William Petruzzo

Reading in John Piper’s The Pleasures of God, Piper brings up a fantastic scripture reference that got me thinking tonight.

Joshua 24:2-3:

“Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘Long ago, your fathers lived beyond the Euphrates, Terah, the father of Abraham and of Nahor; and they served other gods…”

Essentially, what’s been said here is that Abraham, the father of the elected nation of the Jews, came directly from a family that “served other gods”. In the book of Romans, through chapter 9-11, Paul goes through pains to make it clear that God chose Israel, not because of anything they were or did or would do, but simply because he had chosen them.

But here, here’s the icing on the cake. God made Abraham the father of the nation of Israel, yet he came from a dark place—probably even a dark past himself.

What does this say about our own personal election. I think it serves as a reminder that our salvation is all of grace. While we may have come from and occupied a life of wickedness, that will have no bearing on our election. God’s grace is greater than our sin. It reminds me of this verse, Ephesians 3:14-21:

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

That’s awesome. Love wider, love longer, love higher and love deeper than the vilest of our deeds. Just awesome.

Paul makes it sound so simple. Like an insensitive friend throwing the word “just” around.

Galatians 5:16:

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.

It almost reads like he’s saying, “So you don’t want to keep on sinning, well just walk by the Spirit!”. Easier said that done. But he goes on to explain his position.

Galatians 5:17:

For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.

The desires of the flesh and the desires of the Spirit are against one another and we have to take sides. Paul, in a way, is saying that if you want to see yourself sanctified, we must choose sides rightly.

I got together with some friends this morning to study. Before getting started, on friend was reading from Oswald Chamber’s My Utmost For His Highest and came across something that throws interesting light on this very idea.

Chamber’s asks the question, “Do you long to be sanctified?”. The answer must be a resounding “no”. Because in this fight between flesh and Spirit, it is our failure to take sides that hinders our sanctification. Could I whole heartedly say, “yes! I long, with all that I am, to be sanctified and delivered from this body of death!”, then there would be none of me left to side with my flesh and I would be sanctified.

But, instead, there is a conflict of nature in all of us. We continue to do the things we please, simply because they are the things we please. Among our many failures, there is our failure to side rightly with the Spirit in this spiritual battle, and so we sin.

I pray that my desire to walk in the Spirit would increase and so my sanctification progress.

A friend of mine and I were just getting ready to call it a night when we decided that we were in the mood for a movie. We decided a thriller of sorts was in line for the evening, so we made our way to the Redbox and rented P2. You may never have heard of it. It certainly didn’t win any awards or anything.

The gist is basically a young woman is working late on Christmas eve and while trying to leave is captured by a parking lot security guard who has a sick obsession with her. You can imagine where the movie goes.

Through the course of the movie the security guard attempts to win the woman’s affection in some less than conventional manners. For example, killing one of her coworkers who she had an altercation with. He’s obviously deranged and a murderer, among other things.

By the end of the movie, the woman has managed to turn the tables through a series of pretty clever decisions. She’s been through quite a lot. Been drugged, handcuffed, locked in the trunk of a car, crashed a car, tazered, and bitten by a dog. Finally, she has her assailant handcuffed to a car which is leaking gasoline. He’s now unarmed, blind and nearly unable to walk. But he’s still crazy, and can’t understand why the woman won’t have anything to do with him.

As she walks to safety, he gets upset and calls her an unsavory name. In her anger, she turns and lights the car on fire which burns her attacker alive, and she walks out into the street.

For the record, if I had the choice again, I would likely choose not to watch the movie. It was simply too much gore and not enough suspense.

But, my emotional response to the movie’s ending reminded me of some scripture.

Romans 12:19 says:

“Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, " VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY," says the Lord.”

The movie painted the picture of one individual as being pure, good and righteous. 100% victim. Obviously, in real life that doesn’t exist. But in a movie the ideal can. Then, opposite her, we have one who embodies, selfishness and evil. He was a murderer and the entire movie the viewer wishes he would come to justice.

But, in the end of the movie when she burns the man alive, I got a glimpse into the meaning of that verse. Her opponent was incapacitated and completely subdued and defenseless. When she killed him, she liquidated her righteous standing as established in the beginning of the movie. She no longer fulfilled the ideal that was painted for her. She too was a murderer and was equally deserving of a fiery death as he was.

When we intentionally execute revenge when we have been wronged, we join our injurer in his camp of unrighteousness. We become guilty of the same sins as him. Although it feels good to press revenge, the truth is, we are descending into unrighteousness and it will always produce adverse and often painful results.

That also reminds me of a tidbit of scripture which I read this afternoon and although the context isn’t a perfect match, I still think it applies:

1 Peter 2:20:

“For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God.”

I had a short conversation tonight about whether or not all sins were equal in God’s sight. I know becoming a Christian and growing up in my faith, it’s a popular idea. It makes for an excellent way of easing someone’s distress at the onset of their sin (although perhaps that’s not a good thing?).

But, I don’t think this is the correct way to look at sin.

