I have a question: Why does the Bible spend so much time talking about what we do wrong?
Why is sin such a dominant topic in the Bible?
Did you know that the word “Sin” appears 474 times in the NIV.
One would think, at first glance, that God is “Out to get us”, trying to “beat us up”. It’s no wonder that so many people think that God is playing a big cosmic game of Whack a Mole. (We live on the shore, everyone knows what Whack a Mole is, right?) NO? Imagine a box with a top about 4 feet square and several holes about 10 inches in diameter. You are holding a large mallet and there are small, stuffed, furry, moles that randomly pop out of the holes. The object of the game is to hit the moles on the head before they disappear back into their holes. You would think that God is standing there with his big mallet just waiting for someone to step out of line so he can whack them one.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
I know I’ve done this before, and recently, so forgive me for repeating myself but I think this is extremely important. There are at least seven different Greek root words that are translated into the English word “Sin”. Six of the seven mean pretty much what we think of when we hear the word “Sin”. They all have variations of meaning having to do with the committing of an evil or hurtful act, the propensity for doing something evil or hurtful, or the failure to do something to prevent evil or hurt. And these six words combined, are used only a handful of times. But the Greek word hamartia is by far the most often used word. It’s a word that would be used by an archer who shot his arrow and hit his target, but missed the bull’s eye. It is a word that literally means a missing of the mark or a failure to achieve a set standard, and it is a word that could appropriately be translated “Imperfection”.
God created this world to work in a specific way. His law, followed to the letter by everyone, would result in a world of perfect peace, happiness, and communion with God Himself; a return to the garden, as it were. So while we often view the tragedy of sin in light of its Earthly consequences; hurt, shame, pain and suffering, even death, the true tragedy of sin is that it separates us from God. And this consequence is true regardless of whether the sin is completely heinous, or seemingly innocuous.
Because of this, God views sin in a rather different light. For God, sin, even the most heinous sin takes a back seat to the importance of a restored relationship with Him.
In Mark 3:28-29 Jesus said “Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin.”
Before I continue I need to explain blasphemy of the Holy Spirit and I’d like to give you a decidedly American definition of the phrase. God speaks to EVERYONE, it’s a fact. He doesn’t usually speak in an audible voice (Though I personally would never limit God in His ability to do that should He so choose) but He speaks mostly in ideas, in notions, and in feelings. The ability to recognize God’s voice increases the more you listen to Him. Often when people speak of the voice of their conscience what they are experiencing is the Holy Spirit of God speaking to them.
Now, to explain blasphemy of the Holy Spirit: When men flew their planes into the World Trade Center you can bet that the Holy Spirit was screaming in their brain: “Don’t do this”. Now, had they interpreted this voice to be cowardice, or to be Satan trying to deter them from their quest; that would be blasphemy of the Holy Spirit; the attributing of the voice of God’s Holy Spirit to anything other than God. Ultimately, blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is rejecting The Holy Spirit’s witness to God. When I was a young Christian a wise friend once answered my question about this passage by saying “If you actually care about whether or not you have committed blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, you can’t possibly have.”
So let’s get back to talking about this passage from Mark 3. It says that, with the exception of blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, ALL sin can be forgiven. (Not will be but can be). Now, since God is willing to forgive ALL sin, shouldn’t that mean that we need to be willing to forgive all sin as well? It’s popular today in certain circles of Christianity to call special attention to the sins of those people whose sins are not socially acceptable, but unless I missed something, the only unforgivable sin I saw in this passage today was the sin of rejecting The Holy Spirit’s witness to God.
Some of us, who are old enough to remember, may remember the name David Berkowitz. If we don’t remember that name, we may remember his alias, the Son of Sam. David Berkowitz was a mass murderer who killed six people and wounded 7 others in New York City in the summer of 1976. He was caught, confessed to the killings, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison. In 1987 David Berkowitz became a Christian and he has spent his years since then leading a prison ministry and offering Christian counseling to troubled inmates. David Berkowitz committed crimes that few of us would be willing to forgive, but the fact that God HAS forgiven him is apparent in the fruit that he has borne for the Kingdom since making the choice to become a follower of Jesus Christ.
The truth is: God WANTS to forgive us. 2nd Peter 3:9 says “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”
There is nothing God desires more than to return us to a loving relationship with Him. He wants this so much that he is willing to forgive over and over and over again. He is willing to forgive sins both heinous and small, but before He is able to forgive us, WE NEED TO UNDERSTSAND THE NATURE AND THE DEPTH OF OUR NEED FOR THAT FORGIVENESS.
