5 Ways to Hate Sin

"Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good"  Romans 12:9

Sermon Notes, Iowa Falls Evangelical Free Church, May 27, 2012

 

Introduction

There’s a delightful scene in the movie "Princess Bride" in which an old woman confronts Buttercup for betraying true love. Buttercup had supposedly given up on her farm boy Westley and married the evil Prince Humperdick.  Remember the scene? 

It's actually a dream sequence. In the dream, the lovely Buttercup stands before the crowd dressed in white, a crown upon her head, when the old scold steps forward to accuse her of betraying true love. The woman concludes her rant with these biting words:

That's what she is, the Queen of Refuse.  So bow down to her if you want, bow to her.  Bow to the Queen of Slime, the Queen of Filth, the Queen of Putrescence. Boo. Boo. Rubbish. Filth. Slime. Muck. Boo. Boo. Boo.

I’d like to play the part of the old woman and see if I can stir you up to revile something--something truly deserving of our scorn.  It’s not anything sweet and lovely and innocent like Buttercup, although it may pretend to be so.  And it’s not a dream sequence either, but a daily reality for every person.  I am speaking of course about sin.

Sin is the real Queen of Slime and Filth and Putrescence. Sin is the real betrayer of True Love.

The Puritan John Owens reminds us of the ceaseless seductions of sin:

Sin is always conceiving, always seducing and tempting….Sin doth not only still abide in us, but is still acting, still laboring to bring forth the deeds of the flesh. When sin lets us alone we may let sin alone.

 

How Can We Learn to Hate Sin?

Romans 12:9 says, “Abhor (despise, hate bitterly) what is evil; hold fast (be glued, cemented) to what is good.”  I Thessalonians 5:21-22 says much the same: “Hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.”

How do we abhor evil—I’m thinking especially of personal sin?  The Bible speaks of the “fleeting pleasures of sin” (Heb 11:25), and there certainly are pleasures to be found.  Sin tastes sweet, at first anyway.  Sin gratifies our urges, for a while at least.  So how do we learn to disengage from sin and turn our backs on the fleeting pleasures?

As we begin, I think it will help us to recall a few basic truths concerning sanctification. 

Sanctification

The theologian Wayne Grudem in the book Bible Doctrine defines sanctification as “a progressive work of God and man that makes us more and more free from sin and like Christ in our actual lives.”

Unlike justification which happens all at once, sanctification happens by degrees over time. And again unlike justification, which is entirely the work of God without any contribution on our part, both God and man play an active role in sanctification.  

The progressive aspect of sanctification is described 2 Corinthians 3:18:  “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another. Now this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”  The result of sanctification is a life which increasingly reflects the beauty of the indwelling Christ to the glory of God.  And that includes clinging to the good and hating the evil. Hebrews 1:9 says of Jesus, “You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore, God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.”

Two Sides of Sanctification

There are two sides to sanctification, two ongoing processes.  Paul speaks about both in Colossians 3:5-12:

Put to death [mortify-KJ] therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry….But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator…..Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.” (see Colossians 3:5-12)

Ephesians 4:22-24 also addresses the two sides of sanctification.

To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Put to death what is earthly, put away, put off the old self—that is disengagement from old patterns of sin, and it is one process at work in sanctification.  The other process is engagement with what is good—put on the new self, put on compassion, kindness, humility and other godly traits.

Did you notice the word “mortify” in the King James version of Colossians 3:5.  They sound a little strange, the words mortify and mortification. It's where we get the word mortician. The Greek word means simply “to kill.”  We are to kill, to put to death what is earthly in us.  The Puritan John Owen urged, “Be killing sin or sin will be killing you.”

Mortification

 

John Stott defines mortification as:

a ruthless rejection of all practices we know to be wrong; a daily repentance, turning from all known sins of habit, practice, association or thought; a plucking out of the eye, a cutting off of the hand or foot, if temptation comes to us through what we see or do or where we go. The only attitude to adopt towards the flesh is to kill it.

Spiritual-Mindedness

The other side of sanctification is spiritual mindedness, or what theologians call “aspiration.” John Stott says this side of sanctification involves:

a whole-hearted giving of ourselves, in thought and energy and ambition, to ‘whatever is true and honorable, just and pure, lovely and gracious’ (see Phil. 4:8). It will include a diligent use of the ‘means of grace,’ such as prayer, Bible reading, fellowship, worship, the Lord’s Supper, and so on.

