Options 1 and 2…
There are few things that confuse the church more than how to deal with sin.
On the one hand we have Option #1, and I will call this the “God is Love” option. We love people. We don’t want to judge. We don’t want to hold to a kind of legalistic, graceless, or joyless religion that Jesus seemed to confront so often in the gospels. (Matthew 15, Matthew 23, Mark 7) So, we take love and acceptance, each being a key element of the gospel message, and we elevate them over justice, righteousness, and holiness. Since God is love, (1 John 4:8) should we not accept and love all people in His name? Besides, aren’t we not to be known by our love? (John 13:35)
But, on the other hand, we have option #2, and I will call this the “God is Holy” option. We love God’s word. We have an innate drive in us to call right, right, and to call wrong, wrong. We have principles and values, and we function most naturally as we operate according to them. As the Psalmist says, we delight in the word of God! (Psalm 1:2, Psalm 119:16, 97, Psalm 40:8) So, we cling to justice and righteousness, each being a key element of the gospel message, and we elevate them over grace, love, and mercy. Since God is Holy, (Psalm 99) should we not seek to be holy as He is holy? (1 Peter 1:14-16)
The problem is that both of these options fall short, and we will err if we choose either option at the expense of the other.
For example, if we choose option #1 we will completely ignore important aspects of God’s character (i.e. His holiness, righteousness, perfection, justice). If we do this, we will believe a half-truth about our God, and we will fail to see the fullness of His character, we will struggle to read our Bible’s (especially several Old Testament Scriptures), and we will have an incomplete understanding of the work of Christ on the cross, as Christ was the propitiation for our sins! In addition to this, we will lose our ability to preach and teach right and wrong, and the Christian life will begin to conform to the norms of our culture as Christians are afraid to confront sin. This option cannot be the answer.
However, on the other hand, if we choose option #2 we will also completely ignore aspects of God’s character (i.e. His love, mercy, grace, compassion). Again, this will leave us with a half-truth about our God, and we will be inept to understand the significance of Christ’s work upon the cross as the ultimate act of love, grace, mercy, and compassion toward underserving sinners. To put it simply, we cannot understand the gospel without the phrase, “God is Love.” In addition to this, we will turn the Christian walk into nothing more than a list of do’s and don’t’s closely resembling the empty legalistic pursuits of the 1st century Pharisees. Again, this option cannot be the answer.
Another Option?
Both of these options miss the mark, because both are half-truths. In order to respond properly to sin, we must first develop a more accurate understanding of God as He has revealed Himself in Scripture. So I propose another option… Option #3. I will call option #3 the “God is both” option. Although this may seem to be a cop-out at first glance, it is not. Rather, this is crucial to our understanding of the gospel.
God is both love and just. Both grace and righteous. Both kind and holy. Both merciful and perfect. And, to elevate one aspect of His character over another is to misunderstand the fullness of our God.
The Cross is the Proof
The work of Christ has proven that no half-truth about God will suffice. Christ’s work on the cross declared once and for all, “God is Holy.” God takes your sin so seriously that something had to be done about it. You and your sin could not even stand in the presence of your perfect God, because His wrath is poured out on sin. His justice is offended by your wrongdoings, and only perfection can stand in the presence of our perfect God. This is why an expression employed to address our Lord is “Holy, Holy, Holy.” (Isaiah 6:3, Revelation 4:8)
This is why it was necessary for Christ to come on your behalf. He was perfect. He was tempted in every way, yet did not sin. (Hebrews 4:15) And Jesus, the spotless and perfect lamb, (1 Peter 1:19) was sacrificed on the cross for the sins of the world. (1 John 2:2, 1 Peter 3:18). In other words, Christ suffered and died because your sins are so serious and so grievous that they required a perfect sacrifice if you were going to have any chance of standing before God. God is serious about our sin, and so should we be.
Christ’s work on the cross declared once and for all, “God is Love!” He demonstrated his perfect love in that He did not leave us in our sin, but while we were still sinners He died for us. (Romans 5:8) The cross of Christ is grace! The gospel is nothing apart from the understanding that no sin is too great for the work of the cross to atone! God loves you so fully and completely that He let nothing stand in His way of saving you from your sin! If we fail to see the seriousness of our sin, then by extension and consequence we will fail to see the fullness of God’s grace.
Our God is Love, and our God is Holy… In order to understand the gospel, we must understand that our God is both!
How Does this Work in the Church?
We Take Sin Seriously.
We take sin seriously. Because God takes our sin seriously, we must not take our sin lightly! It should break our hearts. It should drive us to repentance. Grace has not rendered sin irrelevant. Grace has not made sin break the heart of God any less. Grace has not lowered the standards of God’s will through His word through His people. This means that we are called to speak up and to speak out against the sin that seeks to creep into the church. (1 Corinthians 5) This means that we choose to speak truth in love. (Ephesians 4:15) This means that continually seek the identification of sin in our lives, purification from the sin in our lives, and ultimately, the mortification of the sin in our lives. (This is a great resource for a better understanding of this topic; The Mortification of Sin by John Owen) We should take our sin seriously, because it is only through a serious reflection on our depravity that we can fully understand the grace offered through the work of Jesus on the cross.
Grace has not removed the seriousness of our sin. Rather, Grace has simply created in us new motivation for fighting it, and a new hope in the midst of it.
Therefore, We Take Grace Seriously
As seriously as we regard sin, and because of how seriously we take our sin, we are able to understand the grace of God! We take God’s grace seriously! Meaning, there is no sin, past, present, or future, that is too big or grievous for the grace of God. It knows no bounds! We rejoice in the fact that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. The grace of God meets us right where we are through Jesus Christ!
This means, as a church, we should be eager to extend the grace that was extended so freely to us! When we understand the severity of our sin and the extent of the forgiveness offered through Christ, we are able to offer grace to those around us in ways that could have previously not been understood.
Our God is Love and our God is Holy! Therefore, as God’s people, we are able to simultaneously take sin and grace seriously in our lives and in our church. To ignore one over the other is to misunderstand them both, because they must coexist.