"The Severity of Sin" Sermon: James 1:12-15

“The Severity of Sin”

[James 1:12-15]

February 24, 2013 Second Reformed Church

            “To err is human.”

            “Everybody sins.”

            “It’s ok to tell little white lies.”

            As we think about sin, it would seem that most of us would admit to having done it – or at least to have known someone who has done it, but I’m sure that we would say that the sins that we – and our friends – have committed are not severe – they are not big.  Few of us have physically murdered anyone – that does seem to be one of the most severe sins in modern Christianity, does it not?  We are not like “those” people; we don’t commit big sins – severe sins, do we?

            James begins his letter by encouraging the persecuted Christians to be strong, to endure, to be joy-filled if their suffering is on account of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  This is a theme we find throughout the New Testament – that Christians will suffer for their faith, and if they suffer for the faith, they should be joy-filled, because it confirms their faith and shows that they are one with Christ in suffering for the truth of the Gospel – those historical facts about Jesus by which a believer is saved from the Wrath of God and eternal torment.

            James continues:  “Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.”

            James talks about trials of various kinds in verse two and so we should understand it here.  The trials the Christian is to remain steadfast under are both trials where there are specific attacks on us for the sake of the Gospel and trials where we are being tempted to sin.  Trials include people and institutions which come against the Gospel faith – denying that Jesus existed, denying that Jesus physically rose from the dead, and so forth – we are to stand strong against them, being able to offer a reason for our faith, as Peter writes: “but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,” (1 Peter 3:15, ESV).  Trials also include being tempted to do those things which we are most inclined to do which are sin and to not to those things which we are most inclined not to do which God has commanded.  Thus, we are blessed as we give reasons for our faith and follow God’s commands and do not follow the temptations to sin that arise.

            What then is “the crown of life” that is received by those who are steadfast under trial?

Look at how the sentence ends, “which God has promised to those who love Him.”  Who loves God?  Only those God has elected to salvation.  God has promised the crown of life to all those God has elected to salvation.  So, we may conclude that the crown of life has to do with eternal life in the Kingdom of God.

            Some of those Christians to whom James was writing – enough that he knew what they were concluding – had come to the conclusion that if they were blessed by being steadfast under trial, it must be God Who sends the trials – God must be tempting them to sin.  They had concluded that God was putting temptations before them that they might be blessed through standing fast – giving reasons for the Gospel and denying sin.  James tells them this is faulty logic.

“Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God,’ for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.”

Since God is good – and, in fact, holy, holy, holy – God cannot be tempted to deny the Gospel or to sin in any way, and God cannot in any way tempt someone to sin – even if the outcome is more blessedness for the Christians who remains steadfast.  God cannot do this – for it would mean God’s participation in sin.  If these trials came from God, God would be contradicting His Nature – which God cannot do.

Then where does temptation come from?

“But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.”

Our temptation to sin comes from within us.  We have desires within us that lure us and entice us to sin.  We all have areas of weakness and temptations that come from within us that tell us, “It’s ok.  A little bit won’t hurt.  We have the strength to go so far and no further.  If so-and-so does it, it can’t be that bad.”

What do we read about David, “the man after God’s own heart,”?  “In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.

“It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king's house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful. And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, ‘Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?’ So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness.) Then she returned to her house. And the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, ‘I am pregnant’” (2 Samuel 11:1-5, ESV).

David sinned and the temptation to sin came from within him.

David should have been out in battle, but he sinned and stayed home.

David saw a woman bathing, and rather than turn away, he sinned and kept watching and lusting after her.

David found out she was the wife of Uriah the Hittite, and rather than stop pursuing her, he committed adultery with her.

David also found out that she was bathing because it was her time of the month and she was purifying herself, but rather than stay away from her as God commands, he sinned and committed adultery with her.

Jeremiah tells us, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9, ESV).

Our hearts are inclined towards evil – towards giving in to temptation – towards giving in to lust.  Why?

When God created humans in the Garden of Eden, humans had the ability not to sin, but Satan came and stoked the fires of desire – of lust, “Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made.

“He said to the woman, ‘Did God actually say, “You shall not eat of any tree in the garden”?’  [No, God said they were not to eat of the one tree – the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.]  And the woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.”’ [No, God never said they couldn’t touch it.]  But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’  [That’s true, but the devil didn’t tell them the down side of their sin.]  So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

“And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, ‘Where are you?’ And he said, ‘I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.’ He said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?’ The man said, ‘The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.’ Then the LORD God said to the woman, ‘What is this that you have done?’ The woman said, ‘The serpent deceived me, and I ate’” (Genesis 3:1-13, ESV).

After the sin in the Garden, God cursed Adam and Eve and their descendants, and all of Creation.  David explains it like this;     “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Psalm 51:5, ESV).  And Paul writes, “For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness” (Romans 6:20, ESV).  Every merely human child born is now born unable not to sin – this is what is called “Original Sin” – the nature of every merely human born is inclined towards sin.  And so, we all have desires to sin.  We all have desires to follow after lusts.  And they are not just there, but they are enticing and luring.

When we seem to be walking in all holiness, the desire to lust after something will pop up.  When we are strong, when we are weak, when we have been at peace, when we have given in and feel despondent, at any and every time, our desires will tell us now is the right time, and it’s no big deal.  After all, you don’t sin like “they” do, right?

But here’s the problem we have already seen with David and Adam and Eve:  “Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin,” – when we do not fight against our desires to sin – when we do not fight against the lusts we have against God – when we think giving in won’t be so bad, we fall into sin – the sin that was conceived in us through our desires and lusts against God, it is birthed in an act of sin.

