When I put my faith in Jesus Christ decisively at the age of 21, God spoke a sentence into my consciousness that I will never forget: “You’re forgiven. Go and sin no more.” From the moment that lightning bolt realization struck, I’ve never doubted God’s complete forgiveness. That simple understanding of His grace fundamentally changed who I am on the inside and progressively alters my outward actions too.
But He also said, “Go and sin no more.” I went, but I have sinned some more – a lot more. Every now and then I stumble over major flaws. I think the first time this really hit me was several years after coming to faith when I was in seminary in South Carolina. One time my mother-in-law was raving about a guest speaker at her church who just happened to be one of my professors. She said that he was so good her mouth hung open the entire time he spoke. What words edification overflowed from my saintly heart? “Yeah … but he sure does repeat his stories a lot in class.” She’d never said my preaching left her mouth hanging open and something inside me gushed out to take him down a few notches. The ugliness of my envy and insecurity was shocking. I assure you God has dealt with the habitual sin of comparison in me over the next decade or so.
I’m no longer surprised by my pettiness. Occasionally, I’m ashamed by the sinful words that spill out of my mouth. Regularly, I’m confronted with the enormity of my self-absorption and pride. I’m constantly glad that people can’t read my evil thoughts, but I know that God can. There are days when I think I may not have sinned, but even then I’m sure I’ve just overlooked something.
The sad fact is that all Christians sin, even after genuinely trusting in Christ for their forgiveness. In the Middle Ages Catholic Christians believed that the waters of baptism literally washed away their sins. Great! But there was one big problem. They noticed that they still sinned after baptism. What would wash away sins after that? To solve the problem they developed practices like penance – doing good deeds – and confession to deal with post baptismal sin. They also came up with the theology of purgatory, a state of existence between heaven and hell where believers burned off their remaining sins over hundreds or thousands of years. Lots of them waited just until death to be baptized to make sure that no sins trailed them into eternity.
Although we’re fairly confident we’ve got this one figured out, most of us still struggle with the issue. How is that people of sincere faith still sin after such grace has been lavished on them and the Holy Spirit resides within their hearts? Why do we still fall into transgression even when we’re fighting hard against it? Is there forgiveness for willful sins after salvation? Does our sin disrupt the will of God? This morning I want us to come to a basic understanding of why and what happens when God’s people do bad things.
I hope you noticed that the story from Genesis 27 is a mess. Isaac’s family put the fun in dysfunctional. God’s people dropped the ball during every play. The saints sinned big time and the author of Genesis spared no detail. The only one who didn’t sin in this story was Esau, the guy who wasn’t one of God’s people. How do we make sense of this episode?
Comprehending the Sins of the Saints
Let’s start with Isaac. He was at least 100 years old during this incident. Isaac thought he was going to die because of his blindness and feeble condition. He believed the time had come to formally transfer leadership of the family over to the next generation. Breaking from tradition, Isaac, decided to bless Esau with this role secretly. The blessing invoked God’s favor upon the son chosen to lead the next generation. It’s obvious from his secrecy that Isaac knew he was about to bless the wrong son.
Isaac had received every indication that Esau was unfit to lead. A prenatal prophecy from the LORD said that the younger, Jacob, would rule over the older, Esau. Esau revealed his unworthiness when he sold his birthright for a bowl of stew to his brother. Esau trampled family tradition and faith by marrying two pagan Canaanite women who became a thorn in the side of Isaac and Rebekah. Isaac should have known better. It appears that he did know better than to bless Esau, so he chose to do it secretly.
With all this evidence, why did Isaac veer from God’s path? The same reason we often let go of His clear directions:
Creature comforts often lead us astray
Here’s a Bible study tip for you: any time a word or phrase is repeated in a particular story, the author wants you to notice it. Here, the word “game” is used 8 times. “Tasty food” is employed 6 times. This speaks volumes about Isaac’s disobedience. His love for the taste of wild game led him off the path. In his golden years Isaac became a slave to sensuality. His favoritism for Esau and attempted usurpation of God’s choice resulted from his taste buds.
