Tilling and Planting

Category: Nature of God

  • Degrees of Sin

    Degrees of Sin

    Intro

    I’ve been talking a lot about sin, what it is, how serious it is, and how God chooses to forget it when we receive His salvation and forgiveness. Today I wish to address another question about sin: are all sins equal, or are there different degrees – or levels – to sin? Is it truly worse to murder someone than it is to steal food? The laws of America says “yes”. But what does God say? What does He think? Because ultimately what God thinks is more important than what man thinks. Many churches preach that all sins are equal, and yet no one really lives that way. We shrug our shoulders at a little gossip and look judgmentally down on unmarried people sleeping together. So we have a dissonance going on here. And that’s why I want to address it; I think it’s important that we understand this topic.

    It’s all About Perspective

    I was recently posed with the idea that the Bible supports the notion that not all sins are equal. And in fact there are some sins that are worse than others. My gut reaction was to deny this. After all, I had heard much of my life that God sees all sin as the same. But after thinking about it and talking about it, I realized that there are two ways of looking at this. And which way you think about it determines whether you answer the question “Are all sins equal?” with a “yes” or a “no”.

    When thinking about this concept of differing degrees of sin, there are two main attributes of God that you can stack sin up against in order to answer this question. God’s Holiness and God’s Justice. And when I look at the Bible and think about these two different attributes of God, I come up with two different conclusions. I can confidently say “yes and no” when asked this question. Let me explain.

    God’s Holiness

    I don’t think there’s any argument that God is a holy God. And I mentioned in a previous post that sin cannot enter His presence because of His holiness. And this is why I can confidently say that all sin is equal in the sight of God. Because a single lie disqualifies you from God’s presence for all of eternity just as fast as murdering someone. When you stack sin up against a Holy God, they are all equal. They all sentence you to eternity in the Lake of Fire, separated from God’s Holy presence. Is this supported by Scripture? Let’s take a look.

    For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

    Romans 3:23 (NIV)

    This statement by Paul is universal. Paul doesn’t make any distinction here of any “degrees” of sin. No one person is worse than another when compared to the glory and holiness of God Almighty.

    Perhaps even clearer is James 2:10.

    For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. (NIV)

    Here James makes it clear that it doesn’t matter which law you break. Or which sin you commit. You might as well have broken every law and committed every sin. It’s all the same when stacked up against a Holy and Righteous God. A note about the context for James is that believers were showing favoritism based on wealth, status, and power. And James called them out as lawbreakers by doing so. Ouch. Ever been guilty of this? I know I have.

    So now that I’ve established that yes, all sins are indeed equal when stacked up against God’s Holiness and our eternal status, let’s switch gears and see how the Bible indicates that there are degrees of sin.

    God’s Justice

    You can’t go far in Leviticus without realizing that God – in His justice – requires different forms of payment – or consequences – for different sins. Murder carried the death penalty (Leviticus 24:17), while theft required restoration of what was stolen, plus a fifth of its value (Leviticus 6:1-5). I could go on, but I’m not going to. I think you get the idea.

    The severity of the consequence largely depended on the severity of the damage done to the lives of others. I’m going to emphasize that it depends on the lives of others. God wants all to live in harmony and when that harmony is damaged because of sin, there must be some consequence to deal with it. For minor sins – ones that cause short term discomfort or easily fixed problems – restoration in some form is required. For ones that cause irreversible damage – such as murder – a far more severe consequence is required.

    And these degrees of sin extends beyond the Old Testament. The church in Corinth dealt with pride and division, but the only person Paul required them to kick out of the fellowship was the man sleeping with his stepmother (1 Corinthians 5:1-5). In other places we read that for those who are in a place of authority (Pastors, Elders, Deacons, etc.) are held to a higher standard and thus the consequences for their sins – especially ones that harm others – should be more severe – including being removed from their position and even put out of the fellowship. And this makes sense, you want morally upright people in positions of authority. You want people you claim to represent the name of Jesus publicly to be able to honor Him by their actions. And that’s what God wants as well.

