WHAT IS SIN? Some Surprises and Counterfeits

Small Steps in Understanding Grace, Seminar #2

Review of First Seminar: What is a Christian?

First, let's review our first seminar for those who were not here. That topic was the question: What is a Christian? This seems simple, but most people who say they are Christians, aren't. We looked at the confusing passage where Jesus declared that to be his disciple one must deny oneself, pick up one's own cross, and follow him. We discussed the possible options. I had thought of four, but Kevin added a fifth. These five are:

1.    Deny one's physical life and die physically—following Jesus to physical death on a cross.

2.    Deny one's tendency to disobedience and die to unwillingness—following Jesus into willingness to always do what is right.

3.    Deny one's tendency to rebellion and die to being uncommitted—following Jesus into commitment to always do what is right.

4.    Deny one's human desires and die to having human desires—following Jesus in always having only God's desires.

5.    Deny one's own righteousness as good and die to life and identity in personal righteousness—following Jesus into His righteousness, receiving a new identity as righteous in His work, and be given the call to proclaim as He did that righteousness is perfection. 

The first four are in some way about behavior and in some way deny what it means to be human. My question was: Why can't following Jesus be about Jesus? 

My conclusion was that being a Christian was all about God and His goodness. God is good and created the universe good. God allowed an intruder into the universe to be a voice distracting Adam and Eve away from dependence on God's goodness. They fell under the condemnation of their own conscience as well as under God's judgment. It is good for God to provide a good way of resolution for His fallen universe. The only good way honors both the call to the details of goodness and the call to be faithful to the details. Since goodness includes freedom from moral imperfection, and humans have no ability to be free from moral imperfection, the only good hope for humans is for them to be free from obligation to goodness. Since God is good, it naturally follows that He would in a good way free His creatures from the obligation to be faithful by carrying that burden Himself. This means that substitution is the only good way for Him to do this. Since God is good, He naturally will provide a good way for His image bearers to have a good relationship with Him. That good relationship is called being a Christian. The good way into becoming a Christian is personal and non-manipulative. 

Jesus is the way, truth, life, peace, holiness, righteousness, redemption, light and more for a Christian. He is both the way into the new relationship and the way of life once in that new relationship. Since God is good, all of life is His responsibility to provide and maintain. Therefore, a Christian is a person who has a good relationship with God—a relationship that is good in all aspects. A Christian is alive in God's goodness—God's righteousness—God's faithfulness—and is free from the pressure of his own righteousness, his own faithfulness, and his own goodness. Again, God initiates and maintains this relationship. It is beautiful to be in a good relationship with God. So being a Christian is a real experience with God's goodness—a continuous experience of righteousness as perfection and as a gift. Aren't you glad that all the pressure is on Him?

TODAY'S TOPIC: WHAT IS SIN?

Our topic for today is the question: What is sin? We Christians have a good and simple way of defining sin. What have you heard or said? Sin is missing the mark. You may have even explained sin as an archery term for missing the target. Is it always obvious what sin is—what the target is that a person is not hitting? Since we Christians sometimes argue about sin, I suspect that this is not always obvious. 

Satan is a Counterfeiter

We here all believe that Satan is our enemy and that he seeks to trick us into believing his lies. How does he trick us? Does he come right out and boldly declare that he is going to trick us? Does He tell us that stealing and murder are good things and that therefore we should do them as much as we want? If he operated this way, we would almost never buy his lies. In the real world he seeks to deceive us by first counterfeiting some point of God's goodness. Then he shows us the counterfeit in some deceitful way so that we will think that it is the real thing. Then, if we think it is real, we will operate in life as if it were real. Do you agree that life is a spiritual battle and that it is easy for us to get fooled by the world's counterfeits? Do you think that Satan desires us to be at least a little bit confused about everything? 

Is There a Counterfeit of Sin?

If Satan wants us to be confused about everything, then do you think he would seek to counterfeit bad things, too, like laziness, legalism, worldliness, or sin? In other words, is there counterfeit sin that we need to be alert to avoid? This seems a little strange at first, but if Satan wants us to be confused, then he would want us to be confused about what is bad, too. If there is a counterfeit sin, then we should evaluate what we think or hear about the target. Does Satan have a counterfeit target that he wants us to focus on? If so, how can we discern it? First, we need to remember that a counterfeit looks very much like the real thing. Therefore, counterfeit sin looks very much like real sin.

A Counterfeit has no authority

The difference between a counterfeit and the real thing is authority. US dollars are backed by the authority of the US government. We properly trust these dollars for financial transactions. In the past some counterfeit dollars looked exactly like the real ones, but they were still illegal because they had no authority. But some people were tricked to trust them. 

God's ways are backed by His authority. Satan's counterfeits have only an appearance of authority. Satan seeks to fool us into trusting that his counterfeit is the real thing. If we trust that it is real, then we will embrace it as a good way to function in life. At first glance a counterfeit seems good, but upon close inspection it can be seen as a forgery. 

Fortunately, my illustration breaks down at the right place. Currency is physical and thus counterfeits can be made that have an identical appearance to authorized currency. In such a case there is no way to detect bogus bills. The government has to work hard to stop the production of perfect imitations. Satan's counterfeits are not physical; they are about ways of thinking about life. Therefore, his counterfeit is always detectable upon close inspection. 

It is not good to be tricked or intimidated by counterfeits. Therefore, it is not good to stay naive about Satan's tricks. The way to not be tricked is 1) to become very familiar with the simplicity of God's goodness, and 2) to learn God's mark that is on all his ways and that is missing from every counterfeit. 

What is that mark?

Satan Counterfeits Goodness

How many of you have heard or thought that Satan wants you to do evil things, such as stealing, murder, hatred, gossip, slander, or envy? When we think this way, we have already been tricked to look at the symptoms of a problem and not at its cause. Satan and the world preach not that a person should do evil, but that a person should do good. God also calls us to do good. If God and Satan both call us to do what is good, then doesn't that leave us stuck in the middle of the war between them? It is not good for God to leave us stuck like this. Therefore, there must be a good way forward in discerning the difference between God's voice and Satan's voice. The door into understanding the difference begins with understanding that Satan counterfeits goodness. This is a huge step forward because Satan seeks to hide the fact that he is a counterfeiter. He wants us to think of him as a promoter of evil thinking and behavior. Mormons have told me that Satan would never entice a person to do what is good. This is in their Book of Mormon. I see in the Bible that Satan always starts with some point of God's goodness, then twists it subtly so that we think that it is still good, so that we might swallow his twisted version of goodness. The second important and critical step is to notice how he counterfeits goodness.