All sins are not equal in God’s sight. All sins will result in death, but not all sins are seen as equally wicked by God. I think you can see this illustrated in the language used in numerous places in scripture. One of which is 2 Chronicles 28:13:

"You must not bring those prisoners here," they said, "or we will be guilty before the LORD. Do you intend to add to our sin and guilt? For our guilt is already great, and his fierce anger rests on Israel."

You can see the the idea that while they are already guilty, their guilt can increase which could result in a greater degree of God’s wrath. But, I think there is a more obvious illustration in the new testament where Jesus grieves over the unbelief of Korazin and Bethsaida. Luke 10:13:

"Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to the skies? No, you will go down to the depths.^"

Jesus’ woe is not a condemning woe, it’s a pitiful woe. He is distressed at their unbelief and wishes they would repent. He references God’s wrath poured out on Tyre and Sidon, whose wickedness was very "great".

Then he goes on to say something fascinating. He says that had Tyre and Sidon had the benefit of seeing the miracles that Jesus performed they would have repented. So, we see that in the case of Korazin and Bethsaida as well as Tyre and Sidon, unbelief was a chief sin.

But, because Korazin and Bethsaida had the benefit of seeing Jesus’ miracles, their sin of unbelief was much worse!

I think that a lot of the time people have trouble with that idea because it looks like a slippery slope. If we say that some sins are worse than others, then we must also acknowledge that some sins are not as bad. That sounds bad.

But, it’s the truth.

To steal a loaf of bread is a sin. To kill a man for sleeping with your wife is worse. But here’s the clincher. The perpetrators of both of these sins are going to hell, unless their sins are atoned for by Christ. So in an ultimate sense, the delineation between sins and sinners is irrelevant.

But even so, truth is truth and we must honor it.

I can remember growing up the devil was mostly a conceptual idea more than an actual being. He also, on some level was something of a scapegoat. Kind of a “the Devil made me do it” attitude, although not quite so foreword with the wording. At the very least, I would think that it wasn’t entirely the sinner’s fault, because he was tempted.

I see now though that that reasoning isn’t correct. People aren’t tempted by what they’re not already inclined to do.

To use an example, I wouldn’t steal a car. I don’t mean to say that I’m superior in some way to folks who would, but that it’s just not part of my natural inclination. There’s other things I’m inclined to do, but stealing a car just isn’t one of them. If the opportunity arose to steal a car, it wouldn’t be much of a temptation because the inclination isn’t really there to begin with.

But, perhaps lying. Give me the right circumstance and the temptation to lie can be a great struggle. Because in a real and relatively active sense, that struggle is alive in me.

It strikes me that most of the time, when the devil tempts people, he does little more than remind them of what they sinfully already desire to do. I think that’s somewhat of James’ thought when he writes this:

James 1:14

… Each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.

Granted, James isn’t talking immediately about the devil’s temptation, but he is talking about when we are tempted, regardless of where that temptation itself originates from.

I’m reminded that we have to own our sin. Unless we take full ownership of it, we can never truly repent of it. If we don’t own it, we can never truly appreciate Jesus’ work for us, because on some level, we must believe that we didn’t need it all that badly.

The past three days, I’ve posted videos from YouTube that deal with the topic of religion (#1, #2, #3, #4). Namely, Christianity. Whether they be funny, convicting or inspiring, I feel they all have something for us to consider.

This video popped up probably about a year ago. Or at least that was the first I’d heard of it. This is an excerpt from one of John Piper’s sermons. In the excerpt, Piper gives his personal reasons for hating the Health, Wealthy and Prosperity Gospel, which if of course, no gospel at all. Piper’s conviction is inspiring and his desire for the church in America is convicting.

A short video worth watching.

Have you ever suffered a failure in sin and hesitated to return to God in prayer because of the notion of being hypocritical? Or perhaps because of the notion that you’re currently unworthy to come back. Maybe in some subtle way you think there’s a “penance” to be served. Maybe you know God isn’t angry at your for your sin, but you’re angry at yourself and you feel that you’re unworthy to approach him, so you don’t. At least for a time.

From there, maybe you’ll take a few hours or days, depending on the sin, maybe weeks or years, before you return to Jesus in prayer or in the Word—after a "sufficient" time has passed.

I suspect some of you feel this way, because it’s a tendency I have and I’m not an especially unique person. I think it’s a tendency most have. But what we usually fail to realize is that such a thought process is actually highlighting self-righteousness. I know, it sounds weird. There’s so much guilt wrapped up in the grief following sin, how can there be a shred of self-righteousness involved.

Well, in that very moment, there may not be. But when we do that, what’s really happened is we’ve revealed how highly we think of ourselves the rest of the time.

Consider this: before committing whatever sin has left you feeling guilty, desiring not to approach God, were you less sinful? Whether you feel it or not, were you any less guilty before your recent sin? Were you any less deserving of God’s judgement?

Assuming we consider ourselves soberly, of course the answer will always be no. We have not increased our guilt. The only real difference is now we’re feeling our guilt. All of a sudden we’re feeling that we’re unworthy to approach God. Are we actually any less worthy? no. But now we feel it. The self-righteous delusion that says we’re “okay” to come before God is gone and the truth of our depravity is highlighted by our self-righteous attitudes.