    Intentional vs Unintentional

    The degrees of sin goes beyond the type and the level of authority you might have. It even goes into whether you knew what you were doing or not. The Old Testament provides milder consequences and forms of restitution for those who did something unintentionally and then repented the moment the realized it, doing what they could to make amends.

    In the New Testament, Jesus was incredibly hard on the religious leaders. Why? Because in their positions of leadership they were already held to a higher standard and with their knowledge of the Scriptures, they really should have acknowledged their own shortcomings more readily than the common people. But instead they claimed to be effectively perfect and didn’t need God’s forgiveness. Because of this, Jesus called them out again and again. Notice that they fall in both the camp of being in positions of authority and are committing the intentional sin of lying to themselves and others. Doused in pride and judgmental attitudes, I might add.

    And it gets worse when we get to the plot to kill Jesus. They know Jesus is an innocent man. Nicodemus told Jesus that they knew He was sent by God. And yet they decided to kill Him anyway. So now the religious leaders are guilty of murder (they even told Pilate that Jesus’ blood be upon them and their children). And to top it off, because of their knowledge of Scripture, at least some of them recognized that Jesus was fulfilling some of the prophecies for the Messiah. Jesus called them out for this very thing – knowing the Scriptures and yet being willfully ignorant and denying the truth. So that’s why Jesus could tell Pilate “the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin” (John 19:11).

    The Unforgivable Sin

    I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the unforgivable sin in a post about differing degrees of sin. People have long debated what this mysterious sin is. Many have been worried that they’ve committed it and have disqualified themselves from Heaven. First of all, let me assure you that if you are worried about having committed it, I can guarantee you haven’t. But what is it?

    In Matthew 12 and Mark 3, Jesus declares that blasphemy of the Holy Spirit to be unpardonable. So what does it mean to blaspheme Holy Spirit? Blasphemy is defiant irreverence of something – or someone – Holy. Notice the word “defiant”. Blasphemy is active, not passive, and willful, not ignorant. Therefore you cannot accidentally commit blasphemy of Holy Spirit. The context in which Jesus said this was when the religious leaders claimed Jesus was demon-possessed and that’s why He could perform miracles. Remember my comments about the religious leaders having greater knowledge? Yeah, they watched Jesus perform miracles and knew He fulfilled Scripture right before their eyes. And yet, they still claimed that Jesus was possessed.

    In the immediate context, blasphemy of Holy Spirit looks to be having evidence of Holy Spirit working and yet willfully denying it and attributing it to something else. This also plays out today in continued unbelief in Jesus despite Holy Spirit calling out to someone and God giving them opportunity to repent and come to Him in faith. People who choose to deny God in spite of all the evidence around them and in spite of Holy Spirit working in their lives are the ones guilty of the unforgivable sin. Though you’ll never truly know if someone commits it until they die without having repented. Because up until their last breath, there’s a chance.

    Hardness of Heart

    Really what Jesus called out in the religious leaders was their hardness of heart. This wasn’t the first nor would be the last time He does this. And other New Testament writers give similar warnings about a hardness of heart and lack of repentance and forgiveness. A hard heart is the only thing that can keep God’s love away over and over again when Holy Spirit comes calling.

    Wrapping Up

    In this post I desired to make clear where our sin stands eternally before God and yet show that there are consequences – of varying degrees – to our sins. This is important to understand especially for anyone in leadership positions. And even for us who happily proclaim to be Christians and follow God. The more we declare our faith to the unbeliever, the more we need to be cognizant of our actions and speech. If we commit a sin in the sight of all these unbelievers who are well aware of our faith, that hurts our message. The weight of responsibility is greater the more vocal we are. And there’s little I need to say for those who are in high leadership positions – especially when they are megachurch pastors. I think we’ve all heard of a few scandals over the years.

