theology-sin

theology-sin

Human Heart and Unbelief: A Biblical Perspective

/ Richard Bargas / Leave a comment

“Therefore many of the Jews who came to Mary, and saw what He had done, believed in Him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them the things which Jesus had done. Therefore the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the Sanhedrin together, and were saying, ‘What are we doing? For this man is doing many signs. If we let Him go on like this, all will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.’”  (John 11:45–48, LSB)

It is amazing how deep the human capacity is for unbelief and skepticism. In Luke 16:19-31, Jesus tells the parable of the rich man who is cast into hell. The man begs for permission to allow Lazarus to rise from the dead to go and warn his brothers that hell is not only real but that they are heading toward joining him. The rich man believes that if only a dead man will warn them, then their hard hearts will melt and they will believe. In Jesus’ parable, Abraham tells the rich man that these five brothers have the Scriptures and that this testimony from God should be enough. The rich man disagrees. After all, he too had the Scriptures, and he ended up in hell! No, a man raised from the dead was needed. Something so miraculous, so irrefutable that they had to believe and repent. He had one shot at getting through to his brothers, and he knew he needed a BIG sign to get their attention.

After Jesus raised his friend Lazarus from the dead (not the fictional man by the same name), we read in John 11:45-48 the response of those that were eyewitnesses. Many believed in Him, Jesus (v. 45). But notice where the emphasis moves after the mention of those who believed; some went to the unbelieving religious leaders and told them what Jesus had done. Since this group is set apart from those who believed, we shouldn’t be confused about what they were doing. They weren’t reporting the miracle as a good thing, but as a concern.

And the Pharisees, how did they take it? They didn’t deny that Jesus was doing sings that pointed people to God, and that they were irrefutable. They were past the phase where they considered Jesus a huckster and fraud. No, Jesus was demonstrating unmistakable power, most likely from God Himself. His power not only confirmed that He had been sent by God, but it further undergirded His own claim to be God.

This led them to a greater fear than the fear of God. They feared losing their positions of power and prominence. They feared that if word spread, the believers would grow to the point that everyone would believe that Jesus was the promised Messiah. But their fears were unfounded. Everyone wouldn’t believe, and their own resistance in the face of proof was evidence of the stubborn hearts of men. A man had been raised from the dead and it was very clear that Jesus did this by His own power. Yet, those who reported didn’t believe in Him, and neither did the majority of the religious leaders.

There are some people who say they are agnostic in their beliefs, denying God because they think evidence is lacking. But will there ever be enough evidence for these doubters? The proof of God is all around them and even beats within their chests. God sent His Son, and His Son died on the cross as the Savior of the world. “But…I need more proof.” The problem isn’t that proof doesn’t exist. The problem is the human heart, laden with sin, doesn’t want to believe. There is no neutral ground. God has shown Himself in so many ways, but still the human heart wants to suppress that knowledge:

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, both His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish heart was darkened.  (Romans 1:18–21, LSB)

The people that watched Lazarus come out of that tomb believed in God, but they couldn’t believe in Jesus. The Pharisees believed in God, but they rejected Jesus. The agnostic doesn’t deny God exists, he just doesn’t have enough proof to believe. But that’s not an honest assessment, as much as the agnostic wants it to sound humble and honest. The evidence is “clearly seen” and so all people, are without excuse.

What’s the solution? Seek God. Go to Him in humble prayer and ask Him to reveal Himself to you. Pick up a Bible and read it. It is God’s Word to you. Begin in the New Testament, maybe in John, the Gospel I am writing from this morning. Then as you read, let the God who came to save the world speak to you through His Word.  

The Heart of Teaching: Aligning with God’s Truth

/ Richard Bargas / Leave a comment

“Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word. You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me.” (John 8:43–45, LSB)

In the back-and-forth between Jesus and the religious leaders, Jesus made a telling comment regarding the reason behind their resistance to His teaching. These devout Jewish leaders were not representing or speaking on behalf of God as they purported. They were not God’s men, even though almost anyone within Israel would have believed that they were. They had been well-trained in the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings, and they knew the traditions of the rabbis that dated back many years. And yet, Jesus doesn’t align their teaching with God, but rather with Satan.

The root of their teaching wasn’t so much the words they said as the heart from which it emerged. The doctrine they espoused may have found its source in the Old Testament, but it never had penetrated much deeper than their minds. Their hearts were filled with murder and malice. Even though they knew what the Old Testament said and taught, their hearts twisted and ignored God’s teaching so that they were planning murder even in the face of the most unmistakable evidence of Jesus’ divinity.