Satan's Counterfeit is Simple...Always Simple

Satan simply removes God's identifying mark. All of God's ways contain that mark and all counterfeits lack that mark. In a sense, Satan is always missing the mark as he hates God's mark and seeks to hide and deny God's mark. In First John 3:8 we read that Satan has been sinning from the beginning. This means that he has been missing the mark from the beginning. We Christians teach that Satan is always seeking to get us to miss the mark. In our archery illustration, and at first glance, Satan's target is identical to God's target except for God's identifying mark of authority. It seems that Satan wants to trick us to shoot at his target instead of God's. But reality is simpler and more subtle. Paul declares that we are transformed by the renewing of the mind. Therefore, Satan's real strategy is to stand beside God's target and point at it in such a way that distracts us from noticing God's mark on the target. The mark is there, but it is easily overlooked. I am convinced that Satan's total strategy is to get us to get so focused on various parts of God's target that we don't notice God's mark. And when we do that, we are in his trap. We all are called to become experts at noticing and remembering God's mark on the target. 

The target is God's vision for us of what is good in life in thought, word, and deed. So, in a humorous sense, we Christians sin and miss the mark that we are trying to hit—we have bad thoughts or behavior—because we are missing (lacking) awareness of God's mark on the target. We miss the mark because we don't have God's mark in view. God's mark is God's authority. It is a declaration that goodness is all or nothing—that it is good to do individual good things, but it is never good to miss any good thing—that only perfect goodness counts—that only moral perfection is good. This is what Satan seeks to distract us from. 

Goodness is a seamless whole. James declares that if a person does everything good and misses just one point, then he is guilty of wrecking everything. Satan continually tells you to do good things, but he never says that you have to be perfect. He even declares that we shouldn't worry about being perfect.

What is the The Mark?

God always declares that the mark that is to be hit is perfect goodness in all its individual points and in its wholeness. Satan always declares that the mark to be hit is some individual good thing. Individual good points are good, but wholeness of goodness is good too. Wholeness is the key ingredient to goodness. Satan never mentions the wholeness of goodness except to belittle it. When we neglect to consider the wholeness of goodness we are not walking in God's authority. And to not walk in God's authority is sin—missing the mark.

Jesus Died to Free Us from Sin—Two Kinds of Sin and Two Surprises

The New Testament states in various ways that a Christian is free from sin. John even declares that a Christian cannot sin. How is this possible since Christians do bad things every day? To avoid serious confusion, it is critical that we embrace John's teaching in 1John 5:16 that there are two kinds of sin: sin that leads to death and sin that does not lead to death. What is the difference?

Jesus did not die to make us robots. He died to set us free from both types of sin. But this freedom is about Him and not about us. This is a very difficult thing to grasp: your freedom from sin is not about you.

Every person is born in sin, which means that we all are born under the obligation to do what is good or face eternal consequences. It also means that we are born addicted to finding some goodness in ourselves rather than in our creator. Jesus died the death we deserve in order to offer us a new kind of relationship with God—one where we are dead to our identity in personal righteousness and alive in Christ's righteousness. Sin is violation of the law and every Christian is dead to the law. This means that every Christian has diplomatic immunity, which is freedom from obligation to keep the law.

So, in one sense a Christian can't sin because God can't count a Christian's sins. Jesus has died the death we deserve and if we are in Christ, then His death is ours, and His life is ours, too. It is not that we can't do bad things but that God counts our badness against Christ. This is the first type of sin and the first surprise.

In another sense, Christians do sin; we do bad things. The surprise is that the only reason we do them is because we forget our freedom. In Christ we are free to do as many bad things as we want, and we do as many bad things as we want. But when we remember the cost and meaning of our freedom in Christ, then we don't do bad things. You do bad things because you are not thinking about the wholeness of goodness and Jesus' good sacrifice that bought your freedom. And when you are not seeing this for yourself then you certainly are not seeing it for others. If you doubt me, then try an experiment. The next time you find yourself upset at someone, ask yourself what you are thinking about. You will discover that you are not thinking about God's perfection and Christ's sin-bearing love at the cross. Guaranteed. This is the second type of sin and the second surprise.

Good Works Flow Naturally 

Life is simple. We are too weak to resist God's goodness. When we think about goodness rightly, then goodness flows out of us naturally, and we don't forget to do any good works. James 1:25 declares this clearly. The goodness in our hearts sweeps us along into good works WHEN—and only when—we are properly focused on goodness. Doing good works is not about us but about His goodness in us. 

Christianity is not just a way to get to heaven, it is a new way of life based on Christ's faithfulness. We get into Christ by resting in His faithfulness—by being satisfied with His goodness. It is good to always be satisfied with His faithfulness, and so it is no surprise that we Christians are called to always find our satisfaction there. When we do that, we are free from sins of thought, word, and deed. If God is your satisfaction, why go back to seeking satisfaction in imperfect human performance—yours, mine, or anyone's? This is your temptation.

Have you noticed that you have only one temptation? But Satan counterfeits that one in order to trick you into fighting the wrong battle. Temptation is an upcoming topic.

Application

Thank the Father often that

• He is fully satisfied with the finished work of Christ. 
• Good works overflow naturally out of a vision of His goodness. 
• Comparison to Christ's perfection is the only good way to evaluate life. 
• Christ has already put away all sin by the sacrifice of Himself. 

Pray this often for yourself and often for other saints who come to mind—especially for those who rub you the wrong way.

WHAT IS YOUR SIN TOLERANCE? GOD'S IS ZERO.

