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Sin (continued) Review: ► Lent (this season of preparation for Easter) has allowed us to focus on (2) concepts/practices which appear to be essential and valuable components of our faith: “confession” and “repentance”. ~ Confession provides the safe confines in which we can honestly confront our brokenness and the inner-turmoil we face as a result. ~ Repentance is the gift that God offers which not only allows us to admit our brokenness, but provides the courage to live differently (to actually choose a less destructive path for our life). ► The word ‘sin’ in the Greek (hamartia) means ‘to miss the mark’ or ‘to fall short’, but it’s most often presented to us in metaphorical terms because it can’t really be ‘defined’, only ‘described’. ► In order for us to realize the depth of its impact, sin must be understood as a ‘relational term’, not a ‘legislative term’. Sin, as simply certain actions/behaviors, trivializes it and fails to capture the enormity of the human dilemma. ► It’s easy not to notice how broken we are. Sometimes sin seems most ‘glaring’ to us when it’s observable in others. We become most passionate, most enraged by the abusive nature of sin when its ‘someone else’s’. Confession/repentance is the path we are encouraged to choose when we become aware that the wrong ‘out there’ is ‘in here’… within us. “What’s the mark?” Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. ► We must learn to identify sin as: the universal failure to realize God’s dream, ‘shalom’. It refers to our inability to be ‘human’- all that God created us to be. Sin is “who we are in light of who we were created to be”. ♦ Without the possibility of forgiveness and restoration, confession merely rehearses all that’s wrong with us, intensifies our guilt and reinforces our hopelessness. ● The problem? We are more prone to guilt than we are a sense of loving-acceptance. It’s easier for us to be identified by what’s wrong with us, rather than embracing God’s offer to make us right! ... that sounds too good to be true! So, we spend our lives running/hiding from God, determined to prove that he can’t really love us unconditionally. We say that we’re just testing it, but we’re really avoiding it; it makes us uncomfortable. And, it’s actually our belief in conditional love that keeps us bound to the rules! Our commitment to keeping the rules becomes our strategy for “getting back to God”. ● I have found that it takes much more energy and creative-allusiveness to hide than to stand out in the open! It’s really hard because God knows all my best hiding places! Confession is bringing who we are (blemishes and all) to God, not in order to convince him to love us, but with the confidence that he already does! ♦ Confession, in and of itself, is incomplete. We live in a society that delights in hearing the ‘worst’ about us; to have all of our dysfunction ‘on display’. It confirms what I suspected all along… “I’m not really as bad as I thought I was!” ● The public spewing of all my inner-deformity, without the possibility of the transforming power of grace, only lends itself to further damage. ● Confession, of itself, may be cathartic, but it’s not healing. In fact, without repentance, confession is deceptive because although we feel a sense of ‘relief’, we fail to address the self-destructive patterns which are preventing us from experiencing wholeness. ● In order to experience wholeness, our confession must be accompanied by a reordering, reorienting of our lives around God. Repentance becomes the means by which we actually experience God’s restorative love (i.e. only as the people willingly left Egypt would they become the recipients of God’s gracious rescue). ♦ Your sin will always pale in comparison to God’s love. Notice in Psalm 51 that David appeals to God’s ‘unfailing love’ and ‘great compassion’. In every story the spotlight was never on human brokenness, but on God’s stubborn love and determination to win back our hearts (there’s nothing remarkable about sin: it’s not exceptional at all). ● And, it’s been our obsession with ‘sins’ (the ‘lists’) which has caused us to overlook the profound dysfunctionality of our world and also miss the ‘super-abounding’ nature of grace! (your sin has nothing on God’s grace!) Romans 5:20 “But where sin increased, grace increased all the more,…” ● Paul is not saying that ‘sin is not an issue’, he’s saying that to remain focused on sin is to miss the outrageous nature of grace. ● Only love is powerful enough to produce in me the courage to face God, myself and you in a way that is authentic and healing. But, it’s really hard to accept that God can love us. So, confession becomes an exercise that God gives to us partially due to our inability to receive grace; it makes no sense. Grace means not only that I am “acceptable”; it also means that I am “accountable”. ►If I am accepted as I am, but not accountable to become (transformation), it leads to ‘indifference’ and sloppy living (“Should we go on sinning so that grace may abound?” Romans 6:1 Sure, why not?) ►But, if I’m accountable without knowing I’m accepted, it results in an unhealthy emphasis on performance. Never knowing if we’ve done enough to please God. We have an idea that God might love us (i.e. out of obligation: like we love that uncle or cousin who’s obnoxious), but for the most part, he’s fairly disgusted with us. ● The same grace that liberates us from the guilt and shame of our sin is the same grace that calls us to repentance- a new to live. God’s way… ~ He begins by attaching value to us (which removes any anxiety I might feel about having to perform and offers us the security of his love. ~ He makes himself vulnerably available to us (with the chance that we may not accept his invitation or respond accordingly to the movements of his love toward us). ~ He, then, expects accountability within the context of relationship (Romans 1:5 calls it “the obedience that comes from faith…” ) ♦ Confession acknowledges not only the particular incident, but our continued vulnerability (“…my sin is always before me”.) You not only get the impression that David is struggling with the guilt he feels over his sin, but his recognition that sin is always as near as his willingness to yield to it. ● To admit such vulnerability is to help prevent self-deception. I have discovered that it’s actually a strength, not a weakness! It’s one thing to admit a particular sin, but another to recognize the potential for such behavior as something that must be perpetually addressed. Psalm 51:10 “Create (bara- only used with God has the subject: to create something from nothing) in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” ♦ God has nothing to offer to those who think they can do life without him. Experiencing God, in any capacity, requires that I posture myself to receive. God cannot provide what we are unwilling to receive. But, he offers himself (his life) to those who readily admit that hopelessness in need of him…that we are “broken”. ● Grace is not God’s ‘tender side’! Grace is the active expression of God’s love toward and in us which ensures that it will never be confused with sentiment or fond affection. I’ve come to discover the incredible ‘strength’ of God’s grace; its vulnerability, its stubborn determination, its unwavering commitment, its unprovoked availability. ♦ Repentance demonstrates the validity of our confession. Proverbs 28:13 “People who conceal their sins will not prosper, but if they confess and turn from them (‘forsake’), they will receive mercy” [‘forsake’- abandon; leave behind; depart from something]. Acts 26:20 “I preached first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout all Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that all must turn from their sins and turn to God – and prove they have changed by the good things they do.” Luke 3:8 “Prove by the way you live that you have really turned from your sins and turned to God.” 2 Corinthians 7:10-11
Acceptance, in an atmosphere
of loving-accountability provides us with the courage to pursue authentic
life-change and realize the ‘shalom’ that God anticipates for our lives. |
