Today’s post is a follow-up to last week’s post describing sin as the process of drifting away from our relationship with God……..rather than the act of breaking a rule. This week, I want to develop that a bit further.

If we view sin as the breaking of rules, then we succeed by keeping track of all of the rules and honoring them. History tells us that this is not possible in practice. But, at least it is straightforward. Diligently follow all 635 of the rules…….you become a “good person”………you spend eternity in paradise………where you will, presumably, continue obeying the rules. But, where is God in this process? He is, no doubt, buried in the rules……”Love God”. But this approach is flawed. This approach to Christianity puts our focus on an intermediate step…….the rules. In a way, we wind up worshiping an enormous list of rules. Even if we could pull it off…….diligently honor 635 rules all day, every day for 80 or 90 years……..we would be missing the point of our faith. Even worse, we would be missing out on the power, not to mention the joy, of Christianity. Carried to its extreme, it is entirely possible to flawlessly follow the rules and to never know and experience God. This is tragic……..but it happens. The Bible is full of examples of people who did just that. Picture Caiaphus.The history of the Christian church is full of people who did bad things…….all while following the rules. Caiaphus carefully followed the rules. All the while, he viciously attacked God. In our modern church, it is not hard to find a committed Christian who follows the commandments but who mistreats members of the LGBT++ community……..or followers of other faiths. Consider the oxymoron of the antisemitic Christian.

But

The rules are not the heart of Christianity.

The heart of Christianity is God. And love is the heart of God. The rules are an intermediate step in our journey to God.

Focus on the rules………and you will completely miss the entire point of Christianity. You will miss out on the joy of relationship.

To put it bluntly, sin is distance from God. Sin is distance from love. The greatest tragedy in a human life is the Christian who religiously adheres to the rules listed in the Bible……..and in the process, allows his relationship to God’s love wither. This “good person” may very well be the greatest sinner of all.

So…….how do you know if you are the “good person” who obeys the rules without knowing God? How do you know if you are one of the “righteous” sinners?

The acid test is joy.

Joy grows out of love……..love grows out of relationship with God.

You will know it when you see it on the face of someone who is nurturing their relationship with God.

Even more importantly……..you may be the one…….whose joy demonstrates God’s love to others.

“If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”

Jesus, John 14:23, ESV

I was once on a golf course that a US president had played on a few days earlier. He made headlines by shooting under 70. The trouble is that he took 3 shots off of the first tee and didn’t count them. I have the use of a house in AZ. It is on a cliff overlooking a golf course. Below me there is a green, protected by a sand trap. I have watched golfers deal with that sand trap for several years. I have never yet seen a golfer take a legal shot to get out of the sand trap.

These are not bad people. And yet, they each turned in a score card that was many strokes less than what they actually shot. I doubt that any of us would call their behavior sin. We tend to view sin as an act…….an act that breaks a rule. Christianity is a faith that is based primarily on two rules…..love God…..love everybody else. The ten commandments expand on these two rules. Beyond that there are hundreds of rules on the old testament that deal primarily with diet and the system of sacrifice.

But……..the core of Christianity is love.

Back to sin.

We think of sin as the breaking of a rule. We then go a step further. We rank our sins by their severity. There are big horrible sins and there are little tiny sins. We ask for forgiveness for the big sins and we generally deal with the tiny sins by justifying them. We are masters at the art of justification. We tell ourselves that people who commit little justifiable sins are basically “good people” and people who commit big sins are “bad people”. The problem is that we manage to justify our sin. The problem is that we convince ourselves that we are “good people”.

This is wrong……..it is wrong from the ground up.

Sin is not the act of breaking a rule.

Sin is the process of separating ourselves from our creator. Our very lives flow from our creator. Separation from God leads to death…….both spiritual and physical. The metaphor that the Bible uses is a plant. Cut a plant off from its roots and it will die.

The logic here tells us that there is no such thing as a tiny justifiable sin. There is no such thing as a good person. We have all separated ourselves from God. Even worse…….we continue to do so……every day.

Sin is the process of making choices that increase the distance between us and God. This is a cumulative process. Each act of separation builds on other acts……..until we are lost.

The irony here is that the guy who commits the big evil is usually fully aware of his situation. The guy who commits the tiny justifiable wrong is usually oblivious. The guy who only commits little tiny wrongs tells himself, ” I’m a good person …….at least I’m not like the really evil guy”. The problem is that the guy who commits the tiny justifiable wrong can be just as desperately separated from God as the guy who commits the great evil. The problem here is that they can both wind up just as dead.

We need to rethink our understanding of sin.

Sin is not breaking a rule. That is merely a symptom.

Sin is allowing the separation from God to develop.

And we are all guilty………some of us just don’t know it…….yet.