    So be aware of your level of responsibility. God holds us believers to higher standards than the unbeliever. And our willful sin is serious indeed. God has already forgiven it and won’t punish it, but there are consequences to sin. And they are often worse for believers than for the unbeliever.

    Outro

    If you enjoyed this post, please consider doing one or all of these things. First, subscribe if you haven’t. If you have, thank you! Second, spread the word. Send these to everyone you know and encourage them to read and subscribe. This blog is purely word of mouth right now. I rely on you, my readers, to help me get more readers. And third, please consider donating. It’ll enable me to continue to offer regular posts.

    Feel free to leave a comment with any questions about what I’ve written, any additional comments about the post, or if there’s a topic you’d like me to write about. Before doing that though, be sure to check out all my posts here and see if I’ve covered it already. And if you find I’ve done it already but aren’t satisfied or still have more questions, let me know!

    Thank you for reading this! I greatly appreciate each one of you. Until next time, God bless you all!

  • Forgetful God?

    Forgetful God?

    Intro

    Is God capable of forgetting anything? The Bible says that God knows the beginning to end. He knows the number of hairs on my head. And He knows everything about everything. But the Bible also says that there is one area where God is forgetful. If this sounds ridiculous or impossible to you, then you’ve come to the right place. (Also if you haven’t heard this before and don’t know where I’m going, then you too have come to the right place.)

    Can God Actually Forget Anything?

    In all technicality, no, God can’t forget things in the same way we might forget to buy something or forget the name of that neighbor from 30 years ago. But it is still Biblically and dictionary accurate to say God is forgetful. No seriously. Like many words in the English language, to forget means more than just an accidental “Oops. I didn’t mean to forget about your birthday”. Think about a time when you’ve said something like, “Oh forget about it”. More often than not, in these situations you aren’t asking the person to accidentally forget that it happened, but rather intentionally overlook something. And this is the dictionary definition that we can apply to God’s forgetfulness. Intentionally overlooking something. The question now becomes, what does the Bible say God intentionally chooses to forget or overlook?

    Forgive and Forget

    Here’s a big clue: have you ever said or heard the phrase “forgive and forget”? If so, then you’ve got a handle on what it is that God is forgetful about. And that thing is sin. God chooses to forget the sins that He has forgiven. To be sure, those who do not turn to God and receive His forgiveness will still have their sins counted against them when they are cast into Hell and then the Lake of Fire at the final judgment. However, for those who turn to God and receive His forgiveness, God chooses to forget their sins.

    Here’s just a couple of verses to back this up.

    I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.

    Isaiah 43:25 (NIV)

    For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.

    Jeremiah 31:34b (NIV)

    But wait, these are both from the Old Testament and the context is forgiving the Israelites and bring them back from captivity. Absolutely. But Malachi 3:6 says “I the Lord do not change” and Hebrews 13:8 says “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever”. So I see no problem in using these Old Testament verses to extract a piece of the nature of God – that is, how He forgives – to apply to us today. Besides take a look at Hebrews 8:12.

    For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.

    Gee that looks familiar. The author actually quotes a big chunk of Jeremiah 31 here in Hebrews 8 when arguing the necessity of the new covenant and how the Old Testament actually refers to it. So that passage in Jeremiah applies to us as Christians today! God is forgetful of all of your sins and mine and everyone who comes to faith in Jesus. That’s incredible news! But in the words of all the informercial narrators, “But wait, there’s more!”

    Sea of Forgetfulness

    Ever here the concept of God’s sea of forgetfulness? And that’s where all of our sins go? And that He puts up a “No Fishing” sign? Is that actually Biblical? Well, yes and no. The idea of the sea of forgetfulness comes from Micah but it doesn’t actually use this phrase.

    You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.