This is why the Bible spends so much time talking about sin. God wants us to “Get it”. He wants us to understand He wants us to know that even the tiniest imperfection in our lives is separating us from Him. He wants us to know that it is absolutely essential that we are completely open and honest with Him about our faults and He wants us to know that when we lay our sins at the foot of His throne that He is faithful to His promise to forgive us and to restore us to a loving and abiding relationship with Him. He also wants us to know that this is not through any of our own doing, but that it is only through HIS work and HIS forgiveness that we are given the right to stand before Him. Romans 8:34 says “Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.” Jesus died in order that the penalty for our sin would be paid once and for all. Though our nature will cause us to continue to be imperfect right up until the day that our faith becomes sight, if we continue to confess our sin God will continue to forgive, and through His grace, we will learn to walk with Him.
So what now? Today’s New Testament lesson said: ” Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord”. To be refreshed is to be unburdened from the load of our sins and to replace that burden with the knowledge of what God has done for us, and is doing for us.
When I was 12 I was certain that I was going to be a pitcher for the Cleveland Indians. I knew I would have to work hard to achieve that goal and I did. I built a pitcher’s mound 60’ 6” from a fence and wove a strike zone into the fence with red ribbon. I would throw hundreds of pitches a day, every day, developing a changeup and a curve ball that was so good that many years later when my son played high school varsity ball, varsity high school pitchers asked me for advice about their curve ball. There was only one problem with this whole scenario. I had absolutely no talent whatsoever. As a young adult my best fast ball barely broke 70 MPH. God did not make me to be a pitcher. He did not bless me with a pitcher’s body or a pitcher’s arm. But I believe that God did make me to be a musician. He gave me a musician’s ear and an embouchure and wind and power to make me a good enough trombone player to have played professionally for several years.
I sometimes wonder that if I had dedicated the time to playing trombone that I dedicated to pitching it may have given me that extra little bit of ability that would have gotten me enough gigs that I could have earned a living playing trombone. But if that had happened, I would never have been sidetracked into songwriting, and everyone who knows me knows that musically, songwriting is what I do best. Also, if I hadn’t practiced pitching, then when my son was 7 years old and signed up for Little League, and his coach, Bill Heller, asked for parents to volunteer to help, I would not have had the confidence in my ability to throw a hardball at 7, 8, and 9 year olds without hitting them that allowed me to volunteer. I ended up coaching baseball for 11 years and for those 11 years my son and I shared doing something that we both loved that built a bridge, a bond of friendship that will last a lifetime.
Have you ever seen the back of a tapestry? The back of a tapestry is a complete mess. A jumble of thousands of loose threads of varying colors with no discernible pattern. It’s only when you look at the front of a tapestry that you see a beautiful, intricate, and colorful picture. We live our lives as a part of God’s tapestry, but from this side we usually only see the back; a disorganized jumble that makes no sense, but every once in a while, God allows us to see the front.
Long before I even knew God, He was preparing me to have something that I could share with my son that would make us as much friends as we were father and son. Long before I knew God He made me a good enough trombone player to make me serious about music but not so good that I wouldn’t be drawn into songwriting, and long before I knew God and started writing secular songs he was preparing me to glorify Him through music that I would write for Him.
To be refreshed is to see the front of God’s tapestry; even if only for a moment. There is nothing that will strengthen our faith more surely than to know and to see that God is actively working in our lives. To be refreshed is to see God drawing us to Him, teaching us to delight in a loving and abiding relationship with Him. To be refreshed is to forget about ourselves and to focus on loving others even as Jesus loved us, because only in that love will we find true joy and fulfillment.
Have you seen the front of your tapestry? Have you been given a look at how God has woven the seemingly random threads of your life into the intricate, colorful, beautiful tapestry that is you? Are you able to point to a time when you KNOW that God was working in your life? If so, then you need to tell someone. You need to tell EVERYONE, because your story is your most powerful witness! Your story is the story that will make a difference in the lives of others. Your story is the story that will bring refreshment to the lives of others. God wants us to help our friends, our neighbors, our families, and yes, even our enemies, to come to know the truth of the Gospel, that in Jesus Christ, we are refreshed. In Jesus Christ we are freed from the yoke of sin, In Jesus Christ we are freed from that mallet that we think is waiting to hit us over the head for stepping out of line, In Jesus Christ we are freed from a life that has no meaning because it has no Heavenly direction. In Jesus Christ WE ARE FORGIVEN!
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