You will say that these are very small sins; and doubtless, like all young tempters, you are anxious to be able to report spectacular wickedness. But do remember, the only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the Enemy (God). It does not matter how small the sins are, provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards will do the trick.

Indeed, the safest road to hell is the gradual one — the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.

C.S. Lewis

Love God.

He is the sovereign creator, worship no other
Do not worship your creation…….idols
Do not abuse his name…..Revere his holiness

Love everyone else

Don’t lie

Don’t steal

Don’t murder

Sex is for husbands and wives

Honor your parents

Don’t covet

Rest on Sunday

These commands are not negotiable. They were either spoken by Jesus or written by the hand of God. These commands are the foundation of Christianity. And yet, a surprising percentage of Christians cannot recite them.

I have heard them described as “narrow minded”…….outdated.

The sad reality is that it is a rare day when we don’t violate one or more of them. Often, this is because we don’t give them any thought. Often, this is because we just don’t like them. But, the main reason that we violate these cardinal commands of God is that we believe that we have a better idea…….a better plan on how we should run our life……..a better idea on how the world should run. Sadly, we often violate these commands…….because we don’t know them.

And so we go through our day.

We say things that are not true.
We kill each other……either directly…….or we send an army to do it.
We abort our children.
We ignore the poverty around us.
We redefine our sex……by fiat….either by our behavior or by surgery.
We vote for politicians who do these things…….and worse.

And just how is that working out for us?

The world and our society are failing. We talk about sustainability while we destroy our society and the ecosystem that we should be caring for.

By any rational measure, we are not managing the planet well.

Now, imagine a world where we all obeyed the bedrock commands of our sovereign creator. This is a purely hypothetical exercise. Because the other guy is not going to go along.

I have always told my sons. “When trying to solve a problem…….focus on the part of the problem that you can control”.
And you cannot control what the other guy does.

What to do?

Review the commands of God.
Memorize them.
Recite them…….every day…….every hour if you need to.
Weigh what you say, think, and do against them.
And wade into a world that ignores them.

You will make a tiny change……figuratively…….a drop in the ocean.

That drop is tiny…….but it is all that you can do. More importantly…….it is all that you will be held accountable for.

Now, back to the world that I asked you to imagine…….the world where these commands are followed……by everyone. Such a world exists. In fact, that world has been promised to you.

If you want it, start with the first command.

He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?

Micah 6:8, ESV

I had a nightmare.

My three sons were taken away. They were in a large factory where they were being processed along a ragged assembly line. I could tell from the talk that they were being packaged up to be sold as human slaves. I charged down the line, trying to find them……to rescue them. I found my oldest son, the first of my sons to be saved. I continued to look for my other two sons. Then I woke up. I never found the other two.

My first waking thought was to pray, “God! strike down the evil people causing human slavery!” And I did. I prayed a hard, fervent, angry prayer.

My second thought was, “Why hasn’t God done this already?” This goes to the heart of a question that has haunted Christianity from the start:

“Why does a loving God allow suffering?”

When faced with suffering, my first response has always been to trust God: “I have to believe that God knows what he is doing”.

But, this morning, that just didn’t seem to be enough. The suffering in my nightmare was so huge…….so immediate. So I dug a little deeper.

Consider the human condition.

Suffering exists. But, it is confined to our temporal world. All suffering is temporary…….by definition. Relationship with God, on the other hand, is a function of the spiritual world. It is, by definition, eternal.

God either creates suffering……..or at the very least……..he allows it to go on. In Job, God gives Satan explicit permission to make Job suffer. Even worse, this is repeated……..which means that it is important. I have to conclude that eradicating human suffering is not God’s highest priority. Eradicating my own suffering may be my highest priority, followed by eradicating the suffering of others. But, I am not God. The fact that God allows suffering: Ukraine, Gaza, Iran, disease, crime, and much more…….tells me that God has other priorities. Human suffering may not even be one of the top ten problems on God’s “to-do” list.

Which leads me to the question: “What does God want more than anything else?”

Relationship

God wants an ongoing, daily, two way conversation. What God wants is to hear from me…….and you.

I think that it is quite possible that when a child suffering the pain of human slavery prays to God fervently…….daily……God may see that as a win. God could very well be more pleased by the relationship than he is saddened by the suffering.

We see suffering as a problem because we don’t like it………because our human priority is to make it go away.

But, God has different priorities. God’s biggest problem is not our suffering. God’s biggest problem is our relationship with him. The problem of relationship is what he is focused on. He has used…..and he will continue to use suffering to create relationship and to salvage relationship. If you don’t believe me……..just look at the cross.

The next step in my analysis is troubling.