Noticing Human Failure

When you look at yourself, other people, or the world in general, how do you deal with the failure you observe? Do you get disappointed, depressed, impatient, frustrated, or even angry? What do you do with these reactions? Do you wish you could stop having them? Do you wish that the people would change so that your life wouldn't be so troubled? Have you ever tried to not care so that then you wouldn't feel so hurt?

Let's approach this situation from a different angle. We have all failed morally, and more times than we notice.  Have you ever been surprised at your failure, wondering how you could possibly have done such a terrible thing, or done it again? Have you ever wished that you had tried harder so as to have avoided failure, or at least to have not failed so greatly? Have you ever found yourself surprised at the failures of others: your wife, your children, your friends, fellow saints, or even pastors? Why were you surprised?

God Notices Human Failure

God is never surprised at your moral failings or mine. It is good for us to always love Him with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. And it is never good to compromise those standards. God always loves perfectly. Since He is responsible to resolve all issues in the moral world, He notices every violation of perfect love. Perfect love doesn't pretend sin away, but rather deals with it in a righteous way--always--and sends it away. Read about the first failing of our first parents and see if you can notice any surprise, impatience, frustration, or anger on God's part. It isn't there. Adam and Eve sinned and hid in fear from God. But God didn't hesitate to draw close to them. He went to them and spoke to them like a kind father to bless them with words of a promise of hope, even while explaining the curse resulting from their sin. Have you ever wondered why God did not seem bothered by their sin? I suggest that it is because God's goodness is full of surprises and that this is the biggest surprise.

All Sin Converges at the Cross

All the sin committed from Adam to the cross was left unresolved by God in anticipation of the cross. God saw this from before the creation of the universe (1Peter 1:17-23) and desired to reveal His goodness in a glorious way. Read closely Paul's declaration in Romans 3:24-26 that God passed over ALL sin in order to reveal His righteousness at the proper time--at the cross. Notice that God both is righteous and makes righteous all who are persuaded that Christ's faithfulness is their only hope. David killing Goliath didn't reveal the seriousness of Goliath's mockery of God. The flood didn't reveal the seriousness of the world's sin. Sodom being consumed by fire from heaven didn't reveal the truth about their sin. Certainly these events hinted that sin was terrible, but only the cross reveals the seriousness of sin. The cross reveals that only the death of God Himself can overcome sin. Read Romans 1:32 in several translations and notice that God has written into the conscience of every person that every sin deserves death. Paul declared earlier in the chapter (verse 18) that we humans suppress that knowledge. Today we live in the light of the cross, looking to Christ as the one who 1) in His death and resurrection is our freedom, peace, and satisfaction in a broken world, and 2) in His future coming to bring physical recreation and make public to all His good judgment--that goodness is a seamless whole, that violation of it deserves death, that He gladly took the death all people deserve, that He offered as a gift life in goodness free from the pressure of personal performance, and that those who rejected His goodness will receive the full weight of His good judgment on their self-righteousness.

God is not Surprised at Human Failure

Notice the theme in the following three passages from Isaiah. "Lord, you will establish peace for us, since you have also performed for us all our work." -26:12 "The Lord is well-pleased for His righteousness' sake; He will exalt the law and make it glorious." -42:21 "By his knowledge my righteous servant will make many righteous, for he will bear away their transgressions." -53:11 Here it is again 100 years later in Jeremiah 31:14: "'I will fill the soul of the priests with abundance, and My people will be satisfied with My goodness,' declares the Lord." God is not surprised at human failure because He delights to be the provider of all we need. He has made His goodness to be our satisfaction. If God thinks this way how could He possibly be disappointed or surprised by human failure?

  

Your Surprise at Human Failure

Your surprise at human moral failing results from only one thing: not viewing the world in a good way--through perfect love--through the goodness of God being the satisfaction for His people. If you are a Christian, then God has declared for all time that His goodness is your satisfaction. Do you see how all encompassing that is? When you fail and get upset at your failure, you have two problems. When you see a fellow saint fail and you get upset about it, you simply have more of those same two problems. If you see a non-Christian fail and you get upset about it, you have those same two problems nuanced from a different angle. Here are the two problems.

Both problems are related to forgetfulness. First, God is not a God of second chances. Rather, He is the God of one chance and a new creation. If you had a zero tolerance for sin like God does, and you never forgot this principle, then you would never get upset with anyone who sins, no matter how great the violation. You may wonder at this point, "Then why is God's anger mentioned so often in the Old Testament?"  I plan to write on this topic, but for now would suggest two teaser questions.  In my observation the first mention of God's anger or wrath is toward Moses at the burning bush--2500+ years after Adam. I suggest that there is a surprise in the larger context that helps answer the first question: Why was God angry at Moses? I suggest that there is one event during Moses lifetime that precipitates the regular expression of God's anger that continues all the way through Jesus' preaching. What is that event? Notice the expressions of anger and work backwards in context to the point at which they disappear. 

Back to forgetfulness. it is a big deal--far bigger that we tend to think. Again, if you are a Christian, then God's goodness is your satisfaction. The only reason that you would not have an active experience of this satisfaction is because of your forgetfulness. You entered into the beauty of that satisfaction at conversion and have been called to grow in the understanding of it and remembrance of it. When you observe sin in self or others, the pressure is on to forget or get distracted from that true satisfaction. Certainly it is wrong for any person to do evil. But there is no satisfaction from God's view in a person stopping or not doing a specific evil action. The alternative to doing one evil action isn't doing that one thing right, rather it is doing all things right--perfectly right. Learning and remembering this is the spiritual battle. You get upset at sin because you forget that God has a zero tolerance for sin, and you forget that the goodness of God is your satisfaction, the satisfaction of all other saints, and the only hope for satisfaction for all non-Christians. The world preaches a counterfeit satisfaction, but God never honors that pretense. 

