Why should we avoid sin

Should we avoid wrongdoing? Yes, and no. No!?

As God's child, we are not to avoid harmful behavior (sin) because of guilt, shame, threat of judgment, or fear of punishment. Why? Because Christ ¹already addressed these fully and perfectly!

Also, note, that in those situations, the focus of guilt and shame is usually not about others but ourselves, i.e. my guilt and my shame, etc. It isn't on how I am hurting others, but on how guilt and shame affect me.

Then why should we avoid wrongdoing?

Because it's incredibly harmful and destructive to others, not just ourselves. (This is primarily about others, not just us - God first and loving our neighbor as we love ourselves). 

Harmful (wrong) behavior cuts us off from the source of our spiritual and emotional development, violates our design, and prevents us from reaching our greatest potential, thereby dishonoring our Creator and Designer, others, as well as ourselves.

It would be equivalent to a child growing up severely malnourished, resulting in them wearing leg braces or needing a special needs education when genetically he or she had the initial capacity of being an Olympian or great inventor.

Wrong, harmful behavior (sin) no longer matters when it comes to our good standing - legal status - before God or his perfect and total acceptance of us but it matters dramatically when it comes to our being all we were created to be for God and our neighbor.

And because it no longer affects our good standing (legal status) before God, this frees us to focus on being all God designed us to be out of love for and trust in Him. Understanding this is absolutely essential to living for God as He intends us to - out of love and trust, not guilt and shame.

God's total acceptance, love and embrace of us - because of Christ's efforts - is the spiritual and emotional nourishment we need and must have to thrive, flourish, and be all God designed us to be.

This is the essence of Paul's words in Rome 8:1-4:

"There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death (i.e. guilt, shame, and condemnation). For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit."

To the woman caught in adultery...

Jesus stood up and said, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.” - Jn 8:10‭-‬11

Though Christ clearly forgave her, it was also clear that he wanted her to abandon a life of destructive behavior (to others as well as herself); not to make her more acceptable to God but because he had already fully accepted (forgiven) her and desired her best, i.e. he loved her.

We are to avoid wrong behavior because we love Him who loved us first.

For a further discussion of the full extent of our forgiveness and God's love, click here.

For a discussion on the righteousness of Christ assigned to us, click here

For a discussion on guilt feelings versus actual guilt, click here

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¹To live in guilt and shame for our wrong doing and bad choices is saying Christ's work on our behalf did not adequately address these. This is an insult to Christ's work for us which dishonors him.

Tension in prayer.

Most prayers have a good part and a misguided (foolish) part. At it's core the good part is wanting and asking God to give me what I need to be the best person He wants me to be - and can be - for Him. 

The foolish part is thinking I know what accomplishes this better than God and therefore asking of Him things that are not truly best for me, Him or others.

What's the difference between what I want and what God wants? 

We pray for what we think we need to be most fulfilled and the best person God wants us to be. God offers and gives to (or withholds from) us what he ¹knows is best for us to be that person.

If you knew what God knows about Himself, us, and the world, you would always ask for the right and best things i.e. what God desires. Your prayers would always be in line with what God ¹knows is best and therefore they would always be granted in just the way you asked them. We are promised if we "ask anything in His name he hears us." But knowing when we are asking for His sake and not our own isn't always clear.

The formula for successful (answered) prayer is actually wrapped up in this one little verse:

(To get a better feel of the richness and full meaning of this verse, I encourage you to read the entire psalm.)

When I first came across this verse early in my Christian life, what jumped out at me was God will give me the desires of my heart. That sounded good to me - as if God was offering to be my celestial genie in a bottle. I was all in! 

As I've matured (some 50 years later) in my relationship and understanding of God (and of myself), what now stands out is we are called to delight ourselves in the Lord. An entire ²book could be written on what this means. 

The bottom line is when we delight in God our desires are ³aligned with his i.e. what God and I want are the same thing. When they are, he grants what we want i.e. because it is what He wants, which happens to be what is best and true i.e. what honors Him most and truly advances us best.

Not because God has to "get His way" but because His way is always based on the perfect understanding of what is best. The only thing at issue is do we (you) trust him.

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 ¹We either deliberately ignore or quickly forget that God alone is all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful, and everywhere present - and of course perfectly good, caring and all loving. 

To assume we know more or better than God is the height of arrogance and foolishness. He is God, not us. We only assume God is not good, caring, and loving when things get hard for us personally and it appears he's allowed things to get so messed up with all the pain and suffering in the world. When in reality he is doing exactly what is best and wisest in light of our rebellion (distrust) - even though it might appear otherwise. For a further discussion of this click here.

