About Jesus Steve Sweetman
Chapter Seven
What About Sin?
So what about sin? Do you think that I have minimized it
away. Do you think that I would say, let us sin so that grace
might abound. No I really do not think that we should sin. I
believe as we walk by faith that the Lord desires to change
us into more of what He wants.Sin has its effects. One of the main effects it has is
that it gets us on the wrong road. The more we commit sin the
more we are likely to get closer to that place of unbelief. Sin
may not cause us to lose our salvation but it does get us closer
to that place far down the road where we might turn and reject
the Lord altogether in unbelief.
The other aspect of sin is that it hinders our fellowship
with the Lord and of course fellowship is quite important. The
reason why we have the relationship is so that we can have
fellowship. The reason why we have fellowship is so that we can
know the Lord and participate in the ministry He has for us.
Sin is important and I do not minimize it at all.In the book of Revelation there are a number of scriptures
that say something to the effect that idolaters and liars and
murderers and the rest will not enter into Heaven. Once
I was told that this clearly says that those who do these things
do not make Heaven because of these sins. I say that they
do these sins because they do not believe. As a result they miss
Heaven. Granted, they are liars and murderers, but before that
they are first unbelievers, and it is this unbelief that causes them to be lost.I have also been told that there is a list of sins,
beginning at the little ones and ending at the big ones.
Somewhere down the list the Lord draws a line. On one side of the line you have sins you can commit and not go to Hell. On the
other side you have sins that once committed send you to Hell. I really do not believe this for a minute. There is no hint of such a thing in scripture. Sin is sin. All sin is bad. In the sight of God there is no difference between sins. Now each sin has its different consequences, some much worse than others. All sin is forgivable and already has been forgiven except for that one of unbelief.Unbelief cannot be forgiven. It is not logical to think any other way. If it could be forgiven why did Jesus go through
all that He did on the cross. It would have been a great waste.
He could have just made a proclamation and said that all sin
will be forgiven, even unbelief, and don't worry then, everyone
will go to Heaven. We know that there is a Heaven and a Hell and that there is a way to get to both places. And then if all are
forgiven then there would be no need for Hell. There are too
many scriptures that speak of Hell's existence to lay it aside.Here is one last thought for this chapter. I remember
hearing a lady make the following statement. "I do not know how
that man can smoke and call himself a Christian." What really
was this lady saying? Smoking to her was a severe sin. It was
severe enough that she questioned the salvation of one who did
it. I am sure that she believed in salvation by faith but by
making that statement she was acting like a Pharisee. She was
adding a rule or condition to salvation. She was telling Jesus
that what He did on the cross was just not good enough. She was
saying in order to be saved you had to believe in Jesus and
accept His provision and then not smoke. Can you see the
tragedy of such a statement? How can a mortal man suggest to the Lord that what He did was good enough, but there needs to be some improvements. So we will just add a few extra things to do to earn and keep your salvation. This lady also did not consider the sinful judgmental spirit by which she spoke to be of importance. A judgmental spirit is sin as well and can do just as much damage as smoking. Who knows, maybe even more damage in some cases.We really need to be careful in our understanding of sin,
faith, and the cross of Jesus where He gave Himself in order for
us to receive all that we had lost in the Garden of Eden. We
also need not add conditions to the Lord's salvation. His work
was sufficient and complete in every way. It needs no improvements by us.Chapter Eight
Guard Your Heart
The problem that most Christians struggle with is not those
overt sins like murder, but the sins of the heart. Before someone
actually kills a person he would have first killed that person in his heart. Of course Jesus said that anger in the heart is like murder (Mat. 5:21-26). Before someone commits adultery he has lusted in their heart already. Before the outward sin appears there was first the inward sin of the heart.I would like also to say that before one commits one of
these sins with more severe consequences like murder or adultery he or she most likely has forsaken the Lord in his or her heart. They may not have denied the faith but most likely are like the prodigal son who has left his father's house.That brings me to Proverbs 4:23 that says, "Guard your heart with all diligence for out of it flows the issues of life." What does that mean? It means the important things in a person's life flow from the heart. These things touch their emotion, their will and that place within where only you and the Lord can see. Our relationship with the Lord, with our spouse, our children are examples of such things that come from the heart. Now the writer
of the book of Proverbs tells us to guard these things with all diligence. These words are strong and forceful. It is my opinion what is not guarded is easily lost. What is not maintained will soon decay. Anything left to fate has no future with any meaning.
