Grace 102 | Design of Grace in Man
Adam and Eve were originally created to be the tabernacle of Grace. This gave them a perfect identity in the Us. He created them as a triune man – replicating the Us. Their spirit was to house the Spirit of God. Listen today & learn more.

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THE SHACKLING OF GRACE
Becoming A Better Sinner

God creates out of nothing.

Wonderful you say. Yes, to be sure, but he does what is still more wonderful:
he makes saints out of sinners. -Soren Kierkegaard

“Becoming a Better Sinner”: I have seldom come across a title which is both honest and descriptive of so many Christians. It is fair to say teaching me to “become a better sinner” was the primary objective of nearly every church I attended from youth to adult- hood.

I owe the chapter title to a man of the cloth who wrote an article addressing the issue a few years ago. In reading the article I was shocked at what an incredible lack of Biblical understanding the writer displayed on the very topic he was addressing. Yet I also realized that the vast majority of evangelical churches would agree with his view.

I decided the Reverend’s title could be put into a question. Simply stated, “Are you trying to become a better sinner?”

To ask this question is like asking a thief, “Are you trying to become a better thief?” This question could be applied to liars, rapists, sexual offenders, and numerous other well-labeled sinners. Interestingly, I would suggest the majority of church members today would answer “No!” to these questions, but “Yes!” in response to becoming a better sinner. Is this question suggesting you are trying to become a more skillful sinner or trying to sin less and less?

An Inadequate View

To better lay the groundwork for this point of view let me quote directly from one of the two magazine articles that, although very similar in wording, were writ- ten about four years apart—indicating the writer’s commitment to his words and his view.

"Simply put, we are not capable of not sinning. David’s adultery with Bathsheba and
murder of Uriah certainly qualifies him as a sinner; yet God describes him as ‘a man after God’s own heart.’  if David was a man after God’s own heart, does that mean he was also somehow a sinner after God’s own heart? If so . . . what would that look like?....The Bible separates our salvation into two important functions. Justification — the settling of our accounts regarding sin.

The other dynamic in redemption is called sanctification. This refers to the ongoing, difficult process of Christ being ‘formed in us.’ Sanctification involves a process of growth, one that continues through every day of our lives until eventually we reach the Day promised in Revelation 21 when Jesus will ‘make all things new’ and will ‘wipe away every tear from our eyes.’ ....God justifies us when we, by faith, receive the salvation he offers through Christ.... But God’s process of making us new usually takes longer than that. Much longer. [We are] still sinners. Always sinners this side of that loud trumpet blast, but steadily becoming much healthier sinners. ....In short, better sinners..... Maybe our
trouble isn’t on the outside but rather on the inside. That’s what the prophet Jeremiah seems to point to with his dark diagnosis: ‘The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure (Jeremiah 17:9).... We not only commit sins, we are sinful. It’s part of us. ”*

* Rev. Ron Vanderwell, The Banner, a publication of the Christian Reformed Church — 2007 and 2011

I do not know the writer, except through this article. He just happens to be the person who is honest about the objective of thousands of teachers and pas- tors who, whether they know it or not, are teaching their flocks to become better sinners. As a pastor who was taught the total depravity of all humanity, he believes that depravity still leaks from Christian adults.

“There is a myth passed along among Christians that we can conquer sin in our lives. It’s hinted at in our conversations, reinforced in songs we listen to, and sometimes preached with vigor from our pulpits. Given enough time, enough willpower, enough of the right conferences or radio programs or religious paper- backs, we should be able to get our spiritual acts fully together.

The Bible seems to support this point of view. The book of Romans speaks freely about being....dead to sin (6:2). Even Jesus himself calls us to....be perfect, therefore as your heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:48).”

On the contrary however, be assured, neither the Bible, nor I, assert that Christians can conquer sin. What the Bible says is that Christ conquered sin by dying to sin. Note how clear Romans 6:10 states the method that Christ used to conquer sin... For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.

How does that help us? When Christ died to sin, we were in Christ and died to sin with him. Romans 6:11 reads... Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:17 further states.... But God be thanked that though you were slaves to sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. Note, these verses do not say that sin or temptation died!

Why do so many Christians doubt that Christ’s victory is our victory over sin? First, I believe that they do not know what “in Christ” means. Second, they do not distinguish between the power of sin in Romans 6, and the behavior called sin mentioned, for example, in 1 John 1. Third, they look at their track record in responding to temptation instead of the finished work of Christ detailed in Scripture. Fourth, they can point to 1 Timothy 1:15 where Paul exclaims that “I (Paul) am the chief of sinners.

Paul’s statement needs a closer look because it is in the present tense making this verse perhaps the best argument that we are still sinners. More is expounded on this subject in chapter seven—Identity Theft.

As Christian author, Bill May, writes in Volume 15, Number 7 of his newsletter called The Christian... .“When Christ is our life and center, his relationship with all things becomes ours.... Apart from Christ we do not have a proper relationship with anything.” He goes on to say, “On the positive side, Christ is our relationship with the Father. He is also our relationship with all the saints, the members of his body. On the negative side, Christ is our relationship with sin. the flesh, the world, condemnation, the devil, and the law.”

When Vanderwell looks at his track record, as well as the history of other Christians, he writes the following....

“It would seem we’re supposed to get past this sin problem. But somehow we never quite out- grow our taste for iniquity. Over time we learn to curb some of our behaviors, and some temptations genuinely subside as the Holy Spirit settles deeper into our hearts. But our bias toward evil never seems to completely vanish, no matter how hard we try to leave it behind. We still lose our temper, even if the words we say sound a little more acceptable. We still harbor grudges, even if our resentments now center on more noble causes. We still turn to lust to provide secret comforts or obsess over food or “toys” to soothe our stress. We still strain to buy the best technology or the most impressive clothing we can, even if it loads our credit cards with debt.

We still scurry around in the clouds of self- importance, neglecting the needs of those closest to us. And even on the days we do manage to resist such temptations, a candid look might show us how much our apparent holiness is actually prompted by lesser motives: avoiding guilt or having to explain things to an accountability partner.”

This begs the question, “Is this what you believe? Does this resonate with your experience? Do you believe, as the writer does that, we are not capable of not sinning?

The writer also runs to Romans 7, as do thousands of other Christians, to find comfort in Paul’s wretched cry, ...for what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do (Romans 7:15). When the writer turns to David’s sin with Bathsheba, he tries to comfort his readers with the passage where God describes David as “a man after God’s own heart.”

There now.... when you read Romans 7 and God’s comment about David after his sins of adultery and murder, don’t you feel better? This kind of comfort is fed to Christians day-after-day, week-after-week, month-after-month, and year-after-year, both in person and from the pulpit.


Learn more in my next email, "What is Really at Stake?" -Lee LeFebre

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