Sin & Redemption

We at Mt Zion Baptist are shortly going to finish two studies. We have been unpacking the book of Ruth on Sunday evenings and looking at the doctrine of sin during the morning worship service. In these studies, we are at opposite ends of the infinite spectrum of God. What I mean by that is, Ruth is a book where you see God's sovereignty, protection, care and love as The Kinsman Redeemer. You see God in the background of every verse and in all the characters in the story. In the end, we are also surprised to know that we too are also part of that story in our own redemption. Then, on the opposite end of the continuum on Sunday mornings, we have looked at how God sees and judges sin. We see God's wrath and the cost of sin that requires death and how the perfect God/Man Christ Jesus has taken our wrath and atoned for our sins. A very heavy subject is the doctrine of sin. However, a doctrine that needs to once again be heralded from the pulpits of America that has grown apathetic and comfortable with its sin.

In looking at both sin and redemption like this has taken me on a roller coaster ride if emotions that no words can quite describe. I have literally fallen down on my face before a holy, holy, holy God as I have seen my sin more clearly in the light of seeing Him more clearly. Then as I look and understand more of the truth about God revealed in the book of Ruth, I have thrown up my hands and praised Him for the righteousness of His son, who was imputed onto me His righteousness and allows me to hidden and protected under His wing. Glory to God! Alleluia, praise the Lord! Blessed be His name!

This has driven me to seek with a passion to know God more. Like Paul said in Philippians 3:10 "That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;" I find that the more I understand of the truth that God has revealed of Himself the more I hunger and thirst to see His face and  to live a life that would bring glory to His name.

This lead me to read a small book by Tozer called The Knowledge of the Holy: The Attributes of God: Their Meaning in the Christian Life, which I would recommend to put on your reading list. In the very first chapter Tozer says a striking statement: "What comes to our when we think about God is the most important thing about us." Today, I would submit to you that for most in the Christian church there are very few thoughts of God and the thoughts we have are thoughts of a "god" that we have made up in our own minds. It's a god we have made up to suite our own spiritual needs. We have redefined God into who we want Him to be - a god that is okay with our nominal lukewarm Christianity and pet sins. The result has been a church that gathers together to worship an image that we've created.