In a marriage it is the little things that destroy the relationship. The little things that cause us to grow bitter. Then along with bitterness comes resentment and unforgiveness. These sins of the heart effect our relationship with the Lord and with others. They can produce illness in our bodies. It is well documented that certain illnesses stem from bitterness. Bitterness can eat you up like a cancer.
That is why it is so important to guard your heart. That means to keep an eye on the state of your heart. Watch over your heart to see how well tuned it is to the ways of the Lord. Maintain a softness and pliability. Don't let your heart grow cold and hard. The temptation for us as we grow older is to let life's hardships effect the status of our heart. We lose our naivete and as a result skepticism, sarcasm, and a negative spirit enters us. These are all enemies of faith. They all fight against us as Christians. They destroy the life of Christ within us.
Let's not give our hearts away for treasures that will fade.
Our hearts can be easily swayed. Do not leave the outcome to
chance but plan in advance to guard and maintain your heart, or you will live with the agony. Such tragedy you will surely regret.Think ahead. Do not let your past haunt your future. Decide now to enjoy your future by guarding what you now hold important in your heart.
Chapter Nine
The Cross
The cross is the central point of the whole Bible. The Old
Testament points to it and the New Testament talks about and
refers back to it. All scripture needs to be read and understood
in light of the cross.If there was anything the Lord showed me during the decade
of the 1970's it was concerning his cross and its importance
to us. It is a subject that stands alone and needs to be dealt
with in a book of its own. There is not much I can say about the
cross in a few paragraphs that can really do it justice, but I
will attempt to say a few things.Ever since the Garden of Eden and our first disobedience we
have been separated from God. The Lord in the Old Testament
instituted laws and regulations and a method to deal with sin.This only covered the sin. It did not take it away. It is important to realize that it is the sin factor that causes us not to have that legal relationship with God. The whole sin business needed to have an answer.
Way back in the Garden the Lord knew the answer to the
problem but He didn't give the answer immediately. In actuality
the Old Testament is a parenthesis. By that I mean if you look
at time as a line that began in Genesis one and continues to now
and into the future, the Old Testament is in brackets. It was a
segment of time that the Lord used to help us understand sin
and our relationship with Him. As Paul says it was a teacher, a
school master that would lead us to Christ. So it was a
teacher. It taught us many things. The basic things it taught
was that we have sinned. We are separated from God because of that original sin. God being perfect cannot be united with sin and
imperfection. It taught us that blood had to be shed in order to
deal with sin. The old life of sin had to be gotten rid of, had
to die before a new life in union with God could exist. All
of this was shown in story book fashion in the Old Testament.It was all done and written so that we could understand our need,
and the way out of our dilemma. Then once the illustration was
finished God came along with the real thing.The real thing, what was that? Well we were the problem.
We were the ones that sinned and separated ourselves from God.
