Romans 7: 18 NKJV
A conversation with a friend this week turned once again to that which many of us will not to do. That is...sin. I say that it is something that many Christians try hard not to engage in, but many times we fail. Sin can be seen as a barrier and as a struggle. For many who do not share a relationship with Jesus, sin may be seen as a barrier between themselves and God. While I have found it hard to find a scripture to specifically tell us that God cannot be in the presence of sin, we know that God is holy {1 Peter 1:16}. We can agree that the poster boy for sin is Satan himself. If, as we've been taught, that sin cannot be in Gods presence, how is it that Satan came before God in the book of Job? We know that by this time, that Satan's fall was complete. Of course, with all this talk about sin, we might need to clarify just what sin is in the Lords eyes. So, what is sin? Well, Adam and Eve were said to have committed the first incidence of sin in our history in the Garden of Eden. So, what happened at the fall? What was the lie which Satan instilled upon Eve in his deception? We can find this in Satan's response to Eve. We're told that Satan convinced Eve that when she ate of that which the Lord had commanded her not to, that "Your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil"{Genesis 3:5}. Of course, Eve could hardly know that this was a lie, because all that she and Adam knew was union with God. They knew nothing else. The fact is, Adam and Eve were already like God as His Devine creation. It was Adam whom God formed from the dust of the ground {Genesis 2:7}. As a result of the lie of Satan, Adam and Eve began to see themselves as being apart from God. Knowing this, the argument can be made that sin is nothing more than our mistaken belief that we ourselves are separated from God. As I mention this I jump on a slippery slope, because I am well aware that a part of the teaching of the institutional church is that we are somehow separated from God. God is in heaven, and we are here on earth. Far from being in union with Him, the best that we can ever hope for is to "be like" God. So, is the church teaching the sin lie? You're the best judge of that. The apostle Paul makes a interesting point in Romans. He claims that, "I would not have known sin except through the law"{Romans 7:7}. Indeed, without a list of laws of things for us not to do, there can be no bad behavior.
For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
Romans 7: 19 - 20 NKJV
We've all been there, struggling with ourselves over the behaviors which we know to be wrong yet we're enticed to do them. Many people call this sin, but knowing what I know of our original sin, I'm not sure I can get on board with that. If sin is merely our mistaken belief that we are separate from God, how then can our own bad behaviors be seen as sin? Paul struggled with this issue of sin as well. He grappled with his knowing what he knew was good, yet being enticed to go against that {Romans 7:19}. It is my belief that, like Paul, we all have that inner knowing of what is good. Some correctly have referred to this as our conscience. It is simply Gods commandments being written on our hearts, so that we know what is good and what is evil (Remember, Satan used this to entice Eve). Knowing this, I believe that those bad behaviors we show a times are not sin at all. What is it? Well, I believe that these wrong behaviors are simply forgetting who it is who we really are. Sin does not define us. What defines us is our union with God and Christ Jesus who lives within us {Galatians 2:20}. We are not in sin, but in Christ. If we believe that we are in union with Him, then we are rejecting the lie of sin. Paul assures us that sin is not our true identity, but of our flesh {Romans 7: 25}.
O wretched man that I am! Who will deliever me from this body of death? I thank God - through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
Romans 7: 24 - 25 NKJV
~Scott~
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