Category Archives: Dan’s Blog

Victory in Defeat

Leave a reply

“What does my sin say about my faith?” Well, though it may be pretty ugly, I wouldn’t beat myself up too badly over it. Of course we fail to believe God perfectly! Jesus remains hidden, and we are but human. And even though Jesus, being our example, never sinned in His humanity, it doesn’t mean that we’ll ever reach such a level of perfection while here on earth. No matter how good we ultimately become as God’s children, we will always experience shortcomings in various areas of our lives.

Still, accepting the reality of our circumstances doesn’t mean that we turn a blind eye to God’s truth. Being naïve to the dynamics of sin as it relates to both faith and obedience, unbelief and disobedience, merely serves to weaken our ability to make right choices. The insightful writer of Hebrews says: “Take care, brethren, lest there should be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart, in falling away from the living God. But encourage one another day after day…lest any of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”(Hebrews 3:12-13) Notice here how sin hardens us, in turn fostering further unbelief. Like a snowball—growing in size and gaining momentum—sin and unbelief feed on each other, serving to lead the believer further down the path toward alienation from God.

In order to prevent this from happening, we must guard our heart—even from seemingly insignificant sins. At the very least, disobedience stalls our growth. At worst, it hardens our heart to the point where we simply cease to believe. Allowing unbelief to take root is absolutely foolhardy, for when faith is shattered, God no longer has a basis for relationship with us.

While absolute sinlessness may not be attainable, walking in the holiness of Christ is. This is why we must never surrender to the domination of sin in our life, but rather set our heart to pursue growth in our faith through obedience. Even though we’ll never fully arrive at the perfection of sinlessness this side of eternity, the important thing is to keep moving forward.(Philippians 3:12-14) God loves watching His children work out their faith in this way, and will never fail to shower His blessing on those He finds so doing.(Philippians 2:12-13) 

Faith Evidenced by Obedience

Leave a reply

To answer this question of the weakness of the flesh, we must look beyond the question of sin to the issue of faith. Faith is the basis for our relationship with God.(John 1:12, Ephesians 2:8) It is simply impossible to come into relationship with God without it.(Hebrews 11:6) Our faith is God’s supreme treasure, and our obedience to Him is the evidence that faith exists within us.

Paul talks about “the obedience of faith.”(Romans 16:26) In Romans 6:16 he tells us: “…when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness.” Therefore, obedience is the litmus test of faith—the proof that faith exists.

In the same way, disobedience clearly reveals the presence of unbelief. In talking about the Israelites’ sin in the wilderness, the writer of Hebrews says: “And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.”(Hebrews 3:18-19) Here sin and unbelief are inextricably linked.

Disobedience—sin—is born of unbelief. So when we sin, we prove that we harbor some level of unbelief in our heart. To test this hypothesis, just imagine how you would behave if Jesus, in all His glory, visibly appeared to you. Would you sin? Of course not! The last thing you would want to do is displease Him in any way. Unbelief would be totally eradicated, and therefore disobedience wouldn’t be an option at all.

Excerpted from: Free from the Power of Sin: The Keys to Growing in God in Spite of Yourself

Sin: Pitfall vs. Practice

Leave a reply

If our sin does not in fact separate us from God, why would the Bible encourage believers to strive for sinlessness? And why would it bother to give dire warnings to those who practice sin in their life? “But immorality or impurity or greed must not even be named among you…for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.”(Ephesians 5:3-6). Make no mistake about it; Paul is addressing the Church here, not non-believers. And he makes it abundantly clear that no such person “has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.” Such warnings are repeated many times throughout the New Testament.

When the Bible speaks about sin as it concerns the Christian, it is actually talking about two broad categories of sin: that of walking in sin (the practice of sin as a lifestyle) and that of periodically falling into sinful behavior (what I’ll call a pitfall). So we need to understand that even though such biblical passages serve to caution us against stepping into the pitfall of sin, their primary purpose is to warn those who may be moving toward making sin the practice of their lives—those who time and again choose to live in sin.

We’d all be in big trouble if separation from God resulted merely from periodically falling into sin through the weakness of our flesh. Still, we must not discount sin, no matter how minor, as somehow being insignificant in God’s eyes, because the very nature of sin is that it has potential to grow and spread just as a cancer does in the body. All sin runs along a path that leads somewhere. And this, of course, brings up a very important question: when does sin as a pitfall develop into sin as a practice? Where is the dividing line between sin that merely displeases God and sin that drives His Spirit from us?

