he who has eyes...

 ”But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” [Romans 5:8]

“Hi, I’m Mike, and I’m an alcoholic.”

“Oh, Steve? Yeah, he’s a homosexual.”

This sort of labeling happens all the time in society. People are defined by what they do, not necessarily who they are. And, it seems like this leads to a culture that defines itself by its deeds, not just the good things it has done, but its sins as well.

To me, it seems that a particularly damaging lifestyle is all the harder to be free from when it is who you are. “What can I do? I’m an alcoholic? I’ve been sober for three months, but this particular challenge is difficult. What do I, as an alcoholic, do to deal with this hardship?”

When you are defined by your sin, it owns you all the more.

There is an evangelical movement called “The Way of the Master” co-led by none other than Kirk Cameron — one of my absolute favorites! Sadly though, I have in my old age started to stray from the ways of Mike Seaver as I’ve found in watching the Way of the Master videos that I am strangely uncomfortable with what is being taught. I couldn’t tell why at first, and in fact pegged it on the fact that it was too rigid a method — there didn’t seem to be room for the Holy Spirit to guide a conversation towards Christ in a more meaningful way. The Way of the Master instructs those evangelically-minded individuals the way to “share your faith” and to “seek and save the lost the way Jesus did”. But, to me, it seemed to be quite different. They preach a step-by-step approach to share the Truth of God by asking a series of leading questions, often to people that you just encounter on the street. Since the fall and subsequent pain of the human condition is uniform across all peoples, all people should be able to be led to God by asking the same set of questions.

You’re an agnostic? Here’s a set of questions. You’re a Jew? Here’s the same set of questions. You’re a high-powered CEO? Yup, same questions for you, too.

And, this bugged me. This is how Jesus sought and saved the lost? Really!? I seem to remember partying with the “sinners”, washing their feet, healing the sick, raising the freakin’ dead.

But, I’ve recently been able to more adequately define my quibble, and it stems from the questions themselves. They go something like this:

Kirk: Have you ever stolen anything?
Responder (slightly confused): Yeah, I guess so. Like when I was eight, I stole a bag of chips.
Kirk: What does that make you?
Responder (now a bit more curious): Uh…
Kirk: Would you say that someone who steals something is called a “thief”?
Responder (somewhat taken aback): Yeah, I guess so.
Kirk: Have you ever thought a hateful thought about someone.
Responder (thinking something hateful): Probably.
Kirk: You know, the Bible says that if you even have a hateful thought in your mind, you’ve already committed murder in your heart. What is someone who commits murder called?
Responder (in utter disbelief): You’ve got to be kidding me. Uh… a murderer?
Kirk: That’s right. A murderer.

Now, that the sin has been addressed and the person realized the direness of their situation, they are prime to share the Gospel with because they are aware of their need.

But, I think that all we’re doing here is defining people by their sin — and I think this has got to be one of the biggest sins of the Church today as a whole. It isn’t just the people who do The Way of the Master (which has produced some wonderful fruit, no doubt!), it’s each and every one of us, at least at some point in time. We marginalize those who are not like us and who are living in sin as being nothing more than a “sinner”. Now, we’d love for them to come to Christ — we would. But, while they are still sinners, we tend to speak to them in disgust, we tend to look down upon them, and we tend to think of them as nothing more than their sin.

Yet, “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” [Romans 5:8].

Jesus died for us because he saw past our being sinners. He saw us as children of God [1 John 3:1]. He saw us as co-heirs with him [Romans 8:17]. He saw us as people who need freedom from the oppression of sin [Romans 6:15-23]. No, we are in fact “more than conquerors through him who loved us” [Romans 8:37].

In fact, the New International Version of the Bible even translates a passage with quotes around the word “sinners”: “While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and ’sinners’ were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him” [Mark 2:15]. I suppose this was purposefully done.

The most central tenant of the entire Christian faith is that though we as children of God are hopelessly separated from our Creator by the sin that stains our life, God sent His perfect, blameless Son to earth to die for our sins. It was Jesus’ ultimate sacrifice on the cross that freed us from our sin so that we could no longer be known as a “sinner”, but now as a child of God with a means for cleansing of this sin.

I want you to do something. Before you hit continue below, I want you to stop and think for five full minutes about what I’m about to share. I’m serious. Look at your clock in the corner of the screen, add five minutes to that, and don’t move on until the time has gotten there.

When Jesus was hanging on the cross with the weight of the world’s sin on Him (which wasn’t just the sin of the day or anything like that, but includes the sin you acted out this morning), he cried out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” [Mark 15:34]. In quoting the poem On Cowper’s Grave by Robert Browning, D.A. Carson suggests that the reason for Christ saying this wasn’t just because he was quoting scripture [Psalm 22:1]. It goes deeper.

Jesus asked the Father “Why have you forsaken me?” so that for the rest of eternity you and I wouldn’t have to.

Continue…