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Tag: sin

  • Who May Judge SIN?

    Who May Judge SIN?

    Continuing in the Gospel of John

    ‘Who made you judge and jury,’ some ask the Christian who applies the Law? “Don’t judge sin,” some even preach deceptively. Many a sinner will quote Jesus to you: “Judge not, that you be not judged. – Matthew 7:1

    We have been following the Good News of the Messiah Jesus told by John, only surviving disciple after all others had died for their witness of Truth, rather than recant the only Way to heaven, Christ Jesus. His Good News is explanation and not necessarily chronological.

    Previously in John 7 at the Jewish Festival of Booths Jesus shouted out an invitation to the crowds:

    “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”

    Now we move on to a discussion the following day about authority in the Law. Religious authorities who love to judge sin confront the Messiah with one of their favorites, adultery.

    John 8:

    2 At dawn he went to the temple again, and all the people were coming to him. He sat down and began to teach them.

    Let’s not miss that Jesus had been teaching on the Holy Spirit of God the previous day.

    He said this about the Spirit. Those who believed in Jesus were going to receive the Spirit, for the Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

    John 7:39 CSB

    Jesus said this about the Holy Spirit as witness to Himself as the Messiah of the Living God!

    Wouldn’t you want to know more about this Man claiming the very power of the One Lord and God? So the crowds came, along with those who claimed earthly authority over the Law of Moses.

    How do YOU judge sin?

    3 Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, making her stand in the center. 4 “Teacher,” they said to him, “this woman was caught in the act of committing adultery.

    Now, dear christian in this twenty-first century crowd, you think very little of the seriousness of her first century indiscretion with a man to whom she was not married. In fact, in all likelihood many of you commited a different and similar sin when you first loved the significant other of your own life. We are oh so ready to condemn any man who claims the authority of God over our own less severe way to judge sin.

    5 In the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?”

    So does Jesus believe in capital punishment?

    How dare she sleep with another man! After all, she is married.

    6 They asked this to trap him, in order that they might have evidence to accuse him.

    You know the old (not so funny, really) question of the lawyer: “When did you stop beating your wife?” No right answer to the prosecuting question as stated. There’s more to her story than the evidence presented.

    By the way, have you already answered without having had additional evidence presented – facts which perhaps only God may know?

    Is accusation not guilty until proven innocent in these last days?

    So here we look to the Messiah confronted an accusation of adultery in a court having already judged sin of the accused woman.

    Jesus as Judge

    The crowds look on. Religious officials have stated the Law clearly and ask for sentence confirming their judgment of this accused violator. Surly the Messiah who claims that every jot and tiddle of the Law must be fulfilled will not show mercy to this woman who sinned.

    Yet Jesus does not speak a sentence to judge sin clearly accused of this woman.

    7 When they persisted in questioning him, he stood up and said to them,

    “The one without sin among you should be the first to throw a stone at her.”

    8 Then he stooped down again and continued writing on the ground.

    How does the Messiah of God judge sin?

    Jesus has already witnessed the standard by which the Lord will judge sin.

    “I can do nothing on my own. I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, because I do not seek my own will, but the will of him who sent me.

    John 5:30

    “Stop judging according to outward appearances; rather judge according to righteous judgment.”

    John 7:24

    One reason the Pharisees confront Jesus rather than having arrested Him at that time is continuation from a previous confrontation.

    John 7:50 Nicodemus—the one who came to him previously and who was one of them [the Pharisees] —said to them,

    51 “Our law doesn’t judge a man before it hears from him and knows what he’s doing, does it?”

    Neither does the Lord Jesus judge this woman accused of adultery without full evidence of what she has done. In His judgment Jesus shows mercy.

    God is Light and Life – Sin is Darkness & Death

    Do you, man or woman of flesh, judge sin?

    Jesus stood to render His decision as Judge:

    “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.

    John 8:7b KJV

    8 Then he stooped down again and continued writing on the ground. 9 When they heard this, they left one by one, starting with the older men. Only he was left, with the woman in the center.

    Justice?

    Was the full justice of the Law served here? Certainly not.

