Monday, November 28, 2011

The Link Between Disobedience and Unbelief

This past Sunday, I taught from 1 Samuel 13.  The main point I sought to draw out was the connection between unbelief and disobedience in the life of Saul and in our lives.  We often don't think of our acts of disobedience to God as symptoms of residual unbelief in our hearts.  That just sounds too serious or too horrible to be true of us, but I believe it is true.  Below are the three points of reflection and application I made about this subject:

True faith or unbelief is often demonstrated in how we respond to hopeless situations. It is often in the difficulties of life- a broken relationship, financial hardship, health problems- that we see what is really going on in our hearts.  How we respond, either by obedience or disobedience to God, shows what is in our heart: trust or distrust of God’s sovereignty, wisdom and goodness.   Every time we choose to sin, unbelief is a factor. We are failing to believe that obedience to God gives superior joy compared to the empty promises of sin.

Disobedience to God is so serious because it is actually a sign of unbelief .  This is clear in 1 Samuel, but made even more explicit in Hebrews 11:24-26.  In this section, contained in "the hall of faith," Moses is held up as an example of faith.  He obeys God even though it means giving up an easy life for a life of difficulty and suffering.  The reason he does it is he believed God's promises.  The opposite is true too.  When we disobey God, it is a sign that we are not believing his promises are greater than the fleeting pleasures of sin.  This is important to remember when you are battling a particular sin or helping someone who is.  When a person is sinning with pornography or indulgent spending or out of control anger, the primary issue is not a lack of self-control (though that is an issue).  It goes deeper.  It is believing the false promises of sin over the joy producing promises of God.  It is living by sight and feeling instead of faith in what God has said.

We can have unbelief even in religious ritual.   Saul demonstrates his unbelief by offering sacrifices.  Just because we do a religious thing doesn't mean we are demonstrating true faith.  Faith is not simply external action (though it should affect our actions).  It comes from a heart that is truly seeking God.

It is scary to think unbelief still resides in our hearts.  You may wonder, does this mean I am an unbeliever? If what I have said is true (that every sin is a mark of remaining unbelief) then all Christians still have lingering unbelief because we all still sin.  The difference is those who truly know God realize they still have unbelief and cry out "Lord, I believe, help my unbelief" (Mark 9:20-24).  In other words, "I believe, but my faith is weak.  Help me believe you God."  Those who don't offer this cry to the Father should hear the warning of Hebrews 3:12, "Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God." 

Monday, November 21, 2011

"Family Tensions and the Holidays"

Here is a good article to read before going home for the holiday's by Russell Moore.

Question Box: "How Can the Holy Spirit Indwell Sinners?"


Here is a question I received in the questionbox.  Submit your questions by clicking the questionbox link.

Question:
I have been wondering how it's possible that God can dwell in us through His Spirit even though we are still sinners? Because He can't be in the presence of sin, right?

Answer:
First, let’s look the question broadly and then we will zoom in on it.  We must understand that it is only partially true to say “God cannot be in the presence of sin.”  It is true because God is holy, holy, holy, and will destroy all sin.  However, it is not true because God is omnipresent (everywhere).  So, God is present everywhere, even where sin is being committed. We see this in Job where Satan comes before God with a proposition to test Job.  Here the father of lies is in God’s presence.  Furthermore, even in Hell God’s presence cannot be escaped.  But, His presence in Hell is not the same as His presence in Heaven.  In Heaven, His presence is experienced as joy, light, irresistible beauty, and glory.  His presence in Hell is experienced as heavy judgment, darkness, sadness, and torment (God is still glorified in demonstrating his righteous judgment, but it is not a wonderful glory for those in Hell).  So, in the big picture it is helpful to realize that it is not precise enough to say “God cannot be in the presence of sin.”  Instead, we say, “God is holy and so sinners cannot dwell in His Kingdom when it comes in its fullness.”  

Now let’s zoom in to the particular question at hand.  As a Christian, how is that God indwells me (through his Spirit) while I am still a sinner?  First, we affirm that the Bible says this is a reality.  Passages like Romans 8:9 make it clear that every child of God has the Spirit of God.  But that still doesn’t answer the question, “How can this be?”.  For that we could look at other verses in Romans 8, namely verses 3 and 10, but let’s look at Ephesians 1.

Ephesians 1 begins with several verses about our salvation.  We were chosen before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless (4). We are redeemed through the blood of Christ and forgiven of our trespasses according to the riches of God’s grace (7).  After rehearsing these, and other truths about the amazing grace of God in our salvation, Paul says, 
“In [Christ] you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory” (Eph. 1:13-14). 
The Holy Spirit is given to us at the point of salvation (“when you heard….”).  The Holy Spirit seals us with God’s kingly seal, indicating we are His children and heirs of His inheritance.  So, it is at the point of our being forgiven of our sins in Christ Jesus that the Holy Spirit comes into us.  That means all our sins, past, present and future, have been covered by the blood of Christ, and we are justified.  That is, we are positionally holy and righteous by virtue of the work of Christ who obeyed God perfectly for us.  Even though we still sin in our daily lives, we remain justified and each of those sins has been covered by Christ.  So, it is no contradiction for the Holy Spirit to live in us: we are holy in God’s sight though we still fall short of holiness in practice.  And, it is one of the jobs of the Holy Spirit to make us more in practice what we already are in position (this is sanctification- the process of growing in holiness).1    

1Passages such as 1 Corinthians 6:17-20 tell us that we should put aside sin since we have been “joined to the Lord” and have the “Holy Spirit within” us.  These passages indicate that our unity with Christ is incompatible with sin. The Holy Spirit indwells each believer, making our body a temple of God.   So passages like 1 Cor. 6:17-20 give us a clear call to put aside sin based on our union with Christ and His Spirit.