Making Sin Abhorrent (part six)
By Jay Wegter
The battle of the ages is in full swing, and is catapulting toward its predetermined end. It is a battle over whose word will stand—the word of man or the Word of God. The Lord has filled this fallen creation with lessons for us about the brevity and fragility of life. Man is like the grass that perishes (1 Pet 1:24-25). Yet in our ignorance born of pride, each generation commits the error of Psalm 49—they imagine that whatever is under the power of their ownership (whether land, possessions, or their own body and pleasures) is absolute ownership. They forget that what we call ownership is ultimately a stewardship under God’s ultimate ownership (see Ps 49:10-12ff.). The church today is riddled with errors about ownership—the most pervasive error on ownership concerns the church members themselves. We have forgotten that the church is God’s property—it is His blood-bought flock (Acts 20:28; Titus 2:14)—He has the right to tell us (as His stewards) how to tend, feed, lead, and care for ‘His flock’ (see all of Ez 34). Everything is on loan. We are tenants on the planet, tenants in and of our imagined possessions, and tenants in our bodies. We will give an accounting of our tenancy—judgment day is about our stewardship—everything has been on loan—it must be turned in to its rightful Owner (Ps 22:29; 39:4; 90:3-12; Job 34:12-15; 1 Chron 29:14-18; Rom 2:16; Rev 20:11-15). We have not had the myth of ownership adequately exposed. Therefore we do not understand what it means to give an account to God. We assume that grace cancels out our comprehensive stewardship and accounting (Rom 14:7-12). This is symptomatic of a low view of Scripture and of a high view of self. What a grave warning this is because Satan’s own rebellion was characterized by the same misplaced priorities—he distorted the knowledge of God to fit his own ambitions. Lucifer’s original sin against God was a kind of wager. He misjudged God and His Word. Satan ‘bet’ that God was not as good as His Word—this mighty angel speculated that every word of God was not backed up by the Almighty’s attributes—Lucifer doubted that God staked His reputation on the unbreakability of His immutable Word. Lucifer imagined that God makes exceptions and that His most severe threats were idle threats. Satan threw down the gauntlet at the feet of God and dared God to fulfill His Word against him, the mighty angel who was the first among His creatures (Ez 28:14). What was central to Satan’s own self-deception was a woefully inadequate estimation of what God’s Word really is. God is one with His Word because God’s Word is inseparable from His own character and perfect plan—His Word is His attributes, plan, will, and His wisdom committed to language. His Word upholds reality every moment; therefore there is nothing about it that is abstract, contingent, or variable (Is 42:9; 46:8-11; 55:11). His Word is forever settled in heaven (Ps 119:89). God and His Word are one because He has elevated His Word together with His Name (Ps 138:2). Lucifer’s rebellious miscalculation will cause him to be cast into the lake of fire forever. The first of all the mighty angels refused to tremble at God’s Word (Is 66:2). Every descendent of Adam who is outside of Christ is locked into the devil’s wager. For, they too have thrown down the gauntlet at the feet of God—they too have dared God to fulfill His Word over their dead bodies and send them to hell. They are betting their eternal souls that God is not as good as His Word and that He will not fulfill His Word against them. Thus, they do not understand the divine purpose of human history—that it is the public record of the honoring and the dishonoring of God and the record of what happens to each person as a result. They do not understand that God has determined to publicly destroy human wisdom (and all of its subscribers and proponents) by means of the cross of Christ (1 Cor 1:21). History’s consummation will prove absolutely that God is as good as His threats and His promises. Sin is not merely what people do; sin is what we are by nature apart from Christ. The natural man’s faculties are allied against God. Unbelievers have told themselves that God does not see—that God will not see their latter end—that God will not clear His Name at their expense—that God is not a God of comprehensive retribution (Ps 10:13; Amos 9:10). The attitude born of sinful satanic pride imagines that man has the ability to carry out his own word and that it is God’s Word that will fall to the ground unfulfilled. How tragic this deception is, for God has determined to make an example out of individuals who despise His Word (Jer 44:17, 26-29ff.). Ken Ham got it right when he said that the Bible is the most dangerous book in the world because it is possible to destroy yourself eternally by mishandling it (2 Pet 3:16). When the Day of the Lord begins the whole creation will be a tool in God’s hands to evict the impenitent sinner. All stumbling blocks must be removed before the coming Kingdom can be installed (Matt 13:41). It is repent, OR you will be evicted from the planet—from your body and be damned (Rom 2:1-12). The urgency factor must again enter our preaching. We do not know what it is like to be confronted with our self-existent Creator (Heb 10:30-31; 12:25-29). We cannot imagine what it is to have no standing before Him—to have not a single square foot to stand upon in the entire creation—to be swept from the creation as some unclean thing (Rev 6:12-17; 20:11ff.). God has a comprehensive record in heaven which will show what we have served on earth. All service of sin will be shown publicly to be idolatry (Rom 2:16; Col 3:5).