In a lot of ways we are like children when it comes to sin unless we reach a place of spiritual maturity. We want to see the consequences and weigh the sin. If the benefits of the sin outweigh the consequence we choose the sin. The problem with this is sin is an energy. According to Isaac Newton's Conservation of Energy theory. Energy can't be created or destroyed only transformed. When sin comes into your life is does not die it is either transferred or transformed. Sometimes the transfer is immediate, and the reproof keeps us from continuing to dig that pit, but most often the results of our sin are seen over time. The Bible says that the payment of sin is death. Because God sent Jesus to die for our sins we are forgiven and are saved from death, but not from the effects of sin. The Bible refers to this concept as reaping and sowing. It is a universal concept. It applies to both Christians and non Christians. It applies to both good and evil. This is part of what makes us free. We are not free from responsibility, but free to choose our own path. If God only allowed Christians to acquire wealth and happiness, ultimately choosing Him would not be a choice. Everyone would be forced to choose God if they wanted any of those benefits. It wouldn't require any faith because the evidence would be there. Ultimately the law of reaping and sowing attributes to our free will. We know that we will reap what we sow, but we don't often know in what form that reaping will occur.
Sin is great in the moment. It tastes good. It feels good. From the very beginning it has been that way. Eve didn't taste the forbidden fruit and throw it down saying Yuck, that is some bitter nasty stuff. No she enjoyed it so much so that she wanted to share it with Adam. The energy of her sin was then transferred to Adam. Adam and Eve didn't create sin it was already there. It had to be. If the choice was not there we would be puppets, and God didn't want puppets. He wanted to be chosen. He created us, and he first loved us, but He wants us to choose Him back. Without the choice to sin we would not truly have free will.
Sin tastes good and feels good. We didn't die when we sinned. Why would God not want us to have this? The danger of the sin lies in the energy. The energy must transfer or transform, and we don't often see how that will happen.
Everyone knows that premarital sex is a sin. Sex can be awesome, amazing, beautiful. You can enjoy sex outside of marriage if you choose. God attaches strings to sex to enhance relationship, and heighten the experience. God wants us to have sex. In a marriage, a God ordained marriage, these components are pure blessing. Out of God's will these strings will bring you pain. There are two consequences that everyone knows for sure about premarital sex. You can get pregnant, and you can get an STD. I guess married people know these things too. In fact it is a great way to catch an adulterer.
One might look at those consequences and say I have got those things covered. I always use protection, and I take birth control. If you are really smart you may have had your partner and yourself tested beforehand. The percentages look good! If you do these things you are probably not going to get pregnant, but sin is an energy. You aren't smarter than sin, and you aren't smarter than God. The sin has to either transfer or transform. You must reap what you sow. Maybe you take birth control for years, and when you are ready to have kids your body won't allow it. Maybe the relationship ends, and you find someone new. That person epitomizes your lifelong partner, but you aren't as satisfied by them sexually. Maybe they are unable to give them self completely to their future spouse. They were wounded, and unable to experience the passionate blind intensity that comes with first loves. Maybe they were too young, and missed a very important developmental step.
Jean Piaget refers to the period of adolescence through young adulthood as Formal Operations. In this stage you experience Identity versus Role Confusion. You either develop an identity or experience some type of foreclosure or moratorium. What if you were in a long term sexual relationship during this stage. You very likely would find your identity in that other person. Maybe that person leaves, and you are completely lost. You always reap what you sow. Can you ever get those things back? Can sex with your husband surpass previous partners? One these things happen are they forever set in stone. Are you forever left childless without an identity? Yes, you can experience these things and much more. But now you must work for something that was once freely given to you. Sometimes that feels like the chicken pox. Have you ever heard anyone say it is better to get the chicken pox as a child? I remember the chicken pox as a child, it was painful. I remember showering, and the puss would get in my eyes, and it would burn worse than soap. I can't imagine how much more painful that would be as an adult.