Hating sin and loving righteousness go together.  If we cling to the good, we necessarily will hate the evil.  If we genuinely hate evil, we will show it by devoting ourselves to what is good. If you’ve ever tried quitting a longstanding sinful habit, you know it doesn’t work just to focus on not doing it. You must also do the opposite things, the positive things.  We must cultivate godly habits—prayer, meditation, and other spiritual disciplines or we won’t get very far in disengaging from sin.

Rely on the Holy Spirit

We should also recognize as we begin the all-important work of the Holy Spirit in sanctification. The Holy Spirit gives us the power to be spiritually minded; we must rely on him and not our own efforts. Paul said in Romans 8:5, “Those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.” Likewise, it is the Spirit who enables our efforts to mortify sin.  “For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death [mortify-KJ] the deeds of the body, you will live” (Romans 8:13). 

These basic truths concerning sanctification establish the foundation for considering what we want to consider now.

Five Ways to Hate Sin

 

1.  Claim your freedom in Christ.

The place to begin is with claiming our freedom in Christ. Most Christians understand that Christ came to free them from the penalty of sin and, someday in heaven, from the presence of sin. But many have not heard or grasped the truth that Christ came to set them from the controlling power of sin here and now in this life.

The key passage on freedom in Christ from the reign of sin is Romans 6. Let me give you a taste of what this very important section of Scripture says...

How can we who died to sin still live in it?....We know that our old self was crucified with him…so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin….For one who has died has been set free from sin….So you must also consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus…For sin will have no dominion over you…and having been set free from sin…For when you were slaves of sin….But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God…”  (see Romans 6:1-23)

In Christ’s death on the cross we died to sin.  In Christ’s resurrection from the grave we rose to new life.  That’s where sin-hating and sin-refusing begins:  with the truth that in Christ we have died to sin.  Sin is no longer our master.  The sinful tendencies remain and, yes, we will sin sometimes, but we are under no obligation to do so because of our union with Christ.

Many Christians are trapped in feeling helpless and hopeless in the battle with sin.  Here’s how Neil Anderson explains the problem:

Before we received Christ, we were slaves to sin.  Now because of Christ’s work on the cross, sin’s power over us has been broken.  Satan has no right of ownership or authority over us.  He is a defeated foe, but he is committed to keeping us from realizing that....The father of lies can block your effectiveness as a Christian if he can deceive you into believing that you are nothing but a product of your past—subject to sin, prone to failure, and controlled by your habits.

Paul said, “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 54:1).  You are free in Christ, but you will be defeated if the devil can deceive you into believing you are nothing more than a sin-sick product of your past.  Nor can Satan do anything about your position in Christ, but if he can deceive you into believing what the Scripture says isn’t true, you will live as though it isn’t.

2.  Meditate on the perfections of God’s character.

Second, we will learn to hate sin by meditating on the perfections of God’s character—how holy and pure he is, how righteous and wise and good and just and kind and loving. David said, “I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken” (Ps 16:8). 

 

Thoughts of God will satisfy our deepest needs and crowd out sinful thoughts. Psalm 63, “My soul is feasted as with marrow and fat and my mouth praises thee with joyful lips when I think of thee upon my bed and meditate on thee in the watches of the night.”

The more our soul feasts on God, the less appetite we will have for sin. The more we know God, the more we’ll realize how offensive sin is to him and so despise it ourselves. "The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil" (Prov 8:13). The more we know God, the more we will want to please him, imitate him, glorify him, and avoid doing or thinking anything that will grieve his Spirit.

3.  When sin looks sweet, picture its bitterness.

Here’s a third way of hating sin:  When sin looks sweet, picture its bitterness.  The Bible gives us many vivid images to impress upon our minds the corruption and destructiveness of sin.

Sin is pollution.  “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment” (Is 64:6).  “Cleanse your hands from every defilement of body and spirit” (2 Cor 7:1).

Sin is a stalking beast.  God warned Cain when it began thinking about killing his brother Able, “If you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must master it” (Gen 4:7).

Sin is a slave master.  “Everyone who sins is a slave to sin” (Jn 8:34).

Sin is a killer.  “The wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23).  “For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me” (Rom 7:11). It is because of sin that the unsaved—including perhaps many of our loved ones and friends—will be cast forever into a hell of unending torment and anguish.

Sin is adultery.  “You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?” (James 4:4).  Sin is unfaithfulness to God and like a jealous spouse his heart is grieved by the straying of his loved one (see Eph 4:30).