The Surprise of Grace

What is the opposite of grace? Is it some form of unkindness, meanness, or harshness? I suggest that the surprising and simple opposite of grace is law. The world sees grace as some form of niceness, kindness, or a second chance to be a better person. But heaven sees grace as total freedom from law--the obligation to do what is right. Even more surprising is the realization that to live in grace does not mean living free from performance, but rather living in the performance of Christ free from the pressure of personal performance. Living in grace is not living in a vacuum of no performance. That would be like buying a pet fish and laying it on the counter. A person rather puts the fish in a fish bowl full of water. A Christian is designed to swim and thrive in the performance of Christ. The performance of Christ is simultaneously a zero tolerance for sin and a full satisfaction in the goodness of God. Therefore, while you are mindful that you live in the performance of Christ, out of you flows a zero tolerance for sin and full satisfaction in the goodness of God--no matter how much people around fail. Mindfulness is the issue. When your mind is in the right place then your behavior and attitude will be in the right place. Practice setting your mind in the right place--on the performance of Christ in both of its aspects--and realize that your temptation is always to be distracted from that vision, and you might find yourself enjoying other people while they fail--even while they are mistreating you.   

Goodness includes both zero tolerance for sin and full satisfaction in the goodness of God. If we Christians embraced God's vision we might just be the happiest people on the planet.

LET'S TALK HONESTLY ABOUT THE LAW

The Law is Good

The law is good. It is very important to make clear that the moral law written on the conscience is good, and that the culturally specific application given by God to Israel--The Law of Moses--is also good. Jesus declared that all the laws and the prophets hang on one central point: "In everything, therefore, treat people the same way as you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets." -Matthew 7:12 Do you agree that it is good to treat others as you would like to be treated?

 

Every Point of the Law is Good

In the above verse Jesus declares that the principle of the Golden Rule applies in absolutely every situation. Do you agree that there is no exception to this rule? This means that God and your conscience have zero tolerance for you ever holding a grudge, ever being impatience with a careless driver, ever being irritated with a fellow Christian who rubs you the wrong way, ever being frustrated with your spouse, children, or parents, and certainly ever thinking about getting revenge. Zero tolerance for sin is good. What is your tolerance level for sin? 
 

The wholeness of the Law is Good

When you think of the law of God, the commands of Jesus, or the voice of your conscience, how do you interpret that information? Do you start with the individual points that you perceive and then slowly expand the scope of your evaluation, or do you see life as a whole and evaluate each point that you notice in light of the whole? In Deuteronomy 4 God told the Israelites that they were not to add to or take away from the commands of God, but were to keep them all. Shortly after in the same speech Moses told the people, "It will be our righteousness if we are careful to observe ALL this commandment before the Lord, just as He commanded us."-Deut. 6:25 We also read in Jesus most famous sermon, the Sermon on the Mount, "Be ye therefore perfect just as your heavenly father is perfect." -Matthew 5:48 And we read the same thing in James, "He who keeps the whole law and breaks one point, is guilty of all." -James 2:10.

As mentioned above, The Bible says that God has written the moral law on the conscience of all people (Romans 1:19). Do you think that is true? If that is true and if that knowledge is accessible, then we should be able to discuss and evaluate together what is good. Does that intuitive understanding include the principle that goodness requires perfect obedience? In witnessing to students at USU I have many times shown them a card containing the following question and asked for their response.

True or false....

It is good to love your neighbor 99.99% of the time

AND

to abuse your neighbor 0.01% of the time

Students identifying themselves as atheists are generally lightning quick to answer that the statement is false because it is never good to abuse one's neighbor. They often have an edge in their voice that I suspect is a criticism of the hypocrisy they observe in the religious crowd. It is not uncommon for the traditionally religious students to squirm under the pressure of the question, because they don't want to admit that they are not good. It seems clear to me after hundreds of conversations with non-Christians that it is intuitively obvious in the human conscience that it is never good to do wrong and that goodness is a seamless whole.

It is Never Good to Dishonor the Wholeness of the Law or Any Point of It

Are you persuaded that God always wants the law to be honored in every point and in its wholeness? Do you think that God desires us to think that way, too? Do you think that God desires us to ever suppress the beauty of the wholeness of the law? I suggest that this is the key to unlocking spiritual blindness and to growing in personal and spiritual maturity. "The Lord is well-pleased for His righteousness sake; He will exalt the law and make it honorable."-Isaiah 42:21 The honor of the God's law is God's delight. Is it yours? Do you agree that God always sees every individual thought and action of every person in such a way that the honor the wholeness of the law is in view to Him? Do you think that it is good for us to neglect the honor of the wholeness of the law when we evaluate its individual points? It is possible to view individual points of the law, but in doing so there is great temptation to forget the law's wholeness. 

 

It is Never Good to Leave Goodness Undone

Several years ago I had a conversation with Alex, who said he was Jewish, an atheist, and a philosophy student from Florida. I asked him what he would do if he were walking to class along a small river and noticed a small child floundering in the water and about to drown. He said that he was a lifeguard and champion swimmer and would evaluate the situation quickly and jump in and save the child. I suggested that such would be a good action and that I and the child's parents would honor him. I then suggested to him that this day was going to be unusual for him in that as he continued on to class he would every few minutes notice another child floundering in that small river and about to drown. What would he do? He said that each time he would quickly evaluate and jump in and save the child. I asked him to imagine what would happen if when he got to the tenth child he decided not to save the child--not that he was tired or late for class, but simply didn't want to help that child. He said that such would not be good. I then asked what his friends would do when they found out that he had saved the lives of 9 children that day. Would they honor him as a good person? He was disgusted and said that if his friends knew that he intentionally hadn't helped the tenth child they would be angry and criticize him. He added that even if he had saved 99 children and intentionally let one drown, he couldn't be a good person. Do you agree with Alex? Life is full of good actions that your conscience calls you to do. Your conscience calls you to leave none of them undone. You and I have left many good deeds undone as well as doing much wrong that our conscience warned us against. Let's stop pretending that partial goodness counts with God.

 

You Are Not the Judge

How do you respond when you see a fellow Christian fail? How do you respond when that person hurts you? First, is it good for you to sit in the place of judgment for that person? Second, is it good for you to ignore or minimize or pretend away that failure of another Christian? None of these is good and so your only good option is to trust or honor God as the judge. God always maximizes sin and judges by perfect love and commands all people to do the same. Do you hear that call or do you minimize sin and take judgment into your own hands? 

 

Prosecution or Defense: Which team Are You On?

