Is mental illness a sin?

Anxiety (Photo credit: Rima Xaros)

Wow, that’s quite a controversial question. And for the record, no it isn’t. It’s certainly a result of sin in the broadest sense (i.e. we live in a world tainted by sin and that’s why mental illness exists, not that mental illness is punishment for a person’s sin), but it surely isn’t sin itself.

But there are mental illnesses called anxiety, stress, depression and so on which sound like the Bible condemns them. ‘Do not be anxious’ is repeated many times in the Bible in various forms, by Jesus himself and the apostles Paul and Peter. People who suffer with anxiety are clearly anxious, so are they disobeying God’s command?

A guy over here seems to think so, but I’m just not sure . . . I don’t know if it’s just semantics but the following thoughts are buzzing round my head:

1. Just because ‘anxiety’ leads to people being ‘anxious’ doesn’t mean that anxiety is a sin.
2. I believe that Jesus can, and does, heal today.
3. I personally don’t struggle with this so can’t imagine how someone can simultaneously trust God and be anxious, but my ignorance isn’t an excuse for a lack of compassion.
4. I don’t think that being ‘born this way’ gives an excuse for sin but rather an opportunity to know God through repentance and faith.

Um . . . in conclusion, I’m more than a bit muddled on this one. Any thoughts?

Related articles

• Mental Illness and the Church (yahwehssong.com)
• ‘Grief and anxiety are not mental illnesses’ (bbc.co.uk)
• 4 Things Not To Say to a Depressed Christian (believersbrain.com)

Sometimes cruel punishment is actually kindness

Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Breaking news everyone: I don’t know everything, and neither do you.

Ok, perhaps not that breaking. But it’s sort of funny, because we act as if we do know everything.

Take Genesis 3, for example. Adam and Eve listened to the serpent, disobeyed God, and ate the forbidden fruit.

Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. (Genesis 3:22-24)

Seems a bit mean, doesn’t it? Seems a bit like God’s threatened! Doesn’t it? Adam and Eve made one little mistake, never having experienced a lie before, and they get kicked out of their lovely home.

Not fair.

But thank God it’s not fair.

Imagine what would have happened if God had let them stay; it wouldn’t have been long before they ended up eating from the tree of life. So sin would have still been in the world, but nobody would ever die. This sounds to me like the worst thing that could have ever happened to humanity.

So God protected us. He put a guard around the tree, and allowed man to remain mortal in his sin…until faith in Christ, where mortality is defeated along with sin: ‘Christ Jesus…abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel’! (2 Timothy 1:10)

Before the fall there was no sin and no death, but no knowledge of good or evil either. Very good, but not perfect.

Without Christ there is lots of sin, and lots of death; everyone sins, and everyone dies. Very bad. No hope, no joy, no peace.

But in Christ there is no sin, there is eternal life filled with joy, and more than that there is an appreciation for good and evil, resulting in true gratefulness for what he has done for us! Outstanding.

Do you believe in free will?

English: Worship being conducted at the International Church of God’s Grace, in Sao Paulo Português: Culto sendo ministrado na sede da Igreja Internacional da Graça de Deus, em São Paulo. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Most people, if they’ve heard the good news of Jesus properly, will question it by asking something along the lines of:

Wait one cotton pickin’ minute, does that mean I can keep on committing sin and God will still forgive me no matter what?

The answer given by most Christians would be something like:

Well yes that’s right, but if you’ve really understood God’s grace in forgiving you and giving you eternal life, then your actions should reflect your gratitude, so in practise you probably won’t keep on sinning.

It’s interesting, therefore, that the Bible answers this question a different way. Check it out:

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? (Romans 6:1-2)

Paul, who wrote this, chooses some interesting words. ‘By no means!’ On other occasions he asks himself a question and responds ‘Certainly not!’ but here he exclaims that it would be impossible for someone to continue in sin after having believed in God’s grace, and the following sentence explains it: Christians have died to sin.

