But ... don’t forget that Paul is stern with the sinful believer, too. In 1 Corinthians 6 he reminds the Corinthians that the Kingdom of God does not belong to the rampant sinner. Ephesians 5:5 is equally strong: “For of this you can be sure; no immoral, impure or greedy person…has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.” The message for the sinful Christian is not, “well, we all sin sometimes, but “stop it and repent!”
Hebrews is even stronger. On the one hand, the author enthusiastically explains how the Christian has absolutely free access into the presence of God himself through the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. There is every reason to be confident of our salvation. But, he is also uncompromising about sin. “If we deliberately go on sinning” writes the author, “no sacrifice for sins is left!” To the Christian who said “I sin all the time”, he would say “Don’t!” 1 John backs him up: “I am writing this so you will not sin” he says, “but if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father.”
Not bad advice, actually. Christians (well, I, at least) do love to wallow in guilt. But maybe that’s not good enough. If I am to think more biblically I might instead remember who I am on account of Christ. And I might have courage to tackle my sin (with the Spirit’s help) and kill it off. It has no place in my life, after all.
However, I still live in a warzone, for the time being. I still live life in the weak flesh, I still live under the effects of sin, I still live (for now) on the wrong side of eternity. In Romans 8, Paul tackles exactly this state of affairs. (Before you read it, cross out “sinful nature” in the NIV and replace it with “flesh”.) The Christian continues to live in a sinful environment – even in a weak and sinful body – but is now controlled by the Spirit. The Christian experiences first hand the rot of the sinful era: but also yearns with the Spirit for the future redemption of the body. Most reassuringly of all for the overwhelmed believer, there is no condemnation for those in Christ. If God is for us, who can be against us? We are more than conquerors…
Sin in our lives is a contradiction of our very identity: an absurdity, given our destiny. It isn’t who we are any more.
4 comments:
Hi Michael,
I wanted to ask you a few questions about a briefing article that you wrote a few years ago on the body and wasn't sure how to contact you. Do you mind if I ask a you a few questions?
Thanks,
Ian Reid
sure.
you can email me at michael dot jensen at moore dot edu dot au
Thanks for this, Michael. I'm preaching on Rom 6 next and found it a useful little series.
Hi Michael,
I am probably so late in on this conversation no-one else will see the comment.. but wanted to add a note on a practical level. In my experience, verbally confessing my sins in prayer times with close friends has had more power in putting a particular sins in my life 'to death' than attempting to try harder not to do that particular sin.
I don't know whether this is because the latter is really an attempt to live up to the standards of the law in my own strength - a Christian form of self- justification, rather than putting that sin to death in Christ - or whether it is simply that verbally pronouncing sin as sin, and owning my sin, shatters the power of silence and self illusion that my sins are really not that bad. To ask God's forgiveness with a friend and to verbally acknowledge that Jesus took the death penalty because of what I am doing has been a powerful way to break that illusion. I find that until I verbally confess a sin to a trusted friend, my experience is one of bondage - I tied up to and struggle with the sin, rather than putting it to down to rest at the foot of the cross.. in actual fact I am struggling with the shame of the confession.
The practice of confession is not something that we do well in our Anglican faith culture and it is a practice that I have adopted only in the last few years. But adopting this practice has done a lot more to allow me to comprehend (not just assent to) the truth that in my natural self I do deserve death, but that Christ has phyisically removed this burden of shame and heaviness from me - as far from me as the east is from the west. As a result, I have actually experienced joy in knowing in the depths of my being that I am truly free from condemnation.
You would find it interesting that this process has also helped me appropriate the idea that my identity is in Christ. In more fully comprehending that I deserve death, and having had this heaviness lift with the knowledge that my life is in Christ and inseparable from him.. i have noticed that some of those subtle attempts to feel good about who I am /my personal identity in worldly terms have fallen away..
Hey, I heard you are back in Newtown sometime in the next few months, Looking forward to reinstituting a few more Sunday lunches (if you are not too busy with invites from all you new blogging friends!). As we said when you left, for some people, very little changes in 3 years - my only significant news is a change in churches and I might be kicked out of my house in the next couple of months -
Shalom, Cath
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