Masquerading and Seducing

Last night in the college Bible study group, we were studying the attributes of God.  I was thinking about this as I read Romans 7 this morning.  One of the things we did last night was to make a list of our own attributes and then later to make a list of God's attributes and compare them.  A huge gulf there!

It is important for us to contemplate God's characteristics, as revealed to us in both God's written word and also in His Son, the living Word.  Why?  Because if we don't we are in danger of creating our own god, making the Almighty over into an image which is pleasing to us.  I want to blog in more depth about this topic at some point, but today is not that day.

In Romans 7, Paul pointed out that sin (Satan, the devil, the enemy of the believer) doesn't usually flaunt or prance before our eyes to seduce us.  Instead, Satan dresses sin up in goodness, so that we are fooled. A mouse gets caught in a mousetrap because all he sees is the cheese.  Focusing exclusively on the morsel of good, he ignores the danger surrounding it.  Reaching for the good and beautiful, he is trapped by the deadly.

Temptation is like that.  Sin hides under the cloak of virtue.  If sin were not appealing, we would not fall for it.

8-12 Don’t you remember how it was? I do, perfectly well. The law code started out as an excellent piece of work. What happened, though, was that sin found a way to pervert the command into a temptation, making a piece of “forbidden fruit” out of it. The law code, instead of being used to guide me, was used to seduce me. Without all the paraphernalia of the law code, sin looked pretty dull and lifeless, and I went along without paying much attention to it. But once sin got its hands on the law code and decked itself out in all that finery, I was fooled, and fell for it. The very command that was supposed to guide me into life was cleverly used to trip me up, throwing me headlong. So sin was plenty alive, and I was stone dead. But the law code itself is God’s good and common sense, each command sane and holy counsel.

13 I can already hear your next question: “Does that mean I can’t even trust what is good [that is, the law]? Is good just as dangerous as evil?” No again! Sin simply did what sin is so famous for doing: using the good as a cover to tempt me to do what would finally destroy me. By hiding within God’s good commandment, sin did far more mischief than it could ever have accomplished on its own.

Romans 7:8-13 (The Message)

Paul gives this teaching to explain the role of the Law of Moses to both Old Testament Jews and New Testament Christians.  The original purpose of the Law was to show mankind exactly how God defined sin.  Had the Law not been given, there would have been a question about whether something was/is sin, or not.  It is important that we are honest about what the Word of God says.  If the Bible calls something sin, so should we.

Last night, for example, the Bible study group was discussing the Ten Commandments.  How many of us would have listed "Thou shalt not make unto me any graven image" as one of the "Big 10"?  It was years before I ever understood that commandment.  If, in your human life, you've never worshipped a manufactured object, you are probably similarly mystified.  "What's the big deal?", you ask.  But, remember, when Moses tarried on the mountain with God, and Aaron and the Hebrew nation thought he was dead, what was the first thing they did?  They pooled all their gold so that it could be melted down into a likeness of a golden calf (Exodus 32).  In other words, they created an image that represented their own fake, made-up, substitute god.  The Great "I AM" knows the black hearts of man so well!

The Law puts all that to rest in that it defines sin, from God's perspective, which is the only one that matters.  (Remember the two lists?  We are not like God.)

The law code had a perfectly legitimate function. Without its clear guidelines for right and wrong, moral behavior would be mostly guesswork. Apart from the succinct, surgical command, “You shall not covet,” I could have dressed covetousness up to look like a virtue and ruined my life with it.

Romans 7:7 (The Message)

The other function of The Law was to show us, mankind, just how incapable we are of meeting God's standard for sinlessness. Paul goes on to give personal testimony of how he struggled in his flesh with sins that were his specific pitfalls.

Recently, I was talking with a friend about one of her relatives who has what is often referred to in the churchy lingo as his "besetting sin": that sin that so easily trips a person up.  (We all have at least one.  If you don't, let me help you out: your besetting sin is then "pride".  Get a clue!)  At any rate, this friend's relative does not define his sin as "sin".  The world does not define it as sin, and the young man has adopted the world's perspective on his behavior, instead of God's.  He has made a golden calf and is worshipping it.  He has made God over into his own image.

Honestly, when we sin knowingly and deliberately ... (Christian or non-Christian) when we let that besetting, masquerading, seducing sin get the best of us, we are doing the same thing.  That should cause us great angst and grief.  It did Paul.  He described himself, in his Christian walk as "wretched" (KJV).  Read Romans 7:17-24 (The Message).

17-20 But I need something more! For if I know the law but still can’t keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! I realize that I don’t have what it takes. I can will it, but I can’t do it. I decide to do good, but I don’t really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don’t result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.

21-23 It happens so regularly that it’s predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God’s commands, but it’s pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge.

24 I’ve tried everything and nothing helps. I’m at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn’t that the real question?

All of this can become quite overwhelming.  But, fear not!  Chapter 8 was written for just this moment, and we will resume there tomorrow.