Just as in the 1st Century, there are a lot of competing ideas about religion. Some incorporate truth with a mixture of folly. Others are more satanic. But even those that are closest to the teaching of Scripture, if not aligned with a changed heart given by the Spirit of God, can lead to cultic, even satanic behavior. In other words, our teaching and doctrine might be orthodox, and yet our hearts might be spewing the infectious poison of hell.

How can we know? Jesus made it clear that knowing the truth is not enough. We must believe the Word of God and not lies. When we read the Scripture and yet our lives demonstrate rebellion against the God of heaven, we ought to pause. “Do I believe, or do I merely say the right things and live in rebellion to the God I say I love?” I can’t answer that question for you, but Jesus’ words are a good reminder for all of us that it is not words versus deeds, but deeds that emerge from beliefs (however imperfect) that give evidence of what is truly in our hearts.

Not All Glory is Gold

/ Richard Bargas / 1 Comment

“I do not receive glory from men;…How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the only God?” (John 5:41, 44 LSB)

The glory of men is intoxicating. I know a lot of Christians who won’t touch alcohol, but I see many who constantly sip at the bottle of glory. What’s that saying about pointing at others and there are three fingers pointing back at you? Yes, in many ways we struggle with receiving glory from men.

In a section of John 5, Jesus is instructing the Jews about His identity, and they are very clear on at least one thing, Jesus is “making Himself equal with God” (Jn 5:18). As Jesus teaches, He doesn’t try to diffuse the bomb he has handed to them, but rather adds more gunpowder to the already explosive conversation.

Christ speaks about being able to break the Sabbath, and how he keeps the Father’s will perfectly. This includes the power to judge and give life. Both of these references were not meant to simply refer to common everyday judgment and life-giving actions, but rather to the eternal prerogative of God, to cast into hell or raise into heaven, as well as to raise the dead in the resurrection.

These verses, and the self-reference to the title “Son of Man” (Jn 5:27) refer to Daniel’s vision of the Son of Man being given such powers from the Ancient of Days, the Father.

All of these are powerful references and images that pull back the mask of Jesus’ full identity, showing to his audience that He is more than the carpenter’s son from Nazareth.

In this mix of self-revelation, Jesus adds the truth about these self-righteous leaders. They loved to honor one another, give one another honorific titles, and pat each other on the back. We read about Jesus chastening them often over their self-congratulatory attitudes. And when I read about this, I often see a not too dim reflection of what I see in myself and in many of my fellow Christians at times.

Sometimes called a “humble brag” or couched in “praise reports” or displayed in our Instagram, X, or Facebook feeds, we see the boasting of those who acknowledge that pride is a sin. And when we see another fall, we hear the roar of prideful men speaking with what appears to get the back-slapping approval of their fellow Christians, I am reminded of how cancerous our pride can be.

I, for one, am not done with my personal fight with pride in my own heart. When I am walking in the Spirit, I don’t want to steal the glory from God, and I don’t want to garner the praises of men. So that means I need to watch carefully my life and doctrine, because pride is always there, lurking in the shadows not too far away.

Sin Makes Us Stupid

/ Richard Bargas / 2 Comments

“Then the heart of the king of Aram was enraged over this thing; and he called his servants and said to them, “Will you not tell me which of us is for the king of Israel?” And one of his servants said, “No, my lord, O king; but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom.” So he said, “Go and see where he is, that I may send and take him.” And it was told to him, saying, “Behold, he is in Dothan.”  (2 Kings 6:11–13, LSB)

Elisha was a prophet of God, and as far as prophets go, the Lord was very powerful through him. In 2 Kings 6, this is shown through several vignettes about how God did miracles through the hands of this man of God.

In the above account, Elisha spoils the plans of the Arameans by warning the King of Israel when an ambush was set for him and his army. Clearly God, who is all knowing and nothing is hidden from his sight, was sharing this military intelligence with his man Elisha so that he could warn the Israelite king.

Elisha’s field reports were so accurate that the King of Aram was certain that he had a spy in his midst. “…Which of us is for the king of Israel?” It was an obvious conclusion to come to under the circumstance. If the battle plans are made known to the enemy, clearly there is a leak. But there is a twist in the plot. No one among the Arameans is being unfaithful. There is no spy.

Somehow, the servants had found out that the source of the leak was not among them, but was the prophet Elisha. This man of God was so privy to the king’s secret plans that even if something was spoken of in the innermost chambers of the king’s bedroom, Elisha would know about it.