If we refuse to believe God is who He claims, we will think we know better than God what we and the world need most and our prayers will not be aligned with what is wisest and best.

What settles our doubts about God best is seeing and understanding who Christ is and what He willingly submitted to, so he could ultimately remedy our pain and suffering as well as the rest of creation. All that is wrong about us and the world will be permanently fixed one day because of what Christ did over 2000 years ago. 

God didn't (doesn't) ignore the suffering as some accuse Him of doing, He embraced it and let it kill him so that He could free whoever accepted his offer of all pain one day. His overcoming death is our proof we too will one day be free. He is the first of anyone who embraces Him. 

If we accept what He did for us and the rest of creation, we will be a part of that remedy and no longer a part of the problem i.e. among those who ignore or reject His offer.

²If you poke around my blog long enough, I address in many posts what's involved in our desiring God.

³It is not what we ask for but why we ask for it that determines whether God grants it or not.  

Do we want something so we can better only our personal circumstances or honor God, advance our agenda or God's purposes, build our kingdom or His? 

We often pray "in Jesus name" not as an expression of our hearts desire but as if this expression is some magical mantra, formula or spiritual fairy dust to sprinkle over our prayers to get God's approval regardless of why we ask or what we ask for. To pray in Jesus name simply means to pray for his honor and fame versus our own. 

The irony, surprise, and reality is when we do we are actually advancing ourselves as well. God's perfect will is actually our highest good and our greatest gain though it often may feel or seem the opposite.  

Not my will but thine but done.

Ask, seek, knock. Persist in prayer and you will be given what you ask for.

Why?  If we don't get the answer we seek but continue to persist, it eventually causes us to identify an ill motive so we might realign our hearts with Gods. Once we do He gives us what we ask for.

Knowing God but not fully yet!

Understanding the "already... not yet" aspect of the gospel (good news) is vital. This addresses how we are seated in the heavenly's but have yet to be in heaven. Without a clear understanding of the difference, we will not enter into the benefits of what God has already secured for us in this life. 

This involves a clear understanding and faith in who we are in Christ right now vs who we are not yet but will be one day. This concerns how we are viewed by God now vs how we will experience God in eternity.

To gain a solid understanding of this key component of the gospel (good news), we need to differentiate between our ¹legal status (standing) before God and our actual experience of God.

What do we mean by the expression "already but not yet?"

Christ already fully loves us (just as much as He will in eternity), but we have not yet experienced that love to the full extent we will in eternity.

God is already fully committed to us, totally engaged in our good, and fully present with us now (just as much as He will be in eternity) but we do not yet see him face-to-face i.e. we are not yet without any obstructions, or distractions and fully in his presence (though His love and care are perfectly and fully set upon us now and every moment in Christ...in Him, we live and move and have our being).

We are totally delivered from the ultimate legal consequences of our past, present, and future rebellious distrust of God. But we are not yet presently or fully delivered from all the practical consequences of that rebellion or from being in a broken, rebellious world and wrestling with the day-to-day struggle of our own distrust. We ²still wrestle with trusting God perfectly even as His children - in the same way Christ did (though Christ did without sin i.e. he always obeyed. We often do not).

For now, what connects and brings something of - ³but not all - the glorious future blessings God has in store for us into the present is faith. 

Faith in what? Faith that God is fully committed to us and engaged in our lives as much now as He will be in eternity. And He is working in all things for our good for those who love Him, even if it doesn't seem or feel like it presently. And He is using all things good, bad, and ugly to draw us into greater union with Him, who is life, love, and the source of all things.

In this present existence, the just - those who are legally and perfectly right before God because of Christ - live by faith. Faith is the evidence of what we hope for (confidently expect) and the certainty of things not yet seen (Heb 11:1) i.e. faith in what is already perfectly ours - though not yet fully ours in our day- to-day experience. By this faith, we bring something of our glorious future of overflowing joy and delight into the present. The more we agree with and trust in what we now have (God's perfect acceptance, commitment, and love) the more we experience something of it but do not yet fully have, i.e. the full experience and participation in what is already ours legally. 

You could say God has all of us now as much as He will ever have (regarding His complete acceptance, love, and devotion to us) but we do not have all of God yet. God is always working through all our experiences in this life to move us more in that direction practically/ experientially, to align us more fully with what has already been earned for us legally. Christ already fully took care of the legal part i.e. "It is finished."

No matter how much faith we have it will not result in the ³full experience we are yet to have in eternity i.e. we are not glorified yet with all its benefits. Glorification is real and something different from our present experience. Something will happen to us that is not yet happening. 