    Did Jesus grant mercy to the woman who sinned against her husband and the Law of the land? Yes, mercy and grace where penalty could have been demanded.

    Would He judge sin at a later time? (Perhaps you had not thought of His temporary grace calling this sinner to repentance.)

    Will Jesus judge sin – adultery, dishonesty, failure to show mercy to the poor or unjustly accused, victims of hateful vengeance?

    • “Put boundaries for the people all around the mountain and say: Be careful that you don’t go up on the mountain or touch its base. Anyone who touches the mountain must be put to death. – Exodus 19:12
    • “Whoever strikes a person so that he dies must be put to death. – Exodus 21:12
    • “If a person schemes and willfully acts against his neighbor to murder him, you must take him from my altar to be put to death. – Exodus 21:14
    • “Whoever strikes his father or his mother must be put to death. – Exodus 21:15
    • “Whoever kidnaps a person must be put to death, whether he sells him or the person is found in his possession. – Exodus 21:16
    • “Whoever curses his father or his mother must be put to death. – Exodus 21:17
    • “Whoever has sexual intercourse with an animal must be put to death. Exodus 22:19

    “Observe the Sabbath, for it is holy to you. Whoever profanes it must be put to death. If anyone does work on it, that person must be cut off from his people. Work may be done for six days, but on the seventh day there must be a Sabbath of complete rest, holy to the LORD. Anyone who does work on the Sabbath day must be put to death.

    Exodus 31:14-15

    His Merciful Sentence

    “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” –

    Jesus’ question to accusers who would judge sin – John 8:7 NASB

    “I am the light of the world.

    You judge by human standards. I judge no one. And if I do judge, my judgment is true, because it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me.

    Jesus’ standard to judge sin – John 8:15-16 CSB

    Is Jesus the Messiah?

    If Jesus was, IS, and will always be the Lord God, the Messiah, then He IS Light itself. Jesus is the very image of Light of the Father God our Creator, sustainer and Judge.

    12 Jesus spoke to them again: “I am the light of the world. Anyone who follows me will never walk in the darkness but will have the light of life.”

    13 So the Pharisees said to him, “You are testifying about yourself. Your testimony is not valid.”

    14 “Even if I testify about myself,” Jesus replied, “My testimony is true, because I know where I came from and where I’m going. But you don’t know where I come from or where I’m going. 15 You judge by human standards…

    Is this not true of every man or woman who must judge another man or woman?

    Therefore what is our standard of temporal justice, prior to the judgment of our souls?

    Leviticus 19: Laws of Holiness – Separation to the LORD

    לֹא־תַעֲשׂ֥וּ עָ֨וֶל֙ בַּמִּשְׁפָּ֔ט לֹא־תִשָּׂ֣א פְנֵי־דָ֔ל וְלֹ֥א תֶהְדַּ֖ר פְּנֵ֣י גָדֹ֑ול בְּצֶ֖דֶק תִּשְׁפֹּ֥ט עֲמִיתֶֽךָ׃

    John does not present every proof of witness that Jesus is the Messiah of Israel, but closes his Gospel written after many proofs of the resurrection of Jesus with this:

    But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

    John 20:31 CSB

    Light of Life from beyond the grave

    12 Jesus spoke to them again: “I am the light of the world. Anyone who follows me will never walk in the darkness but will have the light of life.”

    … “You know neither me nor my Father,” Jesus answered. “If you knew me, you would also know my Father.”

    20 He spoke these words by the treasury, while teaching in the temple. But no one seized him, because his hour had not yet come.

    … and you will die in your sin. Where I’m going, you cannot come.”

    … You are of this world; I am not of this world. 24 Therefore I told you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I am he, you will die in your sins.”

    25 “Who are you?” they questioned.

    “Exactly what I’ve been telling you from the very beginning,” Jesus told them.

    Do you believe the Light or hide in the darkness of death?

    26 “I have many things to say and to judge about you, but the one who sent me is true, and what I have heard from him—these things I tell the world.”

    To be continued...

