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.

A LIE ABOUT GRACE: SIN DOESN'T MATTER ANYMORE

The Lie: Grace Means That Sin Doesn't Matter Anymore

Have you ever heard the accusation something like, "So you are telling me that because of grace sin doesn't matter anymore?" I hear this commonly when witnessing in my openly religious culture. What is interesting is that I have heard it many times from true Christians. Why would a Christian say this? I suggest that Satan is real. He continually slanders God's character, seeking to get people (like me) to swallow his slander. Once I swallow it, I become confused. I then easily and unwittingly speak that confusion about God to others. I suggest that we Christians do this far more than we admit. The above lie is simply the fruit of a much bigger lie. That lie concerns the meaning of the word grace. God is full of grace. My religious culture declares this but then quickly adds two restrictions: (1) but you can't just do what you want, and (2) it is important to realize that God doesn't require a person to be flawless now. What is meant by these two limitations on grace is that God's grace doesn't actually free a person from the authority of the law [the obligation to keep it], and that God is lenient and the giver of many chances for a person to become a law keeper by personal righteousness. This attitude surrounds me.

The Foundational Lie: Grace Equals Leniency

Leniency is the lowering of standards. It keeps the possibility of success still within reach. Expectations remain manageable and control remains in human hands. Motivation to do good retains an aspect of pressure to perform—the obligation of some form of law. And some kind of judgment still hangs in the air in case of failure—even just the possibility that God will be displeased with you as a person. My jail bird friends never want grace from the judge; they want leniency. They don't want the judge to be fully honest about their failings and what their failings deserve. They want the judge to cut them some slack, to lessen the seriousness of their wrongs, and minimize their punishment—five months of probation instead of five years in prison. They don't really like probation as it isn't freedom, but they do prefer it to prison. Satan and human religion both preach leniency. They hate true grace and so counterfeit it with leniency which results in manageability. So, what is true grace?

The Foundational Truth: Grace Always Honors Perfect Love

God is love. To declare this doesn't mean that God compromises His standards of flawlessness in order to honor the prideful human desire to find hope in human performance. God is perfect love and "is well pleased for His righteousness sake to exalt the law and make it glorious." (Isaiah 42:21) God thinks in terms of goodness, which includes flawless law and perfect love. He can compromise neither. Earthly judges may compromise, but God cannot. He always thinks and acts in a way that honors the perfection of both law and love. To compromise perfect love is not grace but rather leniency. In the Old Testament this is called idolatry and spiritual prostitution. God is not an idol. He is not a prostitute. From the beginning people have perverted their understanding of God's goodness and sought to relate to Him as if He were an idol or a spiritual prostitute. They sought to manage their relationship with Him by cheapening standards. Freedom with God comes with seeing perfect love clearly. This includes seeing that both grace and sin are unmanageable and out of our control.

Honesty About Grace

Grace always says several things. First, that only perfect love counts with God. Second, that sin is so serious that no human can manage it. Third, that Jesus is the only good sin manager and He managed it fully at the cross. And fourth, that a vision of perfect love is a more than sufficient motivation to good works. I suggest that if you are seeing grace as a relationship of total freedom from merit because of the work of Christ, then you will also speak these things. Since Jesus declared that out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks, we can trust that what comes out of any of us flows from the set of our heart in the moment. Sinful words or behavior as well as words of leniency overflow from a heart distracted from true grace.

Grace in Practice: An Example

Let's say that you sin against me and that I notice it. Let's now add to the mix that in the moment you mistreat me I happen to be meditating on grace as explained above. It is also important to assume that in that moment I don't get distracted from grace by the voice of the world (James 1:14, 25). What will be my reaction when my mind is on true grace? I suggest that my response will be quick and multi-faceted. I will notice your specific failure and that you didn't love perfectly. I will notice it with compassion rather than self-protectiveness, being aware that I am also a failure who doesn't love perfectly. I will be at peace realizing that Christ has taken care of your sin fully at the cross. In not having a plank in my eye (Matthew 7:1ff), I will be able to see clearly to help you with the speck in your eye. I will know that the speck is forgetfulness of perfect love (required and given freely by Christ). Any words that I speak will gently point you back to perfect love revealed in the finished work of Christ. You may embrace those words or resist them. My role is to see you as a brother and not lose focus myself, remembering together grace, with the goal of restoring your vision—as long as it takes. Restoration to a vision of grace (perfect love and flawless law revealed in the finished work of Christ) will bear the fruit of the Spirit and free flowing admissions of failure.

