"What is sin, anyway?" asks a inquirer in cyberspace. To which another reader responds: "It is when people hurt themselves and destroy others."
A believer on-line in the Northwest asks, "If God made man, to what extent is the Creator liable for the creature's behavior? Didn't God know before making humans that they would rebel against him?"
A gracEmail subscriber in the Northwest asks why God made humans if he knew in advance that they would rebel against him.
A gracEmail subscriber asks whether Adam "infected" his descendants with the spiritual disease of sin or merely "exposed" his posterity to that fatal malady.
A learned lady from a sophisticated denomination came upon the notion that we all fell in Adam and are born with a fallen nature which needs regeneration by the Holy Spirit. She promptly dismissed this entire doctrine as "some simple minded theology about our diseased spiritual DNA." What does the Bible say?
A thoughtful gracEmail subscriber writes: "It is true that we are sinners as a result of Adam's sin -- he was the doorway through which sin entered the world. Adam has become our father in a physical sense, and also in a figurative sense in regards to sin. This is similar to the person described as 'the father of those who play flutes' (Gen. 4:21). We do not inherit sin -- we are influenced and corrupted by the sin brought into the world through Adam."
A gracEmail subscriber in Alabama asks why Jesus taught his disciples to pray that God "lead us not into emptation" (Matt. 6:13), yet the Epistle of James says that God "does not tempt anyone."
A gracEmail subscriber in South America asks about living by the flesh and living by the Spirit in Galatians 5 and in Romans 8. "How can the believer sometimes show the works of the flesh? And how can one who has not been born again demonstrate the fruit of the Spirit?"
A preacher objects to my saying that fallen human beings are dead spiritually because of sin and are unable to repent and believe without God's gracious supernatural enabling. "This is a human doctrine," he claims, which "smacks of Calvinism and is not biblical."
A gracEmail subscriber asks whether Jesus was really tempted to sin, since the Bible says that God cannot be tempted and we say that Jesus was God in human flesh.
does a true Christian ever sin?
A gracEmail subscriber forwards a post by someone who argues that a true Christian never sins but always does what is right, quoting 1 John 2:3-4 and 3:6-10 as proof. "What about that?" my correspondent asks.
After I cited First John that a person born of God does not practice sin, someone replied that God's child never commits a single sinful act. He explained: "John uses the Greek word poieo (referring to a single deed), not prasso (referring to a regular practice)." My respondent should know. "I have had three-and-a-half years of Koine Greek," he said, "and if John had meant 'practice,' he would have used prasso."
"A brother asks, "Is it right, after sinning and asking God for forgiveness, to do penance by denying myself some specific pleasure? Am I thinking that God couldn't do the work alone, or am I simply being serious about sin?"
A gracEmail reader in Texas inquires, "Are we required to ask God for forgiveness? Does he wait to forgive our sin until we ask?"
A gracEmail subscriber in Missouri asks if it is right to confess our sins to another human being, and whether a believer who hears the confession can offer forgiveness in the name of Christ.
It is the second specific healing story in Mark's Gospel (Mark 1:40-45). A leper falls before Jesus, expressing faith that Jesus can restore him. Moved with compassion, Jesus does so with a touch and a word: "Be cleansed." Jesus then directs the cured man to show himself to the priest and to make an offering."
our struggle with sin (two gracEmails)
A minister writes that he has struggled many years to overcome a particular sin. "I have read, prayed, confessed, wept bitterly, and even shared it with a close brother," he writes -- "all to no avail." Finally, he resigned his pulpit and found other employment. Can I offer any encouragement?
We Christians need to know that Jesus brings life, not condemnation. We already know that we are sinners. Many of us live in condemnation much of the time. Deep inside we know our private addictions and secret compulsions, whether to pride, self-centeredness, sexual lust, alcohol or other drugs, rage, power, money, possessions, or whatever.
"How can I overcome temptation to sin?" a gracEmail reader wonders. "No matter how hard I try to resist, I still do what is wrong."
sin's double cure (two gracEmails)
Those who write enduring hymns and spiritual songs usually reflect their highest ideals and their moments of deepest intimacy with God. For that reason, we sometimes find ourselves singing words that overstate our own true commitment.... Anglican clergyman Augustus M. Toplady (1740-1778) expressed just such sentiments in his well-known hymn, "Rock of Ages"....
A gracEmail subscriber asks: "What role does the Law of God given through Moses play in our sanctification? Should the believer continually revisit the Law in order to remain convicted of sin? "
A gracEmail subscriber asks: "What is the sin mentioned in Matthew 12:31-32 which Jesus says will never be forgiven?"
A gracEmail subscriber asks about the sin which will never be forgiven, mentioned in Matthew 12:31-32 and Mark 3:28-30. What is the "unpardonable sin?" Can someone commit it today?