SIN Throughout the New Testament, God uses leaven as a symbol of sin. Jesus warns, Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy (Luke 12:1). In discussing the danger of sin spreading, Paul uses the phrase a little leaven leavens the whole lump on two separate occasions (I Corinthians 5:6; Galatians 5:9). Any thought of an easy escape from sins penalties should be quickly banished after reading these scriptures: and be sure your sin will find you out. (Numbers 32:23) Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. Though a sinner does evil a hundred times, and his days are prolonged, yet I surely know that it will be well with those who fear God, who fear before Him. But it will not be well with the wicked. . . . (Ecclesiastes 8:11-13) Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. (Galatians 6:7) To those walking more by sight than faith, it indeed may look as if they have gotten away with something. In reality, though, God is patiently using time to correct us in the most effective and merciful way. The broad principles given above let us know that the inexorable spiritual laws of God are working at all times, just like the law of gravity. We must understand that, because of who we are and what is at stake, God scrutinizes us much more carefully than others. He may, in mercy, mitigate the full effect of a sin or even delay punishment to give us time to repent, but in these occasions as in any other, He is just as much on the job and aware to supply what we need. To whom much is given, much will be required (Luke 12:48). All—the immoral, the ethical, the religious, the self-righteous, the atheist, the agnostic, the king, the commoner, the businessman, the housewife, the young, and the old—are caught within the Scriptures web of confinement due to sin. Man in the Greek Scriptures is huph hamartian, man under sin. This means he is under the power of, in subjection to, under the control of or dependent upon, sin. Sin holds man under its authority, just as a child is under his parents or an army is under its commander. It is viewed as a living, active, forceful, and dynamic power that has man under its sway. Mourning always precedes genuine conversion, for there must be a real sense of sin before the remedy, or deliverance from it, will even begin to be desired. But even here we must note a distinction because many people will quickly acknowledge they are sinners—some even with a measure of pride, a smile and a wink—who have never mourned over the fact. Sin, though, is serious business indeed when we consider that it is ultimately responsible for all the pain, disease, and death, including our own and our Saviors. Although all sin merits the death penalty and requires the blood of Christ for expiation, Gods Word reveals that some sins are indeed worse than others. Some sins have greater consequences to the sinner, as well as to those his sin affects. From the judgments God makes regarding certain sins, it is evident that some sins bring stiffer penalties and greater condemnation. If we are ever going to overcome sin, it will be because we are motivated to take strong measures against it. The fight is difficult because human nature sees sin as an alluring and appealing possibility. We must come to see it as a pernicious, persistent, and destructive enemy that desires to leave us without hope and to inflict us with as much pain as possible along lifes path. To hate it, we need to see why we must come to respect its power, so we can be motivated to fight it with every fiber of our being. The Bible views sin as a malignant power absolutely possessing mankind. So basic and pervasive is its grip that it is not merely an external power, but it resides in our every fiber and deceives a person into thinking he is in control when, in reality, sin is! Talk about being brainwashed! The biblical examples of divine justice may anger or offend us. At the very least, they are sometimes confounding in the face of what we have learned about a merciful and patient God of love. Perhaps we have difficulty because we do not understand the linkage between four vital, biblical concepts: holiness, justice, sin, and grace. We may not grasp the seriousness of holiness by failing to see the purity God requires; we may have an unbalanced perspective of justice; we may misunderstand the deadliness of sin; and we may see little need for grace for ourselves. The stories of Nadab and Abihu, Uzza, and Ananias and Sapphira are clearly not examples of divine mercy. Before we can understand divine mercy, we must first understand the seriousness of sin and the necessity of divine justice. Divine justice is linked to righteousness: Gods justice is according to righteousness. Evil justice in God does not exist because His every judgment is according to His righteousness, for there is absolutely no unrighteousness in Him. The justice of God is always an expression of His perfect, righteous, holy character. Biblically, justice refers to conformity to a rule or norm. If life and salvation were a game, we would say that God plays by the rules. He sets them and never deviates from them. The norm of justice is His own holy character. What God does is always consistent with who and what He is. His righteousness is absolutely pure; there is no shadow of turning in Him (James 1:17). He is utterly incapable of an unholy, unrighteous act. We call people crooks because they are crooked. God is absolutely straight. Genesis 18:23-25 speaks of this very issue: And Abraham came near and said, Would You also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there were fifty righteous within the city; would You also destroy the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous that were in it? Far be it from You to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked; far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? Never did a man ask a more rhetorical question. Abraham had no idea how far such an act was from God. There was never even the most remote possibility that God would kill the innocent along with the guilty! For God to do that, He would have to cease being holy and righteous—He would have to stop being God! God is the Supreme Judge of all the earth. As mans sordid histories show, if He is unjust, there is no hope that justice will ever prevail. We know human judges can be corrupt, take bribes, and be partial. God, though, is never corrupt, cannot be bribed, refuses to show partiality, never acts out of ignorance, has every fact necessary for judgment, and never makes mistakes. Nadab, Abihu, Uzza, Saul, and Ananias and Sapphira all got what they deserved. There is no injustice with God. Gods justice is never divorced from His righteousness. He never condemns the innocent; never clears the guilty; never punishes with undue severity; never fails to reward righteousness. His justice is perfect justice. What Abraham fails to address in his question is sin. Mankind utterly fails to appreciate the seriousness of sin. Gods Word clearly states that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23) and that sin is the transgression of Gods law (I John 3:4, KJV). From the beginning in the Garden of Eden, God proclaims to mankind in the persons of Adam and Eve, . . . in the day that you eat of it [sin], you shall surely die (Genesis 2:17). He does not say they would die immediately, but die they did. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). We have all earned this judgment by the way we live. Is God unjust because He warns Adam and Eve? No, the problem is that man in his pride thinks he deserves better. However, God does not always act with justice—sometimes He acts with mercy. Mercy is not justice, but neither is it injustice, since injustice violates righteousness. Mercy manifests kindness and grace, doing no violence to righteousness. We may see non-justice in God, which is mercy, but we never see injustice in Him.
Posted on: Mon, 17 Nov 2014 03:07:30 +0000
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