The Problem With Sin
There are two parts of Joshua chapter seven that are intermingled; the defeat of the Israelites at Ai and the story of the sin of Achan. In this chapter we’ll look at Achan and our problem with sin. In the next chapter we’ll dive into why Israel
The people of Israel had just crossed the Jordan River into the Promised Land when they came up against the fortified city of Jericho Jericho Israel
Joshua was quite clear that the people were not to take the spoils of Jericho
Joshua 7:1
But the children of Israel committed a trespass regarding the accursed things, for Achan the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed things; so the anger of the LORD burned against the children of Israel.
God doesn’t mess around with sin, so He went to Joshua and said:
Joshua 7:10-15
“Get up! Why do you lie thus on your face? Israel Israel Israel : “There is an accursed thing in your midst, O Israel
God tells Joshua that this sin is serious and that if it isn’t dealt with, bad things will happen. He then tells Joshua to root it out, find it, and destroy this sin before it destroys them.
Joshua 7:16-26
So Joshua rose early in the morning and broughtIsrael by their tribes, and the tribe of Judah Judah
So Joshua rose early in the morning and brought
Now Joshua said to Achan, “My son, I beg you, give glory to the LORD God of Israel, and make confession to Him, and tell me now what you have done; do not hide it from me.”
And Achan answered Joshua and said, “Indeed I have sinned against the LORD God of Israel, and this is what I have done: When I saw among the spoils a beautiful Babylonian garment, two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them. And there they are, hidden in the earth in the midst of my tent, with the silver under it.”
So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent; and there it was, hidden in his tent, with the silver under it. And they took them from the midst of the tent, brought them to Joshua and to all the children of Israel Israel
Then they raised over him a great heap of stones, still there to this day. So the LORD turned from the fierceness of His anger. Therefore the name of that place has been called the Valley of Achor
WOW! Because of Achan’s sin they stoned him, then set him on fire! They certainly did deal with the sin! God tells Joshua that the sin needs to be dealt with, and He emphasizes that point with this sentence in verse 12: “Neither will I be with you anymore, unless you destroy the accursed from among you.” I certainly want to deal with my sin because the last thing I want is for God not to be with me anymore, so I better root it out and destroy it or else…
The Struggle with the Struggle
How we do that is the question… how do we stop sinning so that God won’t leave us? Isn’t that the problem? We have this difficulty with sin… it continues and continues and continues to rear its ugly head. It’s in our nature, tattooed on our DNA. We were born sinners and we spend most of our lives struggling with this tendency. It’s frustrating when we succumb to it. Just when we think we’ve got everything under control, we mess up… We think a thought, do something stupid, become the people that we don’t want to be. We’re screw-ups… hypocrites.
No wonder we so often feel like God is not with us anymore; it’s because of our sin… right? Most of us believe there’s a line between good and bad—and we know we shouldn’t cross it. We also believe that the presence of this line is a good thing, that the line should be there. It needs to be there. The fact that we believe this is proven out by the existence of the frustration we experience after our all-too-frequent battles with sin. It is proven by the fact that we very much desire not to sin any more.
But you know, sometimes we just can’t stop ourselves. It’s as if there is something in the deepest part of us that is stronger than our desire to be on the right side of sin. And that something, way too often, pulls us over to the wrong side. Is there a way to find freedom from this struggle?
The Logical Solution
Years ago I heard what I thought to be a logical solution to our problem with sin. I’ve taught the following several times both from the pulpit and in my writings… This is, I believe, a well-reasoned plan to deal with our problem with sin:
Have you ever pondered darkness? The default in this world is darkness. Without the influence of the sun, or a light bulb, or fire, etc. as an external source for light, everything would revert to darkness. In other words, you can’t, without an external influence, drive darkness away. Walk into a dark room and try and rebuke the darkness… Demand for it to go away… it doesn’t work. Try and flail your arms, jump up and down and push the darkness out… that doesn’t work. You have to employ an external light source; light must fill the darkness for the darkness to be gone.
The same condition exists within our bodies of flesh… our default is sin… we live in a sinful state. Without an external influence we will always default back to sin… Jesus is the Light that will eliminate the darkness in your life. If you fill yourself with Him, you will find freedom from your struggle with darkness. We fill ourselves with His Light by digging deep into the Word, seeking to serve others, through prayer, fellowship, and worship. We need to discipline ourselves and starve our flesh, feed our spirit, and eliminate bad influences. When you spend time in prayer each day, read and study God’s Word first thing every morning, and join a weekly accountability group—it is then when you find freedom! Fill yourself with Light and the darkness will flee!