A Good Dunkin'

Ok, I know that some of you came to read this post because you believed you'd be reading about doughnuts, didn't you?  I admit to some literary subterfuge ... I hope you'll forgive me.  In reality, we are studying Romans 6.  Not a doughnut.  But, Psalm 19:10 says that God's words are "sweeter than honey from the honeycomb".  Better than a doughnut!

There are 3 themes in this chapter:
1.  Should we practice sin with abandon, because the grace of Jesus Christ covers them all?
2.  Should we practice baptism ("dunkin' " in the Baptist church)?
3.  Should we enslave ourselves to righteous living?  Do we have that choice?

I remember my own baptism, at nine years of age.  It was an early August day, hot!  My little church had had a revival a few days before, and I had made my profession of faith in Jesus Christ at the end of one of the services.  I had decided to follow Jesus.  We were baptized in a large, deep creek called Moss's Mill.  At one time, in the late 1800s, a grist mill was powered by the waters swiftly flowing there.

Baptists "dunk" their new believers, after they have chosen Jesus Christ.  In other words, if you've never witnessed it, they literally submerge them briefly in water.  Admittedly, this is intimidating for some new believers.  However, it is critically important.

3Or do you not know that as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may live a new life.

Romans 6:3-4 NET

It is these verses which speak to Baptists about submerging the new believer.  Often, and I love this part, the minister speaks words like these as he baptizes:  "Buried in the likeness of Christ's death, raised to walk in newness of life!"  The first phrase is spoken as the person is dunked, and the second as he or she is brought back up out of the water.  In this way, baptism only follows the life-altering decision to choose to follow Jesus Christ, and it serves as a witness to others about Christ's finished work applied to a believer's life.

Oh, but I didn't finish telling you about my own baptism.  Things went great until I was walking out of the water to encounter my younger brother. He smarted off with some asinine remark and I responded with a biting, cutting retaliation of my own.  Ahhhh, my "flesh" raised its ugly head!

No, after my baptism I did not magically get transformed into a sinless being.  Oh, positionally, God sees me as sinless, because He looks at me through the scrim of Jesus's blood.  But, in my life walk here on earth, I still battle with sin, daily.  All believers do!  We are tempted to just give in to temptation and live as our old, fleshly nature dictates.  Wouldn't that be easy to do?  Paul makes it plain, however, that this is not God's plan for the believer.

15What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Absolutely not! 16Do you not know that if you present yourselves as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or obedience resulting in righteousness? 17But thanks be to God that though you were slaves to sin, you obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching you were entrusted to, 18and having been freed from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness.

Romans 6:15-18 NET

So, it is obvious from this passage that we have a choice as to what we are going to "present ourselves as slaves".  Will we fight (and it IS a battle) to present ourselves as slaves to righteous living that glorifies our God?  Or, will we present ourselves as slaves to immoral, ungodly living, which leads to a quicker physical death?

If we choose the latter, we are either not truly redeemed, or we will reap the consequences of walking habitually in unrighteousness.  For the unbeliever, sin leads to both physical and spiritual death.  For the Christian, spiritual death has been taken out of the equation; however, our sins are certainly "death choices" here in the natural world.  This is the message of Romans 6:21-23 (NET):

21So what benefit did you then reap from those things that you are now ashamed of? For the end of those things is death. 22But now, freed from sin and enslaved to God, you have your benefit leading to sanctification, and the end is eternal life. 23For the payoff of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I'll give you an example.  One of my areas of continual temptation is in what I choose to eat.  From the moment I awake to the moment I lie down to sleep at night, I fight a sugar addiction.  (Full disclosure, I am about 15 pounds overweight for my height.)  Now, most of the time I do really well, making good choices.  My "witching hour", however, comes after dinner, in the hours before I go to bed.  When I am fresh and rested, in the mornings for example, I easily make great food choices.  I eat a lot of fruits and vegetables and occasionally eat some meat.  I avoid dairy usually, because I have a dairy allergy.
Oh, but sugar....sugar calls my name.  And, after dinner, "it's on like donkey kong", as Si Robertson likes to say.  The battle reaches a fever pitch.

Now, this may not sound like a "big thing" to you.  But, every believer's "sin pothole" is different. We are all tempted by many things.  Whatever our area of strong temptation, we must fight it with all that is in us.  Basically, when I choose that sugary treat (or treats), I am not only being disobedient; I am hastening my own physical death.  That equates to fewer days here to serve Him.  And, for me, it is sin.

Maybe this post was about doughnuts after all....  :)

Father, thank you for the beautiful symbolism you gave us in Christ's baptism, and also for what our own baptism signifies in our lives.  When Satan grips us, it is so hard to "walk in newness of life"! Help us, Holy Spirit! Mold us to be slaves to righteousness, to walking ... resplendent!  In Jesus' name, amen.