Seeing Past a False Impression of Grace

Sometimes a Christian can give the impression that since grace is true, sin doesn't matter anymore. But this is a false impression. Here is the cause. The world is all about being the sin manager for self and all others. Some people are simply more lenient than others at their scorekeeping and don't appear to be keeping score, but they are. A vision of perfect love takes the scorecard out of human hands. For some saints it is a huge relief—a real burden lifted—to be free from being the sin manager of self and others. Sometimes their expressions of grace flow from that sense of relief and they want to communicate that sense of relief not realizing that their words can be misunderstood by hearers who don't yet appreciate that grace includes the understanding that nothing but perfect love is acceptable to God. Such a hearer can get the false impression that the person is saying that sin is no big deal, all the while the speaker is actually thinking (1) that sin is such a big deal that only Christ can handle it, (2) that He handled it completely at the cross and doesn't need our help, (3) that only flawless obedience counts with God, and (4) it is wonderful freedom to not need to pressure self and others to try to stop sinning. The speaker may also be thinking that sin is caused by being distracted from grace. The speaker is feeling such relief at number 4 that that may be all that is mentioned. The speaker has rightly maximized sin, but the hearer may judge wrongly that the speaker is minimizing sin—being lenient. In drawing this conclusion, the hearer is being lenient himself, because if he had maximized sin by thinking perfect love, he would have realized the first three points and gladly requested clarification rather than jumping to conclusions. We all fumble with words at times. Let's give others the benefit of the doubt and learn to ask clarifying questions.

Responsibility to Communicate Grace Clearly

Grace is glorious. Grace is powerfully motivational. The adversary is real and actively seeking to confuse and obfuscate the message of perfect love. We Christians need to take our responsibility as God's ambassadors of reconciliation seriously and learn to express the nuances of grace for the benefit of our hearers. They can't hear our thoughts, but only our words. Communication of grace is a spiritual battle unlike a chemistry lecture. In realizing this, I plan to be alert to seek to always preface my explanations of grace with some form of the following words to reduce potential conflict and the slide into leniency.

Grace always declares that sin matters uncompromisingly to God, that He has a zero tolerance for sin, that only perfect love counts with Him, and therefore total freedom from the pressure of merit is the only good way to have a relationship with God. This freedom was provided by the finished work of Christ.

ARE YOU A CHILD OF GOD OR OF THE DEVIL?

“It is always immoral to lower moral standards.”

–a philosophy professor’s words to me last fall

First, do you agree with this statement? Second, read the following verses from 1John 3 and evaluate yourself without making an immoral judgment, and then do the same for your favorite Christian. If no Christian honestly passes the test then either the translation is faulty, the text has been corrupted, the apostle John was confused, or you are reading his words in a confused way.

4. "Whosoever commits sin transgresses also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law."
5. "You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin."
6. "Everyone who remains in Him does not sin; everyone who sins has not seen Him or known Him."
7. "Little children, let no man deceive you: he that does righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous."
8. "He that commits sin is of the devil; for the devil sins from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil."
9. "Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin; for his nature remains in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God."
10. "In this the children of God are revealed, and the children of the devil. Whoever doesn't do righteousness is not of God, neither is he who doesn't love his brother."

Behavior or Identity?

The Apostle John is declaring that all people can and should be evaluated by the words in this passage. I suggest that the John was very insightful about truth and wrote this letter with both the full knowledge of its meaning and the expectation that the Christian reader could understand it. Did you read the passage as about behavior? If so, did you pass the test? If you passed the test, did you do so without compromising the absolute statements in the text? I read this passage as about identity, and read it through the lens of continuous moral perfection. Therefore it is not difficult to evaluate who is of God and who is of the devil. But, you may ask, if one doesn't evaluate identity via behavior then how does one do it? It is by evaluation of words spoken from the heart. One simply has to figure out what the words mean.