Do you hear the voice of God and your conscience calling you to honor perfect love as the only good way to see life? Since you are not the judge, you simply act for the defense or the prosecution in every situation you find yourself. As a Christian you are part of the defense team lead by Jesus. Satan leads the prosecution and points the finger of condemnation. In the moment that you notice someone fail or hurt you, how do you respond? Do you notice the violator from God's view of perfect love where the only hope is the death of Christ? Or do you dishonor the law and see hope in human performance? When you do the former you gladly receive all the bad treatment others give you because you are seeing Christ and the glory of sin-bearing love. Perfect love excludes all condemnation and gladly bears all things thinking of the blessing of the other. When you do the latter, you stumble over righteousness, get offended, fight back, and speak words of condemnation. You have played into the hands of the Accuser and are speaking and acting like you are on his team. We all have been tricked at times by the voice of the Accuser. Let's be honest and learn to discern these two voices that we might be effective peacemakers.

Let's make it practical. When someone hurts you which voice do you hear? The Accuser cries out, "Look at what he did to you!" The voice of the Spirit cries out, "Look at what Christ did for him and you!" How you respond to mistreatment reveals which voice you are heeding. Of course the mistreatment may be painful. Of course the person shouldn't have hurt you. But the call is for that person to be perfect not just to avoid that one action of mistreatment of you.  As a Christian you are not trapped in your circumstances; you have life above this world and thus have the freedom to see your life from above, from heaven. Christ has lifted you up, blessed you royally, freed you from all condemnation, and made you his royal peacemaker.  Your identity is as a member of the defense. Practice remembering that and watch what happens. 

Conclusion: Resist Dishonesty About Law

It is easy to be dishonest about your conscience and God's law and goodness. The Adversary always calls you to make God's law and love manageable, to lull you to sleep about perfect love.  It takes much practice to hear the voice of perfect love in the heat of the moment. But hearing the voice of perfect love is the only honest way. Let's not pretend that there is no spiritual battle. James calls saints to submit to God and resist the devil, and that then the devil would flee. I suggest that submitting to God is simply to honor, see, hear, and perceive perfect love in the moment. When you do the devil will have no room to work in your heart and life. Thank God often for His perfect love and for making perfect love the only good way to live and judge. Speak perfect love to yourself and to others. As you do this you may find yourself becoming more sensitive to the spiritual battle that rages all around us.

Perfect love or manageable tasks: the one you hear is the one you will speak.

LEGALISM: HOW TO DO IT WELL

The Blessing of Life in a Culture of Pure Legalism

I have had the privilege of having significant relationships with Christians from various traditions. Because of our Mormon culture, Christians here are sensitive to the issue of legalism and discuss it often. Mormons specialize in legalism because their religion is all about legalism from beginning to end. They talk much about the importance of doing good things. We agree with them that it is good to do good things. But when we Christians explain how grace is unmerited favor, they object and declare that obedience to commandments is necessary to please God and be accepted by Him. One can't get forgiveness free they tell us because that would make people lazy. They do use the word grace and are doing so more and more, but don't be fooled. If you listen closely and ask questions you will discover that what they mean by grace is usually some form of kind or gentle legalism—another chance to keep the rules. Grace doesn't free you from the rules, but gives you help and more time to keep them. Rules must eventually be kept. So living in this overwhelmingly dominant culture of Mormonism of pure legalism forces us to stay alert. Without alertness here one can easily get sucked into the lies of legalism.

What is legalism?

This simple question is not simple to answer. I have thought about it for many years and been dissatisfied with my own study, with my own understanding, and with what I have heard others say or write about it. A few years ago I sought to avoid using the word because, even here, we tend to be sensitive to legalism in other people but not in ourselves. Why is it that when we Christians use the word legalism we are almost always pointing the finger at other people and not at ourselves—at other denominations and not at our own? Why do I never point the finger at myself and say something like the following? "Wow, I am really having legalistic thoughts today." Do you notice any legalism in others? Some likely notice it in you. When is the last time you noticed it in yourself? Isn't this an interesting dilemma?

The Key Word: Manageable

Just recently a word or thought came to me that may be helpful: manageable. Mormonism is all about making God's expectations manageable. Does God really want us Christians to do that? To think or speak of God's law or commandments in a manageable way is legalism. To think or speak of my (or your) obedience in a manageable way is legalism. Now that seems to have enough clarity so that I can begin to notice legalism in myself and you can notice it in yourself. Am I making the law, commandments, or my obedience manageable? We all have an intuitive sense about this and are somewhat sensitive to it in other people, but need clear thinking to see it in ourselves. 

Manageability is like judgmentalism. Hundreds of Mormons have told me that what they really don't like about other Mormons is that they are so judgmental. In each conversation I affirmed the evil of judgmentalism and then gently asked if it was easy for the person to resist judging judgmental people. Every time the person responded in embarrassment admitting to being just like the people being criticized. It is good to judge if we judge by perfection as God does, otherwise we are judging unrighteously. What authority do we have to do that? Righteous judgment—judgment by the standard of perfection—reveals that we are all in the same boat together as failures and makes it impossible to look down on another person—truly impossible. When we judge by some lowered manageable standards, we have entered the arena of competition where some of us succeed and others fail. Judgmentalism then is unavoidable. You may think highly of yourself that you are able to have manageable standards without being judgmental, but by doing so you are just proving my point that you think that you can succeed where others fail. You are fooling yourself. In the same way, God's law and obedience to God are good. Could it be that legalism is simply the natural result of shrinking either of these in such a way as to make them manageable? 

Isaiah's Experience

Notice the following beautiful verse in a Messianic chapter in the Gospel of Isaiah. I call it the Gospel of Isaiah because it is filled with grace—unmerited favor poured out on God's people—righteousness as a gift—God's delight in His Son and in His people.

"The Lord is well pleased for His righteousness sake; He will exalt the law and make it glorious." -Isaiah 42:21

Does this verse convey a sense of awe and glory, or of manageability? Exaltation is the opposite of manageability. God can manage the exaltation of the law, where as no flawed human can. Read Isaiah 6:1-7 and notice his experience.

In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train^a of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory!”

