As I was preparing for the class I will be teaching this week I stumbled upon an interesting verse. Not interesting because I haven't read it before but interesting because God showed me the meaning of the verse in a whole new light. All of my life, this blog, my teaching, my preaching, and all of my rambling in conversation is centered around one concept; we can have an inexpressible joy when we see God and treasure Him above all things. John Piper puts it this way: "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him." The basic principle is that God is all-satisfying, absolutely sovereign and absolutely supreme in all things and that our joy - the joy that everyone seeks is found in Him and only in Him. We are made to worship and we are created for His glory. Our joy in His glory gives us what we want, joy, and accomplishes the end for which God created the world - His glory!
I have been preparing a lesson around the definition of and root of sin. Sin is usually defined by mainstream evangelicals as the "breaking of God's law." The conventional wisdom regarding sin teaches that we sin by breaking the law and that this is what is wrong with us: we can't stop breaking God's law. I find this definition to be only partially correct and slightly dubious.
First of all, Romans 5:12-14 teaches us that sin cannot be defined in this way - as simply breaking of God's law:
"Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned – for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come."
Sin was in the world before the law was given and death reigned even over those who did not break specific commands (those whose sinning was not like that of Adam). Clearly, we must realize that we cannot define sin in such a way as to break with the wisdom of Scripture? Paul is venturing into a mystery here, one that is not readily visible to our unscriptural and God-denying minds. We want things nice and neat and don't like things that mess with our system of thought. We always want simple answers to things and therefore come up with silly definitions of things like sin, even though the Bible clearly teaches that the mainstream thought is wrong.
Now, breaking the law of God is sinful, to be sure (though, one could easily argue that David broke the law without sinning when eating the consecrated bread, and Rahab broke the law without sinning when she lied and sent the spies in the wrong direction - but this will be saved for a separate post some time). 1 John 3:4 tells us that sin is lawlessness and Romans 5:20 tells us that God gave the law in order to increase the trespass and so increase His glory in showing mercy to us. But there is something off about the conventional definition of sin...something not quite right.
If God gave the law in order to increase the trespass and sin was in the world before the law was given, then it must stand to reason that there is something more to the definition of sin than meets the eye. There must be something deeper; something other than simple disobedience and breaking of commands. Let's have a look at Romans 1:22-26.
"Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles…therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts…God gave them up to dishonorable passions..."
Paul is describing the sinful and totally depraved state of humanity here. What's interesting is that he doesn't even mention breaking of God's law yet. He seems to be focusing on something else...almost as if he wants to show us the root or essence of sin. Paul is arguing here that the essence of sin is to exchange the all-satisfying gift of God Himself (His glory) for something else. It doesn't matter if it's a man-made thing or something God created...to exchange our delight in God's glory for something else is the essence of sin. Notice that God hands us over to whatever our hearts desire - this is our judgment.
Neither of these verses, thought they make the case by themselves, are what I want you to see in particular. We need to go all the way back to Genesis 3:6 in order to see what the root of sin is - that is, after all, where original sin is described.
"So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate."
Wow...do you see what I mean? Moses, the author, wants us to see that the woman SAW that the tree was GOOD (though not in reality, but to her sinful desires already coming of age); that the woman SAW the tree was a DELIGHT to her eyes; and that the woman SAW that the tree was to be DESIRED.
Breaking the command is only an outflow of the sin that is already taking place here. Eve only broke the command because her eyes and heart desired this tree - this fruit - more than she desired God Himself. She ate of the fruit because it was a delight to her and something good to be greatly desired. In her sinful heart she had already decided to eat of the fruit...the actual eating of it is mere formality at this point. If you don't believe me, please remember Jesus' teaching on adultery..."But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery in his heart." Matthew 5:28 It's not as if refraining physically from an act clears our guilt. Sin happens in the heart; in our desires; in our affections. The physical act is simply the outflow of the desire already present - desire for something more than God Himself. In Eve's case, her eating of the forbidden tree came simply because her desires overflowed for the tree, it's fruit and what it promised. God was not her absolute treasure anymore. God was not who she delighted in more than anything. God was not supreme in her mind or in her heart - the tree was.
This should be sobering for us for 2 reasons: 1) Sin is a condition of affections and not behavior - our behavior simply follows as our desires dictate on 2) Controlling our behavior and resisting the sinful desire is not righteousness nor will it gain you any favor with God. Simply having the desire for something more than you desire Him is sin...it it the root of sin and is deserving of all of His wrath.
God is infinitely worthy, infinitely treasurable, infinitely enjoyable and infinitely supreme. Yet, our hearts desire things above and more than God. Our hearts crave the delectable myriad of treasures that the world offers - sex, money, power, comfort, safety, family, cars etc. Wanting any of these things is not sinful in and of itself. The sin happens when we want them more than God and our eyes see them as good and delightful and desirable...more so than God.
The description of temptation and sin in James is telling:
"But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death."