Sin is a leaven which infiltrates, multiplies and harms others.  “Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump.”  Paul was referring in I Corinthians 5 to the harm that is done to the body of Christ when gross sin is tolerated in the church.  It doesn’t stop with one person; it spreads and causes more and more damage.

4.  Reflect on the opportunities and rewards lost because of sin.

Fourth, we will learn to hate sin by reflecting on the opportunities and rewards lost because of it.  Because of sin:

• Adam and Eve lost Paradise.
• Moses was barred from entering the Promised Land.
• Israel lost it temple, its land, and its privileged status with God.

How about ourselves?  Because of sin:

• We lose the pleasures of God's fellowship. "In thy presence there is fullness of joy; in thy right hand are pleasures for evermore (Ps 16:11). Could there be a greater opportunity lost?
• We lose opportunities to impact lives for the Kingdom of God when we are too busy with sinful pursuits.
• We lose eternal rewards for faithful service (2 Cor 5:10).

Because of sin our spiritual vitality decays, our faith weakens, our conscience is spoiled, our sense of calling and mission evaporates.  For the sake of the fleeting pleasures of sin, we forfeit peace and joy and other fruit of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, “I come that they might have life and have it abundantly”--but we only experience abundant life when we repent and renounce our sins.

5.  Reflect on the sacrifice required to atone for sin.

Fifth, and very importantly, we will hate sin more if we reflect on the sacrifice required to atone for it.  Isaiah 53:4-5 says:

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.  But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed (Isaiah 53:4-5).

How bad is sin? Sin is so bad the only perfect man to walk on the earth had to suffer and die for it. If we are mindful of the sufferings of Christ, how can we go on loving the sin that killed him?

Charles Spurgeon, the great 19^th century preacher, said:

Sin murdered Christ; will you be a friend to it?  Sin pierced the heart of the incarnate God; can you love it?  Oh, that there was an abyss as deep as Christ’s misery, that I might at once hurl this dagger of sin into its depths, whence it might never be brought to light again. Begone, O sin!  You are banished from the heart where Jesus reigns!  Begone, for you have crucified my Lord and made Him cry, “Why hast thou forsaken me.?”

Conclusion

 

So there it is: five ways of hating. First, claim your freedom in Christ. Second, meditate on God’s character. Third, when sin appears sweet, remember its bitterness. Fourth, reflect on the opportunities and rewards lost because of sin.  And fifth, reflect on the sacrifice required to atone for sin.

I’ve been talking with those who already know Jesus Christ personally. But maybe you don't know him, not yet. But you have sensed the Spirit of God tugging at your heart recently. Well, I want to assure you the arms of the Heavenly Father are open wide to you. He gave Christ to die for your sins, so you might be forgiven and receive the gift of eternal life. And so that you live free from enslavement to sin in this life. 

God wants you just as you are, with your problems and your sins. I made the mistake when I began turning toward God of thinking it was my job to change myself. I thought I had to quit this and do that and then God would accept me.  But I was wrong. God takes us as we are, with all our sins and shortcomings. "God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8).

Repentance from sin and faith in Christ to save you is all that is needed. "Repent and believe," Jesus said (Mark 1:15). "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved" (Acts 16:31).

How I Became a Christian

I had a smattering of Christian instruction as a child, but it didn’t get as far as my heart. Maybe not as far as my brain; I couldn’t have told you if Abraham or Moses had brought the Ten Commandments down from the mountain. I really wasn't paying attention.

That changed the senior year of high school when I became disillusioned and gave up on finding meaning and fulfillment in the youth culture of that time--with its drugs, Eastern mysticism, "free" love, and rebellion against authority. After a bad drug experience in which I was overcome with guilt and thoughts of death, I decided to change course and seek after God.

"Religious" is Not Enough

I did many things to get close to God. I read the Bible. I prayed. I made an altar in my bedroom with candles and a picture of Jesus. I went to church. I tried to quit bad habits. After graduating from high school, I traveled to Israel to understand the Bible better. I worked on a kibbutz near Nazareth, hiked up the Mount of Transfiguration, and spent a week with monks in a Trappist monastery. I had become "religious" yet God still seemed far away.

On Sundays I’d catch a bus from the kibbutz to Tiberius on the Sea of Galilee to attend the Church of Scotland. I found pleasure in the singing and sermons but sensed something was missing. In Pastor Hugh, especially, I saw a joy and a love for God and people that I didn’t have. And the way he talked about Jesus! Pastor Hugh had a personal relationship with him—that’s what I was missing.

