Three steps to excape sin.

My post "Is this about sin?" was perhaps too long for a quick read.

Here's the short version

1. Sin is separation from our creator-God and ends in death.

2. Christ, God in human form, defeated death in his resurrection, and evidenced his divinity.

3. He offers us to benefit from this and accept new life in him.

We gain the new life (re-generation, or 'born again') by accepting his offer and following him.

Is this about 'sin'?

Most people, and I'd think some Christians, think of sin as a set of actions.

When we talk about it in public, I think we allow this misapprehension to continue.

Thus the place of 'sin' in the 'economy of salvation' and the whole structure of reality is left untouched both conceptually and explicitly. See Romans 8:19-23.

Sin is not only in our actions, but in our entire disposition towards life, in a corruption of our being as made in God's image: i.e., 'like God' as it is in Genesis 1:27.

Sin results from rejection of God, of repudiation of the fellowship with him we were made for.

So, this is not simple 'moralism' or 'doing the wrong thing'. It is woven into us at a deep level and with that we are cut off from God, the source of life.

Christ: God incarnate in human form, bore the consequence of our rejection in his death, but to not succumb, as we would do. Rather, to defeat it and enable our 'de-separation' from God to come about.

He evidence the defeat of death, the defeat of sin in his resurrection.

From the resurrection flows the offer of new life 'in him'.

This is a complete spiritual re-generation of our inner being, to bring us in to the family of and fellowship with God our Creator.

We are thereby restored to that fundamental life connection and are enabled to be in God's family and know him in Christ, by his indwelling Spirit.

It's not just 'about sin', but by virtue of it, about our separation from God and the path this leads to the natural conclusion of separation: separation devoid of the presence of Christ. Death.

The Man Who Judged God

I was fascinated by a recent podcast conversation (by Stand to Reason) with 'Dan in Colorado' who wanted to know about God's killing babies.

He was referring to the war against the Midianites in Numbers 31:17-18 and the punishment of Ephraim for apostasy in Hosea 13:16.

I appreciate you didn't have the time available for a lengthy discussion with him, but it got me thinking. How would I respond to his questions?

The first observation I would hazard is that Dan takes an a-historical view of the texts coupled with, perhaps, a deterministic view of God's acts being the source of human/historical acts.

Yet, God's action is in history within its context, as is man's, and the texts report on this. They show God in historical interaction; that is his action is in, through and by history: in a manner, God uses the unfolding of the history of human depravity to achieve his good ends despite the depravity of man which produces a history of degeneracy.

In his 'a-historical' view Dan seems also to have missed the entire point of the OT. It is not merely a collection of narratives, but it lays out the flow of history bringing the Messiah and delineates the historical man in desperate need of the Messiah. It is about the formation and choosing of Israel, itself delivered from slavery, as the base for the Messiah who will deliver us all from slavery to sin and death.

God, rather than being stifled by the reversal in death that man brought upon himself, uses the history marked by it to advance his long game to bring eternal life to all who believe.

Dan seems to take a 'sentimental' view of death. Everyone killed in these judgements, wreaked in the normal course of ANE warfare, itself constrained by the circumstances of the times (more on this below) would have died anyway: as do we all. Death is never 'special' in the history of man. It is condition-normal in our corrupted state and from which we are to be rescued...the great love of God is that he uses the progression of the state of horror we are in to retrieve a people through the coming of the Messiah. He is not finally frustrated by it!

The point of history is not the terminal undoing of mankind in dissolution and death, but in salvation and life. Dan seems to have not considered this.

Dan also seems to bring God wholly into the cosmos with a Euthyphroean option: that 'right' is external to and at least logically, prior to God. Whereas the scriptures teach that all value and ethical judgements flow from God's nature: being that he is love, as John tells us. 'Moral' is what marks our choices because we have the frightening choice: to choose or reject repentance! God, oddly, does not have such a choice: he is who he is, and cannot 'un-be' himself.

Nevertheless, 'love' is also a long game in a world that is full of hate and decay (moral, physical and spiritual) resulting with all this being overturned and put right in the New Creation. God has no 'blood on his hands'.

Moreover the evil done by those who visit it on Ephraim will itself be repaid, as is Moab experiencing, being punished for its rejection of  God and its clear and present danger to the mission of Israel for the rescue of the world. God responds to and uses the evil of Moab and Shalmaneser respectively; he does not cause it, yet is working by it his ultimate Good for those who love him despite the blood-thirsty waywardness of mankind. Working in and by (Romans 8:28) the 'warp and  woof' of human history, because the world is given to man (Ps 115:16) wherein man makes significant choices which must play out, yet will not and cannot frustrate God's ends.

Dan also seems to misunderstand death. I can't remember who stated this, but death is a change of location, not annihilation. Any babies killed would, I think we expect from the scriptures, not be excluded from the love of God, but be saved from the course they would have otherwise gone on. Death in these terms is not the offense of murder.