    Micah 7:19 (NIV)

    From this came Jewish traditions of throwing bread into the sea to represent God removing their sin. And from that the idea of a “sea of forgetfulness” comes down. But frankly, I kind of like the picture in Micah a little bit better. The picture is that our sins are thrown into the deepest parts of the sea from which we can’t retrieve them. They are gone forever. We cannot resurrect them and God chooses to leave them there. I really want to emphasize God’s choice in this. He is a holy God and cannot be touched by sin and sin cannot enter His presence. But because God is love and He loves us so much, He makes a conscious choice to cover over our sins and pretend like they don’t exist – when we accept His offer of forgiveness.

    This is mind blowing. That He would love us that much. And it gets better, I’ve got one more verse for you that I’m sure you’re familiar with.

    East is From the West

    As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

    Psalm 103:12 (NIV)

    Many of you might be singing Casting Crowns right now, and I don’t blame you. It’s a good song. But I want to turn to the source here in Psalm 103. The Psalmist says that God removes our transgressions (also known as sins, see my last post) as far as the east is from the west. That’s an infinite distance. How is that infinite? Look at a globe and place your finger on it and start moving it west. At what point does it start moving east? Never. You can move that finger around and around in a circle going west and never reach a point where suddenly you are going east. And if you start going east, you get the same thing. Unlike north and south which meet at the poles, east and west don’t have such a restriction and thus there is infinite distance between them.

    This is incredible news for us because that means that God has cast our sins an infinite distance away so we literally can’t reach them anymore.

    Rabbit Trail

    My pastor says that rabbit trails are okay if you announce them in advance, so I’m announcing a rabbit trail here.

    This verse in Psalm 103 has far less impact if the earth were flat. Because in that model, there is a finite distance between east and west. You go so far east and hit the end. Turn around go west until you hit the other end. Take a measurement. Now you know just how far God will actually cast your sins. And that doesn’t jive very well with everything else the Bible has been saying (that I’ve quoted here – or not) about how God actively chooses to be forgetful about your sins. My pastor says that this verse alone is a very strong argument against the idea that the Bible teaches a flat earth model.

    “But the seas have a finite depth!” Yes they do. But they are also of the type of environment where anything you cast down there will more than likely be lost forever. Seriously, the bottoms of oceans, seas, and even lakes are nigh impossible to retrieve things from. The larger the body of water, the harder it is.

    Compared to the oceans, Lake Superior is pretty small in its depths and they are just now rediscovering shipwrecks from 200 years ago. People have searched for specific shipwrecks for decades in various lakes, rivers, etc. before finding it even though they knew roughly where it went down. The bottoms of the seas and oceans are the most unexplored places. Only God knows what’s all truly down there. And that’s the point. He knows all that we’ve done and He chooses to forget.

    But I still Sin

    But wait, if God has cast all our sins away so we can’t reach them anymore, then why do I still struggle with sin? Because the sin has become a habit. We all know what habits are and how hard it is to change them or break them. And the power of that sin has been broken and forgiven by Jesus and the Cross, but the daily (or weekly, or whatever) habit of performing the act is oftentimes still something we will have to work through with the power of Holy Spirit to strengthen us.

    It’s not easy and it’s not fun, but by the grace of God and our own perseverance, we will overcome. Hang in there.

    Wrapping Up

    Praise the Lord that He chooses to be a forgetful God when it comes to our sins! I hope this encourages you in those times when the enemy tells you that your sins are too great, too much for God to forgive. Or that He could never truly forget what you did 2 years ago and will remind you of that and punish you for it someday. Just remember these verses that I’ve shared today from Isaiah, Jeremiah, Micah, Hebrews, and Psalms. And also remember that “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1).

    Outro

    If you enjoyed this post, please consider doing one or all of these things. First, subscribe if you haven’t. If you have, thank you! Second, spread the word. Send these to everyone you know and encourage them to read and subscribe. This blog is purely word of mouth right now. I rely on you, my readers, to help me get more readers. And third, please consider donating. It’ll enable me to continue to offer regular posts.