  • Disaster From Disobedience, A Savior From Before Eden – 6

    Instruction in Good and Evil

    This is My command: Love one another as I have loved you. – John 15:12

    The Lord loved the work of His creation, especially man, made in his own image. Adam and Eve were more special and blessed than any of God’s created ones. The Lord had been like a father instructing them and walking beside the man and the woman in Eden.

    In our last look at Adam’s temptation and original sin we established the radical change required now that man knew good and evil. At first Adam had only one rule to obey. The Lord commanded. DO NOT desire the knowledge of good and evil. That’s it; don’t eat that fruit! Everything else? Fine.

    Now man will require some instruction as to what is good and what is evil. Not so easy. The Lord will instruct them.

    Adam and Eve have children (after all, not only was it pleasurable and fulfilling, but the Lord had commanded it). These first parents had a relationship with God and could ask the Lord for help with their children.  (We do that, right? … or at least we should.)

    God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth.” – Genesis 1:28

    God had instructed them like a loving father; now these original parents will instruct their children in that same love. Children who know nothing of evil and have never seen paradise will learn of good and evil, with God’s help.

    Godly Instruction in Good and Evil

    You will recognize sin leading to a later Commandment, ‘Thou shalt not murder;’ but note other sins present here as well.  Our familiarity with two of Adam’s sons, Cain and Abel, could obscure some of the Lord’s instruction. 

    Your full consideration of Scripture linked here is always welcome, however let’s read just an excerpt.

    Genesis 4:

    6 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you furious? And why do you look despondent?

    For our instruction in good and evil, note the Lord’s two descriptive emotions: furious and despondent. Think of your own emotions related to jealousy or envy of another, as was the case with Cain of Abel.

    “Why art thou wroth,” reads the King James, for translation from Hebrew of Charah  חָרָה  speaks of a burning anger.

    Do you suppose that Adam, also now knowing good and evil instructed his sons in righteousness? What parent doesn’t? And for that matter what parent does not also need the help of the Lord?

    (God help me with this child! What parent has not made this plea?)

    The other emotion mentioned also causes us much anguish, perhaps as consequence of our powerless ability to please others. Again, the King James translates, “and why is thy countenance fallen?”

    Despondent is apt image of the fallen face of one so disappointed. If we have eyes to see the face of another we can always see it, just as a face may also reflect radiant joy.

    Our sin and guilt will cause a fallen countenance, translated from the Hebrew: פָּנִים paniym or face נָפַל naphal or fall. After man’s fall, a fallen face due to our inability to please the Lord.

    What instruction could the Lord have for the son of Adam about his fallen condition?

    A Caution to choose Good and not Evil

    Genesis 4:7 If you do what is right, won’t you be accepted? 

    We do not automatically receive God’s blessing. The Lord instructs us to consider our choices. 

    In this case, Abel had received blessing, but Cain’s offering to the Lord was not accepted. It begs a weighty question for us when we fall short of the Lord’s expectation (and we all do at times).

    What should I do to be accepted by God?

    The Lord’s answer seems so simple, ‘do what is right,’ yet it comes with a caution as well.

    But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at the door.

    Again, a helpful picture, ‘sin crouching at the door.’ This is actually the Bible’s first reference to sin, חַטָּאָת chatta’ath, from the root word חָטָא, meaning ‘to miss the mark.’ I can easily picture the Lord’s caution to not trip over the obstacle of sin before the doorstep of heaven.

    Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”

    Do you also find it interesting that the Lord personifies sin here as having desire for you?

    Desire is certainly a human trait; but as we learned from Satan’s fall, also an angelic trait. 

    Sin! crouching at our door: its desire is for you and for me.

    But we must rule over it, says the Lord. We must defeat sin in the great and ongoing battle between good and evil.

    Cain failed and sinned. Yet do not condemn Cain like the son of another, but rather have pity for him like you would your own son. And have compassion on other sinners. With God’s help some who fall short will do good and gain the Lord’s acceptance. And in Christ even a sinner like you and me has hope.

