The Freedom from Sin

Nazarenes and the Church of Jesus Christ - Part 3 of 3

January 26, 1992

Text: Romans 3:23

What is there to say about sin? We're against it! Which sin are we talking about? "I hope it isn't the one sin I excuse in my life!"

I am not talking just now about this sin or that sin; I am speaking about sin. Sin is not popular. It is a God-related word; God is the Great Irrelevancy.

I. SIN, SALVATION, AND THE SAVIOR

NEXT TO OUR CONCEPT OF GOD HIMSELF, PERHAPS OUR UNDERSTANDING OF SIN IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF OUR PERSONAL THEOLOGY.
What we understand of the nature of sin has a tremendous effect on the way we seek to come to God. It helps determine how we come to confidence that we are saved, ready for heaven:
1. Two definitions that help some and yet don't say it all:
  1. Wesley "Sin is a wilful transgression of a known law of God,
  2. "Sins" (plural) are acts; and "sin" is an inner "bent" or "nature."
2. We might better try to think of how sin is a PERSON-al, or RELATIONAL matter.
  Whatever else sin is, it is being WRONG with God. Whatever salvation is, it is being RIGHT with Him.
Think with me through two or three "inner dramas" of people coming to seek salvation. See how the idea of what sin is goes to the heart of how we come to trust:
1. A commonly held "Nazarene" understanding of sin. Sin is being "bad," and sinning separates me from God. Salvation is being GOOD (once I've been to the altar to take care of being BAD).
  And later I should come back to the altar to take care of the SIN (singular= "bent to sin") so I won't get angry any more.
  1. The "drama" goes like this:
  I come to the altar. I confess my sins as I am told. I am given a clean slate, which assures me I will go to heaven if I die. I have a list of things I must and must not do. I must read and pray. I must not smoke or drink. I should go to church when I can, but then (Significant Other Person) is rather casual about it, so maybe that isn't all that important.
  I start out with confidence. Then a couple of bad things can happen:
  1. I keep all the neat rules, like NOT smoking and NOT drinking and so forth, and so I "know" I am saved even though from year to year I never really come to know the Lord Jesus in any personal way, and I never help any fellow mortal move one inch closer to the kingdom of God; or,
  2. I soon find out that my clean slate is all messed up. I start over several times. Finally I quit in disgust saying that I cannot honestly live a Christian life. I drop away and say there is nothing real in this fake religion.
  3. Or— in spite of not having a perfect understanding of all these things I find a personal, growing knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, and somehow the miracle continues to grow!
2. Let me have the audacity to change the scene. Now I am a hard-shell Baptist, or a child of strict Reformed-Calvinist roots.
  My definition of sin is sort of all the above PLUS— sin is ANY COMING SHORT OF THE GLORY OF GOD! And by that I mean any place I should do better and don't, or shouldn't do bad and do. It is ALL sin! All my life I hear the Bible preached as propositional truth. "God said it! I believe it! That settles it!" Here's how MY "salvation drama" goes:
  I "come forward." With good solid counseling I "receive the Lord Jesus as Savior."
  I understand that He is my Substitute, and that His righteousness is IMPUTED as my own. God now looks at me, and instead of my sins He sees the righteousness of His Son.
  I am honor-bound to read and pray and prove the reality of my new birth by (1) Baptism; (2) Tithing; (3) Witnessing.
  If I do these things
  1. I often come to live far above the raw simplistic application of the very real Truth of this system, and the discipline carries me into a genuine relationship. OR,
  2. I drift into old ways, and from time to time I "re-dedicate my life" during times of emotional challenge. All the while I am more-or-less consoled by the fact that I have received "eternal Life" which by definition can never be forfeit, otherwise how is it "eternal?"
  3. Or— in spite of not having a perfect understanding of all these things I find a personal, growing knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, and somehow the miracle continues to grow!
3. Let me be even MORE audacious! Let me describe a person with some form of Catholic up-bringing. Sin to me is pretty much defined by the Church. There are mortal sins; there are venal sins. Jesus Christ is GOD and Savior, but the idea of salvation is mediated through both the Word and the Traditions of the Church. I need to (1) be baptized; (2) confirmed; (3) keep current by taking Mass regularly, which should involve regular confession as well.
  My "salvation drama" comes when somehow these truths I have been taught become personal to me. I am saved by being in fellowship with the Church, and obeying from the heart its teachings, and IT mediates and brings me to Jesus Christ.
  Or— in spite of not having a perfect understanding of all these things I find a personal, growing knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, and somehow the miracle continues to grow!
IN ALL THESE DIFFERENT STORIES REAL SALVATION NEEDS A PRESENT SAVIOR
No human agency can fully present the truth so powerfully and true that "correct theology" will save. Somehow, by the Word being released and through the preaching I hear, in whatever church, I must grasp -the Idea that God knows ME-! He cares that I have sinned. He is angry with my sins, but I know He loves ME. I am enabled to enter into a personal relationship with Him. I ask Him for mercy and forgiveness. He grants it. I sense that I belong to Him.
[I do not know all the profound things that have taken place in me, perhaps, but I have been genuinely BORN AGAIN: Adopted, Regenerated, Justified!]
A relationship has been established. It is not easily broken! God doesn't give up on His children.

