Having the mind of Christ means we have to have His attitude in all things. This devotional reading looks at having His attitude toward sin.
Nuggets
- Jesus hated sin so much that He came to die to pay the penalty for our sins.
- Even though Jesus hates sin so much, He felt that we should be restored when we believe in Him.
- Jesus willingly gave up His Deity to become like mankind to save us from the penalty of our sins.
When we have the mind of Christ, we have to have Jesus’ attitude regarding sin. Since we are in the world, too often we compromise with it.
Let’s see what Jesus’ attitude toward sin was.
Let's Put It into Context
To read devotions in the Habitual Holiness of Heart and Life theme, click the button below.
Here is a running list of nuggets for the theme.
Devotions in the Commit to Grow Our Habits study
Here is a running list of nuggets for the study.
The foundation of this series in the study is from two sermons.
Resource
Abhorrence of Sin
“Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good” (Rom. 12: 9 ESV)
Jesus hated sin so much that He came to die to pay the penalty for our sins.
Jesus knew before this world was created that we would disobey God and let sin into it. He also knew that He was going to be the Sacrifice to pay the penalty for our sins.
- Sin is not believing that Jesus is our Savior to save us from our actions by humans that disobey God and break one of His reasonable, holy, and righteous laws and commandments, goes against a purpose He has for us, or follows Satan’s promptings.
- Holy means to be set apart — because of our devotion to God — to become perfect, and morally pure while possessing all virtues and to serve and worship God.
- Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
- Spiritual graces are worldly morals that have been submitted to God to further His kingdom instead of enhancing this world.
- Sanctified means to be set free from sin.
- Pure means not being sinful or having the stain of sin.
- Virtues are standards of moral excellence.
- Righteous means we are free from sin because we are following God’s moral laws.
- Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
- Holy means to be set apart — because of our devotion to God — to become perfect, and morally pure while possessing all virtues and to serve and worship God.
Glossary
The hate Jesus has for sin is so strong that He gave His life to make atonement for our sins. Atonement is about repayment for a wrong by the shedding of Jesus’ blood.
Glossary
Abhorring sin means we should mortify it. Mortify means to place a death penalty on our sins. We judge sin and determine it to be wrong.
Glossary
We should want to mortify our sins because we are trying to imitate Jesus. He was pure and did not sin.
Bell reminded us of the difficulty of mortifying our sins. He wrote, “It is the peculiarity of Christianity that while it aims to exclude all sin from the heart, it does not dismember the soul by excluding from it any faculty that is natural to it.”
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That is a fancy way of saying that, even though we have been regenerated, we still retain our sinful nature. Regeneration is being changed from spiritually dead to spiritually alive and the internal new birth and requickening that God brings about through the work of the Holy Spirit.
- Spiritual death is the separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin.
- The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
Glossary
Bell called sin an invisible power in the soul. Ooo, baby. Isn’t he right there?
Satan is a force with which to be reckoned. Sin has a strong siren’s call.
Jesus came to destroy the hold sin has on us. “… The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil” (I Jn. 3: 8 ESV).
God calls us to not only hate sin but also to detest and loath it. That means we have to jettison it from our hearts and minds.
Beecher gave the progression of abhorring evil: dislike, disgust, hatred, and abhorrence. We have to get to the abhorrence part to truly mortify sin.
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But we can’t stop there. Not sinning alone isn’t enough.
We have to cling to what is good — the opposite of evil — God. Doing good works alone is not enough.
- Good, in the biblical sense, is the workings of God within His people through His holy, pure, and righteous behavior.
- Evil is equated with sin because it is that which goes against God and His purposes.
We have to ABCDed.
View of the Soul
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5: 8 NIV)
Even though Jesus hates sin so much, He felt that we should be restored when we believe in Him.
Jesus knew there was no way we would be able to redeem ourselves. How can something that is impure make itself pure again?
It can’t.
Something outside itself has to purify it. That something in our case is Jesus.
So, while we were entrenched in a life of sin — impure — Jesus — Who was pure — agreed to this horrible, painful death so that we could gain salvation. Salvation is the gift of life through the deliverance from condemnation and sin to acceptance and holiness and changes us from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive.
- Holiness is the transcendent excellence of His nature that includes elements of purity, dedication, and commitment that lead to being set apart.
- Purity means possessing God’s moral character, having eliminated the stain of sin.
Glossary
Clarkson made a really good point. Our judgment for our sins — if we haven’t ABCDed — will be as violent and cruel as Jesus’ death — but we will have earned it.