It’s no surprise when new Christians struggle against this. Appetite and lust wage war against those who are young in years and in spirituality. What often goes unnoticed is how older Christians get sidetracked by creature comforts. Rather than indulge to excess in things like drugs and sex, they’ll become addicted to excess food and drink or other substances considered okay by churchgoers. Some become so accustomed to certain patterns of life and ways of doing things that any deviation leads to anger against the person who upset their comforting habits. The grumpy old man or grumpy old woman often has that attitude because there’s something or someone upsetting their daily obsessions.
I find that most older Christians retire not only from public work, but also from actively serving Christ. I’ve heard many of them say, “We did our part, now it’s time for the younger generation to take over.” Let me ask you, does God list an age of retirement from the Great Commission? Who has more time to give to the Lord working parents raising families or retired folks? Could it be that God calls many retirement age people to the mission field, but they won’t go because of creature comforts like food, drink, TV, and grandchildren?
Those creature comforts can lead us astray later on in life if we’re not careful. Isaac was in the process of undermining the will of God simply because he like the taste of meat. This was a man full of faith and pleasing to the Lord a few years earlier. He took himself out of the game when he bowed to creature comforts.
Isaac was not alone in sin. In my opinion, Rebekah was a spiritual giant, the major player in the game yet she dropped the ball big time. Remember back over her life. Rebekah took a leap of faith into the dark by following Abraham’s servant from safe city life to the wild unknown in Canaan to marry a guy she’d never met. When she couldn’t immediately give birth, she, along with her husband trusted in and sought the Lord. During her pregnancy, the babies struggled in her womb, so Rebekah asked God what was going on and He spoke a prophecy to her. She had absolute confidence that Jacob would receive the covenant blessing of God, not Esau. She was a woman of tremendous faith, so much so that she didn’t believe Jacob would be cursed when he tricked Isaac.
Yet, she sinned. It was not God’s will for Jacob to receive the blessing this way. God’s ways are not the paths of deception. He did not lead Rebekah to trick a blind man. God’s law forbade this kind of behavior. It was disrespectful and treacherous. Yes, Isaac’s attempted secret blessing of Esau was wrong, but Rebekah’s plan was worse. Two wrongs don’t make a right.
Although, Rebekah possessed great faith, when it came to her boy (who was forty by this time) she didn’t completely trust God to take care of the situation. For all of her trust, Rebekah had a gap in her faith. She didn’t think the Lord would take care of things this time, therefore she took matters into her own hands. We can learn from her mistake:
Lapse reveals gaps in our faith
When we detect habitual sin after many years of following Jesus or find ourselves fallen into major sin, if it doesn’t arise from appetite, often it’s because there’s a hole in our faith somewhere. There are often areas where we’re not willing to trust God. Since we don’t completely have faith that He’ll see us through, we play God and see ourselves through. The result is a sinning saint.
I know one young lady who got into a stinky marriage. Nobody forced her. She said, “I do” of her own freewill. But she married a manipulator. In order to gain security that she missed from her father who abandoned the family when she was a little girl, she married a guy who she knew would take care of her. Unfortunately, he controlled and manipulated too. Rather than trust God and seek His solution to the problem she left him and shacked up with another man. She solved her immediate problem, but didn’t do it God’s way thereby creating pain for numerous others and herself that she’ll have to deal with for years to come. She has a gap in her faith when it comes to this part of her life probably because of her past experience.
Sin or temptation to it is an opportunity to learn. It’s preferable to learn before the temptation becomes a sin. When you’re tempted to follow a course of action that you know is contrary to God’s will ask yourself, “In what way am I failing to trust God here.?” Ask Him that and I promise you, He’ll show you. Ask Him to reveal how you’re to face the situation with faith. Ask Him what need you’re trying to meet without Him. If you’ll do this before leaping into some kind of life-altering sin you can avoid the next point:
Eternal forgiveness does not cancel temporal consequences
There’s every reason to believe that the key players in this story, Isaac, Rebekah, and Jacob were God’s people. In Baptist terminology, they were saved because of their faith. Isaac and Rebekah had evidence of previous faith. Jacob would come to know the living God a few decades later. We can assume that all received eternal forgiveness as God’s people of faith. But we see from this story that they also paid a temporal price for their sins.
