muses

Ever since the fall, God has been active to reverse the effects of sin. He takes action to limit sin’s damage; he calls out a new nation, the Israelites, to mediate his teaching and his grace to others; he promises that one day he will send the promised Davidic king to overthrow sin and death and all their wretched effects. This is what Jesus does: he conquers death, inaugurates the kingdom of righteousness, and calls his followers to live out that righteousness now in prospect of the consummation still to come.

Is there anything wrong with this description of sin? According to D.A. Carson, plenty: It collapses human rebellion, God’s wrath, and assorted disasters into one construct, namely, the degradation of human life, while depersonalizing the wrath of God. It thus fails to wrestle with the fact that from the beginning, sin is an offense against God.

Yes, God takes sin personally. It is an active rebellion against Him. And sin occurs in the church as well because the church is filled with sinners, like me. Problem is, sometimes we try to hide the fact that it’s there.

Sin lives in a costume; that’s why it’s so hard to recognize. The fact that sin looks so good is one of the things that make it so bad. In order for it to do its evil work, it must present itself as something that is anything but evil. Life in a fallen world is like attending the ultimate masquerade party. Impatient yelling wears the costume of a zeal for truth. Lust can masquerade as a love for beauty. Gossip does its evil work by living in the costume of concern and prayer. Craving for power and control wears the mask of biblical leadership. Fear of man gets dressed up as a servant heart. The pride of always being right masquerades as a love for biblical wisdom. Evil simply doesn’t present itself as evil, which is part of its draw. You’ll never understand sin’s sleight of hand until you acknowledge that the DNA of sin is deception. Now, what this means personally is that as sinners we are all very committed and gifted self-swindlers… We’re all too skilled at looking at our own wrong and seeing good.

- Paul David Tripp, Whiter Than Snow: Meditations on Sin and Mercy

Let’s not pretend or think that sin is not in the church because that’s the deceptiveness of sin itself. That’s why we battle to fight it every day. Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick” (Matt 9:12). I am always sick with sin, so I always need to see the Doctor. Every day I need my dosage of forgiveness from God.

During last sat’s Adult Fellowship, we looked at verses on heaven and hell, judgment, punishment and reward - topics which we don’t really discuss, and perhaps prefer not to think of most of the time. But it’s difficult not to bring up these sobering verses when we are looking at bringing the good news of Jesus Christ to others.

During the session, we also viewed a clip where people shared of their near death experiences and terrifying accounts of visions of hell. Then there were interviews of people in the street, some of which believed in heaven but not hell, or either. Some didn’t believe that there’s something after death, while others just think that heaven is just a state of mind. Even though the clip was from the US, I’m not surprised if these are the prevailing opinions of people in Singapore as well. But these are made even more frightening when the accounts of hell are juxtaposed with people’s apathy in judgment and the destiny of their souls. Yet, what can we expect from a society that thinks morality is arbitary and truth is relative?

This reminds me of something from DA Carson’s message on the temptation of Adam and Eve:

“‘You will not surely die’, the serpent said to the woman”, which is of course the first recorded contradiction of something God said. And the first thing to be denied is the doctrine of judgment. Once we eliminate judgment, once we eliminate sanctions, it is easier to challenge God’s authority across the board ’cause there are no nasty entailments.

That was the first lie that man believed in: that there is no judgment. No wonder till now, we humans have still succumbed to the same deception of the evil one, that there is no one to account to, and there will be no consequences to our choices and actions. Yet it’s no longer about personal opinions or preferences, for God’s word is our reference.

To tell the truth, I haven’t heard D.A. Carson speak before today. But given the laud from John Piper and other preachers, I had a good feeling that he’s a speaker with solid, Biblical messages. He has a series of messages on temptation (of Adam and Eve, Joseph, Hezekiah, Jesus, and lastly, our temptation). If you don’t know what to do during your long journeys, why not listen to these?