Wrapped in Trinitarian Love

To really understand this Christian life, we must come to fully understand sin. Unfortunately, the church has defined “sin” more as to how we express it … getting drunk, sexual misconduct, lying, murder, gossip, … All of those things are just the way in which “sin” is expressed.

One of my favorite Christian singers is a guy named Steve Taylor. Steve Taylor had a way of sarcasm that I loved. He coined a phrase in one of his songs called “I Want to Be a Clone.”

Their language it was new to me
But Christianese got through to me
Now I can speak it fluently
I want to be a clone

That phrase was Christianese. That is, the “language” that Christians speak to each other. The problem with this language is that it sounds so right … so religious … yet most people don’t even know what the words mean. We toss around words like sin, repent, righteousness, faith, salvation, and so on like we really know what such terms mean! “Holiness” is one such term being tossed around today. I have been shocked to find out that how the Bible defined these terms (especially in the Greek language the New Testament was written is) is at times DRASTICALLY different than how people in our day and age define them. We will get into this issue much in the future.

Make no mistake … sin is serious business. It isn’t that God just winks at it saying, “Aw shucks, who cares?!” God does not tolerate sin, because to do so would mean that He is a sponsor of it. God’s entire being is set against sin as a man is set against the cancer that eats at his life.

But in that analogy is a wealth of freedom. The truth is simple: God is FOR us, not AGAINST us. And because of that, His goal is to lead us out of sin and into the “great dance.” The sin is not in things (like sports, sex, wine, business enterprise, …), but in what we have done with them. The sin is that we have sought meaning, purpose, and fulfillment in the creature and the created – instead of in the Creator.

Jesus said that He is the Bread of Life and in believing, in coming to Him, we would never hunger or thirst; every need, every longing, every cry for meaning would be satisfied (John 6:35). We say “Amen,” but reserve the right to run to certain things or activities when life gets too tough for us. Jesus is the Bread of Life up to a point, but then we have alternative “breads” to eat. This is the sin we are talking about. This is the sin that God wants to free people from … the insane approach to find meaning apart from Him … insane because it never works, but we keep trying.

We eat of Him, and He is the Bread of Life through the operation of the Holy Spirit. Hence, if we are to be filled with the Spirit, we must repent of all alternative ways to find meaning which we may have established. And there is another “religious term” – repent. We will try to do a whole study on that word in the future. Suffice it for now, the word repent just simply means to change your mind. Have you ever been told by people that some person was not nice, then you met them and actually liked them? If so, you repented!! You thought something was true, you encountered truth, then you changed your mind. In changing your mind, a LOT of things changed. For example, whereas before you might have avoided that person, now you might seek them out.

Repentance has nothing to do with altar calls, or crying. You may cry, but don’t call that repentance. Repentance has nothing to do with making promises to God: “God, I promise you that I won’t ever do this again. After all you’ve done for me, the least I can do for you is …”

None of that is repentance. Repentance means that you come face to face with Truth. And that encounter is like a flood of light into your whole being.

Let me give you an example from my own life. In the past, I have had much temptation to worry. Now, why do I worry? And what is the REAL sin in worry? Worrying is an expression of something deeper … an expression of the lie that I try to be “God” apart from God. Think about it … we worry because we are not in control. Now, I can attempt to overcome this in my efforts, but it does little good. But what I have found is to know the truth … that God is for me, not against me. The truth that God takes care of me, even through things in life that I might consider “bad” and not like.

Now when I see that … really see that … it affects me. To the point that I walk in truth without thinking about it. I am walking in the Spirit.

(to be continued)