Problem of Sin

While visiting Jerusalem I was introduced to an older missionary couple who lived outside the Old City Walls and supported themselves with retirement income. They handed me a Bible as I entered their apartment and for two weeks we studied together. They began by teaching about sin--a good place to begin because I had the idea that people are basically good, and until I let go of that idea I wasn't ready for a Savior.

The missionaries explained that all are sinful and stand condemned before a holy God. “All we like sheep have gone astray.” “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” And a just and holy God requires a penalty for sin. “The wages of sin is death.” “It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.”

Could I fix the sin problem myself? No. Even our best efforts fall short. “All our righteous deeds are like filthy rags.” Nothing we do can change the sinful nature. “Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then also you can do good who are accustomed to do evil.” We will never remove our sins no matter how much we try to reform ourselves.

God's Solution

The missionaries explained that to be right with God the penalty for sin must be paid. In the Old Testament God required a blood sacrifice for sin. “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness." The blood of animals was symbolic, pointing to the only sacrifice acceptable to God: the blood of Christ, the sinless Lamb of God who bore the punishment for sin on the cross. “For Christ also suffered for sins, once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God."

Saved by Grace Alone

I was surprised to discover that salvation is not something we earn or deserve. It is the free gift of God’s grace based on Christ's death on the cross. "For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not because of works."

I don’t know precisely when I became a Christian, but on the day I understood that God grants forgiveness and eternal life as an undeserved gift of His grace, I trusted the Lord Jesus as my Savior. And for the first time I had peace with God and freedom from guilt, and I was no longer afraid of death.

Denny Hoyt

Updated June 1, 2012

References: Isaiah 53:6; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:23; Hebrews 9:27; Isaiah 64:6; Jeremiah 13:23; Leviticus 17:11; I Peter 3:18; Ephesians 2:8-9

God is Great, God is Good

How are we to think about God? Is it better to dwell on His goodness and personal presence with us? Or is it better to dwell on God's greatness, His sovereignty and power?

Roger Olson in The Mosaic of Christian Belief (pp. 111-132) talks about the ancient dialogue about God's greatness and goodness and says Christians generally have "acknowledged both aspects of God and sought to do justice to both equally. However, in many cases specific theologians and groups of Christians have overemphasized one side of God's revealed nature to the neglect if not outright denial of the other side. In fact, it is not overstatement to say theologians and Christian traditions have almost always tended to begin with one of these two poles and relativize the other one in its light."

Olson encourages a balanced, all-embracing view of God. "From Jesus' prayer opening, "our Father who art in heaven" to the child's prayer opening, "God is great; God is good," to the various hymns mature Christians sing, everything in divine revelation and Christian devotion points together to this duality: Our God is both glorious beyond our understanding (transcendent) and perfectly good beyond any creaturely goodness."

Attributes associated with God's transcendence include self-sufficiency, eternality, omnipresence, omnipotence, and omniscience. Attributes associated with God's immanence or personal presence are love, faithfulness, mercy, justice and wisdom. We may share in the latter qualities, but God's transcendent qualities belong to Him alone.

Olson writes, "[P]roper Christian belief is faithful to divine revelation and the Great Tradition confesses that God is both perfectly good and unsurpassably great. However, some theologians and groups of Christians have developed views of God that they believe are true to revelation and the consensus of Christian thought through the patristic and the Reformation but that emphasize either God's transcendence or God's personal presence and goodness in a special way. Often this arises from a concern with some previous approach to God's being that is perceived as one-sided. The pendulum swings."

Spending regular times in the Psalms is an excellent antidote to polarized thinking about God, for the Psalms continually invite us to meditate on both God's kingly majesty and His goodness and love.

Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised,
and his greatness is unsearchable.
One generation shall commend your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts.
On the glorious splendor of your majesty,
and on your wondrous works, I will meditate.
They shall speak of the might of your awesome deeds,
and I will declare your greatness.
They shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness and shall sing aloud of your righteousness.
The LORD is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
The LORD is good to all,
and his mercy is over all that he has made.

Psalm 145:3-9

That's My King!

That's My King!

From Sermon by Pastor S.M. Lockridge

The Bible says he’s the King of the Jews. He’s the King of Israel. He’s the King of Righteousness. He’s the King of the ages. He’s the King of heaven. He’s the King of glory. He’s the King of kings and He’s the Lord of lords. That’s my king! I wonder, do you know him?

My king is a sovereign king. No means of measure can define his limitless love. He’s enduringly strong. He’s entirely sincere. He’s eternally steadfast. He’s immortally graceful. He’s imperially powerful. He’s impartially merciful. Do you know him?