 

And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”

Whatever Isaiah saw crushed his pride. He realized and cried out that he was a spiritually ruined man. What he saw was so big that it made him realize that all the people of Israel were spiritually ruined, too. The result was that Isaiah was spiritually healed and transformed. What did he see? I suggest that he saw the perfect righteousness of God and the surprise of unmerited favor that flows from that righteousness. In John 12:38-41, the Apostle John declares that what Isaiah saw in his vision was Isaiah chapter 53—"by his knowledge the righteous servant will make many righteous, for he will bear their iniquities." I have been greatly blessed to notice this connection and meditate much on it. See if such meditation might bless you.

How to do Legalism Well

I would like to give a humorous exhortation of how to do legalism well. If you live in Mormon culture you likely will hear an echo of this culture. That is the point. Manageability is the name of the game in Mormonism. Satan is alive and well and seeking to get us Christians to believe his lie and to think like Mormons, who are expert legalists or managers of God's expectations. They use religious words with unbiblical definitions in an attractive and persuasive way. Thus in the following, most religious words will be used with enticing Mormon definitions: worldliness, godliness, flesh, walking in the Spirit, laziness, obedience, and more. Remember that Satan masquerades as an angel of light and so his advice will be subtle counterfeits of truth. Here is my version of some of his advice to Christians as to how to obey God. See if you can detect the lies in the words and how manageability is ever present. Especially deceitful is the word flesh. Let's learn to laugh at ourselves in our failures so that we might better notice when we have bought into the lie. So here goes. What follows is Satan's advice for how to obey God.

Satan says:

• The first step in obedience to God is to realize that obedience is very important and that it is wrong and sinful to not obey God. 
• Second, it is important to realize that there are two serious errors to avoid in seeking to obey God. Just as one can go in the ditches on either the left or right side of the road when driving, so it is possible to be a lazy Christian or a legalist. Laziness is obvious. There are a lot of people who don't want to take seriously living the Christian life well—growing in the lord and living a holy life. This is a big problem, but the other problem can sneak up on a person who is taking obedience seriously. In seeking to avoid laziness it is possible to over correct and end up off the other side of the road in the ditch of legalism. Legalism is about using the law in a wrong way. The law is good but some people get way too pushy with it. That is legalism. So be careful to avoid being lazy, but also avoid being too pushy with the law.  
• Third, let's clarify and solidify our understanding. Make no mistake: God wants us to do good to our families, fellow saints, and unsaved neighbors. The Good Samaritan was one of Jesus' most popular parables. That Samaritan went out of his way to help a man who likely hated Samaritans. Use this parable as a reminder that no one is too bad for you to help. So be a good Samaritan to the people in your life. As you go through your days visualize others as hurt and in the ditch and in need of some kind of compassion from you.
• Fourth, you likely already notice that we all sometimes forget to do good and fail. It is important to not condemn yourself for that. Remember that Jesus is everything you need. And as long as you aren't a lazy Christian, you can look at your past and see that you have come a long way. That should be a big comfort. When you fail, thank God for Jesus. Remember that He doesn't expect for you to be perfect in your obedience but only  to make progress in becoming a more obedient Christian day by day.
• Fifth, keep in mind that the key to winning the spiritual battle is to know your enemy. It may be that the flesh is the greatest enemy in the Christian life. The flesh is your weakness and tendency to sin. So watch out for those in every situation. You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you. Don't let your weaknesses and sins rule you. 
• Sixth, another enemy to watch out for is worldliness. This is a deceitful trap. Many men get trapped in watching too much sports and some women get trapped in following the latest fashions. Many young people get hooked on cell phones. These are just three obvious examples, but there are many more. Use self-control or you will find yourself getting pulled into sins of various kinds. There are many ways to sin; so be alert for temptation.
• Seventh, the third thing to watch our for is ungodliness. We can approach this topic from a positive direction. Live a godly life and ungodliness will not be a problem for you. Choose to fill your life with prayer, Bible reading, evangelism, helping the poor, and visiting the shut-ins in your church. These days there are so many children from broken homes. Seek to speak blessing to those people at church because they have it real rough. All these things are good and so when you focus on them you won't have time for ungodly things like greed, selfishness, anger, laziness, and more.
• Eighth, remember that you are a new creation in Christ. This means that you have a new nature and thus sin can now really be a thing of the past for you. The Holy Spirit has power. Don't get tricked into thinking that the Spirit isn't strong enough to help you resist sin. 
• Ninth, remember that you are not a lone-ranger Christian. You are part of God's people. Therefore apply all the above principles to the Christians you know. Remind them of these principles and exhort them to apply them.  
• Last, walk in the Spirit and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh. The Spirit always leads you to its fruit: love, joy, peace patience, kindness, goodness, etc. The Spirit never points you to immorality, impurity, envy, idolatry, strife, anger, drunkenness, and such like. The flesh does that. Keep these two lists in mind as you seek to be led by the Spirit. The Spirit will never lead you to sin.
• Now you are ready to obey God. The sky is the limit when you have the Spirit to empower you to do God's will.

Legalism is seeing God's expectations—His commandments and our obedience—in some manageable form. God always expects perfection and only Jesus can manage perfect expectations. This applies when thinking of Christians and non-Christians. 

DOES THE SINNERS PRAYER ALWAYS WORK?

The Puzzle

I have spoken with many people who have told me that they have prayed the sinner's prayer and it didn't work. Years ago I heard a woman say in a gathering of Christians that she had just prayed the sinner's prayer for the 26th time and was hoping that it was finally going to work. If it didn't work the first 25 times, why would this woman have any confidence that it would ever work for her? In my observations the sinner's prayer doesn't seem to work every time. Why is that? Is it because God doesn't want it to be so predictable? Is it because God doesn't want certain sinners to be saved and so won't hear their prayer? I suggest that the answer is simple, surprisingly simple.

Being a Counterfeit Sinner

Living in Mormon culture has had surprising benefits in understanding my own religion more clearly. It may be that all of the thousands of Mormons I have spoken with about spiritual matters have freely offered, or at least agreed, that they are sinners. Does that surprise you? After many conversations I became suspicious that something was missing. Now when a Mormon admits to being a sinner, I ask for explanation of what is meant by the word sinner. The conversation that follows is often humorous, at least from my vantage point. Here is a sample conversation.

