Julian's Blog

The Immediate Results of Sin In Genesis 3:8-19 we see the affects of sin on a few different levels. Sin leads to the alienation between: Mankind and God (v.8,23)  Mankind and the creatures (v. 13, 21) Mankind and Creation (v.17-19) Husband and wife (v.12) Man and himself (v.19) Sin as greater impacts that just on Adam and Eve. It has an impact on all of humanity. We call this: Original sin. Original Sin Original Sin, is the sin that all mankind has inherited from Adam. What leads us to believe in Original Sin, this tendency that we all have to sin? First, we see in our own lives that we cannot live a full day without sinning.  Second, we see that everyone else also lives in this state.  Third, this leads naturally to ask, why is this the case? in the Bible we read: Genesis 1:31 tells us that everything God created was Good,  Genesis 8:21 tells us that we are evil from our youth.  We must conclude that at the Fall, it was not just Adam...

In James 3:1-12 James talks about the importance of words. Words are so powerful those who teaching will be judged more severely, the tongue is such a small part of our body, and yet so powerful, finally our tongue helps diagnose our hearts. 1. 3:1 Teachers James begins by saying that we need to be careful before rushing to become a teacher. Why is that? It is because teachers are associated with authority, we take what they say seriously, and so their words can have more damage than other people’s words. Proof that words plus authority are powerful - Adolph Hitler – some say he may have killed his niece with his own hands, but apart from that he did not kill anyone, even if he is responsible for the death of millions. Another reason teachers get harsher punishment is – what if they are communicating lies. What a pastor would stop promoting the gospel, and preached a different message? People would no longer hear the good news. What are some kinds of ways some ...

This passage, James 2:14-26 seems to be problematic. James says flat out – “we are justified by our works”. What does he mean? Is he contradicting Paul? I have to say no! Ephesians 2:8-10 gives us the perfect way to relate faith and works: Eph 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works , which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. We are saved by faith and no works, but we are saved for the purpose of doing works. Even when James appeals to Abraham’s life to show that Abraham was saved by works, he quotes Genesis 15:6 which is clear that it was Abraham’s faith that was counted to him righteousness and then many years later, his faith is shown to be alive, when he trusted God to the point of being willing to sacrifice his only child. Faith without works is death. Works show that our fai...

The argument in James 2:1-13 is essentially that it is anti-gospel, anti-Christian. If we think of the Gospel, we know God, chose us while we are his enemies, while we were in our hopeless state of sin, he chose to be his. When we show partiality, we take God’s spot, we become judges (v.4) but unlike God who chose the poor, which could include anyone that is a believer, in light of our empty spiritual state when God redeemed; we chose people who meet specific criteria. In doing so, we have acted in a way that is anti-gospel. As we Christians we ought to live out our lives and every aspect of them in ways that reflect the gospel.

Verses 1:19-27 tell us to listen humbly, be doers of the word, and exercise a religion that is pleasing before God. 1. Righteous God, Righteous Life In verses 19-21 James describes a person doing three things – not listening, speaking too quickly and getting angry. All three things tend to happen when we are upset. Our emotions tell us something is wrong, and we are convinced already that this is the case, so we no longer listen, but rather want to be heard. We truly believe something is wrong, so we are angry and want to make things right. The only problem according to James, is that we cannot make things right, and especially not with our anger. James says that our anger will not produce the righteousness of God. A few things can be said for general application: We must listen first, and then speak carefully. Ecclesiastes 5:1-7 makes this same point. We are not God. So we need to be careful with our speech. We should be quicker to reading the Bible, and listening ...

When we are tempted, we must not blame God, because God is not the author of our temptation, rather he is the author of every good thing we have. 1. God is not tempted and does not tempt We have a tendency to shift blame. Often we don’t realize we are doing it, because we really, truly believe it is not our fault. Sometimes we are so convinced we are not at fault. I’ve played tennis with a guy who blamed his racket when I beat him! When it comes to blaming God for temptation, it might be grounded in some truth, such as God’s sovereignty. If the Lord is king and in control, then we might be justified in blaming him when bad things happen. James counters this kind of thinking, with two statements: God cannot be tempted with evil, and he does not tempt anyone. The question than generally comes up here is – was Jesus tempted then, if God cannot be tempted? Douglas Moo – God is omnipresent, Jesus is not. When we recognize Christ as a true human, he has put aside some of t...