That means that a Christian’s actions shouldn’t simply ‘reflect their gratitude’, but they should do good all the time as their immediate, instinctive and only actions. As Paul goes on to say, we used to be slaves to sin, but are now slaves to righteousness.

Here’s the challenge. It’s a biggy. If you were to give Paul’s answer in a conversation with a non-Christian, would they say ‘That sounds great!’ and immediately become a Christian, or ‘Well, your actions clearly show that isn’t true’?

I don’t know what I don’t know

The Seven Deadly Sins (ca. 1620) – Envy (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One of the most frustrating things about being married is simultaneously one of the best. You know what I’m on about: being told my annoying habits.

Here are some of mine: the way I accelerate, the way I laugh, places I choose to park the car, the way I manage my diary, places I choose to shop, the way I brake, the way my face looks when I’m thinking…I could go on. The fact that I leave the tap dripping every so often, the way I run from one end of our flat to the other, the time I leave for work in the morning, the time I get back from work, the location of my office, the nature of my work, the way I tell people about my work…ok, I’ll stop now.

It’s definitely annoying being told, ‘you sound mean when you laugh,’ but it’s also definitely good, because without being told that I’d never know I sound mean when I laugh, so would never be able to correct it.

Now, this is all very nice and a bit of fun but something that’s always slightly worried me is: what if there are sins in my life that I don’t know about so have never addressed? Well, good news for me – someone’s compiled a list of every Bible sin, very specifically, separated into heart, mouth and body sins (i.e. sinful thoughts, words and deeds). I hope he doesn’t mind me pasting it here:

Heart Sins	Mouth Sins	Body Sins
Evil thoughts	Deceit / lying	Sexual immorality
Coveting / Jealousy	Slander	Theft
Wickedness	Quarreling	Murder
Sensuality	Strife	Adultery
Envy / greed	Dissensions	Orgies
Pride / arrogance	Divisions	Drunkenness
Foolishness	Reviling	Sorcery
Impurity	Foolish talk	Fits of anger
Idolatry	Corrupting talk	Swindling
Enmity	Crude joking / obscene talk	Homosexuality
Rivalries	Without self-control	Abusive behaviour
Grudges		Brutality
Bitterness / wrath		Without self-control
Clamour
Malice
Worldly passion
Evil desire
Loving self
Loving money
Not loving good
Loving pleasure, not God
Disobedient to parents
Ungratefulness
Being unappeasable
Heartlessness
Being treacherous
Being reckless
Worship of demons & idols
Being cowardly
Being faithless
Without self-control

By committing this little table to memory and/or keeping it accessible, it should be possible at any given moment to quickly analyse an action and spot if it’s sinful or not. Simples!

This also means that might be things that you, or others, are doing that you’re judging unfairly…maybe we need to repent of that!

And to underline this let’s just remind ourselves that all of our sins, known or unknown, are forgiven in Jesus Christ!

That table, by the way, is taken from Julian Freeman, and the original article’s well worth a read.

Is it ok to say it’s ok?

A fighter attempts to escape from an armbar by slamming the opponent to the ground. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I have a habit of making myself laugh. I think that it keeps me feeling young and vibrant, but Anna thinks it just makes me look like an idiot. I’ll let you keep your thoughts in your own head, thank you very much.

Anyway, the other day I didn’t see someone coming through the door behind me so almost let it slam right in their face. ‘Oops, I’m sorry,’ I said. They replied, ‘That’s ok.’

So as I approached the next door, I thought to myself that I ought to let that one slam them right in their face. They’d just said it was ok, so surely they wouldn’t mind, would they?

You’ll be glad to know I didn’t go through with it.

Of course, we say it’s ok when someone says they’re sorry more out of habit than anything else; more often than not it’s actually not ok, but we’re saying thanks to them for saying sorry.

A guy has passed on that his pastor told him that saying ‘I forgive you’ is better, because it reminds you of your sin, and reminds them that they’ve done something wrong and therefore should be sorry.

A good idea, but I’m not sure that work when someone squeezes through me to get out of the tube next week. I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see.

