God Even Works Sin For Our Good

Oh sin, how the believer in time comes to hate it, and how I hate the time that I do not hate it. I do not want to sound in anyway in favor of sinning or sin, it is a most evil and disgusting thing, it destroys lives, it nailed the purest and holiest, the very Son of God to a tree- He that knew no sin became sin for those who are saved. Sin is so evil, so exceedingly sinful that is so corrupts man that he will never be free from it until he dies, it even brings about that death, for the wages of sin are death….

However, for the Christian, there is a blessedness in sin, for we know that God works all things together to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose (Rom 8:28). Can it be that God can even use sin? Well the apostle says, ‘all things’ now, this is not to say we should then sin that God may use it, no, for if we say God uses our sicknesses and suffering, do we go out and make ourselves sick, do we hurt our own body and thus not look after the temple of the Holy Spirit, certainly not. Likewise with sin.

Sin troubles me so much, I often cry out like the apostle in Romans 7:24, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”… Christian listen to the apostle’s sweet answer, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”(v25a). I have noticed within me, when I fall, and I fall so hard, I am moved I am compelled, either to give-up or to fight! How easy it is to give up, the flesh indeed is weak. Christian don’t waste your sin!

If you have played soccer/football you will know what I am talking about, when you are tackled, you can sometimes feel a fire inside of you that says NO, and you turn and run to get the ball back from the one who took it from you, before he passes it and you are the one who is to blame for the subsequent goal. Or you could just give up and say, “I’m to tired, we will just have to make it up. Or you can wonder what you did wrong, and blame the ball, or the uneven ground.

Christian brothers and sister, it is the flesh, sin within you…. But there is one answer to it. And so when you sin, do not be weary, though I know it is easy, do not blame others, for James tells us when we sin we are led away by our own desires (James 1). Say rather the truth, “Woe is me, who will deliver me from the body of death!!!!

Let me tell you who will deliver you, it is the one who chose you, not because you are attractive, it is the one who saved you to make you glorified, not because you are glorious, it is the one Who became sin for you, Christ Jesus the righteous. So pure and holy, compassionate, tender, meek, merciful to those who come with a broken and contrite spirit. Oh may we Christians ever live with broken and contrite spirits, a spirit that will never trust itself.

Why do I then say sin is blessed?

Look at this list, and I am sure there are more then these, but these are what I have thought up in this short time.

1. My sin causes me to throw myself again at the feet of Christ, and shows me my utter need for Him
2. My sin cause me to love and cling to Jesus my savior so much more, for there is nothing good within me, but if I can just touch the hem of His garment I will be made well.
3. My sin crushes my pride and self-righteousness; it shows me my need for Christ and my lack in myself.
4. My sin reminds me of what grace and mercy is, and what a truly great gift Salvation is
5. My sin moves me more to hate it as I see it wickedness, it becomes a fuel to fight it with more and more
6. My sin makes me love my brothers, for I am the chief of sinners and the least of the saints

Christian fight sin, and let Micah 7:7-9 be your chant of war or your cry for victory as you press on

But as for me, I will look to the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.

Rejoice not over me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD will be a light to me.

I will bear the indignation of the LORD because I have sinned against him, until he pleads my cause and executes judgment for me. He will bring me out to the light; I shall look upon his vindication.

A Conservative Critique of Rob Bell’s ‘Velvet Elvis’

Well again with a book review. Let me say from the outset that i am not convinced that the best way to approach the emerging church movement is by discrediting and trashing their claims (see my blog series ‘emergent detergent’), however, for those who are interested, and some of those emergents who are open to conversation with anyone and not just other emergents who say what they want to hear, maybe this can be useful for you (forgive my viscousness there).

I would prefer someone to read the ‘book of shadows’ (Wiccan Bible) or the ‘Koran’ or listen to a Marylin Manson cd then read this book. Why? Well, at least those others let you know that they are bad, at least you know what you are in for, but this book, is so shneaky, so deceitful, it is way more evil (please don’t let that comment put you off from reading further).