Jesus didn’t.
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If our punishment would have been that great, the price for redemption had to be that high. Nothing less would have been sufficient.
Why did God design the Plan of Salvation and pay such a high price for the Sacrifice? He loves us.
“He [Jesus] died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them” (II Cor. 5: 15 ESV).
Condescending
“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men” (Phil. 2: 5-7 ESV)
Jesus willingly gave up His Deity to become like mankind to save us from the penalty of our sins.
So, we’ve established Jesus hated sin. We’ve also established He was willing to pay the price to defeat it.
What that doesn’t really discuss is what Jesus gave up to do that. He is God. He is a part of Sovereign God.
Yet, Jesus became a lowly man because He loves us that much. He wanted to do all He could — regardless of what He had to empty Himself of — to offer us salvation.
We’ve talked several times about this being called disinterested. In today’s society, that would probably be translated as it wasn’t important enough for Him to even concern Himself with it.
Wrong, moose breath.
Disinterested means Jesus was willing to give up the trappings of His Deity. No, He didn’t stop being God.
Pusey listed the attributes that Jesus gave up. The three he picked out were
- Eternal and Infinite
- Self-Sufficient/Self-Existent
- Wisdom
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Now, I agree that Jesus gave those up while He was here on earth. I don’t agree that He didn’t pick them pack up when He returned to Heaven.
- Jesus could not have been eternal and infinite if He was to die as a man.
- He could not be self-existent because He was created by the Holy Spirit and Mary.
- I am not sure how all-knowing He continued to maintain while here on earth.
That being said, I am not all sure of how the 100% God and 100% man worked. All we can really say is that Jesus gave up things to be our Savior and Redeemer. He was still the Son of God, but He was also the servant of God.
But then look what Paul really said. “but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men” (Phil. 2: 7 ESV emphasis added).
Paul didn’t say Jesus became a man. He said He became like man.
We don’t have to understand it all. We just have to have faith.
To read a related devotion, click on the appropriate button below.
Let’s put it this way.
- Jesus was willing to give up a lot of things because He loved us.
- We are to love others as He loved us.
- That means we are to be willing to give up a lot of things to love others.
Ooo, baby. What is this we have to give up bit?
If we are going to have the mind of Christ — the same attitude — we have to be humble as Jesus was. We also need to be righteous, content, meek, merciful, and sincere.
Resource
Lessey gave us the progression.
- Lowly servant
- Human submission
- Obedient submission
- Self-sacrificing submission
- Elevation and glorification
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God is going to ask each of us to give up different things. Face it, we all have different pet sins. He isn’t going to let us keep them.
We may even have to sacrifice something very important to us.
Tying It All Together
I like what Good said. Purity is shown by having a renewed mind.
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That means we are confirming to the image of God. Relying on being made in His image isn’t going to cut it. Our attitudes and actions have to show we are reflecting Him.
Tying It to Easter
Normally, I do a whole series on Easter, then end with a song. But I got caught up doing the commitment series.
But I think this devotion is exactly what we need to celebrate what Jesus did for us. We see His reasoning for being the Sacrifice: He hated sin and wanted to pay the penalty for us. We see His call to be like Him.
Making the Connections
We are to abhor sin, but Bell says we can hit extremes. He wrote, “Crimes sometimes shock us too much; vices almost always too little.”
Resource
We are called to be sober. Being sober is a character trait distinguished by self-control, genuineness, and sound moral judgment. It is a calm and temperate disposition.
Glossary
But aren’t we like what Bell said. Murder is a horrible sin. Lying, in the worldview estimation, shouldn’t. Disobeying God , to them, shouldn’t because we should have control over our own lives and not have to submit to anyone.
“For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it” (Jas. 2: 10 ESV).
How Do We Apply This?
- Remember that we are children of God by adoption and regeneration.
- Resist sin.
- Live to please God.
- Repent of sins we do commit.
- Don’t flirt with temptations.
- Don’t compromise with the world to think we legalize sin.
- Aim for godly things.
- Imitate Jesus is spirit and temper.
- Be humble like Christ.
- Sacrifice in order to win others to Christ.
- Don’t give up serving Jesus.
- Work out our own salvation.
Resources
Father God. We praise You for designing the Plan of Salvation. We thank Jesus for completing the Plan, even though it cost both of Yo so much. Help us to have His abhorrence of sin as our attitude. Amen.
What do you think?
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