Let's Be Clear ... Who sinned?

Let's be clear ...

Some Christian brothers and sisters seem mightily preoccupied with evaluating their lifestyle using the question 'is this a sin'. It would seem that life in Christ is being thought of as a kind of spiritual tightrope walk. God draws the line of obedience. Put a foot wrong on either side, and you're off the 'righteous road' and straying into the sin-swamp. This is tragic! Overall, it has nothing of the 'flavour' of new life in Christ as portrayed in the New Testament. You can almost hear Paul shouting the same frantic plea that he uses when he writes to the church at Galatia:

"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." (Galatians 5 vs 1)

I want to ask such believers 'does this life you're living, and how you think you go about pleasing God sound anything like being free in Christ?' Or does it look more like the kind of law-obedience which was proscribed under the old covenant?

Who sinned?

It appears that the disciples of Jesus also had definitive ideas concerning their God and how He dealt with sin. John ch 9 recounts the story of the healing of a blind man. Evidently, they had heard from somewhere that this had been his condition from birth, and they asked Jesus the question:

"Rabbi, who sinned, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?" (John 9 vs 2)

It would appear that their theology was telling them:

1. God hates sin and He judges it
2. Sickness or illness or tragedy in someone's life is a sign of judgement and God's displeasure, as a direct result of sin

Therefore, there were only two possible explanations for this man's condition. He was either suffering as a result of his parents' sin - and their judgement was to give birth to a blind baby (with all the attendant heartache and disappointment that would have caused), or his own sin, in some kind of time-reversed sin-judgement sequence which God could bring about.

Jesus' answer challenges this 'equasionology' type of thinking. He said,

“Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him." (vs 3)

Wrong question!

Jesus' answer is intended to indicate the wrongness of the question rather than to directly answer it. We need to understand precisely what He is saying. So, to move through it step by step -

1. This man was a sinner, just like everyone else. Jesus cannot be inferring that the man was without sin - of course not.
2. The man's parents were sinners too.
3. Neither the sins of the man himself, or of his parents, were the cause of his being born blind. And this is what the Lord is asserting. Perhaps the sentence would be better phrased:

“It was not because either this man or his parents sinned that he was born blind. This happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him."

...But right answer!

How were the works of God displayed in him? The answer is apparent. By him receiving his sight. And it would seem that Jesus intends this to be a confrontational occasion for the leaders and Pharisees - the day is the Sabbath, and the Lord 'makes mud' (works) in a very public area to effect this miracle. Further, the man himself is directed to draw attention to this event by a public washing in the pool of Siloam.

What about us?

What are we to make of this? How does it relate to our relationship with God? First, here is the wrong thinking:

1. I am suffering
2. God judges sin
3. Suffering is the direct result of sin - at least sometimes
4. My suffering could be because God is punishing me for sin
5. Or I could be suffering so that my suffering somehow punishes someone else's sin

So I have to do 'hunt the sin' in order to deal with it - repent and confess and ask forgiveness. Oh, and then, as I go along, I have to be constantly examining my thoughts and my motives to detect what might be sin so that I can refuse it. Like if you have a nut allergy, you have to diligently look at everything you eat to make sure that it hasn't come anywhere near nuts.

Let me ask you this - does that sound like Jesus to you? Is that the kind of mindset you see your heavenly Father wanting you to have in Him? Does it look like grace? Mercy? Love? And the sin-allergy avoidance campaign - is that something you would describe as freedom in Christ?

How did you receive the Spirit? - the Galatians 3 question

Let me also ask you this - when you turned to Christ for salvation, was it on the understanding that you could come to him if you had sorted your sin out first? Or was it that precisely because you could not do that was why you needed him to be your Saviour? When your sins were washed away, who did that, you or Jesus? And where? It was ... at the cross.

So let's get this straight:

The cross on which Jesus died is always where God deals with your sin. Always. Because nothing you or I can do will do that. Only what God does, what Jesus does - at the cross. What he does there is - as his own cry announced - finished. Nothing needs adding to it. Your repentance, your confession as a believer simply takes you back to the cross of Christ, the place where the blood of God was shed to cover your sins. When you sin as a believer, that is where you need to be. And it is enough.

Mean to go on as you started

We will never know how much of 'me' is in our sinning. And God does not expect us to analyse and dissect each faltering fail so that we can own up to the bits that were down to us. Christ says 'just give the whole mess to me'. He will deal with it by his Spirit. If you need to learn from it, he will teach you, through his word, by his Spirit. And not falling again won't be because you have got it sorted and now know what to avoid. That is crass legalism!

Instead of which the whole business of living in Christ is the joy of not watching every step. That's God's job, not yours. Here what Paul says to Christians who have started to think they need to revert to the old Law covenant:

"But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 

Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit."

Galatians 5:16–25

Your Lord does not intend you to walk his path as though you are picking your way through a minefield. He wants you to live as a flourishing tree in his orchard. Producing fruit which shows off who he is in you. And he does it by His Spirit. Who is already where he needs to be. In you.