Suppose I am driving my car and some jerk cuts me off and gives me a “one finger salute”. I respond with a blast of obscenity. In the process, I fail in my obedience to the command “love others” …..and several other commands as well. I have damaged my relationship with God. God may very well see my road rage and the damage to our relationship that it has caused as a bigger problem than the suffering of the human slave who is praying to him right now.

And there is another disturbing side of our suffering. I think you can make a strong case……..that taken as a whole, mankind spends more effort on our relationship with God when we are suffering than when we are not suffering.

Sad…….but true.

So……

The key to dealing with the problem of suffering is to focus on God’s priority……..that is…..relationship. When we focus on the suffering instead of relationship, it is because we put our priorities ahead of God’s priority.

In short:

Focus more energy on increasing your eternal relationship with God.

Focus less energy on worrying about temporary suffering.

But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

Jesus clarifying the priority of God vs. the priorities of mankind, Matthew 16:23, ESV

Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Jesus putting Peter in charge of Christianity, Matthew 16: 16-18. ESV

From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

Jesus defining secular humanism for Peter, Matthew 16: 21-23, ESV

This has always been one of the most shocking exchanges in the Bible. Think about it. Jesus puts Peter in charge of his church and 3 verses later calls him Satan!

Jesus is setting up a juxtaposition. It is the same conflict that humankind struggles with today.

On the one hand is the spiritual world revealed to man by God.

On the other hand is the secular world driven by the logic and appetites of mankind.

This conflict has several features:

These two worlds views are mutually exclusive. They cannot both be true. One of them is wrong.

Using physical facts…….using human logic……..we cannot absolutely prove or, for that matter, disprove either of them.

And yet, ultimately, every last one of us must sort this out.

Ultimately, every last one of us must choose between these two worlds views:

A world, both physical and spiritual, created by and ruled by God.

A physical world that just happened and is run by mankind.

One of these explanations is based on revelation…….given by the creator.

One of these explanations is based on things that mankind has figured out.

In each case, there are parts of the explanation that can be supported by hard historical fact.

In each case, there are parts of the explanation that cannot be proven.

And so we fill in the gaps. The Christian fills the gaps with revelations of the spiritual realm given by our creator…..God. The secular humanist fills the gaps with theories and assumptions given to us primarily by science………and this is built on human logic and observation, which is limited to the physical realm. These theories and assumptions have never been proven. These theories and assumptions are not facts…….not yet……possibly never.

And so we are left hanging.

The most important decision in the world…….in our lifetime.

And it hinges on how we weigh two imponderables:

The revelation of the spiritual world given by our creator

Or

The explanation of the physical world based on unproven……likely unprovable……theories and assumptions.

Ultimately, this decision comes down to trust.

You can trust the creator…….or you can trust the theories and assumptions…….given to you by the scientists………the same people who told Columbus that the world was flat…….the same people who told Copernicus that the earth was the center of the universe.

The clock is running.

Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Jesus putting Peter in charge of Christianity, Matthew 16: 16-18. ESV

From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

Jesus defining secular humanism for Peter, Matthew 16: 21-23, ESV

This has always been one of the most shocking exchanges in the Bible. Think about it. Jesus puts Peter in charge of his church and 3 verses later calls him Satan!

Jesus is setting up a juxtaposition. It is the same conflict that humankind struggles with today.

On the one hand is the spiritual world revealed to man by God.

On the other hand is the secular world driven by the logic and appetites of mankind.

This conflict has several features:

These two worlds views are mutually exclusive. They cannot both be true. One of them is wrong.

Using physical facts…….using human logic……..we cannot absolutely prove or, for that matter, disprove either of them.

And yet, ultimately, every last one of us must sort this out.

Ultimately, every last one of us must choose between these two worlds views:

A world, both physical and spiritual, created by and ruled by God.

Or

A physical world that just happened and is run by mankind.

One of these explanations is based on revelation…….given by the creator.

One of these explanations is based on things that mankind has figured out.

In each case, there are parts of the explanation that can be supported by hard historical fact.

In each case, there are parts of the explanation that cannot be proven.

And so we fill in the gaps. The Christian fills the gaps with revelations of the spiritual realm given by our creator…..God. The secular humanist fills the gaps with theories and assumptions given to us primarily by science………and this is built on human logic and observation, which is limited to the physical realm. These theories and assumptions have never been proven. These theories and assumptions are not facts…….not yet……possibly never.

And so we are left hanging.

The most important decision in the world…….in our lifetime.

And it hinges on how we weigh two imponderables:

The revelation of the spiritual world given by our creator

Or

The explanation of the physical world based on unproven……likely unprovable……theories and assumptions.

Ultimately, this decision comes down to trust.

You can trust the creator…….or you can trust the theories and assumptions…….given to you by the scientists………the same people who told Columbus that the world was flat…….the same people who told Copernicus that the earth was the center of the universe.

The clock is running.