Sin Matters
Pascal said:
“There are two kinds of people: the just who consider themselves sinners, and the sinners, who consider themselves just”.
“How are you doing?” We ask in our grammatically tangled way.
“I am good”. We reply with another grammatically mangling.
“I am good”.
What does that mean? I’m OK – healthy, feeling happy, I have sufficient. I don’t need whatever you’ve got. “No, I’m good.”
Are we really “good” or are we sinners?
Did you know you can download an app called
Penance.
It sets up untraceable “sinner” and “saint” accounts and as you confess sins you join a community which confesses to each other and forgives each other.
Doesn’t have a Christian or religious basis but describes itself as “To all them that repent, may they find forgiveness. As medicine is to the body, confession is to the soul.”
I don’t think this works (!) but I do like the fact that they have acknowledged that we don’t always live righteously. There is sin.
Sin matters because it separates us from God. Because it corrodes our souls. This is one of the three themes that repeat and circle through the first letter of John (see the other talks in this series for more comment on this).
1. What we believe, the truth - belief matters.
2. Loving one another, fellowship - love matters.
3. Living righteously, being rescued from sin - sin matters.
Use of the word "sin" seems politically incorrect. Why?
- Because it implies the existence of God – our rational, scientific age assumes no God, therefore must be no sin;
- Because it implies An objective right and wrong – our post-modern, relativist world doesn't like absolutes like that. Do what you like so long as you don’t hurt anyone. Sin implies an ultimate arbiter of right & wrong;
- Because if there is sin that probably means the finger is pointing at me. The emperor’s new clothes – the emperor and his advisers believed the lie that only the wise and good could see the clothes and they weren’t prepared to admit that they weren’t wise or good. When we admit the existence of sin, the finger points at me.
If you are an atheist the closest you can come is to talk about immoral behaviour. But that cause you a significant philosphical problem ... who decides what is immoral?
Jews and Moslems believe there are sinful acts but don’t dwell on our sinful nature.
Most other religions tiptoe round the issue.
Generally speaking it is only Christianity that tells us there is a God, that there is right and wrong and that each of us is a sinner, needing reconciliation with him.
Which sounds harsh until you realise that unlike every other religion and unlike atheism, Christianity offers a powerful resolution: The grace of God which leads to forgiveness.
Yes sin matters, but there is love and power to be forgiven.
1 JOHN 1:5-2:6
WALKING IN THE LIGHT – WALKING AS JESUS DID
V 5 – walk in the light
The context of this passage is the opening verse which says that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. John sets the scene, it’s cut and dried again – darkness and light.
Vv 6,7 – darkness & light
Where there is darkness there is only sin and lies.
Where there is light there is goodness and truth and God.
And we are set free to walk in the light, to walk as Jesus walked (2:6).
Four steps to freedom from sin:
1) Acknowledge that there is sin
2) The need for confession
3) Salvation from sin
4) Forgiveness and being purified
ACKNOWLEDGE THERE IS SIN
Two senses of the word sin (1:7,8,9,10, 2:1,2)
- A sinful state. Man in a state of lawlessness and wrongdoing, standing in opposition to God. Man with his sinful character, his disposition toward sin.
- A sinful act. Doing things that are an expression of our sinful being.
Vv 1:7.9 – state of being sinful
John tells us that through Jesus we can be forgiven and purified of our state of sin. We move from darkness into light. We are no longer sinners in the sense of standing in opposition to God but we are the redeemed.
Vv2:1 – acts of sin
And then he says, but we all slip up from time to time and do sinful things. And there is forgiveness for that too.
V1:6
That doesn’t give us the right to go on sinning, knowing that we can be forgiven, John describes that as staying in the darkness. We are called to walk free and in the light.
CONFESSION
The iphone app recognises the need for this, "as medicine is to the body confession is to the soul".
When we encounter Jesus we become aware of the light and the fact that we are in darkness. We become aware not just of our sinful acts but that we are sinful beings. And we have a choice, we can continue to behave as though it doesn’t matter, believe that everything is OK, that our new clothes are just lovely.