We could not get back on terms with him alone. We needed
help. Actually, we needed to just die in our sin. The consequences
of sin is death, both spiritually and physically. We did die
spiritually in the Garden and we would have also died physically
for eternity if not for the Lord.God's answer was Jesus. Instead of us having to die, God
Himself in the form of a man named Jesus, His Son did the dying
for us.Remember the Old Testament story where Abraham was told to
take his son and offer him up to atone for his sin. Abraham knew
that blood had to be shed. He also knew that man was the one that really deserved to die. God told him to go up on a mountain to make a sacrifice with his son. His son asked him, "where is the
lamb to be sacrificed"? He did not realize that Abraham was
thinking of using him as the lamb. At the top of that
mountain Abraham got things ready for the sacrifice. At that
point his son began to understand what was going to take place
and you might well wonder just how he felt. With the knife close
to the throat of his son, Abraham was ready to make his sacrifice
when he heard a rustling noise in the bush. There was a lamb.There God provided a sacrifice for him to use. His son did not
have to die after all because God stepped in and provided a sacrifice . This is a picture of the real story of salvation.
We were the ones to die but God stepped in and died Himself.
For three days Jesus was separated from God his father. This
is the ultimate in death. Imagine The Son of God being separated
from God. Imagine God Himself being separated from Himself.
Jesus is God so when He died part of God died. I cannot put
this properly into words so I hope you catch the feeling of it all.
Jesus took our place. He paid the price to bring about
the union, to put us back together with the one who created us.
There was a great exchange made on that cross. For all that
Jesus lost, we gained. For example, Jesus took our sins
upon Himself at the cross. He literally became sin. Can you
imagine God Himself becoming sin. He became sin so that our sin
would no longer exist in His eyes. He died and then rose from
the dead and conquered death. He died so that we might live.He bore our sickness on the cross. Here is another
tradeoff. He became sick so that we might experience healing.
To get a clearer picture of the cross and these exchanges
you should read and reread and study Isaiah 53. This scripture
is the clearest picture that we have about what happened to Jesus
on the cross. Read it and see what happened to Jesus and see how we benefit from it all.Chapter Ten
The Foundation Of Faith
After seeing the reality of the cross what should our response be to the Lord? Responding in faith, reliance, and trust, is the most basic action we take as Christians. There is nothing more basic to Christianity.
Of course along with faith is repentance. That is turning away from our own ways of thinking, our own lifestyle and looking to Jesus in faith.
There appears to be two types of people. There is the runner and then the confronter. The runner has trouble dealing with his problems. He has difficulty dealing with his own short comings as well as other peoples faults, as a result he runs. Many Christians run. Running has nothing to do with faith. Running is just the opposite to faith. There are only two directions that
one can run. You can run towards the Lord and you can run away from the Lord. Runners run away. It is such a miserable path to be on. Most Christian runners are very unhappy people.
Jesus tells us that we will have problems in our life. Peter in his first letter tells us that these problems are there to test our faith (1 Peter 1:7). Trials come to test our faith. If we do not run but confront the situation in trust and faith, our faith will grow much stronger.
I wish there was an easier way of building faith. The heat
and flames of fire seem to be how the Lord works. Sooner or later those flames will be at our feet. The person who stops and reaches out to the Lord in those times and decides not to run will be the happier in the end.Faith is fundamental. The Lord will see to it that we understand this truth. Fire will test our faith. Fire will also test our works. Any work that is not produced from faith will burn up.
As Christians we have no place to run. John in the book of Revelation (chapter 5) was told to turn and view the Lion of the tribe of Judah. He turned, and do you know what he saw? Did he see a Lion? You can read in Revelation chapter five the whole story. He did not see a Lion. He saw a Lamb. He saw the Lamb of God siting on the throne. He was the only one in the universe that had the power and authority to open the scroll.
John was expecting to see a lion in all of it's strength. Instead of a lion he saw a lamb. God's lion is a lamb. When we see the Lord in all of his glory and strength our first reaction is fear. We may feel running, but when we look the second time and see the compassion of the Lamb of God we have absolutely no choice but to run towards Him and fall at His feet in faith and trust, knowing only He can open the key to our hearts. Only He can bring us salvation.
Confronters look at the problem, look at the Lamb of God and fall at His feet in faith where our trust in Him is tried and refined, and our love for Him grows in appreciation. This is what faith is all about. This is the maturing of our faith, our reliance on Jesus. This is the process He takes us on after we enter the one door called faith. Our whole Christian life is a path that builds our faith, our total reliance on the Lord which brings about that fellowship we so much desire.