Maybe you believe that some sin is just a right of passage that everyone has to go through. To you I say beware. The laws remain the same. You have to reap what you sow. Maybe you never got pregnant, maybe you didn't get alcohol poisoning. Maybe you never woke up not knowing what happened the night before but knowing by your body that something happened. Beware, because your children might. See your sin and the rationalization or glamorization of it can desensitise your children. They may not fully understand the weight of that sin, and they may very likely fall into the worst of that pit. Drinking, Drugs, premarital sex they are not rights of passage. With time you see the effects. If you are a parent you know how much you want to protect your children. You know how there pain seems to cause you more pain than your own pain. The hardest part about life is having no control over anyone else and only limited control over yourself. You can only change things about yourself when you understand why you chose those things in the first place.
There is not a lot that can be more devastating than watching your sins amplified through your child and having no ability to stop the destruction.
To those of you thinking good thing I never did drugs, drank or had premarital sex. What are your sins? We all have them. What are your unrepentant sins? The sins that you justify or claim don't affect anyone but yourself. Maybe you overeat, and don't take care of your body. You depend on food for your comfort and not God. It just tastes so good and every time you overeat your stomach and food capacity grows. Have you repented for that? Have you changed your ways? You know the consequences on your body of being overweight. How are you going to feel when you are a burden on your family with health issues that you knew you could have prevented with a more disciplined lifestyle. What if your child starts looking up to Bobbie's mom down the street, because she is healthy and self confident? What if Bobbie's mom doesn't believe in God? Your child sees her up, bouncing along, feeling good. She's reaping those good eating habits, and that exercise regimen. Your child looks at you out of shape and exhausted. Which lifestyle is more appealing to you? Does it mean they won't love you? No! Does it mean they won't respect you? Not necessarily, but it may affect the path they choose in life. The energy from your sin passes to them, and they have to suffer, and work for something that was freely given.
Maybe your sin is judgement. You have been offended by someone and you base their worth on that decision. There is a big difference in judging sin and people. I had to learn this recently first hand. I passed a judgement out of pain, and put myself on a higher level than someone else. You better be careful about that. When you are watching someone else's steps you are not likely watching your own feet. You can easily fall into that same pit. I had a choice to make. I either had to label myself as I labeled her or forgive her.
Right now you may be trying to think of what your unrepentant sin is. God says that we are to repent and turn away from that sin. If there is a sin that is still in your life you haven't truly repented. If there is a sin you have committed that you count as a right of passage or not a "bad" sin you truly haven't repented.
All of this may seem condemning to you. That is not my intention in any way shape or form. Remember just as an energy of sin exists so does an energy of good. The law of reaping and sowing applies to good as well as bad. You might not always see the reward for your good, but it is there and it will transfer as surely as sin energy does.
My final point is probably the most important. As I was enlightened with the revelation of sin as an energy, I wondered how grace plays into all of this. God doesn't contradict himself; everything sowed is reaped. Remember when I said the energy must either be transferred or transformed. Sin energy is the same way. It can't be created or destroyed but it can be transformed. When two substances come together and form something new that no longer has the characteristics of of the former substances it is called a compound. When you truly repent, and remove the guilt and condemnation out a great weight feels lifted off of you. When you take that sin that you have repented and confess it someone, someone you have sinned against, or to the people that watched you do it, and may have received the transfer of your sin something amazing happens. When you confess your sin, and show your weakness, and vulnerability you show people that the body of Christ screws up and sins also, and God loves us anyway. You allow them to confess and release their mistakes and burdens. You begin living in community without pretense as Jesus wanted us to. When you bring your repented sin out of the darkness into the light it forms a compound with God's Grace and becomes a life breathing, truth freeing, magnificent energy with much more power than your sin ever had. God loves us so much that he not only sent his son that we may not die, but he gave us power and dominion over this world so that the same sin that so easily entangles can be busted up with truth and He will disperse it as far as the East is from the West!
No comments:
Post a Comment