A dangerous question

Cover of All of Grace

At Redeemer this week we looked at the question Paul raises in Romans 6:1:

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?

The good news, as presented in Scripture, leads a reader to naturally conclude that the freedom given by Jesus means that I can just keep on sinning when I become a Christian. So, some guy’s cheating on his wife and becomes a Christian – great news! But he keeps on cheating on his wife. Is this contrary to the Bible’s good news? According to Paul, who wrote the book of Romans, probably not; it’s the natural conclusion.

Now wait one cotton pickin’ minute. Surely that can’t be right? The Bible’s always going on about how bad sin is and how great it is to do good – doesn’t this undermine everything? Well, Paul doesn’t let us hang on for too long; the immediate answer is ‘By no means!’ because in Christ we have died to sin, so why should we continue living in it?

As Christians we’re new creations, we’ve been born again, so we’re free to be good, where before we were slaves to sin. In fact, Romans 6 goes so far as to say that we’re slaves to righteousness – as Christians we need now to actively rebel if we’re to sin. And that’s pretty sobering.

But what this all comes down to is that the Christian message is one that is all of grace. If the good news we’re preaching doesn’t make people ask ‘you mean I can just keep on sinning and God loves me all the same?’ it’s not the good news preached in the Bible.

Which son am I?

Español: Regreso del hijo pródigo, Louvre (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I’m sure most readers of this blog are familiar with the Parable of the Prodigal Son. In case you’re not familiar with it (or to briefly remind those who are) here is Jesus’ story from Luke 15:

There was a man who had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.

But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”’ And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.

Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.’ But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’ And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’

Here’s the contrast between the sons:

Son 1, the younger son, was separated from his father because of his own pride, selfish ambition, and disrespect. Pretty much anyone in the world could tell you he’d been a bad boy, and the results of his actions show karma at work – who wants to long for pig food?

Son 2, in contrast, had always been a good boy. He’d served his father, he’d been obedient, and yet he’s the one who at the end is separated from his father. Wow.

It doesn’t make sense, does it?! The bad guy gets a party in his honour while the good guy sits outside in the darkness on his own? But it does when you realise that this story isn’t really a story about ‘the prodigal son’, it’s about the father! The father goes out to meet both sons; he runs out and hugs his repentant Son 1, and leaves the party to entreat Son 2…do you see that the distinguishing factor here isn’t their works, it’s their response to their Dad?

An atheist I was chatting to recently said that she didn’t believe in God because there are so many different versions of God (Muslim, Jew, etc) that they must all be wrong. Ridiculous logic, but there you go. But she is wrong. There are not different versions of God, there is one true God and a whole bunch of false gods (one of which is the false god of atheism – discuss).  The question really is: how do you tell which god is the real one?

I’ll tell you which one: the God who guarantees your eternal destiny right now by grace through your faith in the completed work of his Son’s life, death, resurrection and ascension. Anyone trusting in some form of their own good works is excluding themselves from the party!

Kiss the Son,
lest he be angry, and you perish in the way,
for his wrath is quickly kindled.
Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
(Psalm 2:12)

Want to be skeptical?

So a few weeks ago I suggested that the foundation of everything anyone believes is based on circular reasoning.

I stand by that post.

I found it interesting, therefore, when I saw this article the other day about God’s purposes in suffering – if you find yourself believing that suffering is bad, do you believe that simply because you already believe that? Here’s a little quote to whet your appetite:

…seeing the blind man on the temple steps triggered their curiosity: “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

God the Son…gave an answer that would turn their theology on its head and affect the futures of millions…God made this man blind in order to demonstrate his power in him.

…

After his world-shaking statement, Jesus made the man see! In that moment everything changed. See the power of the Word! Light shown into dark eyes. A brain that had never processed optical stimuli was given immediate ability to interpret a visual world.

But even more revolutionary in its repercussions, the man went from being perceived as the object of God’s wrath to being the object of God’s kindness!…

So was it worth it — all the suffering? It all depends on what God gave him in return.