He’s the greatest phenomenon that has ever crossed the horizon of this world. He’s God’s Son. He’s the sinner’s Savior. He’s the centerpiece of civilization. He’s unparalleled. He is unprecedented. He’s the loftiest idea in literature. He’s the highest idea in philosophy. He’s the fundamental doctrine of true theology. He’s the only one qualified to be an all-sufficient Savior. I wonder if you know him today.

He supplies strength for the weak. He’s available for the tempted and the tried. He sympathizes and he saves. He strengthens and sustains. He guards and he guides. He heals the sick. He forgives sinners. He discharges debtors. He delivers the captive. He defends the feeble. He blesses the young. He serves the unfortunate. He regards the aged. He rewards the diligent. He beautifies the meager. I wonder if you know Him?

He’s the key to knowledge. He’s the wellspring of wisdom. He’s the doorway to deliverance. He’s the pathway of peace. He’s the roadway of righteousness. He’s the highway of holiness. He’s the gateway to glory. Do you know him?

Well, His life is matchless. His goodness is limitless. His mercy is everlasting. His love never changes. His word is enough. His grace is sufficient. His reign is righteousness. His yoke is easy and His burden is light.

I wish I could describe him to you. He’s indescribable. He’s incomprehensible. He’s invincible. He’s irresistible.

Well, you can’t get him out of your mind; you can’t. You can’t get him off your hands. You can’t outthink him. You can’t outlive him. You can’t outlast him. And you can’t live without him.

Well, the Pharisees couldn’t stand him. But they found out they couldn’t stop him. Pilate couldn’t find any fault in him. Herod couldn’t kill him. Death couldn’t handle him. And the grave couldn’t hold him. That’s my king! Yes, yes, yes, you are my King!

For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever and ever and ever and ever--how long is that? And ever and ever and ever…and when you’re through with all the forevers, then amen, amen…Yes, you are my king! Thank God, thank God, almighty God, you are my king, amen and amen!”

Fear of Ridicule

How often have we sensed the Lord prompting us to speak up, reach out, champion a cause or lead an effort--but we held back out of fear of ridicule?

"Anytime we are engaged in a work for God, we are likely to encounter the poison-tipped arrows of ridicule. A barrage of truth mingled with lies, innuendo, malicious gossip and implied threats is the normal experience of leaders. Malice arises from fear. And fear is a common response to someone else’s success. So expect to have your faults thrown in your face, your folly mocked and your real progress belittled. When this happens, by all means allow yourself to be cut down to size, but do not let yourself be dismayed or intimidated. Remember that the chorus of contempt has a diabolical conductor whose aim is to make your knees buckle. He likes tongue-tied, ineffective Christians and plays on your secret fears and inferiorities to make you one of them."  (Today in the Word, October 17, 1993.)

But if God is our fortress and shield, the enemy's ridicule needn't keep us from the path of obedience, whatever our feelings may be. John White writes, "I am full of fears and chasms of inferiority. Whenever I have listened to the enemy pointing them out I have stopped working for the kingdom. Yet in those moments when I have refused to listen to him and have feebly walked in obedience, I have been astonished at what God has done with my feeble performance.”

 

So we can confidently say, "The Lord is my helper;

I will not fear; what can man do to me?"

Hebrews 13:6

Divine Love May Hurt, No Matter What

"I think the pain you have had in life has left scars but has driven you toward Aslan just as His claw marks on the back of the girl in "A Horse and His Boy" prompted her to ride her horse faster than she believed possible."

In a letter from a friend


If we live "just right" can we pretty much avoid trouble and pain? I thought so once. Or at least I assumed a corollary idea: if things aren't going well then somehow I must be at fault. And since it all comes back to me, if I can get to bottom of things and set them right, then God will make the trouble go away. Neat! But of course the problem of pain is more complicated.

For one thing, God speak to us "the truth in love" (Eph 4:15) and truth, however kindly shared, can fall like so many hammer blows upon our folly and pride. Is the hammer of a friend a bad thing? No. "Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy" (Prov 27:6). "Blows that wound cleanse away evil; strokes make clean the innermost parts" (Prov 20:30).

Truth often demands change and where there's change there's discomfort, even trauma. Such discomfort and trauma can even be the temporary effect of God's kindness, as when He calls us to repentance (which means a change of direction). "Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?" (Rom 2:4).

A kind hand may be a rough hand and God's love may bring pain no matter how obedient we are. We might well imagine the healing hands of Jesus being warm and tender, but also firm on account of sawing and sanding and pounding at the carpenter's bench.


