Sin - From Symptoms to the Root

SIN – FROM SYMPTOMS TO THE ROOT

ROMANS 1:16-32

SUNDAY BULLETIN INSERT, 7/8/07 Back to Articles

KEY SCRIPTURES ON SIN

Isaiah 59:1-2

Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither His ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear.

Romans 3:9

What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin…

1 John 3:4

Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.

James 4:17

Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

Romans 14:23

And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.

FROM THE SYMPTOMS TO THE ROOT

SYMPTOMS (Romans 1:28-32; Wisdom 14:23-29)

God gave them over to a reprobate mind:

Being filled with all unrighteousness,

fornication, Backbiters, implacable,

wickedness, haters of God, unmerciful:

covetousness, despiteful,

maliciousness; proud,

full of envy, boasters,

murder, inventors of evil things,

debate, disobedient to parents,

deceit, without understanding,

malignity; covenant breakers,

whisperers, without natural affection,

and have pleasure in them that do them.

DEEPER CAUSE (Romans 1:26-27; Wisdom 14:22)

For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections:

for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:

And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet.

EVEN DEEPER CAUSE (Romans 1:24,23; Wisdom 14:12)

Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: …changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.

ROOT CAUSE (Romans 1:21,25; Wisdom 13:1-5)

Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful;… Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator…

WISDOM OF SOLOMON 13:1-5, 14:12, 14:22-29

^13:1 For all people who were ignorant of God were foolish by nature;

and they were unable from the good things that are seen to know the one who exists,

nor did they recognize the artisan while paying heed to his works;

² but they supposed that either fire or wind or swift air,

or the circle of the stars, or turbulent water,

or the luminaries of heaven were the gods that rule the world.

³ If through delight in the beauty of these things people assumed them to be gods,

let them know how much better than these is their Lord,

for the author of beauty created them.

⁴ And if people were amazed at their power and working,

let them perceive from them

how much more powerful is the one who formed them.

⁵ For from the greatness and beauty of created things

comes a corresponding perception of their Creator.

^14:12 For the idea of making idols was the beginning of fornication,

and the invention of them was the corruption of life;

²² Then it was not enough for them to err about the knowledge of God,

but though living in great strife due to ignorance,

they call such great evils peace.

²³ For whether they kill children in their initiations, or celebrate secret mysteries,

or hold frenzied revels with strange customs,

²⁴ they no longer keep either their lives or their marriages pure,

but they either treacherously kill one another, or grieve one another by adultery,

²⁵ and all is a raging riot of blood and murder, theft and deceit, corruption, faithlessness, tumult, perjury,

²⁶ confusion over what is good, forgetfulness of favors,

defiling of souls, sexual perversion,

disorder in marriages, adultery, and debauchery.

²⁷ For the worship of idols not to be named

is the beginning and cause and end of every evil.

²⁸ For their worshipers either rave in exultation,

or prophesy lies, or live unrighteously, or readily commit perjury;

²⁹ for because they trust in lifeless idols

they swear wicked oaths and expect to suffer no harm.

ROMANS 1:19-31

¹⁹For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.

²⁰Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made.

²²Claiming to be wise, they became fools; ²³and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling a mortal human being or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles.

²⁴Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the degrading of their bodies among themselves,

²⁶For this reason God gave them up to degrading passions.

²⁸And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind and to things that should not be done. ²⁹They were filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice. Full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, craftiness, they are gossips, ³⁰slanderers, God-haters, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, rebellious toward parents, ³¹foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.

UPDATES AFTER THE SUNDAY WORSHIP

FOLLOW-UP TO SUNDAY MESSAGE.

In the late time allotted, I tried to make the point that we see sins, people doing those things that break God’s law. However, these are symptoms of a deeper problem: a condition of being under the power of Sin. While this does not excuse anyone, it does call on us to not get caught up in the individual actions, which may be very different from ours, and to focus on the condition, with which we share much in common. If our response to the sinfulness of others is repulsion or disgust, that reaction may be understandable, but it is in itself a reflection of our sinful condition. Consider Ezekiel 18:31-32:

^“Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed against me, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, says the Lord GOD. Turn, then, and live.”

Our Lord might well be disgusted and repulsed by what people are doing, but His response was to lay down His life for their sake, and for ours. I am grateful that in spite of all I’ve done, there have been people who prayed for me that I would turn, that I would live, and that I would have a relationship with Him. Our community desperately needs that from us…

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WISDOM OF SOLOMON RELATES TO TODAY’S PASSAGE (Romans 1:16-32).

OR: MORE THAN YOU EVER WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT THE APOCRYPHA –

THOSE BOOKS THE ROMAN CATHOLICS HAVE IN THEIR BIBLE AND WE DON’T

I noted Sunday that the argument Paul uses in Romans 1 is similar to one used in the Wisdom of Solomon, chapters 13 and 14. This book is not a part of our scriptures, but would have been well known by Paul and most Jews with some level of training.

Let me see if I can (simply) explain how this book comes to us.

You will notice that this book is NOT in your Bible (unless you have one that includes a section called the “Apocrypha,” or if you have a Roman Catholic version). If you look in a Roman Catholic Bible, you will see it there. It is recognized as scripture by Roman Catholics, but not by Protestants or Jews.

If you look at a Jewish Old Testament, you will see the same books as our Old Testament, except they are in a different order. The Bible of Jesus’ time had come together over the centuries. About 400 B.C. the “Law” was recognized as scripture (the first 5 books- Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy). Somewhere around 200 B.C. another section was added called the “Prophets” (Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi). The Bible by Jesus’ time was called “The Law and the Prophets.” (I should mention that there was a group – the temple leaders called the Sadducees – who did not believe that the “Prophets” section belonged to the Bible).

By Jesus’ time there were many other writings, some of them very important, but not considered scripture: Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes, 1 & 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Lamentations, Daniel, Song of Solomon, and the “Apocrypha,” the others now included in the Roman Catholic Bible.

The early Christians (who began about the year 30-33) used a Greek translation of the Old Testament called the Septuagint that included the Law, the Prophets, and all of these other books.

The Jews did not come to agreement about their Bible until about the year 90. The remaining books of scripture were put in a section called the “Writings,” and even today a Jewish Bible is called: “The Law, the Prophets, and the Writings.” It has the same books as in our Old Testament, though not all in the same order. As for the extra books in the Septuagint, they were removed as scripture – though useful, there were questions about how long ago they were written (the Septuagint was a translation from old Hebrew into Greek, but these extra books did not have an original form in Hebrew), and whether they gave any new information that would be necessary for salvation.

During the 1500s, when Martin Luther and the other Reformers broke away from the Roman Catholic Church, they examined the differences between the Jewish Old Testament and the Catholic Old Testament. They went with the “Spirit-filled” deliberations of the Jews and decided to include only those books in our Old Testament, although they kept them in the same order as the Catholic Old Testament.

So the Wisdom of Solomon is one of those books that was around in the time of Jesus and Paul, studied by Jews in their day, and is scripture to Roman Catholics.

Some of you history buffs might find some inaccuracies in my account here, but that’s basically how it came to be like this…

Yours in Christ,