God so loved him that he gave his only Son so that by believing in him, this man would not perish but have eternal life. What this man received beyond his miraculous physical healing was the far more miraculous forgiveness of all his sins and eternal life in God’s presence where full joy and pleasures never end.Such a gift would be worth a thousand blind lifetimes.

The article itself isn’t much longer than what I’ve quoted here; have a read.

Muslims and the cross

Image via Wikipedia

I find John Piper an inspiring leader in many ways. One thing he does a lot of is write, and he wrote about Muslims a bit ago; here’s a quote from him:

When Jesus says, “receive him,” he means receive him for who he really is: the divine, eternal Son of God who lays down his life for the sheep and takes it up again in three days. If a person does not receive him in this way, that person, Jesus says, does not love God.

…

Historically Muslims do not know Jesus, honor Jesus, or receive Jesus for who he really is — the divine, eternal, Son of God, who laid down his life on the cross for sinners and rose again the third day. Therefore, Jesus says, such Muslims do not know God and do not honor God and do not love God. As offensive as this is, Jesus said it to the most Bible-saturated, ritually disciplined, God-aware, religious people of his day. . . .

I believe with all my heart that, as forgiven sinners, who owe our lives to blood-bought grace alone, we Christians can look with love and good will, and even tender-hearted compassion, into the eyes of a Muslim and say: I do not believe you know God or honor God or love God. I hope through our conversation that you will see the truth and beauty of Christ-crucified and risen for the sins of everyone who trusts him. And if we were threatened right now, I hope that I would lay down my life for you.

The full discussion and document are available here.

Responding to criticism

Image via Wikipedia

Some readers of this blog may find this completely uninteresting, fair enough. See you after the break.

For the rest of you, you may be aware that a guy I’ve always really respected, CJ Mahaney, was accused of a whole bunch of pretty significant stuff getting on for a year or so ago. Because of the society we live in these accusations were made in a wikileaks style viral document, which was quickly circulated among every church leader within the global ministry he oversees, Sovereign Grace Ministries (SGM), and all his critics. For examples of the sort of hatred he received (and I wouldn’t waste your time on them), have a look at this blog post, and this one, both of which were written at around that time.

CJ’s immediate response was to resign from his position as Chair of SGM. He said this was so as not to appear to be influencing any response the Board would want to make, but it obviously looked like an immediate admission of guilt.

Tim Challies is a blogger who I really enjoy reading, and he did a great summary at the time of what happened, and what the plans were going forward.

An independent review panel has completed its work, and has issued this report. The conclusions of the report are complicated and not just related to CJ so if you’re interested do go and read it, but in terms of addressing the accusations made in the wikileaks thing it turns out that the guy who raised the concerns in the first place was seeing sin where there was none.

The report by no means paints CJ as some victim or saint, but does come up with the following, significant conclusions:

1. The panels exonerated CJ from any charge that the things he did wrong are areas of unrepentant sin. With respect to [one of the specific situations raised], CJ repented and apologised to the family; with respect to [another], the panel found that the process was handled appropriately (and did not involve CJ); and with respect to his practice of fellowship, they found that his practice was in keeping with the teaching of Scripture.
2. Months ago, an outside panel representing the perspectives of three denominations reviewed the sins CJ confessed – which includes the most serious allegation against him – and advised that they were not grounds for removal from ministry. And in our own internal review with the three panels (comprised of nine SGM pastors), the same conclusion was reached – not one panel recommended that CJ be disqualified from ministry.

So there you have it. CJ confessed and repented of sin in accordance with biblical teaching, and hasn’t done anything to disqualify himself from a ministry position.

I have to admit I am one of the ‘CJ fanboys’ who hopefully expected that this wasn’t the last we’d seen of a man who I’ve experienced to be a wonderful, humble, grace-filled man (not without his faults, but who is?). I was glad to read last week that CJ’s taken this time away to re-evaluate his role in the global church and will be planting another church in the near future.

Soli deo gloria!