Have you ever wondered how it is that the guiltiest of people have no trouble maintaining their innocence, even in the face of overwhelming evidence of their guilt? “I am basically a good person, and I always tell the truth and always do the right things.” How can people tell such bold-faced lies? It is because we are at the core sinful people and are determined to continue in our sin.

In this light, I was again struck by the fascinating story of Joseph and his brothers when the ten brothers come down to Egypt to buy grain. We take up the story in Genesis 42. The brothers appear before Joseph, who is the prime minister of Egypt and is the one who has full authority to give out the grain. He is dressed as royalty and has no doubt taken on some of the features of the Egyptians, so he is unrecognizable to his brothers, but the brothers are immediately recognized by Joseph. “You are spies, and you have come to look at the undefended parts of our land (Genesis 42:9).” The response I want to highlight is what the brothers say next. “We are honest men . . .” This becomes the statement that controls the action for the rest of the chapter.

Consider the irony of this statement from Joseph’s ten brothers, “We are honest men,” because these men are certainly not honest men. They themselves know that they are not honest men; Joseph knows that they are not honest men; the readers of the Scriptures know that these are not honest men. These are men who have taken their own brother, Joseph, and thrown him into a pit to die and then sold him into slavery to passing Midianites. These same men then lied to their own father, telling him that Joseph had been killed by wild beasts. These men themselves know that they are not honest men, but are living a lie and have betrayed their own brother, and his blood is still on their hands. Yet they have the audacity to say, “We are honest men.” “O, Mr. Prime Minister, you can trust us not to be spies, because we declare to you that we are honest men.”

More than that, Joseph, before whom they stand, knows that they are not honest men. These are the men who threw him into a pit for no reason and who ignored his pleas for mercy and laughed when he begged them to do the right thing. These are the “honest men” who sold him into slavery into Egypt and stole from him the best years of his life. These are the “honest men” who exercised cruelty and hatred toward Joseph and now they stand before him and say, “We’re basically good guys.” They do not know that the one before whom they stand is the one who can testify that they are not honest men, but are unrighteous, deceitful, malicious and cruel.

So the question comes up: “How could men who were so guilty of sin insist on their innocence?” I think there are three basic reasons: They ignored their conscience; they think that there were no witnesses to their sins; and they think that there are no consequences to their sins.

First, the guilty brothers continued to insist on their innocence because they ignored their conscience. In this passage it is obvious that the consciences of the brothers are bothering them, but not enough to bring them to repentance. Feeling guilty that you did something wrong is not the same thing as repentance, and the brothers refuse to repent. So they insist on their innocence because they ignored their conscience.

Second, they insist on their innocence, because they think there were no witnesses to their sin. Oftentimes men are bold to declare their honesty when they think there is no one who can prove that they are liars. In the mind of the fallen man or woman, you are only guilty if you get caught. If there are no witnesses, then there is no crime. In this case there is at least one witness to their sin, and that is the man who is standing before them. Joseph is one who can declare the guilt of his brothers. But the second reason why a person will claim their innocence is if they believe there are no witnesses.

The third reason why people claim their innocence when they are certainly guilty is because they do not believe there are any consequences from their action. Men are much more prone to sin and to commit acts of unrighteousness if they believe there are going to be no consequences. Joseph’s brothers did not think there would be any consequences when they threw Joseph in the pit. If Joseph died in the pit or if he was carried off to Egypt and never seen again, no one would ever know, so what possible consequences could come from that sin? If there are no consequences, why not commit the crime?

But having examined the behavior of Joseph’s brothers from so long ago, here is a more pertinent question: “How is it that men and women today who are guilty of all manner of sin insist on their innocence?” You know the situation, when you are sharing Christ with someone whom you know to be unsaved and guilty of sin, and when the subject of sin comes up, he insist that he is a pretty good person, that he goes to church once in a while and that his grandmother was a pillar of the church when he was growing up. “I’m really not a bad guy and I occasionally give to the poor and I went to Catholic school when I was a kid.” So again, how can such people who are guilty of sin insist on their innocence? I think the same three reasons apply as applied to Joseph’s brothers.

