chemical makeup and thereby destroys us. The poison works against the natural function of our bodies making the natural function cease to function. Anything that will interrupt the life-giving functions of our bodies will stop our bodies from functioning altogether. That is what physical death is. Sin is poison in the spiritual sense. It interrupts the natural function of our spirit and moral uprightness thereby causing spiritual weakness or death. Spiritually speaking, death is the  inability to think, desire or live out our moral and spiritual responsibilities toward God. Therefore, we are living a lie because we are living in opposition to God's created order in our nature. Anything that is in violation of God's nature and declared will is falsehood. To sin is to act or think or desire opposite of who and what one really is. Self-destruction is the natural result of violating one's own nature. And where self-destruction is there can be no continued pleasure of life, only a simplistic and shallow facsimile.

Daniel 9:18 “O my God, incline Your ear and hear! Open Your eyes and see our desolations and the city which is  called by Your name; for we are not presenting our supplications before You on account of  any merits of our own, but on account of Your great compassion.  19 “O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and take action! For Your own sake, O my God,  do not delay, because Your city and Your people are called by Your name.” 

Only by God's grace toward us can we have our sins forgiven and be made right by Him. And He will forgive for His own name's sake for He has promised forgiveness to all who will turn to Him.

Numbers 23:19 “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?" 

(All scripture is from the NASB95. Used by permission)

            

HOW TO TREAT THOSE WHO HAVE A "PAST"

1 Corinthians 6:9  Or  do you not know that the unrighteous will not  inherit the kingdom of God?  Do not be deceived;  neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, 10 nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 Such were some of you; but you were  washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.

So, should we receive all of them with full acceptance and trust or only some of them, such as have done what we have or might have, and leave the others as untouchable? Are all true believers new creations or only some? Are all really washed and cleansed by the blood of Christ or only some? Are we all equal in Christ or only those whose past sins are not as bad as others? If Christ should accept them on equal grounds with us why shouldn't we? If Christ should use them why shouldn't we? After all, Paul was a murderer and persecutor of the church, Isaiah filthy mouthed, Manasseh the evil king of Judah (2 Kings 21and 2 Chronicles 33), Samson a fornicator, David an adulterer and murderer, Peter a Christ-denier, and the list goes on. Would we trust them with those we most love and are the most vulnerable? Would we let them be the communicators of God's word to us and even administrate the church we belong to? For the most part we would. Certainly with Peter, David and Paul. Consider all those not noted in scripture who had exceedingly bad backgrounds before conversion whom God used greatly. What of Chuck Colson? What of Augustine? 

Are there issues we must consider? Of course. If one's past is close to the present time one must be careful as to what allowance one gives to him. But if his past is well past and out of the practice of his life and there are no questions regarding his current life there is no reason to lack trust in him, no matter what the nature of his past is. To do so is to disregard God's work in his life and prefer one's own suspicions rather than God's words or the individual's consistency of life. That is sin and quite hypocritical. Without exception not one person is of any better natural moral quality than anyone else. We are all sinners made of the same dirt, possessing the same corruption. There is not one thing anyone can do that one's own self cannot do, excepting the heart-felt denial of Christ for the Christian. Whatever anyone else has done or can do so can I. It is the self-righteous person who thinks differently. Remember the saying "Except for the grace of God, there go I?" And please, let me restate what I have said many times—self-righteousness is the worst sin of all. It was only the self-righteous whom Jesus scoured. He scolded and corrected many, including His own disciples, and sometimes strongly. But He scoured only the self-righteous. Their venom is worse than the venom of anyone else of any other sinfulness. That doesn't mean we should treat other sins lightly, but let us not be self-righteous hypocrites. And just because one lived a very sinful or even perverted life in the past (though in reality all sin is perversion), doesn't mean that person will in any way affect others to the same lifestyle. Not everyone has ulterior motives or are more prone to falling back into a past lifestyle than one's self. Each case must be determined separately. 

2 Corinthians 5:16 Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. 

    *Interpretation: We no longer see and judge others or even Christ from a fleshly, unredeemed point of view. We not are to see them with the eyes of God, in truth and verity.

       

Luke 18:9  And He also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt: 10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 “The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 ‘I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’ 13 “But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’ 14 “I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

1 Corinthians 10:12 Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall. 

2 Peter 3:17 You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness.

(Scripture citations from the  NASB95)