Of course the twist that’s so hard to grapple with in the flesh is that the very thing we desire least, is exactly what we should do. We have to do. Walk back before God, whose waiting with arms spread wide, and ask for forgiveness. Of course, without even speaking a word of confession, God has already answered the request joyfully.

You see, I think we forget that we really don’t have a righteousness of our own. We have only One righteousness. Any minute, any day, our own righteousness is filthy. The guilt that we feel after suffering a loss before sin is the guilt that exists perpetually.

When we come to terms with that and marry it to Jesus’ sufferings leading to our salvation, justification, propitiation and eventual sanctification, then He becomes outrageously wonderful. He becomes the reality that drives us day in and day out. And, when we do fail and sin, we are grieved because it reminds us why Jesus chose to suffer, but we rejoice that God’s grace would continue to spread. We rejoice all the more at the vastness of God’s love for his adopted sons and daughters!

“The whole matter of making choices is very complex. Most of the time our choices are not limited to two. We have a whole network of desire factors that work within us. Often they are in conflict; rarely are they at a consistent level of intensity. Some days I have an intense desire to serve Christ and obey God. At other times I am listless in my faith and not very zealous to obey God. But one thing remains constant: I always make my choices according to the strongest inclination I have at the moment of decision. For example, if my desire to obey God were always greater than my desire to sin, I would never sin. When I sin, on the other hand, it is because I want to sin more than I want to obey God. Nobody forces me though many may entice and encourage me to sin. It is precisely because I sin according to my desires that God holds me responsible for my actions.”

RC Sproul
Reason to Believe

I couldn’t have said it better myself. So I won’t try. Makes me think of Romans 7. Makes me think of how frustrating it is to be stuck a human being.

The past couple of days I’ve written loosely about the human sex trade. It’s been on mind mind. But it’s served as another type of reminder in that time too.

What people choose to do in private, is not always private.

The pornography industry exists in the first place because of what people do in private. If people did not have those private intentions and desires, then the pornography industry would have no point in existing publicly.

If the pornography industry did not exist publicly, then inflated sexual fantasies would be far less prevalent and those fantasies would fewer set the stage for incidents of rape and sexual assault.

So, simply by allowing one’s self to participate in a private lust, indeed lends to public ramifications.

It is much like that with the human sex trade.

The trade thrives on people with private lusts and fantasies, desiring to bring those into reality. In a way, to lustfully use another person in our minds, only strengthens the foundation of an industry that destroys hundreds of thousands of people’s lives.

I’ve been pondering something I read in Colossians a couple days now.

If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— "Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch" (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.

It seems to me that Paul says something that actually seems like it doesn’t make a lot of sense.

The context around this thought is that Paul is writing to the Colossian church to warn them bad teaching. Basically, there were some folks who slipped into the Colossian church that were spreading a teaching that would lead people back into a Jewish-esque traditionalism, as well as some other weirder things.

Basically, these people had come and attempted to take the Colossians captive by claiming that while Christ was a good starting point, he wasn’t the end-all. They had some special, secret, wisdom that was also necessary for them to know and adhere to. They attempted to place strict rules on the little church’s head.

Paul swoops in to correct the problem.

He says basically, “You’re dead to this world. You’re on a whole different plane of thinking and living. You’re so beyond all this. So what’s up with you submitting to all these human, earthly rules? Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch."

He’s talking about Christian freedom. But here’s what doesn’t make sense right away. ”They are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh”.

No, surely violating our Christian freedom isn’t good, but on some level it must prevent us from indulging in the flesh! Legalism isn’t a good thing, but on some level it prevents sin, right? Well, not according to Paul.

This whole set of verses got me thinking about the way the church pushes accountability. Now, before I get tarred and feathered, hear me out. Accountability is totally a good thing. But, I don’t think that it ever has the power to prevent our fleshly indulgence. Perhaps postpone. But not prevent.

Romans 8:13 says that we have to put the death the deeds of the body by the Spirit. But it seems that all to often, the teaching sounds more like we’re to put to death the deeds of the body by the accountability and support of other people. I completely disagree with that.

And here’s the reason.

Our sin is first and ultimately found in our affections. When we desire something more than we desire God. we’re committing idolatry. When we long to sin, we sin. So, for another person to forcefully to keep us from that sin does not effectively stop our sinning. It is of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. All it’s really done is temporarily delayed the outcroppings of it. Generally speaking, if a person wants to do something, given enough time they usually will. Our accountability is going to need to be a lot better if it’s actually going to work.

Now, I’m not bashing good Christian accountability, I’m just suggesting that we’re talking and teaching about it out of order.

I think we ought to be kept accountable by God, in the Spirit. Think about it. It makes perfect sense. He’s the only accountability partner that is with you constantly. He’s the only one who can keep track with your deepest longings. And he’s the only one who can actually produce in us power to do what is right.

So where’s the church accountability? I think it’s only genuinely good place is in a place of support, encouragement and reminder.