Our Great Privilege

If my sins were unintentional, I could feel better about them - almost as if I am not responsible for my lusts, my lies, gossip, pride . . . .

But they're not unintentional. They're purposeful and, I might as well be honest - sometimes even premeditated.

How is it possible for someone with degrees in theology, who has taught Sunday school for decades and read the Bible more than two dozen times - how can I sometimes be so casual about obedience to God's laws?

Martin Luther, when asked how to avoid temptation's pull toward sin, quipped, "We cannot keep the birds from flying over our heads. But we can keep them from building a nest in our hair."

Well, I have an aviary in mine.

Clearly, I don't always view my rebellion with the same gravity as God views it. Much as I'd sometimes like to wish it so, sin is not synonymous with mistake. It is not the same as "error in judgment." Willful sin is nothing less than high treason against the Supreme Being of the universe, a defiant slap in His face.

It doesn't make me feel any better to know I am not alone in my continuing struggle between doing right and doing wrong. Books and magazines I've read, sermons I've heard, friends with whom I've shared these thoughts, convince me that nearly everyone lives with similar tension.

The apostle Paul knew this tension. He wrote, "For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do - this I keep doing . . . What a wretched man I am!" (Romans 7:19, 24). But he also knew something I would do well to tape to my mirror: "God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8, NIV). Loosely translated, "while we stood there, shaking our fist in His face, God transferred our deserved punishment onto Christ's shoulders." In so doing, God declared Jesus guilty of my sins and declared me innocent of each blot against my record.

Why did He do that? The way many people interpret it, God is either the consummate push-over, or He is the consummate lover. Calvary proves for me which of the two He is. Christ's bleeding flesh, the searing pain that ripped across his limbs, his agonized breaths all illustrate God's opinion of sin. When it comes to judging it, God is no push-over.

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