For the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23A), but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus (Romans 6:23B).
Thomas Jefferson (one of the Founding Fathers) was a deist. Basically, he believe that God created the world, but let mankind run its own course. God created a world, wound it up like a watch, and sat back to see how things would work out. God was not intimately involved with man until they got to heaven. In this theology, there is no place for miracles to occur, because everything is subject to natural law. So upon Jefferson's death, his Bible was discovered to have been severely cut up...Jefferson had clipped out all portions of the Bible that involved miracles, because as a deist, he did not believe they could happen because God was not involved.
But how big is your Bible? Look at the verse above (Romans 6:23). So many people today focus on the "B" part (God loves us and has given us the gift of eternal life) and ignore the "A" part (that we are still sinners and deserve death). Much of the shift in the world today (that gets tagged with the term "postmodern") is that no absolute truth exists. What is right for you may not be what's right for someone else. How dare I say that you sin! A sin for me may not be a sin for you. This line of thinking cancels out any chance of hell existing and diminishes the reality of sin and the need for confession in our lives. Unfortunately this has creeped into many churches as well. In truth, we know that every conversion story in the Bible involves a time of realization of the ugliness of sin! That's what truly leads us to part "B" and the need for a Savior. Don't let that truth fall out of your Bible!!!
As I reflected on this, I wondered, "What would my Bible look like if I took sin out of it?" As hard as critics of Jefferson's version of Christianity have been, I think taking the sin out of the Bible would leave us with way less than taking out the miracles. Consider: If you remove sin from your Bible, you are only left with 4 chapters (Genesis 1 & 2, Revelation 20 & 21)...everything in between is either directly or indirectly connected with sin.
ALL SCRIPTURE is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16)
1 comment:
Mike - this is excellent! How true that we need to focus on our sinful state first and foremost. This is the only way we can have a right perspective on the gospel! The only thing we will ever deserve on our own is God's eternal wrath. How gracious and merciful He is!
Post a Comment