Or we can confess our sins. We can hold our hands up and say yes, I am naked, I am not “good”, I am a sinner and I confess my sins and repent. A bit like the emperor, until we are willing to do that, we can’t receive the new clothes which do cover our nakedness.
Maybe you are afraid that when you turn to Jesus and confess he will turn into an angry and vengeful god who will wreak punishment. Listen to this wonderful promise, 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness”.
Our God, revealed to us in Jesus, is faithful. He keeps his promises and has always done so. If you will turn to with confession he will forgive and purify you. He will hand you a wonderful new outfit to wear.
Confession is something that we are called to do in private and in public. On our own and with another person and in the community. Part of the validity of confession comes from speaking out the words in the hearing of another person. It is one thing to confess to God, who knows everything anyway; another to confess our sins to each other.
That is one of the most moving aspects of being baptised, it is a public confession of sin and of faith.
SALVATION FROM SIN
V1:7, 2:1,2 – here we are shown how it works.
John draws on the Greek legal concept of advocacy and the Old Testament/Jewish concept of sacrifice.
We start out from a place of darkness and rebellion against God. We are sinful.
But (1) we have an advocate, someone we can call on who will plead our case before the Father. This is Jesus, and he can do it because he is the righteous one.
He does not stand in opposition to God, he is God and although he lived as a man he did no wrong, he never sinned. He was “good”. So he is the only one who can plead our case before the king.
And (2) he stands as the atoning sacrifice. This refers to the spilling of blood. Blood was (and is) considered the essence of life and in that age when a sacrifice was made the ritual centred around the spilling of blood.
A life given up as a sacrifice in place of the sinner. This is the imagery that explains what happened when Jesus was tortured to death on the cross. His blood was spilt, poured out, his life was given up, sacrificed, so that our wrongdoing, and the wrongdoing of the entire world, now, in the past and in the future, can be forgiven.
He is righteous and perfect so he can plead for us - and yet he has also paid the price, written out the cheque, taken the bullet … for you and for me. So we can be forgiven and purified.
FORGIVEN AND PURIFIED
We had a leak in our bathroom last year and have had to have our bathroom re-done. We have been saving up for months to do it.
Over the last few weeks the men have been at work. The first thing was to take out all the damaged plaster and equipment. They kept the door closed but made a real noise and a mess, dust everywhere. But eventually it was over; the room was cleared of all the plaster, old joinery, redundant piping and so on. It was a shell, just brickwork.
Then the plastering: putting in plaster board and plastering the walls and ceiling to a smooth clean finish. Decorating and re-fitting the units.
V 1:7,9
When John talks about being forgiven and purified it is a bit like that. God is faithful and when we confess he moves in the heavy equipment and the rubbish bags and clears out all the old, broken, leaking, spoilt bathroom fittings, pipework, décor and plaster.
Then he comes and purifies us, he washes us clean, re-plasters and redecorates until we are clean and presentable again.
What is the result of walking these 4 STEPS?
1) Sin (1:7, 8, 9, 10, 2:1, 2)
2) Confession (1:9, 2:1)
3) Salvation from sin (1:7, 2:1,2)
4) Forgiveness and purification (1:7, 9)
Sin matters because it hurts, it destroys, it drags us into darkness and pain. When we live in opposition to God we rely on ourselves and eventually we find that we just can’t make it.
It’s no good pretending that sin is not there, that we can excuse ourselves, that we can ignore God forever. We may not kneel before the king today, but one day we will. All of us.
Without him there is no hope or fulfilment or future.
Our lives begin to fill with regret and guilt and shame.
But the great news is that our God is a loving God, so gracious, so merciful that he has made a way to forgive our sin. My invitation to you is to confess your sin and to receive his forgiveness. That you may:
· Be set free
· Have your debt paid
· Break the chains that bind you
· Be healed of the damage of sin in your lives
· Have the stain removed
· Be cleansed, restored, forgiven
· Walk in the light, learning to walk as Jesus walked
David Flowers, 13/11/2011