    Now That We Have the Knowledge of Good and Evil

    Perhaps on occasion your face falls at the thought of our past and inevitable sin. For the task of our earthly knowledge of good and evil weighs heavily upon us. ‘There is no one righteous, not even one.’

    For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. – Romans 3:23

    Do you recall that Adam and Eve had more sons? For we are sons of Seth, Son of Adam. Therefore our instruction in good and evil must progress.

    The Lord will not only give us the Law through Moses, but also redeem us from our sin by the Son of Man.

    To be continued…

     

  • Disaster From Disobedience, A Savior From Before Eden – 5

    Temptation: “Did God really say…?”

    Genesis 3:

    The Temptation and the Fall
    3 Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?”

    Here it begins, original sin.

    I might have easily named this series, ‘Temptation Before Disobedience,’ yet we shall not fall into this pit. Rather than taking the more traveled path of placing blame on the already-fallen Satan, we shall examine the progression of our own disobedience to God.

    Genesis 2:17 .. but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die.”

    One point of my previous post, knowledge of good and evil comes to man with overwhelming responsibility, as well as consequence for sin. Returning to Genesis 3 and Satan’s temptation for man’s disobedient fall:

    “In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” – Genesis 3:5 

    So yes, we know of good and evil independently of obedience to God. Yet are we like God?

    In so many ways this frail, fallen flesh created in God’s imagine no longer reflects the Lord’s righteousness. Each reflection of our sin clouds the clarity of the Lord’s gleaming glory.

    And the Lord said of creation, “It is good;” yet in so many ways since man’s temptation to judge good and evil, it is not so good.

    Before we proceed past original sin, let’s briefly consider the relationship between Adam and Eve with the Lord prior to their temptation.

    God in the Garden Paradise

    No one has ever seen God. – John 1:18

    Image yourself as Adam if you are a man, or as Eve if you are a woman, walking in paradise with the Living God. (You have not yet sinned.) 

    Can you describe your personal relationship with the One who has created you and walks with you in Eden? What is the Lord like? 

    He was with God in the beginning. All things were created through him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created. – John 1:2-3

    In this paradise of Eden, the Person of the Lord seems to nurture a newborn existence in a vast and wonderful place. 

    Colossians 1:

    15 He is the image of the invisible God,
    the firstborn over all creation.
    16 For everything was created by Him,
    in heaven and on earth,
    the visible and the invisible…

    17 He is before all things,
    and by Him all things hold together.

    John 1:1

    In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

    How would Adam or Eve described God before the fall?

    The Creator walks with us! He IS the image of the invisible God in whose image we are also created. The Lord is not an angel (though some later descriptions call Him ‘The Angel of the Lord’). God is a loving Person, a Father if you will, to both of us.

    But then… we both sinned…

    7 “Then the eyes of both of them were opened,” Moses records. It’s not that they were literally blind, but by their new-found knowledge they now saw, heard and realized things they never needed to know.

    Eyes Opened to our Sin

    We heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and we hid  from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. We were naked. Although we had always been naked, something told us that no one else should see us that way, so we clothed ourselves with leaves.

    We heard the familiar voice of the Lord:

    “Where are you?”

    We had never hidden from Him. Adam called out from behind the trees for both of us:

    10 And he said, “I heard You in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.”

    “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

    Of course… we had.

    And somehow we knew that it was wrong. Never before had we ever considered that anything we had done had been either right or wrong. We just did it and lived with great joy in paradise.

    Well, you know the rest. Excuses, punishment for our disobedience… 

    We then began our schooling in the differences between blessing and curse. But now it was too late, for we could not go back to the Paradise where we had lived in overflowing joy with the Lord God.

    When the Lord had blessed us He had commanded, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it.” Now beyond Eden these words to fill the earth, and subdue it seem burdensome rather than a blessing. And the Lord has said that we now have only a lifetime to begin that which once seemed timeless.

    The Lord says that we now have eyes to see and ears to hear what is good and what is evil. Be careful to do all that is good and shun what is evil He has said. 

    How long, O Lord, until you will return us to your glory? More than a lifetime? 

    And what must it be like to first return to the dust…

    To be continued…