----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, October 06, 2005 5:11 PM
Subject: RE: [TruthTalk] God is a relational God: Father, Son,
Spirit
We can all
certainly agree on that regarding you, Lance, Gary, etc.
iz
When we think to know something, we do not
yet know it as we ought. JD
I thought I would use this exchange between Izzy
and John as a catalyst for a short discourse on sin and the question of
whether we must do it every day, or even ever at all. Without wanting
too sound judgmental, to me, Izzy's response to John looks like sin. It looks like she took something
John said, stripped it of its context, and deliberately used it to insult
him and Lance and Gary, and anyone else who may agree with them in difference
to the things that she holds to be true. I say it "looks" like sin because I
do not know for sure her motive. If she did not intend to insult them,
but rather meant to communicate something else, her motivation being godly and
true, then it wouldn't necessarily have to be sin.
But for the sake of argument, let's say that the
intent was to insult John et al, or in some other way to malign
or marginalize them over against the "all" of the rest of us
:>) The question is, Did she have to do it? The answer, I
believe, is no. No, she did not have to do it. She could have chosen not to.
Moreover, and more to the point, I think this is the choice that we all can
make every time we are confronted with a conscious opportunity to sin: we do
not have to do it. By the power of Christ, we can choose not to. Christ
has defeated the powers of darkness; we are in Christ; therefore, we can
choose to participate in his victory, rather than in sin. This
is especially true for those of us who are also indwelt with his Spirit.
As believers, we more than all others do not ever have to sin, not when
that sin involves a conscious and deliberate decision on our part to commit
it; indeed, God will always provide us a way out -- if we will but
choose to take it.
And so, so much for my views on conscious
and deliberate sin . . .
What about those sins in our make-up the presence
of which we are unaware, pride being the most obvious -- to others -- but also
such things as arrogance and stubbornness, along with other
conditions: Must we traffic in them? These sins, it seems to me, are
different. It's not that we have to commit them; nor would we even
want to, given the choice. The problem is, plain- and simply, in these areas
we are ignorant of what we are. Who among us wants to be prideful or arrogant
or stiff-necked? I don't think any of us want to be these things. Ah, but how
many of us are prideful, arrogant, and stiff-necked -- if not all the time,
then at least sometimes? If there are any, and if it is not intentional, then
it is because in these areas we are a work in progress. While perfectly
in Christ, we are yet practically imperfect.
It is in these areas that I believe we do
participate inadequately and incompletely, which is what Lance is saying
-- and we will continue to until that day when there is no longer a trace of
pride or arrogance or stubbornness or prejudice or any of a host of other
character deficiencies to be found within us. We are complete and adequate in
our present state only because we are hid in Christ in his
righteousness. There as Priest, he takes our inadequacies and our
insufficiencies, sanctifies them and presents them holy to his Father on our
behalf.
I hope this is enough said well enough to satisfy
your questions, David. I still owe g a few words on
my observations concerning present day Israel. I'm having guilt. Well
good night. I'm off to bed.
Bill
