Sin is a rather shallow magic. It is the top crust of human depravity; the symptom of a deeper disease. It is ‘bearing fruit for death’ (Romans 7:5). Sin has no power to hold its victims and can do nothing to them in and of itself because it is not the root of evil, but the fruit. It is not the source of depravity, but the byproduct.
The root of all sin is law; the legalistic system that Adam so graciously introduced to the world. “If you want something, you’ve got to do something about it.” There is no such thing as a free lunch in this old Adamic world. You want wisdom? You don’t need to ask for it, just eat this fruit. You want to be like God? That’s simple – just do this. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Give and take is the name of this world’s game. What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. (James 4:1-2 ESV) Give and take, give and take. Self-righteousness, earning our own way – call it what you will, it is this world’s default setting. If I do something for you and you do nothing for me, I am angry because you are not playing by the rules.
To the law of sin (the law of Adam) was added the law of God, which increased the trespass with the intent of making people aware of the sickness of give and take. But people mistook this law as being like the law of Adam, and assumed that obedience was something they could give God that would get God’s favor. And so the law of God, turned inside out by man, became nothing more than a mechanism that aroused the sinful passion that seeks and fights after its own interest.
Checking sin is merely the removal of the symptom. It does not strike at the underlying disease. Were one to spend his entire life mortifying his sin so that no outward evidence of sin remained (as did the Pharisees) he would still be a white-washed tomb filled with dead men’s bones. He would still belong to this worldly kingdom and be governed by its rules and judgments. He would still be imprisoned, though he looks ever so clean. And he would still be in violation of the commandments because he would be incapable of truly loving, without condition or expectation of reciprocation, his God or his neighbor. Whoever continues under the system of law does not yet know love, which is entirely give. He only knows give and take.
So Christ did not come simply to set us free from sin, though he does. But he does it not by treatment of the symptom, but by curing the disease. He sets us free from the old system of this world. He sets us free from the give and take. He gives and takes nothing in return. By keeping the law of God perfectly in loving his God and his neighbor perfectly he breaks the law of this world. And he invites us to break it with him. He invites us to undergo death to the system of this world that always demands something in return and be raised to a new kingdom, a new system, where nothing is expected in return. Where we are free to love, not required to love. Where we can love unconditionally as God does.
Can you see why it is so advantageous to the enemy to keep us focused on sin? It keeps us focused on sprucing up our old Adam, with the hope that that is what will please God. It keeps us from discovering the ‘deep magic’, the clash between law and gospel. The difference between give and take and becoming a ‘living sacrifice’ to be used up joyfully and freely in service to God and others. Jesus did not conquer our sin by conquering our sin but by setting us free from the ‘deep magic’ so that we no longer continue to bear its fruit. To all who will believe, God makes a promise that all sin is forgiven because we have followed him in death, and law has no jurisdiction over the dead, and “apart from the law, sin lies dead.” (Romans 7:8 ESV)
God Bless.
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