The practicalities of the ancient world also must be taken into account. They would be twofold: who would look after surviving babies, bearing the financial burden in a very small and fragile economy, to succour the children of the enemy? Moreover, any surviving children would soon enough learn their history and plot to retaliate: who is going to preserve a future guerilla force of angry young men who would be expected to seek their destruction? We see the sentiments of young Arabs in Gaza: perhaps this would be the picture of the adolescent Midian children!

'Evil' is not merely a set of actions that can be abstracted to a particular moral category, but is actions that are 'not-God' or in denial of who God is. This seems to not be fully grasped by Dan. Thus it has no utility apart from sounding the loudest possible alarm that all is not right with the world.  That we detect it (as you say, something is not right with the world), says that we have a transcendental connection to a more basic reality-structure than the world exhibits, by virtue of our imageness of God, I daresay.

The evil in which is the history of the establishment, preservation and preparation of Israel for the Messiah's coming is what life post-fall is, entirely. Dan picks and chooses his 'evils' in some sense. To side-step the evil would be to overturn the fallen world, meaninglessly, as the fallen-ness would continue. Thus, this can only truly be done in the New Creation.

2) God and temporality (the following podcast from the one mentioned above)

I liked the segment in the more recent podcast about God and time. I tend to agree with you, but would fine-tune my own statement of position to recognize that God explicitly  engages with his creation temporally. I've no idea how an a-temporal being would 'work', of course given our experience is of a creation both separate from God, per se, but also congruent with who God is.

Nevertheless, God shows that he is temporally 'synched' with his creation in that he created in the specific cadence of the days that give the tempo to our own experience of the creation. God thus couples with us temporally and substantially in his acts of creation (the ground of fellowship: the parties in the same place and time). He thus sets the context for his other acts within the creation, culminating in the Incarnation.

The young Christian

As a young Christian, brought up in a church devoid of any real Christian education, or teaching, I knew nothing.

For many years, while I gradually came to grips with aspects of the Bible as anthology (without knowing that word), it's overall form and 'story' escaped me.

From Sunday School, it struck me as a bunch of disconnected stories and precepts. Not helpful

I came to university knowing nothing of theology, of the history of the church, or the chain of themes that made the Bible the story of reality,  to borrow Greg Koukl's phrase.

One thing conspicuously absent was a table of contents, a meaningful one, of the Bible. A list of Books was only minorly helpful, and only for navigation. A list of the pages of Chapters would have been of some minor use in the early years of Bible reading, but what I needed, I think what everyone needs is a list of contents that are the actual thematic content of the Bible. After all, the navigation aids were as useful for this as discussing a holiday by giving the latitudes and longitudes that one had visited.

The Twentieth Century NT in some editions has such a table of contents, but it is a little too much.

But recently I found in the back pages of my NRSV just the thing. Crossed with the editorial paragraph headings of the NASB, I've adapted these and compiled just what I would have been much helped by (along with teaching of the biblical theology) as a teenager.

I hope it helps you too.

