Mon, Oct 20, 2008
Rom 7-8:3 Seperating the Problem from the Person
We don’t take it seriously…Sin that is. We know what God thinks of sin but we say ‘hey it’s OK, what I’m doing right now is not so bad.’ God wants to change that view, turn us around, and forgive us all in one process.
Paul says ‘You want to see how bad Sin is - take a look at what it does with a perfectly good commandment ' In Paul's experience Sin gets hold of it (Ok a bit of personification happening here) and rides it into a real bad place. Telling me I should not covet says Paul, I find myself going around checking out everyone’s new carpet and thinking ‘Wow I want carpet like that..’. Until that commandment came along I couldn’t care less about carpet. Now new carpet is jumping out at me everywhere! (OK lame example).
When Sin can get hold of something good and use it as leverage for something bad you can see that it is indeed “utterly sinful”v13NIV.
That is not half the problem however because now law jumps up and points its finger in your face and says ‘There is the problem!’. You stand personally condemned every time you drag that unwilling little goat for a sin offering through the desert camp of Israel with everyone sniggering in their tents ‘There goes Harry up to the tabernacle again what has he done this time?’
Paul found further frustration as he experienced this as a war going on inside where the good expectations he had of himself were dashed by something else deeply ingrained which said ‘forget it Paul just go off and do the wrong thing again’. That something, says Paul, is the sin conditioning of my mind or “sin that dwells in me” v20KJV. It is there by the influence of my world’s sinning environment that eats at me, the natural predisposition of my nature and also the tram tracks that run so deep in my mind from giving in to it all the time.
God introduces a masterstroke of grace however just as Paul throws the towel in declaring his own wretchedness v24. He separates the Sin from the Sinner, the problem from the person v20. By using the imagery of a courtroom scene in ch 8 Paul shows that the judge now aquits you from personal condemnation 8v1 and points the finger rather at the other ugly guys standing beside you in the dock. They are your behaviour and the sin conditioning of your mind 8v3.
God is more than happy to forgive us but as a sensible parent he wants our acknowledgement of just how ugly and ingrained sin is and how right his way of doing things is. It took the shocking death of his Son at the hands of people quoting the bible to wake us up to this.
God’s little masterstroke actually works. Try it on your kids. Censor their actions, not them personally and they are given the morale boost to get up and try to do the right thing again and again. And why does God forgive anyway? I would say for encouragement. Law could never give that sort of spiritual energy.
Paul says ‘You want to see how bad Sin is - take a look at what it does with a perfectly good commandment ' In Paul's experience Sin gets hold of it (Ok a bit of personification happening here) and rides it into a real bad place. Telling me I should not covet says Paul, I find myself going around checking out everyone’s new carpet and thinking ‘Wow I want carpet like that..’. Until that commandment came along I couldn’t care less about carpet. Now new carpet is jumping out at me everywhere! (OK lame example).
When Sin can get hold of something good and use it as leverage for something bad you can see that it is indeed “utterly sinful”v13NIV.
That is not half the problem however because now law jumps up and points its finger in your face and says ‘There is the problem!’. You stand personally condemned every time you drag that unwilling little goat for a sin offering through the desert camp of Israel with everyone sniggering in their tents ‘There goes Harry up to the tabernacle again what has he done this time?’
Paul found further frustration as he experienced this as a war going on inside where the good expectations he had of himself were dashed by something else deeply ingrained which said ‘forget it Paul just go off and do the wrong thing again’. That something, says Paul, is the sin conditioning of my mind or “sin that dwells in me” v20KJV. It is there by the influence of my world’s sinning environment that eats at me, the natural predisposition of my nature and also the tram tracks that run so deep in my mind from giving in to it all the time.
God introduces a masterstroke of grace however just as Paul throws the towel in declaring his own wretchedness v24. He separates the Sin from the Sinner, the problem from the person v20. By using the imagery of a courtroom scene in ch 8 Paul shows that the judge now aquits you from personal condemnation 8v1 and points the finger rather at the other ugly guys standing beside you in the dock. They are your behaviour and the sin conditioning of your mind 8v3.
God is more than happy to forgive us but as a sensible parent he wants our acknowledgement of just how ugly and ingrained sin is and how right his way of doing things is. It took the shocking death of his Son at the hands of people quoting the bible to wake us up to this.
God’s little masterstroke actually works. Try it on your kids. Censor their actions, not them personally and they are given the morale boost to get up and try to do the right thing again and again. And why does God forgive anyway? I would say for encouragement. Law could never give that sort of spiritual energy.
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