What is sin?

Related Keys to Psalm 37:4-5 and Psalm 51:3-4

Ian Johnson April 17, 2022 1 Comment

God’s intention is that, as we take delight in him, he will put his desires within us. This will make us progressively more able to trust God, do good, and avoid sin. It will also make us increasingly able to discern when our guilt doesn’t come from God.

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Paul’s Mourning over those who have Not Repented, 2 Corinthians 12:21

Ian Johnson April 3, 2022 2 Comments

When Paul wrote his second letter to the Corinthians, he feared he would later come to them and find that they had not repented of their underlying mixed motives and attitudes of self-centered worship and sensual focus. The result would be the same strife and disorder he had reproved in his first letter.

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Self-righteousness, idolatry of self, repentance and an unrepentant heart in Romans 2

Ian Johnson March 20, 2022 2 Comments

Romans 2:4-5 is a warning aimed not at the wicked world, but at the self-righteous–even believers–who harshly judge others while forgetting that it was the kindness of God that led them to repentance.

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Works worthy of repentance in Acts 26:20

Ian Johnson March 13, 2022 0 Comments

In his trial before King Herod Agrippa in Acts 26, Paul went out of his way to emphasize that “works worthy of repentance” flow from turning to God and not from our own determination to prove our repentance.

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Burning Cultural Bridges? Repentance and Paul in Athens, Acts 17:22-31

Ian Johnson February 20, 2022 1 Comment

Paul’s speech to the rulers of Athens in the Areopagus was a long exercise in deliberate irony, first building and then promptly burning cultural bridges. Paul did this to show them the folly of their deliberate ignorance of the true God.

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Repentance and Earthly Consequences: the Consequences of David’s Sins–including Jesus

Ian Johnson December 22, 2021 2 Comments

Though God forgave David his adultery with Bathsheba and his murder of Uriah, this sin had a traceable chain of earthly consequences which extends to the present and which includes the death of Christ on the cross.

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The Prophets Nathan and Gad Deal With King David in His Sins

Ian Johnson November 26, 2021 2 Comments

On both of the occasions when David is said to have sinned in his administration as king, God sent prophets to correct him. God corrected David’s great sin, the one involving Bathsheba and Uriah, by sending the prophet Nathan to confront him. By contrast, in the matter of the census David recognized he had sinned and asked God’s forgiveness as soon as the census was completed. The prophet Gad was sent to him not to bring him to repentance, but to give him a choice of public consequences for not honoring God in the census and instructions concerning how to rectify his error. David repented and was forgiven of both sins, but the first one nevertheless had severe long-term consequences.

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God Rejected King Saul, But Declared King David a Man After His Own Heart. Didn’t God Get this Backwards?

Ian Johnson November 14, 2021 7 Comments

God rejected King Saul, a bungler who made a few mistakes trying to do God’s will, his own way. But he accepted King David, a rapist and murderer, forgave him two unforgivable sins, promised him an eternal kingdom, called him a man after his own heart–and put him in Jesus’ lineage! Didn’t God get this backwards? NO!!

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King Saul, The People’s Sin

Ian Johnson November 7, 2021 5 Comments

King Saul is an example of a leader appointed by God–at the rebellious insistence of the people–who followed his people’s idolatrous rebellion against God. Generally, in spiritual matters, worldly leaders follow their constituents rather than lead them. After God warned the people about the way their king would take, and sent a sign of his displeasure, they showed remorse–false, incomplete repentance–but did not change their ways. Ultimately, King Saul also followed their lead.

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Repent, turn again, turn away from your wickedness, in Acts 3:19

Ian Johnson October 31, 2021 1 Comment

When Peter preached that the people should “repent,” he explained that meant that they were to “turn away from their wickedness” and so, in their behavior, “listen” to Jesus. Jesus did not come to entertain us or to offer advice, but to turn us away from our own way to obedience to him.

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Related Keys to Psalm 37:4-5 and Psalm 51:3-4

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Paul’s Mourning over those who have Not Repented, 2 Corinthians 12:21

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Self-righteousness, idolatry of self, repentance and an unrepentant heart in Romans 2

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Works worthy of repentance in Acts 26:20

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Burning Cultural Bridges? Repentance and Paul in Athens, Acts 17:22-31

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Repentance and Earthly Consequences: the Consequences of David’s Sins–including Jesus

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The Prophets Nathan and Gad Deal With King David in His Sins

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God Rejected King Saul, But Declared King David a Man After His Own Heart. Didn’t God Get this Backwards?

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King Saul, The People’s Sin

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Repent, turn again, turn away from your wickedness, in Acts 3:19

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