Mormon: Of course I am a sinner.
Me: May I ask you a few questions to see which kind of sinner you are?
Mormon: I thought that there was just one kind of sinner.
Me: There are two kinds of sinners: helpless sinners and sinners with assets. Which kind are you?
Mormon: I am not sure what you mean. Can you explain?
Me: Some of Jesus' first words were, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." This is the first line from his most famous speech, the Sermon on the Mount, and is found in Matthew 5:3. Have you heard of it?
Mormon: I don't remember.
Me: The word poor is actually the word beggar in the original Bible. Do you consider yourself to be a spiritual beggar?
Mormon: I still am not sure I catch your meaning.
Me: You have ever seen a beggar?
Mormon: Yes.
Me: What does a beggar have to offer?
Mormon: Nothing. He just takes.
Me: So in the spiritual world do you see yourself as a spiritual beggar, or do you have good things that you can offer to God?
Mormon: Of course I have something to offer to God.
Me: Can you give me some examples?
Mormon: I can repent. I can offer sincerity and willingness.
Me: So then you are not a spiritual beggar who can only take. You have assets. According to Jesus you don't qualify for the kingdom of heaven. 37 years ago I gave up thinking I had anything good to offer God and realized that I was a spiritual beggar.

This conversation usually opens a door to explain the difference between a gift and a reward. All Mormons tell me that they believe that Jesus died on the cross for their sins. I then ask them what then need to do to connect to what Jesus did for them. They reply with words like: repent, try to keep the commandments. do what is right. At this point I commonly give the testimony of a friend who became a Christian as an active Mormon by reading the Book of Mormon. 

Testimony: A Counterfeit Sinner Becomes a Real One

About 15 years ago this active Mormon was witnessed to by a Christian. And to cover her bases, she prayed the sinner's prayer. But nothing happened. Eight years later while reading the Book of Mormon two versed shocked her and opened her eyes to see that she was spiritually ruined. One was the famous third to the last verse in the book, which contains the following. Notice my bold emphasis of the words of all, and if/then.

"and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind, and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you,"

When she read this she suddenly realized that only if she was perfect would she get grace from God to cover her past sins. She knew that such was impossible, gave up all hope in herself, and cried out to God that Jesus died for her and that that was all she had. Immediately she was filled with peace, knew she was forgiven, and began to tell her Mormon friends. They thought she was crazy. Eventually she realized what had happened to her and found some Christians to join. 

The Sinner's Prayer Always Works

The sinner's prayer always works when prayed by a real sinner. The problem is that most people are counterfeit sinners. They have deceived themselves into thinking and saying that they are sinners when they actually mean that they are good people who sin sometimes. This is what Mormons tell me. Just as honest awareness of perfection crushed the pride of this friend and opened her eyes to her true sinful condition, so too it is what God designed to open the eyes of any spiritually blind person. Let's become experts at kindly and gladly helping others become honestly aware that perfection is the only good way to relate to God. 

WHY DID JESUS SPEAK OF CONDITIONAL FORGIVENESS?

“For if you forgive others their sins, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 

But if you do not forgive others, your Father will not forgive you your sins." 

-Jesus, Matthew 6:14,15

Have you always perfectly forgiven, that is, never held even a tiny bit of a grudge? If not then what is your hope of getting forgiveness from God? A few verses earlier Jesus had commanded His hearers to be perfect as God is perfect. How is it going? I suggest that if you have any confidence of being forgiven by God then you must have a wonderful secret. Whether you realize it or not, you are persuaded that this verse doesn't apply to you, because unless Jesus was joking or exaggerating, none of us has any hope of being forgiven. Let's be honest about this.

So what did Jesus mean then? New questions often bring new insights. Try these.

1. Did Jesus speak these words before or after He died on the cross?
2. Did Jesus speak these words under the Old Covenant of law or the New Covenant of grace?
3. Who was Jesus' audience: Christians who have a relationship with God based on UNMERITED favor, or Jews who had a relationship with God based on law keeping and MERITED favor?
4. Did Jesus' audience see that they were helpless condemned sinners, or did they have confidence that their hard work at law keeping would gain them forgiveness and welcome with God?
5. Did Jesus preach perfect obedience to break the stubborn pride of His Jewish audience, to reveal that they were law breakers not law keepers, to reveal their need of unmerited favor, and to prepare them to take the gift of righteousness that would be revealed at Pentecost, or did He preach perfection to stir His Jewish audience to try harder and be more self-righteous?
6. Does thinking perfection (perfect love, perfect law, perfect obedience) remove all confidence in human obedience--of oneself and all others?

It is very easy to get distracted from the glory of unmerited favor.

The Surprise of reading the Bible Contextually

Did the first five questions surprise you? Last week I had a conversion with two very thoughtful women in their 30's who came in Oasis Books. I assumed that they were Mormons as nearly all non-Hispanics here are. They browsed the CS Lewis books and one made comment to the other about how easy reading Lewis was. Then for some reason one commented to her sister that if one didn't forgive fully then one would not be forgiven. I stepped into the conversation at this point and asked question number one above. The women pondered and replied with confidence that Jesus had spoken these words before the cross. Their answer piqued their own curiosity. I then asked if Jesus had spoken those words under law or under grace. They declared immediately that He had spoken them under law. Their interest grew. I asked about Jesus' audience. This matter was not as clear to them, but with a little discussion they realized that they already knew that the Jews were law focused and the leaders of Israel taught do your best and not perfect love. I suggested that perfect love was the key to life and gave my short explanation of it. They said that they had been discussing much the motivation of love and asked for more clarification and permission to record the conversation. They eventually left ecstatic about new thoughts on perfect love, including its all-encompassing application and transformative power, and a free book on grace. You can read here my short wedding sermon on perfect love in marriage.

