"Sin awareness"

In 1 Corinthians 2.8, the apostle Paul references the rulers of this world who were responsible for crucifying the Christ and says, … If they had known it, (i.e. understood what they were doing) they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

Oh, my! What questions this raises in our minds!

Could they have known it? What kept them from knowing it? God? Satan? Their own natures? Ignorance? And if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Christ and we have no savior! We have no substitute for our sins and therefore, we are doomed to spend eternity in hell!

These are interesting questions that could result in many hours of study, discussion, and migraines! But I think the clear teaching here is the enormously heinous nature of the act of crucifying our Lord! They didn’t know what they were doing!

It is analogous to the issue of abortion. If abortionists knew (read “really understood”) that they were killing beings, created in the image of a perfect, holy, just, gracious, omnipotent, etc God, they would not do what they do!

And is this not true of us? When we willfully sin, doesn’t it in some way represent that we don’t know what evil we are bringing on ourselves and on the character of our God?

Sometimes I can imagine God looking down on me while I willfully sin and I can see in His eyes, “He doesn’t realize what he is doing!”

So He keeps loving me and tenderly working with me and completing the work He began in me.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. If God were to show us the enormity of our sin, and the enormity of His goodness we would die! Our minds and hearts simply could not take it.

Ask God to show you. It’s ok. He is wise enough and powerful enough to show you just the right amount at the right time. But you need to be willing to see and be willing to ask. For some magnificent and unexplainable reason, He wants our cooperation in His work in us.

Prayer and Incense

Consider Exodus 30.7-10

⁷ "Aaron shall burn fragrant incense on it; he shall burn it every morning when he trims the lamps.
⁸ "When Aaron trims the lamps at twilight, he shall burn incense. There shall be perpetual incense before the LORD throughout your generations.
⁹ "You shall not offer any strange incense on this altar, or burnt offering or meal offering; and you shall not pour out a drink offering on it.
¹⁰ "Aaron shall make atonement on its horns once a year; he shall make atonement on it with the blood of the sin offering of atonement once a year throughout your generations. It is most holy to the LORD."

When we further consider several passages in Revelation (e.g. 5.8; 8.4; 8.5) it appears that the incense and the altar of incense represent the prayers of believers.

If that is true, the instructions in Exodus regarding the altar of incense are packed with meaningful representations.

For example, incense was to be burned every morning and every evening, perpetually. Our first thought on rising is to be to commune in prayer with our Maker and Redeemer (e.g. "Holy Father, good morning! I praise you and honor you. I am in this world on this day for your eternal purposes…").

And even though we are commanded to pray without ceasing and throughout the day, there is another special time devoted to prayer and that is at evening. Last thoughts are as important as first thoughts. (e.g. "Dear Father, thank you for all the opportunities you afforded me today. Forgive me for my obvious and presumptuous sins today. Bless my sleep so I can rise refreshed for whatever you have for me tomorrow…")

Also, no strange incense is to be offered as prayer. I don’t know what this means. It could be that any impurity of prayer is being referenced. Selfishness, greed, ‘asking amiss that we may spend it on our own lusts’ would likely qualify as strange incense. Also, prayer to any other god or deity would certainly be a perversion.

God wants us to be ever aware of our need for Him and our position of gratitude to Him for all of our needs and His benefits. We are utterly dependent on Him and ought never attribute to others, what He alone provides. Make no mistake! It is only because of His good pleasure that you take your next breath.

Incense smells good to God!

Thermometers and Thermostats

I was listening to a sermon the other day by a great Southern Baptist Itinerate Preacher, Vance Havner. In it he mentioned, in passing, that some people are Thermometers and others are Thermostats. This thought intrigued me and resonated with my experience.

We all appreciate the value of thermometers. In the winter, we watch weather broadcasts for the high and low temperatures and the potential cold fronts that might come through. And in the summer, we’re all very interested in thermometers, particularly in July and August. How hot will it be and how humid and how will it effect my vacation plans?

It is helpful for us to be like thermometers. In fact, when we aren’t aware of the prevailing spiritual/moral temperature in our family, church, society, it's easy for commitment to spiritual/religious truth and Biblical morality to slide down the slippery slope toward heresy and immorality. Francis Schaeffer and C. Everett Koop, in “Whatever Happened to the Human Race” refer to this phenomenon as allowing “Unthinkables to become thinkables”. That which we could not imagine happening in one generation becomes commonplace in the next.

But thermometers, as helpful as they are, only register the state of the environment outside or inside. They don’t change the environment they just report it.

Thermostats, however, serve another purpose. They change the environment. When it’s too cold, you turn it up. When it’s too hot, you turn it down.

Thermostats not only register the temperature in a room, they do something about it!

In the book of Galatians, Paul describes how he felt compelled to confront Peter with hypocrisy. Chapter 2, starting at verse 11 says…

"But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he had clearly done wrong. 2:12 Until certain people came from James, he had been eating with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he stopped doing this and separated himself because he was afraid of those who were pro-circumcision. 2:13 And the rest of the Jews also joined with him in this hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was led astray with them by their hypocrisy. 2:14 But when I saw that they were not behaving consistently with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, “If you, although you are a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you try to force the Gentiles to live like Jews?”

Peter had become merely a Thermometer, responding to the changing temperature of social acceptance. In one environment, he was warm toward the Gentiles. In another environment he was cold. Whatever the changing wind brought, Peter reported.

Paul saw the hypocrisy of such behavior and challenged it. He chose to make a difference. He chose to do something about it. I have no doubt that Peter responded appropriately to this correction.

But this situation demonstrates how easily each of us can become thermometers, and nothing more.

Let’s guard our steps and trust our God when we need courage to stand for what is right at home, at work, at church, and in the community.