Tag Archives: Sin

Who Made You Judge?

If there is an aphorism derived from Scripture best known and oft quoted in our day, surely it is, “Judge not, lest ye be judged.”[2] Its use is typically meant to refute moral judgment on a particular sin, and its effect is typically the equivalent of “Mind your own business.” The source of the expression is our passage today, as well as Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in Matthew. And while I am all for encouraging quotes of Jesus in our culture, I’m not for taking Scripture out of context, for whatever reason. As we will see in our passage today, Jesus was no more dismissing sin than encouraging it, but he was confronting it, a sin that often hides comfortably in the church.

Dust to Dust

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven (3:1), Solomon says, all of which is upheld, directed, disposed, and governed by God’s “most wise and holy providence.”[2] This does not mean that the child of God knows or understands everything. Though God has “put eternity” into our hearts, we cannot “find out what God has done from the beginning to the end” (3:11). Such is our human limitation: how we see often lacks a providential perspective, and even what we see is jaded by “the remnants of sin abiding in every part” of our flesh.[3] We see, for example, injustice in the world and unrighteousness seems to run rampant, but does this imply that God is neither just nor righteous?

Conviction, Contrition, and Community

With three synonyms (“transgressions,” “iniquity,” and “sin”), David confesses the totality of his sin. He no longer hides what could never be hidden. Great is David’s sin but not greater than the forgiveness of the self-revealed One, who is “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (Ex. 34:6). David does not offer to work for a wage but to be given grace, knowing that his sin is before him (and everyone else who has ever read this psalm). His prayer is not that his sin be blotted out of human history, but that by God’s grace it would be forgiven. And so it was. Such is the merciful forgiveness of God.

Uncondemned

The list of problems facing humanity is myriad. Our very existence has been and continues to be perilous, as we seem bent on self-destruction. Yet, there is one root problem that is the cause of all other problems and common to everyone, the same for those who have gone before us and those who will follow: “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23).

Slaves of God

For, we are slaves of God, purchased and delivered, and the divine paradox is, as slaves of God, we are truly and eternally free! And this freedom is found only through faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As he said himself, “if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36). Freed from sin and freed to righteousness, freed from death and freed to life, as slaves of God we find that we have been freed to live as we were created, to glorify God and enjoy him forever.[6]

The Gift of Life

God’s gift in Christ is one of measureless magnitude: Adam is overcome by Christ, sin by righteousness, condemnation by justification, death by life, trespass by gift. And it is through the marvelous generosity of God’s grace that we realize the inexpressible glory of God’s purpose in us. Christian, every day in Christ is a gift of life. What the Christian must guard against is resurrecting Adam and calling him Christ, trying to live the Christian life in spite of rather than in light of the gospel. When tempted to sin, look not to the reign of death but the life of Christ, who enables us to live the victorious Christian life by his Spirit. When tempted to despair, look not to the poverty of sin but to the abundant grace of God, who encourages us in his hope by his Spirit.

Let God Be True

We need it for salvation. We need it for forgiveness. We need it to live out this faith we have been given. We need it every day. Our flesh will point us back to law, remind us our failures, relish in our disobedience, shackle us to our efforts. The gospel of God’s grace points us to Christ, reminds us of his sufferings, shows us his perfect obedience, and empowers us to live for him. Our flesh may lie that we are condemned by the law, but the gospel truth is: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1).