Sometimes God uses pain to get our attention. C.S. Lewis said, "Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world."

As a young Christian I came across a poem in J.I. Packer's Knowing God that I've always liked but always found, well, a bit jarring.

When God wants to drill a man,

And thrill a man,

And skill a man
When God wants to mold a man
To play the noblest part;
When He yearns with all His heart
To create so great and bold a man
That all the world shall be amazed,
Watch His methods, watch His ways!

How He ruthlessly perfects

Whom He royally elects!
How He hammers him and hurts him,
And with mighty blows converts him
Into trial shapes of clay which
Only God understands;
While his tortured heart is crying
And he lifts beseeching hands!
How He bends but never breaks
When his good He undertakes;
How He uses whom He chooses,
And with every purpose fuses him;
By every act induces him
To try His splendor out--
God knows what He's about.  -- Unknown

Hebrews 12 instructs us not to be weary when the Lord reproves us, "For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives." Romans 5:3 says, "Suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope." Under the sovereign hand of a loving Heavenly Father, afflictions lead to greater godliness and wider service. Joseph understood this when he reflected upon the cruel treatment of his brothers and said to them, "As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good" (Genesis 50:20).

On the other hand, there is danger in thinking that every hard and painful thing that happens was designed by God simply to make us more godly. If we think like that, life will soon have the feel of a beauty pageant run by a God who seems willing to let any awful thing happen to us just so we will become more attractive to him. But God is not so cold and manipulative; his "steadfast love endures forever" and his "mercies never come to an end" (Lamentations 3:22-23). Really, if all God cares about is making us perfect, then why not take us to heaven now and be done with it? 

No, the cause of many of our troubles lies outside ourselves. The sufferings of Jesus were not due to any shortcoming of his; it was never because he needed moral improvement. His sufferings were entirely the consequence of Adam's sin--Adam's sin and ours. "He was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities" (Isaiah 53:5).

Granted, the sufferings of Jesus were unique. His sufferings were an atoning sacrifice for sin; because he suffered and died for us, we have forgiveness and peace with God. "He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed" (I Peter 2:24).

Our sufferings, on the other hand, do not and cannot atone for a single sin. Yet, like Jesus, we do in various ways suffer because of the sins of others--ultimately because of Adam's sin by which suffering and death entered into world--but also because of the sins of people we grew up with, the sins of those we live with and work with and worship with.

It is inherent in the human condition that we will oftentimes find ourselves burdened or deprived or neglected or badly treated, not because of what we ourselves have done or failed to do, but because of the sins of others. That is why we must constantly stay poised to forgive. "Forgiveness," writes Neil Anderson, "is agreeing to live with the consequences of another person's sin."

Finally, we should always remember that behind all the world's pain and suffering slithers the malevolent being and activity of Satan. He is the god of this world and he is set to do us harm. Jesus said he is a murderer and a thief who comes only to steal and kill and destroy (John 10:10). "Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world" (I Pet 5:8-9). 

"By every act induces him to try His splendor out." In pain and hardship God invites us to lift up our eyes and see his transcendent glory. "Show me Thy glory"--that is how Moses prayed when things turned ugly in the wilderness (Exodus 33:18). And at the end of the day, that is the best thing we can pray when times are dark and difficult: "Lord, show me Your glory."

If God Weeps, Shouldn't We?

For most of my adult life I've carried in my wallet a short poem on sorrow by a Scottish missionary named Geoffrey Bull.

    O Lord, I have not learnt to cry,

Perhaps I laugh too oft for true conformity

To Thee and Thy rough Cross, or try

To love Thee without sorrowing—

Talk but touch not, thus they heed not.

What heart, O Lord, moved through the garden?

I too have slept, but wake me, Lord,

E’en though it be to love with tears.

It can't but sober us to picture Jesus weeping over Jerusalem (Luke 19:41), and crying with his friends near Lazarus' tomb (John 11:28-36), and agonizing in prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. "And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground" (Luke 22:44).


The thought of Jesus' tears assures us that in our times of sorrow we have a Lord who sympathizes with us in the deepest of ways. Grief was so much a part of his life that Scripture gives him title Man of Sorrows. "He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief" (Isaiah 53:3).

The Lord's tears also remind us that heartache is the price of loving others in a fallen world. If we would love like Jesus, we must learn to weep like Jesus.

"I am speaking the truth in Christ--I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit--that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh" (Romans 9:1-3).