Look what happened to them. Isaac and Rebekah’s marriage continued its deterioration. How many pleasant conversations do you imagine they had after betraying one another like this? Jacob had to flee and didn’t see home for 20 years. He never saw or heard from his mother again after that day. Rebekah probably also lost the love of her son Esau. He would have known who put Jacob up to the trick. 20 years of hatred erupted from Esau toward Jacob. Only the intervention of God would heal it decades later. These people of faith sinned. There’s no doubt they were forgiven. Nonetheless, they paid a high price in consequences.
Just because God forgives you doesn’t mean you get a free pass from consequences. David committed adultery and murdered the husband of his lover. He was forgiven, but he paid the price in family strife and bloodshed. Paul persecuted Christians and had them thrown into prison and some executed. He was forgiven, but later in life he was imprisoned and eventually executed. There is forgiveness, but also consequences. Consequences can take many different forms: broken relationships; broken families; broken bodies; disease; incarceration; shortened lifespan; loss of loved ones; potential never fulfilled.
The best thing to do is face the consequences with faith. Several years ago I had the pleasure of leading a drug-dealer and general hoodlum to the Lord. He was forgiven. He was a new creation. Unfortunately, he had several outstanding warrants for his arrest. He fled to South Carolina, but his past kept haunting him. He finally worked out a plea bargain and served about a year in prison. Today he’s a free man and his past is in the past and he’s making a new life for himself and his family. He was forgiven, but he had to face the consequences of his sin.
Finally, there is good news even when the saints sin …
Transgression is no obstacle to God’s objective
This story is clear that God does not need our goodness or cooperation to accomplish His will. Rebekah and Jacob need not have taken matters into their own hands because God had already decided and decreed who would carry His covenant forward. They did it the wrong way, but that didn’t stop God. He eventually created a great nation out of Jacob regardless of his sin. That’s probably the larger point of the story: Even when we sin, God’s will is going to be done one way or another.
I’ve heard some people say that God’s will may not be done. Doesn’t the Lord Prayer say to ask “Thy will be done”? That’s true, but it’s not leaving the accomplishment of God’s will in question. The only question is whether or not His will will be done by me personally. Am I going to be a willing accomplice to His purposes or a passive spectator or an obstruction who He will certainly go around? He will do it with or without us. He prefers to do it with us.
There are some lessons here we need to take to heart. First, a bad witness will not send someone to hell, but to someone else. Don’t get worked up when you see other Christians sin (or yourself) and start fretting that someone will reject Christ because of it. None who can be saved will fail to be saved. The only question is whether God uses us to do it He does it in spite of us.
Second, if we won’t follow God’s plan, He’ll choose someone else who will. Never make the foolish assumption that you’re needed by God to accomplish anything for Him. He just gives you the opportunity. If you won’t take it, He’ll choose another.
Third, disobedience delays. Jacob could have asserted his leadership much earlier, but there was still some work to do. He faced a 20 year delay thanks to his sin. I believe God has a plan for all of us, but sin keeps us from embarking upon it. Some never enter into what God has planned because of their disobedience.
Finally, He’s powerful enough to achieve His plans through our sin. God does not sin nor does He tempt others to sin, yet His grace and blessings can abound out of our transgressions. Here’s an example:
“Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs, which God did among you through Him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put Him to death by nailing Him to the cross. But God raised Him from the dead …” Acts 2:22-24a (NIV)
Those men were accountable for their wicked actions, yet God’s will was accomplished through their wicked actions. I don’t tell you this to give you relief from the guilt and consequences of sin, but so that you’ll see the greatness of God.