    Feel free to leave a comment with any questions about what I’ve written, any additional comments about the post, or if there’s a topic you’d like me to write about. Before doing that though, be sure to check out all my posts here and see if I’ve covered it already. And if you find I’ve done it already but aren’t satisfied or still have more questions, let me know!

    Thank you for reading this! I greatly appreciate each one of you. Until next time, God bless you all!

  • Infinite God

    Infinite God

    Intro

    When you think of the word “infinite” what comes to mind? Outer space? The number system? An attribute of God? All too often we as Christians put God in a box. We try to put limitations on Him and then wonder why He doesn’t move in our lives. Some of us have grown up being told that God is infinite, but then being told that He doesn’t do certain things. So let’s get back to the basics. Our God is infinite. In an infinite amount of ways. And I wish to highlight some of the big ones that I know we’ve all heard. As has been the point of this entire blog, I want to go back to the basics. The simple truth of the Word of God and break it down to its core elements. So that we might have understanding and faith in it once again.

    So what are those “big” infinite attributes I wish to highlight? Ever hear these words: Omnipotent, Omnipresent, Omniscient, and Immutable? These are the ones I wish to highlight today (plus another one, but you’ll have to keep on reading to discover what it is).

    Omnipotent

    When I start talking about an infinite God, I think this is the attribute that comes to mind quickest. Omnipotent means “All-Powerful”. It means that God has the power to do whatever He wants. He created the entire universe with just His voice.

    By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth. Psalm 33:6 (NIV)

    Some other examples of God’s omnipotence include: parting the Red Sea so Israel could walk across dry ground, giving a 100 year old man and 90 year old barren woman a son, making the sun stand still (which technically was making the earth stop rotating, but semantics), sending a global flood to wipe out everything on the earth (except those on the ark), becoming a man through a virgin birth, performing a crazy number of miracles as a man, and the list goes on. Seriously, just read through the Bible and you’ll be amazed at the number of miracles that God did. And He still does them today! All throughout history and up until the current day, there are testimonies of what God has done in people’s lives. I’ve heard some and know people who have encountered the unexplainable. Unexplainable, that is, except by an omnipotent God.

    Omnipresent

    To be omnipresent is to be everywhere all at once. The infinite presence of God is another attribute of His that readily comes to people’s minds. And the Bible makes this pretty clear.

    Because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” Hebrews 13:5b (NIV)

    And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. Matthew 28:20b (NIV)

    These are just two places – and the Hebrews is a quote from Deuteronomy 31:6. Doing a quick search online, there are at least 100 different verses that tell us that God is with us. Think about that for a moment, the minimum number of times the Bible states this is 100. More likely the number is higher than that, but I’m not going to try and count them all. For me personally, this has been one of my favorite attributes. One of the first times I clearly heard God was when I was going through something painful and I asked, “God where are you? Do you see me?” And He clearly spoke to me and said, “Yes”. God’s infinite presence highlights something else about God that is infinite. His love. God’s love is without limit. And His omnipresence proves that. If He didn’t love us, why stay with us?

    Omniscient

    To be omniscient is to be all-knowing. God knows literally everything. You can’t hide anything from Him. Every star that goes nova, every drop of rain that falls, every tear a person cries, every bacteria that divides to reproduce, etc. God knows it all. The Bible says that God calls each star by name and knows the number of hairs on your head. And it gets crazier. Because to be omniscient also means knowing everything from beginning to the end. God’s memory isn’t just remembering everything that has happened in the past, it’s also knowing about everything before it even happens. This breaks my brain a bit. The Bible says before the foundations of the earth were put into place, He planned to send Jesus to the cross (see 1 Peter 1:18-20).