“Well, there’s nothing we can do.  You already said it’s the way we’re born.  If we’re born that way, we can’t stop it – we can’t avoid giving in, we have to sin.  Right?”

We have to distinguish between Christians and non-Christians:

For the non-Christian, we hear these words from Paul, “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—“ (Romans 5:12, ESV).

Adam was our representative and chose to sin, so now all merely human people are born with Original Sin – with a nature inclined towards sin.  So, it is not possible, before God, for the non-Christian not to sin.  Everything the non-Christian does, in God’s eyes, is sin.

However, the same cannot be said of Christians.  As Paul tells the Corinthian Christians, “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it” (1 Corinthians 10:13, ESV).

Christians have the ability to choose to not sin – to choose not to give into our lusts and desires and the temptations that arise before us.  In fact, God promises that we are never tempted beyond our ability to say “no” to the temptation, and God always provides a way of escape from temptation.  So it is never necessary that a Christian sin.  No Christian has to sin – ever.

Not only that, but God promises, “And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules” (Ezekiel 36:27, ESV).  The Holy Spirit, Who indwells every Christian, leads us in obedience and towards holiness in all things.  Paul writes, “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:8, ESV).  God gives Christians His Grace, so that we have everything sufficient not to follow temptation and sin, but to do the good works that God has set before us.

David could have gone into battle.

David could have turned away and not lusted after the woman.

David could have turned away and not committed adultery.

As Christians, we are lured and enticed to follow after our desires and lusts and commit sin, but we never have to sin.  God has indwelled us and is leading us towards holiness and has made it possible for us to take the way of escape – to say “no” every time we are tempted.  And still we sin every day.

“and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.”

And you may be thinking, “Well, I sin all the time, and I’m not dead – I’m even a Christian, which means I have new life.”

It’s true that God does not kill us the moment we sin – or none of us would be here – so God – and James – must mean something else.  God has killed some people instantly when they sinned, but, thankfully, that is not His usual procedure, so this must mean something else.

“The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die’” (Genesis 2:15-17, ESV).

As we look at the creation of humans and God’s promise that they would die on the day that they disobeyed Him – and if we remember what happens in Genesis 3, where Adam and Eve are cursed, but they do not physically die, we understand that something else is going on.

What happened is that Adam and Eve went from having the ability to sin to not having the ability not to sin.  Adam and Eve went from being sinless to being sinners – to being the representatives of humanity who would pass Original Sin down to every merely human person.  They died spiritually “that day.”

Paul described it this way, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind” (Ephesians 2:1-3, ESV).

There is eventually physical death for everyone, unless the Lord returns first.  And there is eternal death for those who never believe savingly in Jesus.  But, immediately, there is spiritual death.

“So, is James saying that those who sin lose their salvation?”

No, he is reminding the Christians he is writing to that temptation comes from within us and lures and entices us to give in to our desires which ends in sin which leads to death.  As Paul wrote, “For the wages of sin is death,” (Romans 6:23, ESV).  If we are tempted and we give in to our lusts and desires, we end up with sin, and then end result – the wages – of sin is death.  If we sin, someone has to pay the debt for our sin – someone has to suffer God’s Wrath for our sin and eternal death for our sin.

Are you getting how serious this is?  Is the severity of sin beginning to click with you?

“Well, I didn’t kill anyone like David did.  I didn’t commit adultery like David did.  I mean, maybe I’ve lusted, but not as badly as David did.  And sure, everybody takes liberties at work, but I didn’t neglect my post as king like David did.”

We’re told David committed a lot of sins and, yet, when he repented, he said this, “For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.  Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment” (Psalm 51:3-4, ESV).

Is David saying that he didn’t commit sins against any of the people involved in his adultery and murder?  No, what he is saying is that, ultimately, all sin is against God, and since God is the Ultimate Being, sin deserves the ultimate punishment.  That is why sin is severe.

Consider:  all sin is against God because sin is breaking God’s Law or not doing what God has said.  So David sinned against Israel, and Bathsheba, and Uriah, and his own body, but, ultimately, he sinned against God.  Sinning against Israel, Bathsheba, Uriah, and himself were sins, but they wouldn’t be sins without God’s Law, so, ultimately, they are sins against God.

For example:  let’s say you pocketed a cheap pen from work.  The pen does not belong to you, so it is a sin, it is stealing.  It is a minor offense in human eyes, because the pen is not worth much.  However, the only reason we know it is stealing is because God gave us the law against stealing, so, in stealing the pen, you have sinned against God, which is a major offense, because there is no Being greater than God.

Consider your sin:  consider the temptation that rises up out of you again and again – the desires and lusts that you find common to yourself.  Understand that with one slip, you give in to temptation and sin, which is worthy of death and only forgivable through death.

Consider your sin:  that, as Christians, God never gives us more than we can handle and always gives us a way out.  We never have to sin.  God the Holy Spirit is working in us and will keep us from sin, if we don’t give in to sin.  Sin is that deceptive – that slippery – that easy to give in to.

Consider you sin:  ultimately, every sin we commit is a sin against God, so the debt we owe and the punishment that must be endured to be right with God again is incomprehensible.  The only Person able to endure it and survive is Jesus, the God-Man, and we are forgiven of every sin.  Still, we are to work hard not to ever sin, because there is nothing compelling us to sin.  We sin because we are lazy and prefer a moment’s thrill to Jesus’ enduring eternal hell on behalf of us for that sin.

Let us pray:

Almighty God, help us to understand that there are no small sins, but all sins are severe and bring forth Your Righteous Wrath against them.  Help us to believe that we never have to sin and You have given us the grace and made the way that we can always turn down temptation and not slip into our lusts and desires which lead to sin.  Help us to be examples of Your Holy Name.  For it is in Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.