First, they ignore their conscience. When their conscience tells them of their sin and brings feelings of guilt, they simply suppress the conscience. The inner voice of the Law of God, which is the very instrument given by God to convict of sin, is silenced so that it no longer bothers them.

Second, they insist on their own goodness because they believe there are no witnesses. In fact there are at least two witnesses to every sinful act. The one committing the act is a witness against themselves and they know that they committed the sin. But more importantly, God is a witness against them. God is a witness to every sin and He remembers every transgression. “There is no creature hidden from His sight and all things are open and laid bare before the eyes of Him with whom we have to do (Hebrews 4:13).” No sin is ever done in secret, because the Lord knows all sin and all sins.

Third, people can insist on their own innocence or acts of unrighteousness because they think there are no consequences. But the problem with this is that “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.” “The soul that sins, it shall die.” “The wages of sin is death.” God sees all sin and every act of sin and each sin carries with it a death penalty. All sin has consequences, both in this life and in the life to come. All sin brings us into judgment and all sin requires punishment.

The keys, then, to sharing our faith are first to help the unbeliever feel the guilt of their sin that their conscience is bringing to their attention and not ignore it. Second, we should explain to the unbeliever that all their sins are known to God and nothing they have done has been done in secret. God knows all their sin. He is a witness to all their sin. Third, we need to tell the unbeliever that their sins have consequences and that, if they do not come to faith in Christ, their sins will doom them to eternal judgment and condemnation. But then fourth, we must tell them that, through faith in Jesus Christ, the guilt of all their sins done in secret or done in the open will be removed and they will have a clear conscience (Hebrews 9:14; 10:22); the condemnation due to them for their sins will be taken away (Romans 8:1); and reconciliation with the living God will be ushered in and they will have peace with God (Romans 5:1). Guilt and condemnation are removed in Christ. This is the good news. RMB 5/4/2015

I will admit that there are certainly times of difficulty in the life of the believer. As is said in Job, “Man is made for trouble as sparks fly upward.” So no one is going to deny that there are times of testing when the believer is doing all he/she can do just to stand firm. During these times the believer leans heavily on the Lord and calls on His name for help and strains every faith muscle they have just to be steadfast and immovable. Yes, there are times of difficulty when we need for the Lord to provide us with sustaining power.

But when the Lord delivers us from those times of testing; when the Lord sets our feet upon a rock and holds our footsteps firm (Psalm 40:2), then we are to once again brandish our sword and set our face like flint to vigorously gain enemy ground. As soon as the time of trial has been completed, the believer is to rejoin the battle and take the offensive and press toward the goal for the prize (Phil. 3:14).

When you think about it, the vast majority of the believer’s life is relatively trouble free. O yes, there is some momentary light affliction (2 Cor. 4:17) and there are the mere external things (2 Cor. 11:28; like shipwrecks, beatings and an occasional stoning), but most of the life of the believer is free of great difficulty and thus the believer is free to engage in fruitful labor.

What I am saying is this: In the rare times when you are being tested and your faith is wavering, then you are to lean into the Lord, draw on His strength, and claim His promises as you stand firm and strive to give up no ground. But in all those other times when you are not being severely tested, you are to strive with all your might to bear kingdom fruit and claim enemy territory. So most of the believer’s time should be spent in diligent labor, not praying for perfect health.

Jesus chose us and appointed us to go and bear fruit (John 15:16). He did not save us so that we would constantly be staying in the same place and praying for safety. He saved us so that we would bear fruit. There are too many prayers for safety and for healing from sniffles and scraped knees by believers who should be boldly charging into the enemy’s camp. The problem seems to be that we as believers have confused our roles. Spiritually speaking, we have a runny nose and a band aid on our finger, yet we pray like we are patients in ICU. The New Testament model, however, is radically different. We are to boldly live for Jesus and proclaim the gospel and tell about Jesus unless we are physically or otherwise unable to do so, and our prayers should be for Holy-Spirit power and faithfulness to the task so that many are won to Christ.

