Christian Worldview, pt3
Leadership in Context with Keith Tucci
Episode 142
CHRISTIAN WORLDVIEW PILLAR #1: God is an absolute and specific creator.
CHRISTIAN WORLDVIEW PILLAR #2: God is the only just and authoritative law maker.
CHRISTIAN WORLDVIEW PILLAR #3: Man is evil and cannot save himself.
Man is not basically good. He is basically evil. He is able to commit every vile act and every vile sin. Scripture spends a lot of time establishing the fact that man is evil and must be born again, must get a new nature, must be redeemed, must come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Man needs to be more than reformed; he needs to be transformed.
This is critical for how we think about ourselves and deal with others. It’s mostly critical in regards to how we look at the cross. Do we look at the cross as a sympathetic gesture from God, or do we look at it as divine intervention to save us from our own sin?
God’s Holy Standard
Romans 3:9-12
What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; as it is written, “There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one.”
Romans 5:12
Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.
We are dead because we have a sin nature that is living in us and separates us from God.
Romans 5:21
So that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
There is a trade-off. When we get saved, born again, we change lords. We are no longer under the dominion of death. We are now under the dominion of light. and it takes a change of spiritual citizenship for that to happen.
Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The bad news: We have a death sentence.
The good news: Jesus has intervened.
One of the confusions in the evangelical world is not understanding the difference in the sin nature and sins, which is the act of the flesh.
SIN: The nature.
SINS: The outworking of the flesh.
Romans 8:2
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.
We are now under the dictates of God, and we are not subject to our sin nature. If we walk in the Spirit, if we follow God, there is going to be a desire to not commit SINS because our SIN nature has been dealt with.
For a believer to commit sins, they have to yield their members. You don’t automatically sin like you used to. That’s why we have such a great stewardship of our salvation.
Romans 8:12-13
So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh—for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
The proof of the new birth is that you are empowered to say no to SINS. No one can deliver themselves from SIN, because that is the nature we are born into. We can walk free of SINS. It’s not SINS that send us to hell; it’s SIN that sends us to hell. SINS are the manifestation of SIN. SINS are the fruit of the seed of SIN that is in our nature.
A Divine Exchange
2 Corinthians 5:21
He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
1 John 1:9-10
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.
Our flesh sometimes still yields and commits SINS. SINS will take away your reward. SINS will put you in a place where God cannot bless you. It’s SIN being dealt with that gives you access to God.
The first revelation of God in the Bible is that of Creator. The second is that of Lord or Governor, where He institutes behavior patterns or laws to relegate and regulate man’s behavior and how we treat each other. The good news about that is that God took responsibility for our sin. The third revelation is that of Savior.
A lack of understanding of who God is causes us to jump to Savior without having a revelation of God as Creator or Lord or Governor. It doesn’t mean you can’t be born again. It just means that God’s revelation of who He is and how He reveals Himself is progressive. The best way to get to third base--God as Savior--is by way of first and second base.
There is a connection. People who don’t understand SIN and how God deals with SIN look at Jesus as someone who forgives SINS and helps their life to be better. That is a problem.
Any man is capable of committing every sin that has ever been committed if he doesn’t have his sin nature changed. As believers, we walk out sanctification with the power of overcoming SINS in our life.
Galatians 5 tells us that if we practice sin, if we are in the routine of doing sin, then eternal life is not in us. It’s not punishing us because of our SINS; it’s just merely telling us that our sins are the evidence that we haven’t been born again.
Man cannot save himself. You cannot save yourself. You cannot remodel a house that is destined to go to hell. You must be born again. You cannot just change your behavior. The nature has to be changed.
Join us next week as Keith Tucci continues to put leadership truth in the context of the local church. And as always, please like, share, rate/review, and invite others to listen. See you next week!