Chapter Eleven
The Responsibility of Grace
If the worst sin is unbelief and adding all sorts of other
conditions to God's provision, then the second worse sin has got
to be taking advantage of His grace and love for us.After knowing and understanding all of the above truths I have written, what should our response be? This too is a critical point in the whole discussion.
After preaching and teaching this gospel of grace sometimes I think it is way too easy. I think that the Lord made it too easy for us to be saved and continue to be saved. The idea could catch on that says," let's sin that grace may abound". You know that verse in Romans 6:1. Some people thought that was what Paul was teaching. I can see how they would come
up with that idea. One theologian once said that if you do not
get this kind of criticism after you preach grace then you probably aren't preaching the pure gospel.We as Christian can easily take advantage of the Lord's
grace. I think in many small and unconscious ways we do just
that. Also I think that in some very conscious and well
thought out ways we do it as well.We have all kinds of excuses for our bad behaviour as Christians. One of these excuses is , "the Lord will forgive me anyway". So he will. Yet this is not a valid excuse. It is merely taking advantage of His love. If this is what we are doing then I doubt if we really do understand these facts of grace, love and forgiveness. We may understand them in our heads but not in our hearts.
When we understand grace and faith in our hearts, we look up
to the Lord and say "thank you Jesus, help me to do what is right
in your sight". You do what is right not to earn anything. You
do what is right because you love and appreciate the one you
serve, the one who has bought our freedom with His own life. If we do sin, no matter how overt and thought out it is, there is all the grace in the universe to make up for it when you have a repentant heart. You cannot always make up for past sins. You cannot change the past, what you have done. You can change the future. I guess that is why they say," today is the first day of the rest of your life".Chapter Twelve
Traditional Thinking
At this point I do want to mention a couple of things. First of all I want to state the traditional way of thinking when it comes to the unpardonable sin. For most believers this sin is simply attributing the work and power of the Holy Spirit to the devil. I would like to show how this train of thought is formed. By no means can I argue with this point. On the surface, and even after some thought this definition seems to be true. I acknowledge the fact that this has not been my interpretation in this article. This is an attempt to put the two thoughts together.
We see a story in Matt. 12:20-37 about a demon-possessed man. When Jesus sees this man He heals him. The people were quite astonished when they saw this happen. Yet the Pharisees were not that happy about the whole thing. They said, (verse 24) "it is by Beelzebub , the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons".
Jesus hears what these men are saying and carries on a dialogue with them. Part of what He said is found in verse 31. Jesus says, "every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or the age to come".
The simple story here is that certain men were saying that Jesus was casting out demons with the aid a demon. We all know that Jesus casts out demons with the aid of the Holy Spirit. The Pharisees were attributing the work of the Spirit to the devil. Jesus told these men that you could say things against me but if you say wrong things against the Holy Spirit then that is not forgivable. Here lies the traditional idea that blasphemy against the Spirit is the unpardonable sin and that by nature of this event is attributing the work of the Spirit to the devil. When you come to think of it that really is pretty bad.
The word blasphemy basically means "stupid speech" or "speech that injures". You can see just how stupid the Pharisees were in giving their thoughts on the healing of this man.
At this point I would like to quote from W. E. Vine, from page 132 of his "Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words". "As to Christ's teaching concerning blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, e.g., Matt. 12:32, that anyone, with the evidence of the Lord's power before His eyes, should declare it to be Satanic, exhibited a condition of heart beyond Divine illumination, and therefore hopeless. Divine forgiveness would be inconsistent with the moral nature of God. As to the Son of Man in the state of His humiliation, there might be misunderstanding, but not so with the Holy Spirit's power demonstrated."