Does that make sense or what?! It’s fantastic! Finally a logical path to freedom!
But…
A Flawed System
Oh, brother… wouldn’t you know it… there’s always a but. I’m sorry to say, but this but is a big but… As logical and well-reasoned as this argument is… it simply does not lead to a life free from sinning. I hate to burst your bubble, but I’ve tried every way imaginable and it doesn’t work… We will not find freedom even from an ingenious, logical, well-reasoned system or routine.
This is where I get very strong opposition and rebuke from pastors, ministers, and the “disciplined” church leader. You see, for them, refraining from sin is uncomplicated; there are very few temptations that tempt them to the point of succumbing because of this wonderful system they have in place to avoid tempting circumstance. Pastors will brag that they don’t meet with women alone… thereby squelching their temptation to lust. Ministers make sure we know that they spend hours a day in prayer and Bible study… thereby avoiding any temptation to covet or lie. The disciplined church leader will spend 10 percent of their day in the Word, 10 percent in prayer and 10 percent serving… making it impossible for them to struggle with the temptations that so easily besets the undisciplined commoner.
Oh, they still admit that they sin, but in that admission is a caveat to save their image. They feel it necessary to try and convince us that this system they have set up has removed most of the struggle; therefore sin doesn’t overtake them like it does us regular folk.
But there’s one fatal flaw in this system… they’re lying. I know this because, as a former insider in the pious church leadership, I’ve witnessed these same pastors fall to lust. I’ve listened to confessions firsthand from ministers who covet greatly what the world has—and what they’ve had to give up to become ministers. I’ve seen with my own eyes way too many disciplined church leaders fail.
I don’t say that to their discredit; I was one of them. Paul the Apostle even spoke of his struggle (Romans 7:14-24, 1 Timothy 1:15). I say this because we need to know that as long as we are in these bodies of flesh, we will struggle with and fall to sin daily.
A Test
Some people question that statement. If that’s you, then I want to challenge you to a test of your ability to overcome your tendency to sin… I want you to take the next two hours of your day and not sin. And just so you know what you’re up against, let’s define what being sin-free entails: no selfish thoughts, no prideful demeanor, 100 percent in tune with the Father’s will without swaying from it for even a fraction of a second, doing everything you know needs to be done every second of every minute of every hour, never missing the mark on anything at any time, always doing the right thing at the right time in the proper manner with the proper motive.
I’m willing to venture that while you read that last sentence you sinned, but if not… your time starts now. Two hours, no sin… I’ll wait…
How’d it go? How’d you do? The whole two hours without a sin? Liar…
We can’t do it; we cannot live sin-free. But… and this but is a good but… we don’t have to be enslaved to sin. We can find freedom—not from sinning, but from sin!
I Will Repay
I have a friend; we’ll say his name is Chris because Greg told me I could use his story but asked me not to use his name. About ten years ago Chris was caught embezzling money from his employer and was fired. This embarrassed him so much that he quickly took a damage control posture; to save his image he told everyone he knew, family and friends, that he was framed. “I didn’t do it,” he said. “It was someone else in the company and he blamed it on me.”
After about two months of this charade, now broke, behind on his bills and desperate, he loaded up his car and moved into his mom’s spare bedroom five states away, hoping to start afresh. But the guilt was killing him and his lies now had to become more and more elaborate. He knew that something had to be done or he would drive himself to an emotional breakdown. Chris had been around Christian churches and believers for most of his life, and it was about then that God started to get a hold of him once again. God started slowly pulling him back into His arms. Eventually Chris broke down.
Sitting on the aisle in his mother’s church, he began to weep uncontrollably, dedicating his life to Christ. That afternoon he wrote a letter to everyone he had been lying to, telling them the truth. He even wrote a letter to his former boss Mark, asking for forgiveness. In that letter he also wrote that, despite Mark specifically telling him that it wasn’t about the money and that he didn’t want to be paid back, he wanted to make an attempt to pay back every cent of what he stole.
It was that day that Chris finally reached bottom and could start to rebuild his life. But the guilt didn’t go away. Despite his attempts to finally do the right thing, he just couldn’t shake this incredible feeling of disgust for his actions.