James 1:2-12 covers trials. First, verses 2 to 4 tell us to rejoice because trials produce a whole and complete Christian. Secondly, verses 5-8 tells us to ask in a way that is “whole”, in order to receive wisdom from God, and finally in verses 9-12 we are to treasure Christ more than anything. 1. 2-4 rejoice in Trials because they produce whole and complete Christians Granted, this is so counter-intuitive. But we know this is true, from our own lives. We learn more through mistakes than victory. A guitarist builds goes through pain before developing tough calluses on the ends of his fingers. When you go to the gym and you want to build muscle. After a workout, your muscles tear and build up stronger. If you want to get good at anything, you need to be willing to put in hours of hard work. I remember partaking in a double, badminton tournament. We were going to play each team in the competition three times. In the first round, we won every game. We thought we wou...

Interesting things about the Book of James The author There are a few James, but most believe it was the brother of Jesus. If this is true, this is a great apologetic argument to prove the resurrection.  Style James is often called the Proverbs of the New Testament. It is a letter, but writing as wisdom literature through proverbs. Date It is the earliest book of the NT. This is interesting to think about, for how different book relate to one another. Jesus’ oral tradition was probably circulating, and he would have been aware of it. Paul was already teaching, even if this was before any of the letters we have of him. Address James is writing pretty early on, it can be assumed that his audience was mostly Jewish, Jewish Christians. The phrase “twelve tribes in the dispersion”, James is writing to the church that has been spread out. James assumes his audience would have been familiar with the OT and Hebrew. 1 :1 Greeting – “to the twelve tribes scattered among the nati...

Sin is a violation of absolute and universal law.  This first point, would be a direct rebuttal to the believes of cultures in the Ancient Near East. In Old Testament, Biblical times, cultures polytheistic. They believed in different gods, who were in control of different areas. Depending on where you were, different laws applied. There are a few implications: Because the Lord God is one, we an an absolute and universal law.  Because there is only one true God, then even those who do not worship him, will be judged by him - This is why the Old Testament prophets can speak against the nations like Babylon, Assyria, Edom or Egypt; as well as Israel. One way the Bible proofs this, is with Elijah on mount Carmel, where he challenges the Baal - 1 Kings 18, especially verse 39. For us today, who are removed from the OT times: Generally we trust our governments, but in some way, they offer the same things ANE cultures did. Based on where you are, different laws exi...

Christian definition of sin: Wayne Grudem defines sin like this - Sin is any failure to conform to the moral law of God in act, attitude, or nature. [1] The moral standard for right and wrong is God's law. Failing to meet the standard is sin. According to Grudem we sin in Act, Attitude and Nature. Sinning in Act This includes everything we do, including our speech. We normally think of God's law as the 10 Commandments in Exodus 20: murder, lying, stealing, ... Sinning in Attitude This includes our thoughts and intentions. So often, we do the right thing for the wrong reasons. This for Christians constitutes of sin. This can be hard to accept, even for Christians.  Thoughts - An argument against this, is: "well, I can't always control what I think! How can I be held accountable for this?" The Bible teaches that it is wrong to covet which is desiring to steal, anger, which is the desire to kill, and lust which is the desire to commit adultery.  ...

The Culture believes in sin! It is important to talk about sin in Church. Because people talk about sin outside of church! They probably don't use the religious word "sin", but there is an assumption that some things are objectively bad. According to an Ellison Research Survey, 87% of Americans believe in the concept of sin. [1] When surveyed over different sins, those 87% never all agreed on a particular sin. For example, these are the percentages of people who believed the following were actually sins: Adultery (81%) Racism (74%) Swearing (46%) Harming the Environment (41%) Getting Drunk (41%) not taking proper care of your body (35%) Gambling (30%) NB: the 87% never all agreed on a particular sin. This means at least 6% believe that sin exists. But adultery is not one of those sins.  What is the difference between how the church and culture view sin? I think they answer the following questions differently and this will help us get to the core, ...