The Weight of Sin

 Hebrews 12:1b

…Let’s throw off any extra baggage, get rid of the sin that trips us up. (CEB)

…We should remove from our lives anything that would slow us down and the sin that so often makes us fall.  (ERV)

…let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us… (KJV)

…let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely… (NRSV)

…let us drop every extra weight, every sin that clings to us and slackens our pace… (The Voice)

The 3rd Choice (The3rdChoice.org) is an apologetics website. Many of the articles are much longer than what we’ve shown below. This is a great site for someone who is investigating Christianity or has just recently begun their journey with Jesus. To read today’s article on their site, click the title below, and then look around.

Sin: Not Real Popular in the Culture, but A Big Deal in the Bible

Sin is a very big idea in the Bible, and most people seem to misunderstand it, so it’s something we need to know about truthfully. Sin is defined in a few different ways, but you’ll catch a common theme quickly.

Deone Drake defines sin as thinking, doing, or being anything that demonstrates a dissatisfaction with God.

Gary Anderson says, “There are many metaphors in circulation about sin, but the one that gets 80-90% of the textual space [in the Bible] pictures sin as a weight or burden that has to be carried. And so, in many texts in the Old Testament, forgiveness is conceived of as taking away a burden.”

The word “sin” in the New Testament means “to miss the mark; err; swerve from truth and right; go wrong.”

I think you’re getting the idea. People seem to think it’s doing something bad (which isn’t too far off the mark), and they think if they’re generally good people, sin really doesn’t matter that much. After all, most of aren’t criminals, right? That’s where they’re missing the boat.

The Bible explains that sin is our nature as much as it is our behavior (Romans 7.25* and others). In other words, we don’t just do sin, we are sin, as much as a cat is a cat and a dog is a dog. A dog acts like a dog, but even he meows, he’s still a dog, y’know. We may learn to be good people, for our own sake, to please others, or for the good of society. Whatever. Sin is our nature—it’s what we are. So even though you may be a good person, you still have sin in you because if you’re human, you’re sin.

Now add to that that even if you’re not doing wrong, but you don’t do the good that you ought to do—that’s sin too (James 4.17**). Remember the time when your brother was lying to your parents, and you knew he was lying, but you didn’t say anything? Yeah, maybe you thought you were helping your brother, but what you did was wrong. In a way, you were being an accomplice and were guilty of lying too, because you let the lie stand.

We also find out from the Bible that sin separates us from God. God is life and holiness. Sin is death and depravity. So God doesn’t have any sin in him; but since we do, it separates us from him, just as the same poles of two magnets can’t be put together.

Well, you still may think you’re a pretty good person, and maybe you are, but even the smallest amount of sin matters. Let me put it this way: if you have a glass of sewage (ew!), would you drink it? No. Yikes. It’s SEWAGE. OK, but what if have a glass of water, and only a quarter of it is sewage. Pretty good water, right? Would you drink it? Ew, no—it’s SEWAGE.

What are some sins? The biggest one in the Bible is pride. Self-centeredness. Selfishness. There’s also greed, anger, lying, cheating, stealing, envy, jealousy, disobedience to parents, and a long list of other things. Whatever is not like God. Unfaithfulness, disloyalty, dishonesty. That’s what sin is.

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* So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. (NIV)

** If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them. (NIV)

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Go Deeper: Jesus Gives Life (JesusGivesLife.blogspot.com) is another website designed for people who want to learn the basics. Check out the approach they take to today’s opening verses in this post.

Regrets? I Have a Few

David R. Wells’ blog, Revelation 3:10, is the latest addition to the Alltop Christian blog aggregator, and is apparently one of several blogs David writes; this one being shared with wife Marlo, who wrote what follows.  This post appeared last week under the title A Life of Regret, and personalizes some of the things we discussed here yesterday.

2And saying, Repent (think differently; change your mind, regretting your sins and changing your conduct), for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. –Matthew 3:2(AMP)

I wish I hadn’t done that. I can’t believe I said that! If only I could take it back. Or to quote the famous Steve Urkel, “Did I do that”? How many times in any given day do you find yourself uttering these very words? And if you are doing this daily, the task of rising above whatever the situation is that caused it can seem insurmountable. Days carry over to weeks, weeks to months, months to years and years to a lifetime.