2 Cor. 12:15. “I will most gladly spend and be expended for your souls.” Paul is concerned to spend all his energy and all his resources for the spiritual growth of his disciples, with barely a thought to his own comfort or rest or safety. The cause of the gospel was supreme and his life was to be spent for that cause, regardless of the personal cost to health or bank account or social status. We would be well-served if we took a similar attitude.

Phil. 1:21-24. “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. But if I am to live on in the flesh it will mean fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which to choose. But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better; yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake.” Here again we read of the apostle Paul and of his striving to serve the Lord. Although Paul knows that his death will usher him into Christ’s presence in heaven, and “that is very much better,” he also realizes that as long as he has breath he is to be involved in fruitful labor. O how he longs for heaven, but he knows that his life is given to him to be given away for others. He ignores minor inconveniences like imprisonment and beatings and instead seeks to be useful to the Master. Just so, as soon as the Lord delivers us from difficulty, we should give all our energy to Kingdom service.

2 Cor. 11:23-27. Here in this third Pauline example, we see that the Apostle views all of these trials and all this suffering as mere distractions from the primary goal, which is the proclamation of the gospel. Whatever personal pain he endures is immaterial. The most important thing is the gospel.

Brothers and sisters, let us all strive to bear fruit and to be involved in fruitful labor and let us be “poured out as a drink offering” (2 Timothy 4:6) for the sake of the gospel. RMB 4/29/2015

(This series of writings was prompted by listening to an excellent sermon from Dr. John MacArthur entitled “Thanks, No Matter What” on 1 Thessalonians 5:18. The sermon was from 1995, I believe.)
“in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” 1 Thessalonians 5:18
I have been prompted to pen a series of writings on the enemies of thankfulness. One of the ironic features of American Christianity is that despite living in the most affluent society in the history of the world, there is a general lack of thankfulness among believers in America. I find this glaring flaw present in my own life, as well, and am very convicted by it. Living in great abundance and with every need supplied, there is little evidence of thanks in the prayers and the conversations of even committed, genuine believers. Listen to the prayers of American Christians and you may hear some token thanks given for general things, but sincere and heart-felt thanks for the amazing spiritual and material blessings that the Lord has showered on them is usually absent. Again, I know that I am guilty of this and so I may be projecting this on others, but I don’t think so. I think it may be a trait of fallen humanity that the more that we have materially, the less thankful we are.

So I have made a commitment to be more thankful and to have vital, deep thanksgiving become a regular part of my prayers and my conversations. To help me in this endeavor, and hopefully to help you also, I wanted to discuss five enemies of thankfulness, which, if present and prominent in my life and in your life, will smother thankfulness. Again I am grateful to Dr. MacArthur for identifying these enemies. I am taking his ideas and developing them a little further.

The Enemies of Thankfulness – Selfishness:

The second enemy of thankfulness is “SELFISHNESS.” O, selfishness is such a persistent problem, because its roots wrap so tightly around fallen man’s immense pride. Selfishness opposes thankfulness because being thankful draws attention away from me.
Now, what is this selfishness of which I am speaking? Selfishness is that way of thinking that insists that my wants and needs are the most important ones and the attitude that expects that all things are here to serve me. Thus selfishness robs me of thankfulness, because I am so focused on me that I don’t notice anything for which to be thankful. Whatever good comes to the selfish person goes unappreciated, because all these good things are deserved and expected. It is very difficult for me to be thankful when I have an entitlement mentality that says, “I am entitled to these things.”

Every believer knows that selfishness is difficult to overcome. Nevertheless, every believer should see less and less evidence of selfishness as they grow in sanctification. As selfishness shrinks, thanksgiving will increase.

