Acts & Apologetics: 6. The Sin Problem

There are many examples of "sin" throughout the Book of Acts. Commission, omission, word, deed, thought. 

In Apologetics, we must deal with the issue of sin directly for the simple reason that sin directly interferes with our right Relationship with God.

As we look at Acts Chapter 7 (actually finishing up the last 2 paragraphs of Chapter 6), we see Stephen, a new leader in the Church giving a great apologetic. It may look like an historical outline of Jewish history,  but it's an apologetic nonetheless. Especially as Stephen makes his conclusion.

What we see in Chapter 7 is a man, Stephen, a new Christian believer being empowered by the Holy Spirit. Before his arrest, he is doing incredible  things in the Name of God - healings, "signs and wonders." The local  Jewish leaders couldn't argue against him. In the end, these men would  "construct" accusations to smear Stephen for the purpose of arresting him and ultimately removing him from the public (also hoping to put a  major damper on this new "Jesus thing" by crushing the other followers' spirits). Instead, what they saw in Stephen was "the face of an angel"  (Acts 6:15).

Most of the time we think of sin in bold and concrete terms: rape, murder,  adultery, witchcraft, drunkenness, foul language, lying, cheating, and all of their "modes". The usual crimes. 

But then there are the sins that we don't want to deal with. The little white lies. The cover-ups. The sins of omission - what we "forget" to do. After all, no one got hurt. What's a little porn-watching? Your spouse won't find out - especially if you purge your laptop's history each time. Gambling is sometimes fun - except when the money was to be used for groceries or shared with someone who has nothing at all. Besides, you've gone to church and Sunday school and helped out at the local soup kitchen last month not to mention you've had regular devotional times this week. We speak of the so-called "seven deadly sins" and don't realize that those sins are merely an outward manifestation of the inward reality of the sinfulness of our hearts and minds.

Oh, to return to the condition when we were first created! Man and woman without sin. Clean. Fresh. Knowing all that God wanted us to know.  Thinking, speaking, and doing in perfect Godly wisdom and knowledge. We reasoned with God and used His logic; limited only to what God Himself placed upon our lives and minds. Some things were left to mystery, understanding that God was in control. We depended entirely on God's truth without hesitation. When you think about it, it's quite liberating. 

And then came the Fall.

You see, I struggle too. Sin is insidious. Sin gets into every nook and cranny of our lives. It's a constant battle between the natural self and the life that God wants you to lead. It would probably be much easier to be a Christian and live in seclusion, but God wants us to live in this world. He wants us to be His ambassadors to a lost world. And so, He has us here, doing His work; rubbing elbows with those who need to know God.

More than anything else, we need to speak of the "noetic" effects of sin.  The noetic effects of sin are the effects of sin on the human mind and intellect; our moral problem leads to an intellectual problem. These are important, for as the mind goes, so goes the individual life. As we deny God and sin (in general and our individual sin problem), we push our minds toward sin and its consequences; in other words, the sin problem worsens.

Throughout Scripture, we see the noetic effects of sin. From the early chapters of Genesis, we see pride and arrogance in the Garden leading to Spiritual Death. Arrogance, stubbornness, and hardened hearts bring down kings and empires. Empty reasoning, from arrogance and a hardened heart, leads to a diminished understanding of Who God is and what He has and is doing in our lives. Ungodliness ends with a  lack of care of any of God's creation leading to a self-centered and self-destructive (at minimum in the sense of eternal separation from  God) life. 

Let's look at some Biblical examples of the noetic effects of sin: Psalm 10:2 - 11,

"In his arrogance the wicked man [further referred to as "he" or "his"] hunts down the weak,
    who are caught in the schemes he devises.
He boasts of the cravings of his heart;
    he blesses the greedy and reviles the Lord.
In his pride the wicked does not seek him;
    in all his thoughts there is no room for God.
His ways are always prosperous;
    he is haughty and your laws are far from him;
    he sneers at all his enemies.
He says to himself, “Nothing will shake me;
    I’ll always be happy and never have trouble.”
His mouth is full of curses and lies and threats;
    trouble and evil are under his tongue.
He lies in wait near the villages;
    from ambush he murders the innocent,
    watching in secret for his victims.
He lies in wait like a lion in cover;
    he lies in wait to catch the helpless;
    he catches the helpless and drags them off in his net.
His victims are crushed, they collapse;
    they fall under his strength.
He says to himself, “God has forgotten;
    he covers his face and never sees.”