James 1:14-15
Eves desire conceived when she saw the tree as more desirable and delightful than her glorious and all-satisfying God. Her desire gave birth to sin and her sin brought forth death when she finally disobeyed by eating the fruit. The essence of her sin was not the eating of the fruit or the physical disobedience. Rather the essence of her sin was the delighting in and desiring the tree and what it offered above God.
Blessings,
I have been preparing a lesson around the definition of and root of sin. Sin is usually defined by mainstream evangelicals as the "breaking of God's law." The conventional wisdom regarding sin teaches that we sin by breaking the law and that this is what is wrong with us: we can't stop breaking God's law. I find this definition to be only partially correct and slightly dubious.
First of all, Romans 5:12-14 teaches us that sin cannot be defined in this way - as simply breaking of God's law:
"Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned – for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come."
Sin was in the world before the law was given and death reigned even over those who did not break specific commands (those whose sinning was not like that of Adam). Clearly, we must realize that we cannot define sin in such a way as to break with the wisdom of Scripture? Paul is venturing into a mystery here, one that is not readily visible to our unscriptural and God-denying minds. We want things nice and neat and don't like things that mess with our system of thought. We always want simple answers to things and therefore come up with silly definitions of things like sin, even though the Bible clearly teaches that the mainstream thought is wrong.
Now, breaking the law of God is sinful, to be sure (though, one could easily argue that David broke the law without sinning when eating the consecrated bread, and Rahab broke the law without sinning when she lied and sent the spies in the wrong direction - but this will be saved for a separate post some time). 1 John 3:4 tells us that sin is lawlessness and Romans 5:20 tells us that God gave the law in order to increase the trespass and so increase His glory in showing mercy to us. But there is something off about the conventional definition of sin...something not quite right.
If God gave the law in order to increase the trespass and sin was in the world before the law was given, then it must stand to reason that there is something more to the definition of sin than meets the eye. There must be something deeper; something other than simple disobedience and breaking of commands. Let's have a look at Romans 1:22-26.
"Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles…therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts…God gave them up to dishonorable passions..."
Paul is describing the sinful and totally depraved state of humanity here. What's interesting is that he doesn't even mention breaking of God's law yet. He seems to be focusing on something else...almost as if he wants to show us the root or essence of sin. Paul is arguing here that the essence of sin is to exchange the all-satisfying gift of God Himself (His glory) for something else. It doesn't matter if it's a man-made thing or something God created...to exchange our delight in God's glory for something else is the essence of sin. Notice that God hands us over to whatever our hearts desire - this is our judgment.
Neither of these verses, thought they make the case by themselves, are what I want you to see in particular. We need to go all the way back to Genesis 3:6 in order to see what the root of sin is - that is, after all, where original sin is described.
"So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate."
Wow...do you see what I mean? Moses, the author, wants us to see that the woman SAW that the tree was GOOD (though not in reality, but to her sinful desires already coming of age); that the woman SAW the tree was a DELIGHT to her eyes; and that the woman SAW that the tree was to be DESIRED.
Breaking the command is only an outflow of the sin that is already taking place here. Eve only broke the command because her eyes and heart desired this tree - this fruit - more than she desired God Himself. She ate of the fruit because it was a delight to her and something good to be greatly desired. In her sinful heart she had already decided to eat of the fruit...the actual eating of it is mere formality at this point. If you don't believe me, please remember Jesus' teaching on adultery..."But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery in his heart." Matthew 5:28 It's not as if refraining physically from an act clears our guilt. Sin happens in the heart; in our desires; in our affections. The physical act is simply the outflow of the desire already present - desire for something more than God Himself. In Eve's case, her eating of the forbidden tree came simply because her desires overflowed for the tree, it's fruit and what it promised. God was not her absolute treasure anymore. God was not who she delighted in more than anything. God was not supreme in her mind or in her heart - the tree was.
This should be sobering for us for 2 reasons: 1) Sin is a condition of affections and not behavior - our behavior simply follows as our desires dictate on 2) Controlling our behavior and resisting the sinful desire is not righteousness nor will it gain you any favor with God. Simply having the desire for something more than you desire Him is sin...it it the root of sin and is deserving of all of His wrath.
God is infinitely worthy, infinitely treasurable, infinitely enjoyable and infinitely supreme. Yet, our hearts desire things above and more than God. Our hearts crave the delectable myriad of treasures that the world offers - sex, money, power, comfort, safety, family, cars etc. Wanting any of these things is not sinful in and of itself. The sin happens when we want them more than God and our eyes see them as good and delightful and desirable...more so than God.
The description of temptation and sin in James is telling:
"But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death."
James 1:14-15
Eves desire conceived when she saw the tree as more desirable and delightful than her glorious and all-satisfying God. Her desire gave birth to sin and her sin brought forth death when she finally disobeyed by eating the fruit. The essence of her sin was not the eating of the fruit or the physical disobedience. Rather the essence of her sin was the delighting in and desiring the tree and what it offered above God.
Blessings,
1 comment:
Wow, that was definitely profound! That just opened my eyes to a whole new view of sin. We often hear that sin is the lack of God, but even more so (especially after reading this) it is the lack of God due to our desires for anything BUT Him. Good stuff. Brilliant!
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