Here are some specific ideas for attacking selfishness. First, follow the example of John the Baptist. In John 3:30, John the Baptist said, “He (Jesus) must increase, but I must decrease.” John acknowledges that he is on earth for only a brief time to play a very small role. John realizes that he is a mist, a vapor that vanishes away (James 4:14), but that Jesus is the central figure in all of human history. John provides an example for all believers. We can cut the roots of selfishness if we acknowledge our insignificance and declare the glory of God. We should focus on the greatness of God and the majesty of Christ and thus attack our selfishness.

Second, we need to attack our selfishness by following the example of the apostle Paul. This man was focused on one thing and one thing only, and that was the glory of Christ. Paul gave very little thought to himself, because the gospel consumed all his attention. In Acts 20:24 Paul says, “But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God.” In 2 Cor. 12:15 he says, “And I will most gladly spend and be expended for your souls.” Paul was a man who gave himself away for others with scarcely a thought for himself. We should imitate him in this and so defeat our selfishness. “For this reason,” Paul said,” I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen so that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory (2 Tim. 2:10).” Again Paul is willing to endure whatever he needs to endure so that men and women can come to faith in Jesus. His selfishness was vanquished by a superior desire and thus Paul was free to give thanks.

Thirdly and finally, we can attack our selfishness when we look at the ultimate example of unselfishness, the Lord Jesus Christ. As we read of the three years of His earthly ministry we search in vain for a single selfish thought or act from Him. Jesus never gave one thought to Himself or to His own welfare, but instead gave Himself away for the people around Him. This is all the more astounding when we consider who He was and we observe that His identity was a major topic and theme in His preaching and teaching. Jesus was the incarnate Son of God and yet He always displayed utter unselfishness. Among dozens of examples of unselfishness, perhaps the best is captured in Mark 10:45, when Jesus says, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.” If we can meditate on Jesus and on John the Baptist and on the apostle Paul and how they lived unselfish lives, our own selfishness will wither and our thankfulness will flourish.

What do you do when your own selfishness begins to rear its ugly head and when you see that your thanksgiving is being strangled by your selfish desires? What are your strategies? RMB 4/18/215

(This series of writings was prompted by listening to an excellent sermon from Dr. John MacArthur entitled “Thanks, No Matter What” on 1 Thessalonians 5:18. The sermon was from 1995, I believe.)

“in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” 1 Thessalonians 5:18

I have been prompted to pen a series of writings on the enemies of thankfulness. One of the ironic features of American Christianity is that despite living in the most affluent society in the history of the world, there is a general lack of thankfulness among believers in America. I find this glaring flaw present in my own life, as well, and am very convicted by it. Living in great abundance and with every need supplied, there is little evidence of thanks in the prayers and the conversations of even committed, genuine believers. Listen to the prayers of American Christians and you may hear some token thanks given for general things, but sincere and heart-felt thanks for the amazing spiritual and material blessings that the Lord has showered on them is usually absent. Again, I know that I am guilty of this and so I may be projecting this on others, but I don’t think so. I think it may be a trait of fallen humanity that the more that we have materially, the less thankful we are.

So I have made a commitment to be more thankful and to have vital, deep thanksgiving become a regular part of my prayers and my conversations. To help me in this endeavor, and hopefully to help you also, I wanted to discuss five enemies of thankfulness, which, if present and prominent in my life and in your life, will smother thankfulness. Again I am grateful to Dr. MacArthur for identifying these enemies. I am taking his ideas and developing them a little further.