    This one is hard to comprehend. God knew before He created anything that mankind would sin and reject Him and He would have to send His Son to die a horrible death (see my post here about how bad it was) to redeem us. And He still did it! Why? Refer back to my comment about God’s infinite love. And this also goes along with Him giving us free will, so we can choose to love and serve Him. God wants us to choose. Because of His omniscience, God knew all possible outcomes depending how He chose to create everything. Free will? Rebellion, suffering, and redemption. No free will? I don’t even know what would have actually come out of that. But I can promise you there wouldn’t be any sin, suffering, or death! If there still was, God would not be the good God the Bible says He is.

    Immutable

    Immutability is actually a little less known than the prior three. The definition of immutable is “unchanging”. To put it into terms of God, God stays infinitely the same. As He was in the past, so shall He be in the future. God will never diverge from what His Word says about Him. This is comforting to know because if we’re seeking direction from God and we hear something, sometimes we wonder “Is this God, the devil, or me?” And one of the first things we can ask is “Does this line up with the Bible?” “Is it consistent with what the Bible says about God?” If not, then discard it because God will never change. The Bible clearly states this in a few different places.

    Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Hebrews 13:8 (NIV)

    I the Lord do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. Malachi 3:6 (NIV)

    The one from Malachi hints at another part of God’s immutability. When God makes a promise, He keeps it. No matter how long it takes, He will fulfill it. He is faithful even when we aren’t. Israel kept turning its back on God and rebelling against Him. But because of His covenant, God did not destroy them. Because He is immutable. Another verse that highlights God’s immutability is found in Psalm 102. And with this one, I’m going to transition to the final infinite attribute of God that I wish to highlight – since Psalm 102 also highlights it.

    But you remain the same, and your years will never end. Psalm 102:27 (NIV)

    Eternal

    The final (and bonus!) attribute is God is eternal. He has no beginning and He will have no end. Revelation contains a popular verse about this.

    I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. Revelation 22:13 (NIV)

    But there are many others. Another common one to quote for God’s eternal nature is found in Psalm 90.

    Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the whole world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. Psalm 90:2 (NIV)

    I wish to highlight the phrase “from everlasting to everlasting you are God”. What does that mean exactly? It simply means what I already said, God had no beginning – from eternity past He existed – and God will have no end – He will continue to exist for eternity future.

    This is another one that kinda breaks the brain. To be sure, most of us can grasp the concept of having no end. Okay, something or someone just never dies or ceases to exist. I can get behind that. After all the Bible makes it clear that my spirit will continue to exist for all of eternity. And while it’s hard to imagine what I’ll be doing for all of eternity, I can at least grasp the concept. Grasping the idea of having no beginning is where I trip up. Bound in a world where time exists and everything around us has a beginning makes it difficult to imagine anything without one. This mindset begs the question “Where did God come from?” I’ve heard entertaining stories of children asking that question and the parents trying to explain a concept they don’t fully understand to a 4 year old.

    Wrapping Up

    So to wrap up, what does this all mean? Why talk about it at all? By knowing and understanding this, you and I can trust God with our problems. We can trust that He knows (Omniscient) what we are going through, that He is with us in the storm (Omnipresent), that He has the power to calm that storm (Omnipotent), and that He will come through when He says that He will help us (Immutable) because having been around for a while (Eternal) He is a stable God and a firm foundation upon which to build our lives. So cast your cares upon Him today and trust Him to come through for us when we need Him.

    Outro

    If you enjoyed this post, please consider doing one or all of these things. First, subscribe if you haven’t. If you have, thank you! Second, spread the word. Send these to everyone you know and encourage them to read and subscribe. This blog is purely word of mouth right now. I rely on you, my readers, to help me get more readers. And third, please consider donating. It’ll enable me to continue to offer regular posts.

    Feel free to leave a comment with any questions about what I’ve written, any additional comments about the post, or if there’s a topic you’d like me to write about. Before doing that though, be sure to check out all my posts here and see if I’ve covered it already. And if you find I’ve done it already but aren’t satisfied or still have more questions, let me know!

    Thank you for reading this! I greatly appreciate each one of you. Until next time, God bless you all!