The Daily Word of Righteousness

What Sin Is, #5

May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it. (I Thessalonians 5:23,24—NIV)

Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2—NIV)

On and on the process continues as we labor to enter the rest of God, that is, into the fullness of moral transformation such that we keep all of God's commandments by nature.

Believe it or not, we are not an endless cavern of sin. There shall come a time when the work of redemption has been completed in our personality. The Lord Jesus is the Finisher as well as the Author of our salvation.

Sin is nothing more than a group of lawless behaviors in our personality. The Lord is well able to furnish us with His Divine Nature until we are totally free from the compulsions to sin. And He—always with our cooperation and in response to our faith—performs the work of transformation in the present world. He sets a table before us in the very presence of our enemies.

I cannot tell you what will happen to us when we get to Heaven. But I do know from the Scripture that deliverance comes through the Lord Jesus Christ, not from going to Heaven.

Any transgression of the Ten Commandments is sin. This is what sin is. The Spirit of God will lead us in battle against all the lawless traits of our personality until we stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.

The Ten Commandments

Let us think for a bit about the Ten Commandments, for they provide for us a basic understanding of the eternal moral law of God. The purpose of the Ten Commandments is to tell us exactly what sin is under all covenants.

Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. (Romans 3:20—NIV)

Because we have interpreted the Scripture to mean the new covenant has obliterated the Ten Commandments we are not certain what sin is. The truth is, the moral law expressed in the Ten Commandments is eternal because it reflects God's unchanging Character. To behave in a manner contrary to the law of God is sin.

It is true, as the Lord Jesus pointed out, that the eternal law of God is applied much more comprehensively under the new covenant. But the fundamental concepts are never done away.

I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. (Exodus 20:2,3—NIV)

The first commandment reminds us that God is the only One who releases us from slavery to the world, to lust, and to self-will. We are not to prefer any person, relationship, thing, or situation above the Lord. He alone is to have first place in our life.

One—To put God above all else; the realm of love and worship.

To be continued.