Excerpted from: Free from the Power of Sin: The Keys to Growing in God in Spite of Yourself

Not into Guilt Trips

Leave a reply

Believers often fail to appreciate a principle critical to our pursuit of God. It’s this: God isn’t into guilt trips; He’s on a gift trip. Which means what? It means that everything we need has already been provided in Christ. Picture God’s outstretched hand, all His abundance there for the taking by anyone who will simply come to Him asking for it.(2 Corinthians 1:20)

We can have all we want of God, but on the other hand He will never force anything on us. God won’t brow-beat or coerce His children in any way into receiving what He wants for them. Given the fact that the gift itself (not to mention the Giver) should provide more than sufficient motivation to seek greater intimacy with God, resorting to the use of guilt to compel someone to take advantage of such abundance seems a bit ridiculous, doesn’t it?      

It’s true that we are obligated to build relationship with God.(Hebrews 6:12) But a sincere pursuit of God should stem from the fact that we are assured of all He has promised, not by a twisted hope of obtaining God’s blessings from the incentive of guilt, pressure or greed.(2 Corinthians 7:1)

Still, intimacy with God needs to begin somewhere. So it’s not surprising to see our motivation to spend time with Him springing from a somewhat distorted sense of obligation. And that’s an okay beginning. Yet there’s something wrong—something missing—if seeking to be in His presence doesn’t eventually become a pursuit of the heart rather than merely that of duty.

Excerpted from: Free from the Power of Sin: The Keys to Growing in God in Spite of Yourself

Choosing to be Devoted

Leave a reply

Godliness is devotion which is characterized by an attitude toward doing that which pleases God. Make no mistake about it: both devotion and attitude are choices made by an act of our will.

To be sure, this is what has been set before us as believers: to pursue a life pleasing to Him, or not to pursue it. Deciding whether or not to pursue intimacy with God has its rewards, and its consequences.

Ask any parent. Ask them what they value most: an adult child who desires to be close for the sake of relationship itself, or one who relates to them either from a sense of obligation or from a selfish fear that they might forfeit something of personal benefit. They’ll tell you! The parents love both children equally. But which do you think will receive more attention from the parent? Which deserves the richness of their full companionship and support?

God is like that. Because of His love, He doesn’t reject His children when they don’t show much interest in pursuing Him. And He doesn’t get much pleasure from those who pursue Him merely from a sense of compulsion or requirement. Just imagine, though, how thrilled He must be with those whose motives are pure—who want Him just because He’s Dad.

Choosing Holiness

Leave a reply

Attempting to gain acceptance with God by our own goodness merely results in dependence on law as the basis for our righteousness. But it goes without saying that earning our own way with God is at best an exercise in futility. For this reason, God, knowing the limitations of our flesh, resolved this issue once and for all by laying in us a foundation of holiness—His holiness. And only on such a foundation can a life pleasing to Him be built. It’s God’s exclusive platform for growth and transformation.

So we’ve got to get over the idea that being a Christian means having the power in and of ourselves to increase our holiness. Rather, this new life in Christ is all about God’s Spirit interacting with our own so that we are now capable of making godly choices. And godly choices is what cultivates the transformation of our character.

Given the fact that we can never gain God’s acceptance through our own efforts to become more holy, just what is our responsibility toward seeing that holiness (sanctification) comes to full fruition in our life? Well, obviously the duty to live our life in a manner pleasing to God is the first step. But what’s our next step—how do we to go about pursuing it?

Our mindset is the answer to this question. Paul exhorts believers to “set your minds on the things above,” and assures them that “the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace.”(Colossians 1:1-3, Romans 8:6)  After all, that’s what godliness is: devotion which is characterized by an attitude toward doing that which pleases God. And make no mistake about it: both devotion and attitude are choices made by an act of our will.

God Expects Holiness

Leave a reply

Let’s look at another side of holiness. In a very real sense holy is also something we are exhorted to become(the goal and outcome of spiritual growth). Though a foundation of holiness has been laid in us by virtue of the fact that we are God’s possession, Paul makes it clear that something is still missing: “My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you.”(Galatians 4:19)

Time and again in his writings, Paul admonishes believers to live a holy life, always adamant that the sins of the flesh be forsaken. This can only mean that an effort is required on our part.(Romans 3:14, Ephesians 4:22-24, Galatians 5:16, 1 Timothy 6:11) So there’s no question that living a holy (sanctified) life is expected. And if expected, it must be thoroughly attainable (not the impossibility of being sin-free, but definitely that of being self-controlled).

