Balance

I remember having a conversation with another Christian on a particular doctrine of the Bible. I think that it was the doctrine of hell. I had said something about the need to be balanced when thinking and speaking about that doctrine. This person asked what I meant by balanced. He was expecting that I was going to appeal to what felt right to me. To his surprise, I said that we should stress the doctrine to the same degree that the Bible stresses it. 

I'd like to take that and apply it to another doctrine, the doctrine of sin. Does the Bible talk about sin? Dumb question. Do we sin? Another dumb question. But how much should we stress the fact that we sin? Not a dumb question! 

Paul spends a good bit of time talking about the problem of sin as he lays out the Gospel in his letter to the church in Rome. He explains it and how the Gospel is the answer to the problem of our sin. He also anticipates objections to what he has written. And that gets us to chapter eight. And how does that chapter begin? 

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. Romans 8:1–4 

Now, I don't know about you, but I think that that paragraph overflows with all sorts of encouraging thoughts: no condemnation for us, the work of God resulting in our freedom from sin and death, our walking/living according to the Spirit. And it's not as if that were the end of it. The chapter is filled with truths that continually lift my spirits. Here's just one more thought from that chapter that the Spirit has used and continues to use very powerfully in my life. 

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? Romans 8:31 

Try to plumb the depths of the thought that God - the Almighty God who created all of this and keeps it going, the God who doesn't need you - that this God is for you. He's on your side. He's in your corner shouting encouragement to you as you battle against the evils of this world. In fact, He's not just in your corner, He's right there with you in the midst of the fight. Try to imagine that. And even with this, Paul isn't finished. Read the rest of the chapter. 

Now, let me take all of this back to where I started. I wonder if there are some of us who are not balanced when it comes to some basics of the Christian life. I wonder if there are some of us who stress and stress our sinfulness so much that it's out of balance. Oh, to be sure, we sin. But it is also true that we are so forgiven that the thought of condemnation doesn't even occur to God. Any such thought is so foreign to Him. As a result, He is so very 'for us', right there with us as we do battle with the forces of evil, encouraging us, strengthening us, cheering us on. What a beautiful picture of what it means to be a Christian! I suspect that some of us would do well to stress this part of the Gospel a bit more (and maybe our sinfulness a bit less?) so that we could be more balanced in - and more encouraged by - what we tell ourselves as we navigate this life. What do you think?