Sin

“For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” Romans 7:15

It has been a rough week.  The events surrounding Ferguson, Mo brought back plenty of memories of being caught in and having to evacuate a work site in Los Angeles during the Rodney King riots back in 1992.

There’s been a lot of prayer going on on my part, and an undeniable feeling that an injustice has been done.  Maybe it’s just a feeling of an ongoing injustice that is really bothering me.  Being that I tend to take a more conservative view of things these days, this feeling has caught me off guard.

The Holy Spirit is really nagging on me. 

I read an article by F. Willis Johnson, a pastor in Ferguson.  Much of what he wrote resonated with me.  One short paragraph has rested in my heart. He wrote, “We must recognize that all lives matter. Our faith assures that peace while it is beyond our understanding is not beyond our grasp. As disciples of Christ we are called to express our hope by means of grace.”

What seems to me to have gotten lost in the problems of this week is that a young man whose adult life was just beginning, was killed.  Rightly or wrongly.  Criminally or legally. This is not a political tug of war. It is a life. I don’t care what your political or sociological view of the events are, Johnson’s words ring true in that, “all lives matter.”  There’s enough blame to go around, but understand that that blame is being soaked in tears.   I’m struggling to find the grace in all this.  I have heard and read too many stunningly insensitive remarks regarding this from people on all sides of the issue.  Graceless, if you ask me.

Then I run into an article by New Orleans Saints tight end Benjamin Watson.  Yeah, a football player.  And he exposes the problem I am dealing with.  He writes in the midst of his anger,

 “I’M ENCOURAGED, because ultimately the problem is not a SKIN problem, it is a SIN problem. SIN is the reason we rebel against authority. SIN is the reason we abuse our authority. SIN is the reason we are racist, prejudiced and lie to cover for our own. SIN is the reason we riot, loot and burn. BUT I’M ENCOURAGED because God has provided a solution for sin through the his son Jesus and with it, a transformed heart and mind. One that’s capable of looking past the outward and seeing what’s truly important in every human being. The cure for the Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice and Eric Garner tragedies is not education or exposure. It’s the Gospel. So, finally, I’M ENCOURAGED because the Gospel gives mankind hope."

Whoever Benjamin Watson is, he nails it.

His words have made me realize that a large part of what I have been struggling with is my own sinfulness.  My complacency.  My easy willingness to “do not do what I want, but do the very thing I hate.”  Maybe it’s my acts of injustice that has been bothering me in all this. 

And so in the midst of my wallowing, I find hope.  The only hope.  Hope “as a means of grace.”  Hope because that is what the gospel gives mankind.

It is Jesus. And Jesus only. Be encouraged.  Injustice will not have the last word.  Not even in my life.

 Here is a link to the article by F. Willis Johnson

Here is a link to the article by Benjamin Watson 

Delight

“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.” Psalm 1:1,2

This passage to some extent bothers me.  It makes it sound like we are to be completely isolated and insulated from those whom we might (and God might) consider ‘wicked’ or ‘sinners’ or ‘scoffers,’ when the reality is that there by the grace of God, go I.

Jesus in his ministry spent an abundant amount of time with the wicked and sinners and scoffers.  And some of them, maybe a lot of them, turned their lives around and followed the Savior. But again, the passage actually isn’t telling what we are to do to achieve righteousness, it is telling us what we will do. After righteousness calls.

A lot of us have before and after stories.  What life was like before Christ, and what it has been like after.  Before Christ, many of us can relate to being in ‘counsel’ (literally getting advice from) with wicked or being in the ‘way’ (a path or road with the goals and purposes) of sinners or sitting in the seat (a place of honor) of a scoffer.  But after Christ, we delight – not in those former things, as Paul says, “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (visit 2 Corinthians 5:17)

The new delights in what God wants (as outlined generously in his law), yet still not being afraid to be around ‘wicked’ or ‘sinners’ or ‘scoffers’, but allowing God’s word to give us the advice, purposes and place of honor that any of us needs.

Be out there.  We have to be.  But always come back to Christ.  And delight in him.