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The Concerns of Jesus, Part 10

Copyright © 2005, Roy F. Osborne. All Rights Reserved. Used by permission.

(Note: In my last paper I said we would deal with "lead us not into temptation, etc." in the next lesson. However, I feel we need to discuss sin a little more fully before going on, and so I submit the following. We will take up the final part of Jesus' prayer in the next essay.) 

Sin is an unpopular subject in our "feel good" society. Over the past few decades, psychologists have persuaded us that we should never cause ourselves or others to have any feeling of guilt. As a result, the deadly role of sin in eroding our spiritual life, and separating us from God, is played down, or ignored altogether, by the modern pulpit, which is a slave to current trends and popular philosophies. Therefore, it becomes even more vital for us to note how much of the prayer of Jesus was devoted to this major problem for those who would be followers of the Christ. Jesus was concerned about sin!

I am indebted to a great Christian writer and scholar, William Barclay, for reminding us that there are 4 types of sin, referred to by 4 different Greek words in the New Testament. I think it appropriate for us to take a moment to talk about these as we move into the part of Jesus’ prayer in which He talks about temptation, and being delivered from evil.

First of all, the Christian needs to realize that sin does not affect just the drunkard, the thief, the murderer and the adulterer. Barclay points out that the words used for sin in the New Testament describe problems which even the most pious face. I will not try to reproduce the Greek words for the word does not matter, just the meaning and the implication to us.

The first word for sin means "missing the mark". In other words, failing to live up to what you could. A basic principle, which I have insisted on in my preaching always, is that "God does not expect the impossible of anybody." However, there are many passages of scripture that urge us to persevere, be earnest and sincere, make every effort to please the Lord. God is not pleased with the spiritually lazy. One of my father's favorite quotations was from Whittier: "Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest of these, it might have been." At the end of life, may we not look back and say, "It might have been." The sin of neglect for what you could be in the Lord, if you tried, is a trap for even the most religious of souls.

The second word for sin means "stepping across the line". Contrary to what our liberal society would have you to believe, there is a line between right and wrong. Jesus came to earth and became a man, so that we could identify with Him, and understand the real love God had for us. However, in spite of His humanness, which He took upon Himself for our sake, there were ways in which He was not like other men. One of the chief ways in which Jesus was different was that He was "consistent". We human beings are so conscious of the world about us, and the presence of other people in the world, that we often behave according to the circumstance in which we find ourselves, or to please the people who are with us at the time. Jesus never did that. He was always "Himself", in all circumstances. You could predict how He would act, for he was always consistently the loving Lord, who was here to do the will of His Father. He never "stepped across the line".

The third word for sin means "slipping across". This is not a deliberate act, but most of us have acted in unchristian ways in moments of anger, or great passion, or thoughtless provocation. This form of sin only emphasizes the need to use your head, and remember who you are at all times. The dedicated Christian must keep his head "when all about are losing theirs". How desperately we need people in our society who are not panicked by the politically correct, nor the emotional demands of those who insist theirs is the only right way to go.

Number four in the words for sin is a word which simply means "lawlessness". We have recently been made aware of religious institutions, called churches, which have flagrantly defied the express demands of scripture, to do things the way they
want to do them. Knowing what the law of God says and acting contrary to it anyway, is harshly condemned in the Bible. Even so, there are many, who find an almost irresistible impulse to do things differently simply because there is a
law against it. This inner rebellion began with Adam and Eve and affects all mankind unless it is controlled.

The final word for sin is the word used in the Lord's Prayer. It means "debt" or a failure to pay what you owe. None of us can ever pay to God or man what we owe. Whatever richness you have in your life came to you from those who have gone before. None of us either created ourselves, nor by our own wisdom, unaided by others, achieved any measure of success. Even the most brilliant are indebted to teachers who taught, inventors who created, soldiers who fought, friends who forgave, and above all, a Father who put up with them in spite of their perfidy. Therefore, we should all live our lives as servants, but most of us do not. 


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