Psalm 14:1, "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.'
They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good."

Proverbs 26:4 - 5, "Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you will be like him yourself.
Answer a fool according to his folly,or he will be wise in his own eyes." This is an effective apologetic strategy that we'll examine later in the study.

Proverbs 26:11, "As a dog returns to its vomit,  so a fool repeats his folly."

Romans 1:18 - 20, "The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness since what may be known about God is plain to them because God has made it plain to them. For  since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal  power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from  what has been made, so that men are without excuse."

Romans 8:7 - 8, "the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God."

This is all somewhat scary stuff to those of us who do believe and are right with God.

Ultimately, the arguments from the atheist or agnostic (polite atheists) are NOT intellectual arguments or intellectual issues. Deniers of God choose their lot; it is easier to deny God and their sin, rather than deal with their sin. Notice their arguments: "Prostitution is a 'victimless' crime";  "adultery is between two consenting adults, so why not?"; "it's a  woman's right to choose abortion"; "gay marriage is a 'right' for consenting adults".

So what does all this have to do with Stephen's testimony before the Sanhedrin?  After going through the History of the Jewish people, bringing attention to all that God had done, Stephen closes with the following words: "You stiff-necked people! Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised.  You are just like your ancestors: You always resist the Holy Spirit! Was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you  have  betrayed and murdered him— you who have received the law that was given  through angels but have not obeyed it." Acts 7:51 - 53. And with that, Stephen was taken out and stoned to death.

The rulers had the Law, they had the words of the prophets. They had all the  Godly knowledge that they needed. They knew the times. Yet they resisted. Was it the power they preferred? Was it their pride? In the final days, these "holy" men had God Himself stand in their midst (in the person of Jesus Christ) to speak to them. But yet, their sin had completely blinded them to their own ruin.

And that's the rub of sin. At the time of sinning, it "feels" good. There's a  certain pleasure to it. Regardless of how well we know or understand the sinfulness of the sin, to a degree we still revel in it. When I think about that, it's disgusting. It's putrid. Why would I continue to sin? Why would I continue to go back to my own vomit?

I do these things - I sin - because that is my natural nature. In my foolishness, I always revert to my natural self; I return to sinning.  And it takes effort to separate the sin from my life. In fact, the only way that I can separate sin from my life is to place it at the foot of the Cross and present it as sin for Jesus to take away. It is otherwise impossible for me to do anything about it. That is the pervasiveness of sin. 

Paul says it best in Romans chapter 7:15-25, 

"I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I  do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being, I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!"

Paul, the great apostle and defender of the Faith was a mess. But he knew the only way out of his misery. There was and is only one way: through the sacrificial death and bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. That's it;  there's no other way. None. 

How much more of a mess are we today living in a culture that is just as bad as it was 2000 years ago? We may think that we are more sophisticated or cosmopolitan, but not really. Even that idea is a lie. Are you - am I - willing to call ourselves "wretched" and throw ourselves on God's mercy? That's the only way out of this mess that sins wants to keep us in.

Like many today, the men doing the stoning were self-righteous. They believed themselves more moral or more "highly favored" than  Stephen. Even the man who stood to the side, holding their cloaks. But one day, God would reveal Himself to that man too. Thankfully, he would realize his sin and do the right thing: repent and give his life to  Christ.

When it's all said and done, our responsibility as Christian believers is to cut through the folly of unbelief and the suppression of Truth by standing on the Word of God. The "natural" man chooses to NOT see God for who He is. Romans 1:18 - 19, and following through to verse 31,  plainly shows that we "suppress" the truth. And it's a downward spiral from there. Eventually, God gives man over to his own "self-inflicted"  destruction. 

There is a way out of this darkness and sin. The unbeliever needs to see their sin and their subsequent need for a personal Savior.