The Old Testament

                                       Book   Topic                                                          Chapter         

The books of the law (Torah) and history: The Pentateuch
	GENESIS	The Creation	1, 2
		The Fall	3
		Genealogies	5
	2350 BC	The Flood	7
		Babel	11
	2091 BC (call)	Abraham	12
	2066 BC (b)	Isaac	22
	2006 BC (b)	Jacob	27
	1915 BC (b)	Joseph	37
	EXODUS	Moses out of Egypt	3
	1446 BC	Israel out of Egypt	12
		Israel at Mt Sinai	19
		The Law	20
		The declaration of creation	31:17
		The exodus continues	33
	LEVITICUS	Sacrifices	1
		The priesthood ritual	7
		Unclean things and the law	11
		Day of Atonement	16
		A holy congregation	19
	NUMBERS	The camp at Sinai	2
		Called out of Sinai	10
		A wandering people	21
	DEUTERONOMY	The Ten Commandments	5
		The Book of the Covenant	12
		God’s chosen people	28
		Blessing from Moses	33
The historical books:
	JOSHUA	The Promised Land	1
	1406 BC	Each tribe’s allotment	13
	JUDGES	Tribal conquests	1
	1224 BC	Deborah	4
	1177 BC	Gideon	6:11
		Jephthah	11
		Samson	13
	RUTH	Ruth and Boaz	1
	1 SAMUEL	God calls Samuel	3
	1043 BC	Saul	9
	1011 BC	David	16
	2 SAMUEL	David, King of Judah	2
		Absalom’s conspiracy	15
	1 KINGS	Solomon	2
	930 BC	A torn kingdom	12
		Elijah	17
	2 KINGS	Elisha	2
		Samaria conquest	17
		Jerusalem destruction	25
	1 CHRONICLES	Official lists	1
		The city of David	11
		The ark of the Lord	13
		Temple appointments	23
	2 CHRONICLES	Building the temple	2
		Solomon’s reign	8
		Kingdom of Judah	11
		Josiah’s reform	34
		Babylonian captivity	36
	EZRA	Return to Jerusalem	3
	536 BC	The great assembly	10
	NEHEMIAH	Ancient walls and gates	2
		The dedication	12:27
	ESTHER	Haman and Mordecai	4
The Poetical Books
	JOB	Job’s affliction	1
		The questioning	4
		God’s blessing	42
	PSALMS	Book 1	1-41
		Book 2	42-72
		Book 3	73-89
		Book 4	90-106
		Book 5	107-150
	PROVERBS	Proverbs of Solomon	1
		Guidance for wise living	22
		Words of Agur	30
		Words of Lemuel	31
	ECCLESIASTES	Quest for wisdom	9:13
	SONG OF SOLOMON	The song of songs	1
The Major Prophets
	ISAIAH	Isaiah and Ahaz	7
		Prophesies about the nations	13
		Isaiah and Hezekiah	37
		Captivity prophesied	39
		Concerning the return	40
		Cyrus	45
		The Lord’s anointed	61
	JEREMIAH	God calls Jeremiah	1
		The prophet’s persecution	27
		Concerning the nations	46
	LAMENTATIONS	The fall of Jerusalem	1
	EZEKIEL	The sins of Jerusalem	4
		God’s judgement	20
		After the fall of Jerusalem	33:21
		The temple of the Holy City	40
	DANIEL	Nebuchadnezzar’s dream	2
	607 BC	The golden image	3
		Omen at the feast	5:5
		Daniel’s visions	7
The Minor Prophets
	HOSEA	Hosea’s experience	1
		God yearns for Israel	11
	JOEL	The day of the Lord	1
	AMOS	Judgement of the nations	1
		God and Israel	2:6
		Amos at Bethel	7
	OBADIAH	The pride of Edom	1
	JONAH	The prophet’s disobedience	1
		The prophet’s education	2
	MICAH	Deliver from Bethlehem	5
	NAHUM	The end of Nineveh	2
	HABAKKUK	At the watchtower	1
	ZEPHANIAN	The day of the Lord	1
	HAGGAI	Rebuilding the temple	1
	ZECHARIAH	Visions of the night	1
		Visions of prosperity	8
	MALACHI	A call to remembrance	4

 The New Testament

The Gospels
	MATTHEW	The saviour is born	1
		His baptism, temptation	3:13
	27 AD	In Galilee	4:23
		In Jerusalem	21
		The crucifixion	27:32
	30 AD	The resurrection	28
	MARK	Jesus in Galilee	1
	29 AD	Jesus in Judea	10
		Passion week	11
	LUKE	Saviour’s birth, youth	2
		His baptism, temptation	3
		His message, mission	5
		Journey to Jerusalem	9:51
		Death and resurrection	23:26
	JOHN	Here is the lamb of God	1:29
		The first Passover	2:13
		The second Passover	6:4
		The third Passover	13
		High priestly prayer,	17
		Passion, Resurrection	18
The Early Church
	ACTS OF THE APOSTLES	In Jerusalem	1
		In Judea, Samaria	8
		In Antioch	11:19
	47 AD	First mission journey	13:4
		Council at Jerusalem	15
	50 AD	Second mission journey	15:22
	53 AD	Third mission journey	19
		Paul in Jerusalem	21:17
	59 AD	Paul goes to Rome	27
Letters of Paul
	ROMANS	Message of salvation	1
		The Jews and Gospel	9
		Life in Christ	12
	1 CORINTHIANS	Dissension in the church	1
		The Lord’s Supper (church gathering)	11
		Gifts of the Spirit	12
		The resurrection	15
	2 CORINTHIANS	God’s comfort and mercy	1:3
		Ambassadors for Christ	4:16
		Paul’s suffering	11
	GALATIANS	The gospel of Christ	1:6
		Life in Christ	5
	EPHESIANS	The household of God	1
		Christian living	4
	PHILIPPIANS	The mind of Christ	1
	COLOSSIANS	The supremacy of Christ; creator	1
	1 THESSALONIANS	His coming is at hand	5
	2 THESSALONIANS	Prayer and praise	2
Paul’s pastoral letters
	1 TIMOTHY	The Christian ministry	1:3
	2 TIMOTHY	The servant’s duties	2
	TITUS	Stewards of God	1
Paul’s personal letter
	PHILEMON	The runaway slave	1
Other apostolic letters
	HEBREWS	Christ our high priest	4:14
		The better covenant	8
		Heroes of faith	11
	JAMES	Strength through faith	1:2
		Faith and action	2:14
	1 PETER	Hope in Christ	1:3
		Stewards of God’s grace	4
	2 PETER	False prophets	2
	1 JOHN	Fellowship with the father	1
	2 JOHN	Love one another	1:4
	3 JOHN	Co-workers	1
	JUDE	Resist evil ways	1
Prophesy
	REVELATION	Letters to seven churches	1
		Heavenly worship	4
		Opening the seals	6
		Trumpet blasts	8
		The church triumphant	14
		Judgement visions	17
		The New Creation	21

Link to download a PDF of this guide.