Okay, we understand that much. But what is dumbfounding to me is the way the Aramean king sought to fix this intelligence leak—by silencing Elisha. It shouldn’t be hard because his location wasn’t a secret. They knew exactly what town he was in, and where to find him.

So, the king who couldn’t keep a secret from God was now demanding that his soldier go and arrest this prophet…Do you see the hole in his logic? Would they sneak up on him? Perhaps wear camouflage? Ninja-style?

In the next section of the account, we find out that Elisha wasn’t surprised. Why not? Because God isn’t blind and he’s not deaf either. Of course, the Lord could have allowed Elisha to be completely ignorant of the plans. But he didn’t let that happen.

Back to the king. He knew God saw and heard everything. He knew God was telling Elisha his plans. And yet he thought he could somehow swoop in and surprise Elisha and arrest or maybe kill him?

The Bible is filled with examples of how sin makes us stupid. Life is filled with even more examples. I’ll probably prove this truth myself, today. I hope I don’t. But I am not sinless, and neither are you, dear reader. We will mess up, and we will need the blood of Jesus to forgive us again.

But that’s not the point of this little article. The point is that we can’t hide our sins from God. We might be able to hide them from others, maybe for a long time. But God knows and sees. All of it. Doing dumb stuff is a result of our fallen nature. But acting like God doesn’t see it all? That’s truly stupid.

Restoration Without True Repentance

/ Richard Bargas / Leave a comment

“Come, let us return to Yahweh. For He has torn us, but He will heal us; He has struck us, but He will bandage us.…What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? For your lovingkindness is like a morning cloud and like the dew which goes away early.” (Hosea 6:1, 4, LSB)

There is a type of emotional response that happens when one is caught in the consequences of one’s sin. The prospect of facing jail time or an imminent divorce will often bring the guilty to their knees. I was surprised to see a young man at the door of my office that I hadn’t seen in many years. His father came to our church, and as a younger teen, he had accompanied him. This man expressed to me that he knew that his life needed to change and that we would begin once again attending church services. His words seemed to be genuine, but I could sense there was more to this sudden devotion that appeared out of thin air.

Following that morning’s service, the young man came with his father to my office gain and once again spoke of the changes he was feeling regarding his desire to “get right with God.” After a few moments of this, the real motivation for his return emerged. He had been caught printing and using counterfeit US bills and was soon going to be facing a judge for his crimes. He and his father wanted to know if I would be willing to write a character letter that stated that this man had frequently attended church (which he had not in many years) and that he had good moral character (which he did not have). After listening to his appeal, I shared with him that if his return to Christ was true and sincere, then he should speak truthfully at this court hearing about his guilt, entrusting himself to the mercy of God. If he was imprisoned, then God would be with him. If God showed mercy and he was given a lesser penalty for his crime, then God’s grace was the source of this reprieve from the consequences he deserved. Whatever the case, if he was sincere, he needed to continue in his profession of faith and walk with the Lord since he claimed his faith was genuine and not simply a ploy to escape the consequences of his sin. I then shared that I would not write the letter he asked for since to do so would be lying. I never saw that man again, and his father soon left our church, angry that I refused to help his son escape prison time for counterfeiting money.

In the above passage from the book of Hosea, God’s people are acting similarly. They are feigning an attitude of repentance from their sin, but there is not much below the surface. Hosea 6:1 says, “Come, let us return to Yahweh. For He has torn us, but He will heal us; He has struck us, but He will bandage us.” Notice that the people never say what they are guilty of doing. They speak about the consequences of God’s hand upon them, but they do not address their own sin. Like Cain’s response to murdering his brother Abel (Gen 4:13-14), nothing is said about guilt, only the desire to remove the burden of the consequences.

Did God see through their plot and refusal to truly deal with the source of God’s displeasure? Absolutely! In Hosea 6:4, God responded with these words: “What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? For your lovingkindness is like a morning cloud and like the dew which goes away early.” Like dew that vanishes with the rising sun, so too did the love of Judah. Once the consequences were lifted, the Lord knew that the people would return to their sinful ways.

So what is the solution? True repentance and faith. The words that are spoken by Judah are true. God will heal and bandage what he has torn and damaged, but he will not bring about that restoration if we still conceal our deception and sin. We might be able to play games with people, hiding our intentions and true heart attitudes behind emotional appeals, but God knows the heart (2Chron 6:30; Acts 1:24).