The Enemies of Thankfulness – The first enemy – Doubt:
The first of the five enemies of thankfulness is “DOUBT.” Now, doubt always requires an object. That is, you must doubt something or someone. And the doubt that will rob you of your thankfulness is doubt about God. Maybe you doubt His character. If you doubt that God is trustworthy, how can you thank Him? It may be that whatever occurred happened despite God, not because of God. Is God faithful? If you doubt His faithfulness, you will not thank Him. If you doubt that God is good, you will not thank Him when good things come into your life, because you are not sure that He was responsible or that He even wanted those good things to come to you. Does God keep His promises? God makes many promises in His word, but does He intend to keep them? Even if He intends to keep them, does He have the power to keep them? If you doubt that God has the power to do the impossible on your behalf, you will certainly not praise Him when the impossible comes to pass. (By the way, if this is one of your doubts, read Psalm 115:3 and Jeremiah 32:17.) Does God love me? If you doubt that God really loves you and if you are not sure that He sent His Son to die for you, you will not be thankful. Any or all of these doubts will rob you of thankfulness. Doubts directly, but even more indirectly rob us of thankfulness, because they undermine our trust in God and make us unsure that He even deserves to be thanked. Maybe He is trying to take credit for something that He didn’t do, so why should I thank Him?
Brethren, we must be on the alert for this enemy of thankfulness called doubt and we must vanquish this before it robs us of our ability to thank the Lord. How does the believer confront this enemy? I suggest three defenses against doubt.

FIRST, the believer must choose to trust God wholly and implicitly. By an act of the will, the believer must choose to trust God. This is what it means to believe. It does not mean that there will never be uncertainties, but it does mean that the follower of Jesus has decided to trust the Lord. God no longer has to prove Himself to me. He is God and I trust Him. Do I fully understand all that occurs and all that He does? Of course not, but I nevertheless have determined that God is trustworthy and I will therefore trust Him. Doubt is of the devil, for his first recorded words in the Bible were intended to create doubt in God’s character: “Has God said . . .?” Yes, God has said and I will trust Him. (James 1:5-8)

SECOND, to dispel doubts about God, the believer must actively seek to know God by being familiar with the God revealed in Scripture and by seeing how God works in his/her life. Paul wanted to know Christ (Philippians 3:10); just so the believer seeks to know God as his greatest treasure. When you know God, doubts about Him vanish like a mist on a windy day.

THIRD, be alert to all incipient doubts and, when creeping doubts are discovered, demolish them. Residual doubts must be attacked by the truth of the Word and by prayer.

Drive away doubts about God and your thankfulness will increase. RMB 4/15/2015

I wanted to let you know that I have added a couple of “pages” to the Blog site in the last few days. These are expositions of the last part of Romans 12, trying to pull out the fundamental truths of the commands Paul gives in that passage and considering how to apply these commands to our lives. The first exposition is called “No Retaliation, No Revenge” (Romans 12:17-19) and talks about the evangelistic tactic of refusing to seek revenge or refusing to consider retaliation when evil is done against you. Why would you refuse to retaliate, when everything inside you wants to pay the other person back? The believer would do this because revenge and retaliation have no gospel value and instead obscure God’s mercy, but refusing these responses may very well open a door to the gospel and lead to a person being reconciled to God. The second exposition is called “If Your Enemy Is Hungry, Feed Him” and covers Romans 12:20-21. Again Paul is urging his readers to consider above all things the priority of the gospel and teaches these Roman believers (and us) that we are to actively seek ways to be kind to those who hate us and who persecute us so that we can have a better platform from which to proclaim the gospel. In other words, as God has gone to radical extremes to reconcile His enemies to Himself, so we who follow Jesus are to go to radical lengths to reconcile man to God through the gospel. The radical means presented in these two verses is that of doing good and being kind to those who are our enemies so that we can present the gospel.
I think you will find the exposition interesting and challenging. Let me know what you think. RMB

One of the most widely acknowledged effects of the fall of man is the universal and persistent experience of fear. Fear is an experience that is common to man, regardless of his geographic location or his status in life. It is that tightening of the stomach that happens when a threat, either real or imagined, rises up against us. It was in the Garden, when Adam ate of the forbidden fruit, that fear, shame and death entered the world and we have been experiencing those effects ever since. Thus it is with great wonder that David writes in Psalm 34:4,

“I sought the LORD and He answered me and delivered me from all my fears.”