One year passed, then two, then three, then four, and now, fighting depression and addiction, Chris cried out for help. He was trying to do the right thing, he was trying to live life according to God’s plan, but he was failing miserably. About four and a half years after reaching bottom, Chris decided to approach one of the ministers at his church to tell him what he was going through.
“I can’t shake this disgust in myself, the guilt is driving me into the ground. I don’t know what to do. I want to pay Mark back but God hasn’t given me the financial wherewithal to do that… what should I do… how can I be free from this burden that is killing me?”
The counselor gave Chris some good advice that day, telling him that he didn’t have the answer but that God did. He instructed Chris to seek the Lord in His Word, to pray that he would be led to the perfect place within the Bible that would give him direction.
That night Chris took that advice and sat down on his bed, praying that God would lead him. He opened his Bible to, of all places, the book of Philemon. Philemon?! Is that in the Bible? Philemon, as everyone who has spent twelve years in a room with no windows studying the Bible knows, is a short letter written by the Apostle Paul to a guy named Philemon… Paul was sending to Philemon a guy named Onesimus who evidently was a former slave of Philemon’s. Apparently Onesimus had stolen something from or did something to his former master—and then scooted out of town. While he was gone, Onesimus gave his life to Christ and was now charged to go back to his old stomping grounds to minister to the people there.
Paul, in this short letter, was writing Philemon to tell him that Onesimus was on his way back. Pretty standard Bible stuff for the first 16 verses… then Chris got to verses 17-19:
If then you count me as a partner, receive him as you would me. But if he has wronged you or owes anything, put that on my account. I, Paul, am writing with my own hand. I will repay…
It hit Chris hard… it was as if Jesus was speaking to him directly… “Put it on My account… I will repay.”
I have a confession. This story isn’t about Chris or Greg… it’s about me. I was the guy who stole from his boss. I was the guy who lied to his friends and family. I was the guy who lived with a huge burden for several years. And I was the guy who was freed from that burden after reading Philemon.
Yes, just like in the days of Joshua, our sin absolutely needs to be dealt with and dealt with harshly… The reason that so many of us fail in our attempts to find freedom is because we fail to understand that it was dealt with by Jesus, on the cross. Our debt was paid. Your sin, yesterday’s, today’s and tomorrow’s, was put on the account of Jesus and we have been proclaimed innocent of all transgression. When you believe that, that is the day you will find freedom from sin. Your guilt… gone! Your burden… erased! Your sins… forgiven! You don’t have to worry about sin any more!
As Far as East is from West
“But James, James, James, you are so naïve… I appreciate your passion, but there is a difference between salvation and sanctification. Yes, we have been proclaimed innocent, but God does require us now, as Christians, to live holy lives. The Bible tells us that He will hold us accountable for the stewardship of what He has entrusted to us.”
To those who believe that to mean that God will, for example, hold you accountable for misusing the money or time He’s given you, let me ask you one question: If sin is defined as “missing the mark,” and the mark is perfection, then anything you do short of perfection is, by definition, sin. But the Bible also teaches us that for those who believe in Jesus Christ, God will remove their transgressions from them “as far as east is from west” (Psalm 103:11-12) and that He will remember our sins no more (Jeremiah 31:33). So, at the judgment where you say God is going to hold us accountable for our bad stewardship of the things He entrusted to us, which sins will God retrieve from wherever He cast them and which transgressions will He then remember that He said He would forget?
A Compelling Argument
The argument is compelling though when we read some of the parables and interpret them with the assumption that we Christians will be held to account for our stewardship. For example, in Matthew 25, Jesus says this of the coming Kingdom of God
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey. Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. And likewise he who had received two gained two more also. But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord’s money. After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them. So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, ‘Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.’ His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’ He also who had received two talents came and said, ‘Lord, you delivered to me two talents; look, I have gained two more talents besides them.’ His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’
“Then he who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.’ But his lord answered and said to him, ‘You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest. So take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents. For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’”
Seems pretty clear. We are taught from many preachers (personally I’ve heard it from more than a few very well-known and highly respected mega-church pastors) that God has given us “talents,” which in this parable refers to money, but could also refer to actual talents like music or preaching or insert your talent here. We’re then told that we will be held to account at the judgment seat for what we do with or how good of stewards we are of those gifts.
