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| Q: | I posted the previous question titled "Sin Again". Thank you for the response. I am in full agreement. However, you have inspired me to follow this up with yet another question. Is going 26mph in a 25mph zone a sin? Does this make the Lord burn with anger against me? When we travel at a rate of speed that our local governing bodies have deemed unsafe for any human to travel do we need to ask forgiveness and amend our sinful ways? Do you do this? Careful going home tonight that you do not break God's law? While driving--even if focusing on speed--sometimes we still exceed a little. Should we then stop driving altogether as a means of transportation because Jesus says "if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out"? Is there not something about the "spirit of the law" and common sense that applies here? We humans have limited capability to focus. If God desires "mercy not sacrifice", should we turn our focus inwardly on living our lives to the letter of the law, making sure we NEVER exceed the speed limit so as to not anger our God--or should we focus outwardly sharing God's love with others, and sending a message that none of us is perfect? Is it not more important to focus on sharing the message we earn nothing by obeying the law for the sake of the law, but we obey the law out of a love response to Jesus? I believe that God does not want us focusing inwardly like monks, obsessed with obeying the law because obeying the law is empty except for doing so out of a love response to Jesus. If it is not in our hearts to travel 25mph exactly, is it not like Cain's offering to the Lord if we do? He also does not want us galavanting around the world as hypocrites with a "do as I say, not as I do" attitude. Focusing on obeying the law outside of a love response to Jesus leaves you empty and vulnerable--and focusing on Jesus' love is the most rewarding thing anyone will ever do. That being said--if I am tearing down the highway at a terrifying pace of five mph over the posted speed limit because I am instead focusing on a prayerful conversation with the Lord--I think He is not just ok with that, but pleased. Would you disagree? We get ourselves into sinful situations. I whole heartedly agree that we are to focus on NOT getting into them--however it happens. So I ask--I am going to miss a flight to go on a mission trip to serve the Lord very directly all because I am running late. If I speed, I can just make it. If I do not, I miss the trip. Am I to take responsibility for being late by missing the trip, or would the Lord want me to try to make it? I so much appreciate your thoughts on the matter. Thank you for your expertise, and for helping me understand my relationship with God. I pray that this works to help many come to a better understanding of their relationship with God. | ||||||
| A: | You say that you are in full agreement with my answer, yet you still like to speculate that the end justifies the means. You say that it is all right to sin because you are justified since you are thinking about God when you sin. That is how religious wars get justified! People begin to say to themselves that they are justified to kill others who are a different faith then they are. By killing those of a different faith they think that they are advancing God's will. In my previous response to you I should have written about sin and repentance and God's forgiveness in Christ. As you implied in your first question, people justify divorce in the same way. "It is God's will that I be happy," they say. "Therefore, I am doing God's will by getting a divorce. God wants me to get a divorce." This was the thinking that I saw in your previous message. It was this, that you were saying, "The end result justifies the means by which we obtain it, no matter how sinful that means may be." You are right that you and I cannot drive down the highway without sinning. It is impossible to keep right on the speed limit. I first read your previous message as coming from someone with a very sharp conscience about such matters. I probably misread it. Your main point was about seeking excuses for sins--to justify them rather than finding forgiveness in Christ. It is also impossible for us to have a relationship with another person without sinning. We hurt their feelings in unthinking or uncaring ways--sometimes we hurt them because we care too much! They do the same things to us. Should we give up driving because we might sin? Should we give up interacting with our friends because we might sin? No! That is why Jesus taught us to pray, "Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us." I would strongly encourage you daily to repent of your sins. Every Christian is at the same time a saint and a sinner. I can't think of anything in my life that I have ever done perfectly, without sin. I have two responses to my daily sins. I can try to justify my sin with all kinds of excuses, or I can go to God daily in repentance. May we all go to God daily in repentance, begging him for forgiveness and strength. I John 1:8-10 "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives." Remember the accompanying passage: "The blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin." We can argue about speeding and the letter or the spirit of the law of the land for decades. But that is not your real point. Your real point is about "the end justifying the means." It is not what you do or how you do it or how you seek to justify your actions that matters before God. It is all about God and his gift of Jesus for you and for me and for the world of sinners. He is the only one who has made us and all people right with God. It is about what Jesus has done for you and me that matters.
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