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Only in eternity will all tears, pain, and death be eliminated. Only then will the rest of creation be fully delivered from the corruption, pollution, and decay of its present bondage.

Yet, at the same time, we are already glorified in the eyes of God.

And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified (a present reality). Rom 8:30. 

Our present existence consists of pain and suffering. For now, we primarily experience God by faith. But there are times He will give us glimpses of His infinite love providentially, i.e. we will experience something of His involvement in our day-to-day lives circumstantially. And if we are about advancing His purposes, this involvement may be very significant - just nowhere near the same level we will see in eternity.

In eternity, we will experience God fully and directly without interruption, in all the fullness of His glory, face-to-face. Now we relate to God through faith, hope, and love. In eternity, love will be central if not the only way we relate to Him. Who hopes for what they already fully have or must trust what is fully seen?  

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. - 1 Cor 13:12‭-‬13

"...then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known..."

This wording is deliberate and specific. It says our experience of God (knowing Him perfectly) is not yet full even though God's disposition of love and commitment to us (and knowledge about us - including our sin) is i.e. we are fully known (and loved) by God even though we do not yet fully know (and love) Him. 

This suggests the reason we will one day fully know him is because He already fully knows and embraces us now in our brokenness i.e. he knows everything about us, good, bad, and ugly, and fully receives and embraces us in Christ.

For a further discussion on how we know God now vs in eternity click here.

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¹Because of Christ the disposition God has towards us now is exactly the same as it will be in eternity i.e. perfect and total love and acceptance. We will be no more loved by God in eternity than we are right now. The difference will be our experience of that love. It will be different because we will be diferent (glorified) and face-to-face with him vs seeing him now through a glass darkly (in a mirror dimly) i.e. we now live by faith, not by direct sight, as we will one day be in His direct and unobstructed presence.

The only reason we are equally loved and accepted by God now as we will be in eternity is Christ. He took the full consequences of our rebellious unbelief onto himself and assigned his perfect obedience and the right standing he earned with the Father, fully to us. In the eyes of God, we are legally, perfectly, and fully received and embraced in the same way, and as much as the eternal Son of God is...the Son of His eternal and infinite affection. We are now seated (legally established) in the heavens, but not fully (physically) present there yet.

²God seeks to eliminate that wrestling as much as possible by increasing our faith and removing our doubt as we faithfully pursue Him.

³Though a great deal of the energy and effort expended by many believers is to secure all the benefits of heaven here and now. This is sometimes referred to as the "health and wealth" gospel or the "prosperity" gospel. To assume this, does not recognize the benefit of struggle and the importance and necessity of strengthening our faith through it.

For an excellent, more technical article on the "already, but not yet" teaching in scripture click here.

The sacrifice of praise

What is a ¹sacrifice of praise

or thanksgiving (Psa 107:22, Heb 13:15)? 

It is giving thanks when there is no apparent reason to give thanks; it's making yourself gave thanks when you don't necessarily feel like it. It is giving thanks on the claim and promise that God is for us and not against us when in the moment we feel the opposite. It is giving thanks by faith not sight or feeling (i.e. not based on a direct first hand good experience or feeling). It is a sacrifice simply because you're giving something you don't want or like to give at that moment i.e. thanks for the challenging times as well as the happy times. To do so you must give up - sacrifice - something you previously wanted more i.e. the comfort of pleasant circumstances.

When circumstances are difficult, what is the basis for our giving thanks? 

We are told if we love God, all things work together to conform us to the image of his son. This is good for God and us. Good for God because our praise displays His infinite beauty and worth over and above pleasant circumstances and brings him ²greater glory. It is good for us because it draws us closer to Him to experience more of Him who is life, love and our greatest joy.

Our trust in God and faith that these things are true enables us to be thankful for all things… even and especially the hard things. It is praise that comes forth by faith not pleasant circumstances.

2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you encounter trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4 Allow perseverance to finish its work, so that you may be mature and complete (like Christ), not lacking anything.

5 Now if any of you lacks wisdom (about the struggles you're going through), he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. 6 But he must ask in faith, without doubting (that struggles are good for you), because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and ³tossed by the wind. 7 That man should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways i.e. Flip flopping between whether you believe God is good - and working for your good - or not.

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¹Technically, this is a type of offering in the Old Testament (Lev 22:29) but the underlying principle, both now and then, is being grateful in the midst of sacrifice - being glad (thankful) to make it; to give up something you value - you put time and energy into acquiring such as a prime calf or goat you spend hours caring for - because you value more what you're gaining through the loss - sacrifice.

²having and knowing God is more important than experiencing pleasant circumstances i.e. He is that significant.

³tossed by doubts of whether God loves me or not.