Why are so many lives filled with regret, from the smallest slips of the tongue to the major blow outs that separate for a lifetime? It’s very simple. We stop at regret. Regret is only a part of repentance. Look at today’s Scripture. “Regretting your sins and changing your conduct”.

Repentance, followed through to completeness, is what in fact liberates you from a life of regret. Repentance will bring you face to face with reality and send you in the opposite direction. Regret keeps you in bondage.

I believe that people who continue to do the same things over again, don’t necessarily regret what they are doing. In my opinion, they regret getting caught and regret how they are viewed after getting caught. Sometimes that is enough for them to view their behavior with a clearer perspective. However, a lot of times it is not. The more realistic approach would be to ask yourself, “What is it that I regret”?

Looking back on my life, there have been so many things that I have regretted. From my childhood to my life today, there are many things that I wish I would have done differently. The problem is that the very moment that has just passed can never be regained. All the money in the world, all the begging and crying, all the regret can never retrieve that single moment in time.

How then is there any hope for us? Grace.

Try as we may, imaginations, movies and wonder creams, there is yet to date no such thing as a time machine. In order to grow, we have to accept responsibility for that which we regret and change our ways and move forward.

The only guarantee that you have with repentance is God’s grace and freedom. Your regret and repentance does not assure you a place in the person’s life that you have hurt. It does not even guarantee you their forgiveness. But it does guarantee you God’s forgiveness and that it the most important thing.

I cannot tell you the times I have had to apologize to a telemarketer or help desk phone support. First of all, I don’t have to answer the phone if I don’t know who it is. Second of all, if I call in for help, I have to remember; they are doing their job and have probably been talked down to all day. All these things aside, I am Christ’s representative, ouch!

That is a seemingly minuscule thing in the greater scheme of our regrets. I have sat down with my children and asked for their forgiveness where I have failed them. I point out that they should learn from our mistakes and go on to have better marriages and be better parents. Don’t repeat our struggles. Don’t live with our regrets.

I have had to seek the forgiveness of my husband for the things I have said and done that have wounded him along the years. Forgiveness is a wonderful thing; it is a gift, a treasure. It should never be taken for granted. If someone bestows such a gift on you, should you not guard it? That is changing your conduct. Feeling the pain that you have caused another and never wanting to wound them again.

There are things I have said and done in my walk with Christ. There are people I have wounded along the way in the Body. I have cried out to God for His grace and mercy, His forgiveness for myself. But I have also cried out for those that I have hurt. I ask God to guard and keep them, that they will not be led astray because of my actions.

Looking at our lives and how we live can be very disheartening. It can leave you unable to move forward, weighed down in the muck of despair. You can easily find yourself defeated before you can even get started. What’s the key?

10For godly grief and the pain God is permitted to direct, produce a repentance that leads and contributes to salvation and deliverance from evil, and it never brings regret; but worldly grief (the hopeless sorrow that is characteristic of the pagan world) is deadly [breeding and ending in death]. – 1 Corinthians 7:10

Godly repentance, that leads you to regret your sin and change your conduct, will never lead you back to regret. If you don’t regret your sin to begin with, there will be no repentance. But upon attaining true repentance, you will have no regret.

Paul is our shining example. If anyone had cause to be weighed down with a life of regret it would be him. But he lived a life of repentance and made it his life’s “one aspiration”:

13I do not consider, brethren, that I have captured and made it my own [yet]; but one thing I do [it is my one aspiration]: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead –Philippians 3:13

Let us join with Paul. Let our lives be one of true repentance. Pursue God whole-heartedly, making this your one aspiration. There will we find freedom from a “Life of Regret”.

~Marlo T. Wells

Servant: Come Jesus Come

The Christian rock band Servant was formed out of a community, The Highway Missionary Society; a similar relationship that their contemporaries, Resurrection Band, shared with their community, Jesus People USA.

This song, Come Jesus Come is actually the title song from the album, World of Sand.   It’s origins lie in a very early “Jesus Music” recording released by the Highway Missionaries that I believe was part of a musical.

…Now as I stand, amidst my shattered dreams
Somehow I think for the first time
Yes I really believe I’m
Ready to accept your love

Come Jesus, come I’m ready
Come Jesus, come and show me
Your way, your truth, your life…

Yes, there were powerful Christians songs long before today’s modern worship.

If you know more of the history, feel free to leave a comment; and if anyone knows an online location of their song Love Never Fails, I’ll post it here sometime as well.