FUNDAMENTALS OF DISCIPLESHIP
THE NATURE OF SIN - I
Proverb 16:6 By
mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of IAUE men depart from
evil.
Last week’s post ended with this comment:
Know this, that nothing on the broad path has value to the
King,
because all of it is under the sentence of IAUE’s
condemnation.
By this we may understand which path we are
travelling. If we are carrying the
baggage of the old man with the option to satisfy our own will whenever it
appeals to us, we may know that we are proceeding recklessly down the broad
path that leads unto death; because the old man cannot fit on the narrow path
that leads unto life. I know this
concept violates the doctrinal positions of many; but we must make a decision. Are we going to live our lives according to
what the masses believe; or according to what the Holy Spirit reveals to us? Are
we going to be men pleasers or pleasers of IAUE?
I occasionally check out the programming on various
religious broadcasting networks on television just to see what ministers are
saying these days. This past week, I
came upon an interview that a well-known minister and his wife were having with
a young lady. The lady was sharing that
she “wrestled with God for three years” before succumbing to do what He had
been leading her to do. All three of
them chuckled over the comment. I looked
at my wife and said, “They just laughed about her willful, persistent and
repeated disobedience to IAUE.” The idea
of wrestling with IAUE is common within Christendom and comes with what could
almost be described as a commendation for enduring the dealings of IAUE long enough
to become obedient to His will. From
IAUE’s perspective, I would dare say He did not find it commendable; and her
ultimate “yielding” to do what He had been asking her to do very likely was not
borne of repentance, but rather an act motivated by the flesh.
Sin
is no longer significant in the mind of the church, today. The false gospel that has
produced the contemporary church resolves all issues of sin with a single “magic”
prayer: “Jesus, please forgive me of my sins and come into
my heart. I accept you as my personal
Lord and Savior. Thank you. Amen.”
In the mind of most, this means that
Messiah forgave them of the things for which they feel guilty having committed
(which makes sin an issue of their own making, and does not have a view toward
IAUE’s perspective of sin). This is why most believers continue to live their
lives according to their own selfish will, never giving any serious
consideration to the will of IAUE. The
only sins of consequence to them are the ones that make them feel guilty; and
that is usually because they violate some social norm or standard, or relates
to some addictive behavior; all of which are measured by human standards and
not by IAUE’s standard.
Obedience to the will of IAUE is not a part of the
mindset of the average believer sitting in church on Sunday morning. I find this to be a most peculiar condition
since they ALL believe that Messiah came to die for their sins. As we stated in a recent post:
Sin, by definition, is disobedience
to the will of IAUE.
Sin is whatever is not in conformity with what IAUE
wants. IAUE’s will is the universal
standard and expectation of all life. It
is the universal constant. Any and all 1)
disagreement with, 2) consideration of alternatives to, and 3) violations of
His will is a wrongful act.
If IAUE
sent His son to die for our sins to pay the price of our disobedience to His
will; why then are we not a people committed to doing His will, now? Isn’t that the most sensible and logical
response to His forgiveness? Does it not
stand to reason that if Messiah came to deal with our disobedience to IAUE’s
will; and the consequences of that disobedience, that we would stop being
disobedient to His will, now?
Romans 6:1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may
abound?
2 IAUE forbid!
How shall we who are dead to sin live any longer therein?
Relinquishing our
lives to take up the life of the Master was an essential ingredient of the
gospel. We have been bought with a
price; therefore, we are no longer our own, we belong to another. How can we who have died to the person we
were before we bowed the knee to the Master Messiah Yahushua, get up off that
knee and carry our old man into this new life?
The answer is simple. Most of us
didn’t die. That is the most significant
symptom of the product of a false gospel.
The true gospel is stated in one simple
sentence: “Repent, for the Kingdom of
IAUE is at hand.” Nowhere in the book of
Acts, when we see the gospel presented to the lost, do we find anyone being
asked to accept Yahushua as a personal lord and savior. Nowhere do we see anyone being asked to
implore Yahushua to forgive them of their sins.
This contemporary message does not have the power to bury the old man
and to raise up a new man to walk in the power of a new life. Its focus is not on the holiness of IAUE, but
rather the guilty conscience of man.
Repentance focuses on who you are, what you are, and
how you have been; and demands that you turn from all of it, to leave it all
behind; and with your life serve another.
The early convert had a clear understanding that when he entered the
waters of baptism, he was burying that old man; and that what came out of the
waters of baptism was no longer to be lived in accordance with his own will;
but rather, was to be lived in obedience to the will of IAUE. Forgiveness focuses on a release of guilt and
has no direct impact on who or what you are, or how you have been. It just releases you from the debt incurred
by who you are, what you are, and how you have been. Forgiveness makes no demand for you to change. Repentance does.
You can see from these two perspectives why
believers today have such little appreciation for the seriousness of their
disobedience. Focusing on forgiveness
fails to see their disobediences as the abominations they are in the sight of
IAUE. After all, they did cost Yahushua
his life.
Hebrews 12:4 Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.
I
opened my blog with this verse from Hebrews 12, for several weeks without ever
commenting on it…letting its message quietly sink into the readers’ heart. This verse demonstrates the seriousness of
sin, of disobeying IAUE’s will; that we should resist it with such resolve that
we would refuse to disobey our Father even should it require the spilling of
our own blood. Such is the heart of the
disciple regarding disobeying IAUE. It just isn’t done; and nothing can make us
compromise on that point.
Proverb 16:6 By
mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of IAUE men depart from
evil.
Those
who have been reading this blog from the beginning recognize that one of the
first subjects we discussed was the Fear of IAUE. The Scriptures are clear on this point that
the Fear of IAUE is the beginning of knowledge; it is the beginning of wisdom;
and it is the means by which men depart from evil---by which they stop sinning. It is also virtually extinct from modern
Christendom; and this is due to the false contemporary gospel message. If we understood the Fear of IAUE, we would
have little difficulty appreciating the nature of sin; and we would be clear
that there are consequences to our every act of disobedience to IAUE.
Perhaps
we simply need a fundamental exchange of terms.
If we stopped referring to “sin” and just called it what it is, “disobedience,”
we would see ourselves in a new light.
We would see ourselves as rebellious brats still opting to do what we
want instead of doing what the Creator wants.
The only wake-up call that can fix this problem is the pure message of
the true gospel: REPENT.
Kingdom heart: a heart that offers no resistance to the performance
of the will of IAUE.
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