Strategically throughout the book Bell reconstructs Christianity in such a way that makes him believable, those of us who are evangelical, reformed, conservative (but however, not this new brand of blind fundamentalist) will half agree with parts of what he says, so for example on pg 21 Bell mentions the time that Christ said that He is the Way, truth and Life, then Bells says that ‘Jesus was not claiming one religion is better then another’. Thats a half truth, there is a negativity connected with religion, however, that does not mean that that is all religion is, James at the end of chapter 1 of his first epistle seems to be very pro religion. However, like the serpent in Eden, (I hope that is not unfair for me to say, just drawing a parallel, not saying Bell is the devil, although I am pretty sure he is inspired by the devil, there is a difference between being mistaken and not having everything right, and teaching outright apostasy)

His entire fist chapter bell uses the analogy of a spring, however, he then takes the analogy of truth and his connections with truth and thus says that doctrines doesn’t really matter, eventually saying that He could still be a Christian if Jesus wasn’t born of a virgin (although he claims he still believes that Jesus was). This is terrible, listen, if God did not invade the real world and be yet different, then there is no hope! If all Christainity is, is a bunch on pretty imaginations and good concepts, then we are doomed, because death and suffering and all other consequences of sin are real life things, not imaginations!

Then on page 27 he says things like God is bigger then the Christian faith. Well that is true, however, that is the only place He has revealed Himself specifically (for a further investigation on this I encourage you to do a study of Psalm 19, notice the change in thought that occurs in the second half of the Psalm).

Bell later talks about questions (pg28), says they are good and healthy, goes on to suggest that churches are generally against people asking them. I am not sure what churches he has been to… However, he stays at the question, he suggests that we relish the mystery of not knwoing things, instead of presenting peeople with the Word of God and godly Bible teachers who God has given as gifts to the Chruch to help us walk and find answers to what God has revealed. I am not saying all answers are easy, but if we stop at just asking qustions that is celebrating our ignorance, and people perish for lack of knowledge.

He misquotes and reinterprets most scriptures, there is not historical-grammatical method happening in his book. In his second chapter he suggest that when Jesus gave the command to bind and loose to the Church, Jesus was telling the church to interpret and reinterpret Scripture. This my friends is the problem, there is no way that is what Jesus meant, now I can go into a whole exegesis of the text with you, or I can just tell you to go and read 200 commentaries by godly men and find one that even hints at that. Actually no, wait, I think i will reinterpret that Scripture now, binding actually means giving a tattoo and loosing means to remove bracelets from people. 2000 years of Church history and this is still the kind of stuff that deceives the church, wow! This is a proof of the doctrine of ‘total depravity’.

on page 67, Bells attacks the teaching of Sola Scriptura, that Scripture alone is our guide, that really tells us where he stands, and I say this respectfully, how he misunderstands Church history. The serpent in Eden also said, did God actually say….

There is much more I could write about this book, however, there are many good crits on it available for those who want to take a deeper look. For me the main point was Bells stance on Scripture, and since thats out, so is anything he writes really. If you have questions or would like me to expand on anything I have written here or elsewhere, just drop a line.

let me close by quoting the Westminster Confession on Scripture:

4. The authority of the Holy Scripture, for which it ought to be believed and obeyed, dependeth not upon the testimony of any man or church, but wholly upon God (who is truth itself), the author thereof; and therefore it is to be received, because it is the Word of God.

6. The whole counsel of God, concerning all things necessary for his own glory, man’s salvation, faith, and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture: unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the Spirit, or traditions of men. Nevertheless we acknowledge the inward illumination of the Spirit of God to be necessary for the saving understanding of such things as are revealed in the Word; and [PCUS that] there are some circumstances concerning the worship of God, and the government of the Church, common to human actions and societies, which are to be ordered by the light of nature and Christian prudence, according to the general rules of the Word, which are always to be observed.