Is it possible that there is a way to escape my slavery to fear and to be delivered from it? Is it possible to be delivered from ALL my fears? Maybe David is writing hyperbolically. Maybe he is just exaggerating about this overcoming of fear for poetic effect. But maybe he is not. Let’s think about this.

Notice first that it is the LORD who delivered David from his fears. So the LORD is the one who delivers from fear. It is not by a man’s ingenuity or by his own positive thinking that he will escape from any one fear, let alone escape from ALL his fears. If a man fears poverty, no amount of money will ever be enough to remove that fear. If you fear being alone, then no amount of friends and acquaintances will give you security. If you fear failure, then you will be haunted by those fears no matter how successful you are. If you fear death, then everywhere you look you will see death and be reminded that the grave awaits. But here we read that, when we seek the LORD, He will answer us and He will deliver us from our fears. In the Bible, one of the most common phrases uttered by the LORD in the Old Testament and by Jesus Christ in the gospels is, “Fear not!” So the first KEY is that the LORD is the one who delivers from fear.

How does the LORD deliver me from ALL my fears? The Psalmist says that the LORD delivered him from ALL his fears. This means that David’s fears were not vanquished one at a time. That would take too long and by the time one fear was removed, another would come to take its place. David’s fears were all suddenly removed. One minute his fears were there and the next minute they were removed. How did this happen? The LORD delivered David from ALL his fears by replacing his fears with trust in the LORD.

And this is the same for any believer. When I feel fear, it means that I am not trusting the LORD. I am not believing the LORD’s promises and I am doubting that He is able to protect me and to direct my life for His glory. I am letting things that I see weigh more than the things in which I hope. I am letting the things of this world outweigh those of the world to come. Fear indicates to me that I do not believe that the LORD will really come through for me and I effectively doubt that He is able to deliver me or that He cares about me enough to come to my aid.
But this psalm says that the LORD “delivered me from ALL my fears.” How is this done? When we move from weak faith to full faith, we are delivered from ALL our fears. When our trust in the LORD is strong and complete, ALL our fears are overwhelmed. Great fears and small fears are vanquished together, because we have moved to the place of complete trust in the LORD.
So ALL fears are vanquished not by the LORD removing them one at a time, but my fears are vanquished and I am delivered from my fears when my faith and trust in the LORD is so strong that fear itself is overwhelmed.
“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear.” 1 John 4:18
RMB 4/1/2015 #22

One of the sobering truths clearly and repeatedly presented in the Bible is the truth that all human beings will stand before the living God and give an account for their moral performance. Most people scoff at this notion and go on living in whatever reckless way they want, but the daunting reality is that you and I will give an account for what we have done in this life. (Hebrews 9:27; Romans 14:10, 12; 2 Corinthians 5:10)

But if a person is willing to consider the biblical truth of a final judgment and think about that for a second, the statement will frequently be made that “I am basically a good person.” “I may not be perfect, but I am at least as good as most people,” or “My good far outweighs my bad.” One of the most common responses to this idea of judgment is, “Well, nobody’s perfect,” which presumably means something like, “Since nobody’s perfect, then we are all being judged on a relative scale and on a curve and my performance is relatively as good as anyone else’s, so I will be okay at the judgment. God will understand that I am only human and so He won’t mind my little sins. God grades on a curve.” And it is remarkable how all my sins are “little sins.” Other people are murderers and drug addicts and child molesters, but all my sins are little.