II. SIN AND SALVATION ARE PERSONAL IN NATURE

Unless there is a sinner there is no sin!
"Sin does not exist independently of the sinner." Sin is what a sinner does. The sin is the expression of the sinner. We sin because we are sinners. To quote premier Nazarene theologian, H. Ray Dunning: "We must not so much speak about sin as about man as sinner."
But what about "coming short of the glory of God?"
1. We've had Introduction to New Testament and we know that "sin" is usually translated from the Greek word …'… ‡ … (hamartia), which means "To miss the mark," and say "Sin is any time we come short of the glory of God."
  But we have only a vague Idea of what coming short of God's glory might be. We think it is failing to live up to all the Ten Commandments, perhaps, or any deviation from God's perfect will.
2. The "glory of God" in human beings is the "image of God." The "glory of God" in you and me is the capacity we have for a good relationship with God Himself. It is the capacity to give and receive love from the Creator of the Universe.
  Marred by the entrance of willful sin (original sin) the capacity remains to respond to grace.
Thus: SIN is that which RUINS OR PERVERTS RELATIONSHIPS
1. A "deadness" toward God. Living life as though a loving heavenly Father does not even exist.
2. A hostility and dishonesty toward fellow humans. The inability to be authentic, to love and receive love. Shutting down of compassion; living for self in advantage to others. Excluding all or part of the best social dimensions of life. The ultimate individualism.
3. A mistaken relationship toward Creation. Either tending to worship the creation as god; OR, to try to dominate it as though WE were God. A total misunderstanding of God-intended role as Vice-Regents
4. A miserable relationship with our own inner self. Helplessness! The dictator within! The usurper! Domination and Tyranny of self (Romans 7)
SO: SALVATION IS THAT WHICH DEALS WITH THE SEPARATION(S) OF SIN: Salvation must, then, do these four things: (and it does! it will!)
1. Freedom TO God. Daring to be open to Him! It gives us access to God on High; from far off places it brings us nigh to precious blessings that never die!
2. Freedom for the Other. The ability to relate to others in agape' love
3. Freedom from the Earth. Creation, nor the material benefits of living in this world, do not dominate.
  To quote Dunning again:
  "The clues to the boundaries of the mandate (Gen 1:28) is "the glory of God," to which unfallen man would be committed. It thus carries responsibility as well as privilege and implies ecological care-taking."
4. Freedom from Self-dominion
  Dunning goes on (I am being VERY Nazarene in my conclusions!)
  "The Lord becomes the dominant Partner in all relationships, not in an impersonal, arbitrary, or forced way, but in freedom God is made the Center. The uncoerced partner (you and I) can decide to dissolve the situation by attempting to assume an equal partnership, or by usurping the prerogatives of the Creator. In the Fall in Eden this prerogative was actualized. It has been repeated in kind in each of our lives, until we are set free to put the Lord God back at the center of our lives and assume the correct relationship with Him. -H. Ray Dunning

CONCLUSION:

What can we do about sin? What IS sin?

SIN IS WHATEVER KEEPS US FROM LOVING GOD!

SIN IS WHATEVER WE PUT AHEAD OF HIM!

The only way to really KNOW God is to LOVE Him! Love is how God reaches out to us! God so LOVED!

To love is to know— it seems so backwards!

But ultimately we don't come to God by knowing more, or by being better, or by saying more prayers than the next person.

And we don't maintain our relationship with God by having a superior theology than the Calvinists or Catholics.

To LOVE God— to place Him at the center of all we are or ever will be— to ask HIM to love us and forgive us and live in us— THIS is how we overcome SIN! And it is a relationship that never ends!

#241 HIS WAY WITH THEE

Would You Live for Jesus and Be Always Pure and Good