How do you as a Christian read the words of Jesus? Do you see them as written directly to you and thus directly applicable to you? Or do you see them as spoken directly to Israel--a people under the Old Covenant of merit-based acceptance--who were not honest that the law required perfect love? If you see them in the latter way, then they have only indirect application to you. It should bring you great joy to read about perfection knowing that you are totally free from its requirements through the sin-bearing love of Christ at the cross. It should move you to thankfulness that you are free to forgive because you are already perfectly forgiven (Eph. 4:32; Col, 3:13), with no more pressure of obligation or threats for failure. It should move you to gladness toward the saints who hurt you, even while they are hurting you, since you know that they also are free from all pressure and condemnation of performance. Wow! The law is beautiful and good, but only Christ could honor it. We saints are alive in His righteousness not our own, are dead to the law, and have the motivation of perfect love. Think perfect love and you might be surprised at how much you really like your spouse and children at their worst, and the people who mistreat you while they are doing it.

The Blessing of Living in Mormon Culture

I have a huge advantage over many Christians as I live in a culture 1) with very few Christians and that is very religious, 2) that uses Christian words but with different meanings, and 3) that is merit-based-favor focused like Israel of Jesus' day. Both emphasize 1) a God of love, 2) joy in God giving a system of merit-based favor to the people or world, 3) a process of repentance (stopping sin) to overcome failure, 4) laziness as the real enemy of God, and 5) optimism in pleasing God by doing one's best. Both openly hate righteousness as a gift through the death of Christ.

Mormons really like the words of Jesus, but interpret them as if Jesus were exaggerating and not really expecting people to obey them perfectly. They see the New Covenant as an easier Old Covenant rather that a relationship of unmerited favor--total freedom from the pressure of performance. They are deeply trained to think that there are only two ways to think about God: be lazy and sin a lot, or strive to do one's best at loving everyone and keeping the commandments. It is a joy to help them discover that we all know intuitively the truth of perfect love. It is a real pleasure to introduce them to the understanding that God is truly generous, His favor is fully unmerited, and that He wants us to be in a relationship where we are free to love purely from His great love for us, with no mixing of obligations and threats. They talk much about personal righteousness, and so hearing about the gift of righteousness is a huge shock to them. But as they realize that perfection is required and that they thus are spiritual beggars, the gift of righteousness becomes a surprise beyond their wildest dreams.

Practice reading the words of Jesus in their Old Testament context and you will be ready for your next conversation with a Mormon. 
    

FORGIVENESS WITH GOD IS BY FREEDOM FROM LAW

Three Ways to View Forgiveness of Sin: Which Way is Yours?

1. The first way is Nietzsche's way—denial of the existence of the moral world. He declared the strong person to be the one who can inflict great pain, hear the cries of the victims, and not be moved. Hitler loved Nietzsche's ideas and preached them to his generals seeking to persuade them to mercilessly annihilate the Russians, knowingly in violation of the war crimes treaties. A few self-identified atheists have told me that the moral world is unreal and forgiveness is only an emotional reaction. Two of them have had the courage to say that rape is never wrong because it is non-existent. One atheist has been repeatedly unwilling answer the question about rape's wrongness.

2. The second way is to see sin as individual moral failures and therefore evaluate and deal with them one by one. What does this look like? Each time a person sins against you, you decide to forgive or not forgive the person for that failure. Sometimes you do, sometimes you don't. Sometimes you hold grudges, sometimes you don't. It is common to wait to forgive until the offender requests it. It is also common to think that the offender needs to have some sorrow or repentance for forgiveness to not be taken advantage of. In this way of thinking, God sees, evaluates, counts, and deals with your sins one by one. Since Jesus died for all your sins, all your sins are individually laid on Jesus and therefore you are forgiven for each and every one that he carries for you. Sometimes one can think that those in heaven are those whose individual sins have been laid on Jesus and those in hell are those whose individual sins were not carried by Jesus. Sometimes this thinking can lead to doubts related to sins where one has not asked forgiveness out of neglect or pride.

3. The third way is to see sin as dishonor of God's goodness, of His perfect moral law. "God is well-pleased for righteousness' sake to exalt His law and make it glorious." -Isaiah 42:21 Thinking this way focuses understanding of sin and forgiveness on God's glory in His goodness, and perfect law as the only standard of judgment. Relations with God and other people here are thought of in terms of honoring perfect law: goodness, perfect love, and obedience as all or nothing. Since every person is born with the desire to exalt self over perfect law, and the heart is the source of all actions, then the law has already been dishonored at birth by every human alive. 

In the Bible and the human conscience it is written that goodness can only be honored by complete freedom from unmet moral obligations. This is accomplished either by perfect obedience to law or by total freedom from obligation to law. There is no other option because, as James declares, "He who keeps the whole law and offends in one point only is guilty of all." In this view, evaluation of the moral failures of self and others is done in light of how to honor perfect law. Thus one finds that only one human action honors perfect law, and that is the appeal to the righteousness of Christ in His substitutionary death for sinners. When one is mistreated one sees Christ as the only hope for the violator, who is either 1) totally freed from all shame and condemnation in being identified with Christ in His death for helpless sinners, or 2) fully subject to God's righteous reaction against sin. Thinking this way frees one from the need to decide about forgiveness because one realizes that only God can forgive and that has already been settled at the cross. 

Moral failure is seen as caused by forgetfulness of, or disregard for, the meaning of the cross. Christ's death is not seen as payment for individual sins but rather as the establishment of the honor of the law. All men are law-breakers and Christ the divine law-keeper died the death that all men deserve. Death has been conquered and life in goodness above law offered freely to all. The mind is now free to focus sharply on the distinction between motivation from thankfulness for love received versus obligation and potential consequences or rewards. 

Since perfection is always the standard, progressive obedience has no meaning. In this way of thinking, sins are not forgiven but rather the person is forgiven, which means that the person is viewed through identity: either as under the authority of law or under the authority of grace. God has already taken care of the honor of the law, and thus all saints are free to focus on boldly declaring that honor without having to keep score for self and others. Confession is now freely and primarily about perfect law established by Christ rather than about individual failures by humans. Confession of individual moral failures is now free from the pressure of imperfect manageable standards and can be done joyfully and honestly in view of the finished work of Christ.

As you may suspect, I have chosen #3. Can it really be this good? Let's celebrate and invite everyone to the cross.