What Vine is pointing out here is that a person who would attribute the work of the Spirit to the devil has a condition of heart that is beyond hope. Vine is going to the root of the matter. The root of the matter always lies in the heart. I say that before the Pharisees blasphemed against the Holy Spirit they already rejected Him in there hearts. This blasphemy was only a verbal pronouncement of the condition of their heart. That is they rejected Jesus and the Spirit in their heart.
So blasphemy is a form of rejection. The Pharisees rejected Jesus. As a result they had to reject the Spirit's work in His life by saying such "stupid words".
When God's Spirit speaks to our hearts in His supernatural way and we say, "no way", to Him, this is rejection. This rejection is another form of blasphemy against God's Spirit. This form is also unpardonable, or as Vine puts it, "against God's moral nature".
This type of blasphemy is what I have been talking about. Now have I stepped beyond the bounds of reason. Have I stretched the definition a little too far. Well, that is up to you to decide I guess. At the present time I feel I am within the limits of reason and good Biblical interpretation in respect to these scriptures.
One last point here. I believe that I have made this point clear but just in case I haven't, I want to say this. Doubt, wavering faith, questioning your salvation, or any similar thought is not blasphemy. These things do not get you kicked out of the Kingdom. As I have said, out and out rejection of the Spirit's divine call for your salvation is the only way out. It is also the way not to get saved in the first place.
Maybe there are some more different aspects to blaspheming the Spirit that I haven’t thought about yet. In my thinking there are two aspects to it. One, attributing the work of the Spirit to the devil, and two, rejecting the divine call. This divine call is just as much of a miracle as the healing of the demon-possessed man in Matt. 12.
Chapter Thirteen
In Conclusion
This has been quite a large subject to cover and to
keep as simple as possible is difficult. In one long sentence what I have said is this. The Lord has provided a way for us to be united with Him and it is through faith in His cross and the only way to lose that union is through total unbelief.It is my opinion that this is the truth. It is sets us free from guilt and draws us closer to the Lord. If this has not been your position you might want to reconsider just what you believe.
Many of us have opinions and thoughts but we have not spent
enough time to have thought them through properly. We just hear what someone says and then we accept it without doing any research on our own.It is this research that causes me to come to these conclusions.
The only way for this to be burned into your heart and mind is for you to do the searching and the Lord will reveal His ways.I would just like to leave you with the picture that I have hopefully already painted in your mind. The picture is that of a house, or maybe even a church building. The building has but one door. The building has no back door, no side door, no windows. The entrance and the exit are two sides of the same door. Looking at that door from outside you see the word faith inscribed on it. Then once inside when you turn around to view the door from the inside you see the word unbelief written on it. Then you realize that the only way out of the building is to walk out that same door in which you entered. Why would you want to do that? Once inside there is grace and love that is sufficient enough for all of life. Even though this is true there are some who want out. That is their choice. They can walk out of that door by which they entered.
When you first enter, you become clean. Then when your feet get dusty dirty at times there is grace that takes care of that as well. Remember what Jesus said to Peter once (John 13:10). He wanted to wash Peter's feet and Peter said, "no". Then Jesus said, "if I do not wash your feet you have no part of me." Then Peter responded by saying, "don't just wash my feet but wash all of me". Jesus' answer was most interesting. He said, "a person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet, his whole body is clean". Jesus is saying that once you enter through that door of faith the Lord gives you a bath in his blood. You become clean, and I mean very clean. Then you do not need to take a bath again. You only need your feet washed. Your feet get dirty from a worldly association. Because we have dirty feet does not mean we have to go outside the building again and re-enter. The Lord does not kick us out. He only washes our feet. As He said, a person who has taken a bath needs only to get his feet washed. There is grace to bath us as we enter through that door, and there is still enough grace to wash our dirty feet as we sojourn here on this dirty and dusty planet.
Consider what I have said and the Lord give you the understanding in all things. If this is not your position you might want to rethink your thoughts through. If this is your way of thinking you might want to look at it all again in order to have it burned into the deepest part of your heart.