If we carry the logic out to its end (something many pastors fail to do) it would mean that if God has given you $1,000 (I’ll just use money as the example because it is easy to follow), He expects you, as His servant, to bring back a return on that gift. If you bring back to Him $2,000, you will be greeted in Heaven with “Well done, good and faithful servant!” If you don’t, and only bring back the original $1,000… well, then you will be cast into “outer darkness.” Heaven, for those who are good with money and hell to those who aren’t… did I get that right? That’s what it says right?
I guess then we need to change John 3:16 and have it read: For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him [and is a good steward of everything that He gives you] should not perish but have everlasting life. But that’s not what John 3:16 says; it doesn’t have that caveat. It just reads “that whoever believes in Him should not perish”… so maybe, just maybe, we have misinterpreted this parable?
A Closer Look
This parable has, as I see it, three things that need to be defined. We need to define who the Master represents, who the servants represent, and what the talents represent. If we define those things, I think we will have a good idea of what the interpretation of the parable should be.
First, the Master: We see in the first part of Matthew 25 that the parables Jesus tells are in reference to the end times, specifically we are looking at references to the Kingdom of Heaven Kingdom of Heaven
Next, the servants: If the Master is the Father, who then could the servants be? Since we are speaking about the end days when it is determined who the good and faithful servants are and who is destined for “outer darkness,” and since the servants here are the ones being judged, that would logically make the servants the human race: you, me and everyone else.
Sounds pretty standard so far… but the definition of “talents” is where I tend to separate from the common interpretation.
The talents: This is where we need to use the Bible to interpret the Bible. Let’s figure this out by examining the last servant who received one talent and buried it. At the judgment he was thrown into outer darkness where “there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” This is a fairly obvious reference to hell. Since the Bible does not contain contradictions, we must then be able to line this teaching up with the rest of the Bible’s teachings.
Now, as you hopefully will agree, the most important doctrine in the Bible is the doctrine of salvation. What does the Bible have to say about salvation? How does a human being get saved from being thrown into outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth? Seems like this is something we should know, so let’s have a look:
John 3:16
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
John 3:18
“He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
John 3:36
“He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
John 5:24
“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.”
John 6:29
“This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”
John 6:40
“And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”
John 11:25-26
“I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.”
I don’t know about you but I started to see a pattern forming at about the second verse within the words of Jesus… Salvation comes to those who BELIEVE in Him… weeping and gnashing of teeth to those who do not believe.
So let’s plug this information into the parable. Since the only prerequisite to being allowed to enter Heaven is belief in Jesus, then the opposite is true as well; the only prerequisite for being cast into outer darkness would be to not believe in Jesus… So possibly, just possibly the talent in the parable is representative of belief?
Believe or Bury?
According to Romans chapter one, God has clearly revealed Himself to everyone. To some, like myself, He did so in a variety of ways… In other words… God gave me (through my family, my church while growing up, my college, etc.) several talents or opportunities to believe… What did I do with those opportunities? Did I believe and allow Him to change my life and use me to reveal Himself to others? Or did I tell Him, “Not now. I’ll bury this revelation and maybe use it when I am done living it up”?
Our Master is going to return at a time that will surprise a lot of people… what type of servant have you been? What have you done with the measure of faith God has given you? That is what the Master is going to judge us on… If you believed, your life reflected that belief, and you brought back a return on that revelation. If you didn’t believe, well then you were not faithful with the opportunities God gave you to believe—and you will be cast into outer darkness.
The bottom line is that your sin has been dealt with and all you have to do to receive the amazing gift of forgiveness is believe! If you do that you will hear the words from the Master: “Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.”
Show Me Someone Who Believes
I realize there is an argument against this type of teaching, against someone telling another person that the only thing they must do to receive everlasting life is to believe—and I do understand why we are timid to say this outright. We are afraid that if we make it that easy, some people will say something like: “Great! Since my sin is taken care of through my belief then I can do whatever I want! I don’t have to be a good steward, I don’t have to live a holy life, I can do whatever I want and God will have to give me grace!”
To them I say: If you show me someone who believes, I’ll show you someone who doesn’t want to sin… and if you show me someone who wants to sin, I’ll show you someone who doesn’t believe.
You see, belief in Jesus is the cure, and with every cure there will be evidence of its effectiveness. The evidence that you exhibit when you believe in Jesus will be, and there are no exceptions to this, a changed life! Once you believe, Jesus will supernaturally take over your life.
And like Joshua did for the people of Israel