We must be aware, though, that the term sanctification has taken on its own peculiar meaning by many in the church. It has come to be known as the process by which we become more holy as we are gradually able to rid our life of sin, thereby making ourselves more acceptable to God.

While on the surface this view certainly seems to have merit, it is nevertheless out of balance. Why? Because God has already accepted us! Still, doesn’t Scripture time and again instruct us to attempt to please God by walking out our faith in a manner worthy of Him? Yes it does; it’s the whole point of living a godly life.(Ephesians 4:1) But pleasing God with our life is something far different than trying to become acceptable to Him.

Excerpted from: Free from the Power of Sin: The Keys to Growing in God in Spite of Yourself

 

Holy Ones

Leave a reply

As God’s children, is holy something we are or something we must try to become? First and foremost, holy is what we are in Christ. On this point the testimony of Scripture is clear: “By this we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”(Hebrews 10:10,14) One source puts it this way: “Sanctification is thus the state predetermined by God for believers, into which in grace He calls them, and in which they begin their Christian course and so pursue it. Hence they are called saints.” By referring to believers as saints (holy ones) in his many letters, Paul isn’t addressing an elite class of Christians; he means all those who belong to Christ.(1Corinthians 1:2)

It’s also important to recognize that in Scripture holiness is often used right alongside the terms redemption, righteousness and justification. Sharing the same context not only means that these concepts are related, but that they coexist as a reality here and now in the believer’s life.(1 Corinthians 1:30)

Likewise, the term blameless is often used in conjunction with holy to unambiguously declare the believer’s unique position in Christ. Being blameless means being regarded as faultless or without blemish—essentially the same as being made righteous. Paul forcefully brings this idea home in Colossians 1:22: “yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach.”

Being justified (acquitted of sin) by God’s grace, we are now held blameless, and as a result set apart (made holy, sanctified) as His special possession. And this isn’t merely a hypothetical status or position—as it is often thought of. This is truly who we are in Christ!

Character the Goal

Leave a reply

Scripture makes it very clear that God is interested in something a whole lot deeper than the superficial change we tend to be most comfortable with. He wants to live His life in and through us, to bring us to a place of spiritual health and maturity where He can use our life to radically impact the world. And it’s impossible for Him to do this without first transforming our character through the renewing of our mind.

What does character have to do with it? Well, the definition of character largely answers that question. Character in the Greek means proof of genuineness, trustworthiness. It’s not surprising, then, to find it translated in at least one place as “proven character.”(Romans 5:3-4)

When the term character is used in Scripture, a great deal is revealed in regard to the condition of man’s heart. Character is that quality within which governs our response in any given instance or circumstance. It’s who we are at the deepest level of our being. In the end we always behave as our character dictates.

A weak character can’t help but succumb to temptation, sadly resulting in a never-ending cycle of bandaging up our sin, patch by cumbersome patch. But a character transformed through a life of godliness responds the very same way every time temptation surfaces: “Of course I won’t do that. That’s not who I am!” How would you rather live your life—on the verge of failure every time sin rears its ugly head, or benefiting from the much-needed help that godly moral fiber brings?

From Glory to Glory

Leave a reply

It can certainly be disheartening when we finally come to realize that our longed-for transformation doesn’t simply materialize overnight. When you stop to think about it, though, how could being transformed into God’s image be anything but a life-long process? This fact is clearly evident in mature and godly believers, in whose lives work still remains to be done.

Some use the term sanctification to describe this process (a much more accurate use of this word than thinking of it as earning our way toward becoming more righteous, and therefore more acceptable to God).

God has designed the process of transformation to take place in degrees over time. It’s what being changed from “glory to glory” means (2 Corinthians 3:17). And moving from one degree of change to the next makes it that much easier for transformation to progress the way God planned. That’s why we must guard against slipping back into sin when tempted. There’s not a person among us who is immune to falling into sin through the weakness of our flesh.

As we discussed earlier, sin stands at the head of a trail leading in the wrong direction. Once we’ve set ourselves on that badly chosen path, it takes some doing to get back to the place we were before heading there. Therefore, it’s always a good idea to stop and evaluate our progress, even though we may be convinced that we’re moving in the right direction.(2 Corinthians 10:13)  In so doing, we place ourselves in the advantageous position of taking every opportunity for God to continue His refining work.

Excerpted from: Free from the Power of Sin: The Keys to Growing in God in Spite of Yourself