There are, however, at least two fatal flaws in the line of thinking given above. First, at the Judgment when we stand before the throne of God and give an account for our lives, we will not be judged on a relative scale. We will, instead, be judged on an absolute scale where the acceptable standard is sinless moral perfection for our entire life from birth to death. The existence of a single sin will result in eternal condemnation. The God of the Bible is perfectly holy and as such has a holy hatred of all sin. He punishes and condemns all sin. So it is a fatal flaw in my thinking to believe that the one true and living God will judge me on a relative scale. Sinless perfection is the only acceptable performance.

But the person may then object and say, “That’s not fair. No one is perfect and so it is not fair to judge me by an impossible standard that no one has ever achieved.” This reveals the second fatal flaw, for, in fact, there is one who has perfectly fulfilled the Law of God in its utmost requirements. There is one who has lived His entire life without ever committing one sin in thought, word or deed. There is someone who is perfect. There is a Man who has lived on this earth, who was born under the Law (Galatians 4:4) and who perfectly fulfilled the Law. No longer can it be said that the Law is impossible to obey in its fullness, for Jesus Christ the righteous one never sinned. (Hebrews 4:15; 2 Corinthians 5:21; John 8:46) Thus Jesus Christ has “busted the curve.” Jesus Christ has set the standard of moral performance.

So when anyone speaks of relative moral performance and says that “at least I am not as bad as _____,” they must be made aware of the fact that they are not being compared with the moral performance of another fallen human being. Rather, the moral standard for every human being who will ever live is the moral performance of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the expected performance and it is His perfect moral obedience that will be the standard by which you will be judged. So if you are going to make it to heaven on the basis of your own moral performance, you need to be aware of what you need to achieve.

Jesus is the standard of moral performance.

If you have followed me so far, the next question must be, “If Jesus is the standard of moral performance, and I realize I fall hopelessly short of that standard, how can I ever escape the judgment of God? How can I not be consumed by the wrath of God at the judgment when I am sinful and have broken God’s Law?” That is the beauty of the gospel, for through faith in Jesus Christ you can be forgiven of your sins and can actually be viewed by God as being as righteous as Christ. For those who will put their faith and trust in the Lord Jesus, His righteousness is imputed to their account and their sin is imputed to Christ’s account and is nailed to the cross. “God made Him who knew no sin (Christ) to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor. 5:20).”

How does your moral performance compare to the sinlessness of Christ? What will happen to you at the judgment? Can I urge you to flee to Christ and call upon Him to cover you with His righteousness?
3/30/2015 RMB

What is the best revealer of sin? The best revealer of sin is the Law of God. In fact, God has given us His Law of commandments and ordinances to allow us to see our own sin. “Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God. For by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified in His sight, for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin (Romans 3:19-20).” Our conscience can help us be aware of some of our sin, but it is the written Law that is the best instrument for revealing to us our inability to keep God’s commands and it is our failure to keep the Law that condemns us. So the Law is the best instrument for bringing to your awareness the presence of and the extent of your sin. Thus the Law is a gift from God that can bring to our conscious awareness our sin and our need for a Savior. “It is the kindness of God” as manifested in His giving us the Law “that leads you to repentance (Romans 2:4).”

And what is the best revealer of selfishness and “relational sins” like anger, impatience, judgmentalism, lack of grace and lack of forgiveness, pride, jealousy and so on? In my opinion the best revealer of my selfishness is the gift of marriage. I would say that in my life (and maybe in yours), it is God’s gift of a wife that has revealed to me my deep and wide selfishness and my abundant relational sins, like those listed above. It is only through the relationship to my wife that I have the necessary context to see all my flaws and sins. And this is God’s gift to me to help me in my sanctification and to help me overcome these sins.

As the Law is the God-given instrument for revealing the presence of my sin and the extent of my sin in my life, so marriage is the God-given context for revealing to me my selfishness and my relational sins. If I allow the Law to expose my sin and I then repent of my sin and believe in Jesus, I will be forgiven and will be saved. If I allow marriage to expose my selfishness and I then confess that to God and ask Him to give me the grace to love my wife more than myself, I will have the joy and delight of experiencing the deepest of human relationships.