The Subject of Sin

THE SUBJECT OF SIN
DR. JIM DIXON
JUNE 5, 1994

They called him a mad man. That is what the world called him. But he had a different view of himself. He called himself Epiphanes, which means “God manifest.” His name was Antiochus, more specifically Antiochus IV. He was king of the Seleucid Empire—a Hellenistic dynasty centered in Syria, north of the land of Israel—in the third and second centuries before Christ. Antiochus IV Epiphanes was a man of considerable power. He had vast armies. He had chariots of war. He had herds of elephants. He literally stamped out his competition or his adversaries. The year was 168 BC. That was when Antiochus IV Epiphanes took his massive armies south and prepared to do battle with Egypt. He knew that he was stronger than Egypt, and he planned to conquer the Ptolemy Empire there in Egypt.

He brought his forces towards the Egyptian city of Alexandria. He planned to sweep over Alexandria and then move on through the rest of Egypt. But he did not know that Egypt had entered into an alliance with Rome. As Antiochus IV, this Greek king, brought his massive armies towards Alexandria, there suddenly came forth from the city of Alexandria, a Roman consul named Gaius Popillius Laenas with a small Roman army. That Roman consul drew a line in the sand. He told Antiochus, “If you cross this line, you are at war with Rome.” Antiochus IV knew that he could squish this Roman consul and his small army like insects. He knew he had the greater power, but he also knew he was not ready to declare war on Rome.

Antiochus IV believed he was deity, but he did not have fullness of power and was not ready to do battle with Rome. So he turned and brought his armies north. He was enraged, and his massive ego was wounded. He felt the need to flex his muscles. So, as he brought his armies north through Israel—one of his vassal states and one of the nations that he controlled—he sent 22,000 of his men into the holy city of Jerusalem. Following the instructions of Antiochus IV, that Seleucid army butchered Jewish men in the street and took captive Hebrew women and children. The army made its way up onto the Temple Mount. There, they went into the temple of God, took the altar of burnt offerings, and erected there a statue of the Greek god Zeus.

According to most historians, Antiochus IV’s army went into the Holy of Holies of the Jerusalem temple. There they erected a statue of Antiochus IV Epiphanes himself. And why not? If he believed he was God manifest, where better to place his image than in the Holy of Holies of the Jerusalem temple. The book of Daniel in the Bible calls this desecration the abomination that makes desolate. The Bible tells us that Antiochus IV is a kind of prototype of the antichrist who will one day come.

This desecration was tremendously offensive to the Jewish people. Jewish men from all over Israel rallied behind a man named Judas Maccabeus. They came in revolt against the Seleucid army while Antiochus Epiphanies was preoccupied with other wars on other parts of his borders. The Jewish people prevailed and won independence. In the year 165 BC, the Jewish people went up on the Temple Mount and began to cleanse the temple from the desecration of Antiochus Epiphanes. They went in and removed all the profane objects and began to reinstitute the temple sacrifices. They purified the temple. They cleansed. They washed. They scrubbed. You can read about the purification of the temple in the Apocrypha, in the books of 1 and 2 Maccabees.

This event, this purification of the temple from the desecration of Antiochus Epiphanes is celebrated today by Jewish people all over the world in a celebration called Hanukkah, a celebration sometimes called the Festival of Lights, sometimes called a Feast of Dedication, but more popularly called Hanukkah. Hanukkah celebrates the purification, the cleansing, the washing of the temple from the desecration of Antiochus Epiphanes.

The temple is no more. But the Bible tells us that if you believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, if you really believe in him as Lord and Savior, then you have become a temple, a temple of the living God in which the Son of God by His Spirit dwells. You have become a temple of God.

What do you do when your temple is desecrated? What do you do when your temple, the temple of your body is desecrated, when it is profaned, when it is violated? The Bible tells us each and every one of us desecrates the temple every day. We do it through something the Bible calls sin. Most of us do not take sin very seriously, but God does.

In the Bible, there are five words for sin. A lot of Christians are surprised to hear this. In the Bible, there is the word hamartia. Hamartia is a word which literally means “to miss the mark,” to miss the target, to be less than perfect, to be less than perfect in the sight of God. Hamartia is the word Jesus used in the Lord’s prayer in Matthew’s gospel where he says, “Forgive us our trespasses,” our imperfections, as we forgive those who act imperfectly towards us (Matthew 6:12).

Then there is the word “pesha.” This word is also rendered sin in the Bible. It means “to step across the line.” The lines are drawn in holy scripture. God draws the lines. God tells us what is right and what is wrong. God establishes His law. When we step across the line, that is sin. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us that even when we cross the line or step across the line in our mind, it is still sin.

There is also the word “parapt?ma.” “Parapt?ma” means “to slip or slide across the line.” One word for sin means to step across the line, but this word “parapt?ma” means to slip or slide across the line. We know what that is like. In a moment of anger, you say things that you normally would not say. It is not premeditated. You just say it in a moment of rage. It hurts. It is wrong, and it is sin. You slipped across the line. Or when you are on a date and feel your passions and you slip across the line. It is still sin to slip across the line.

Then there is this other word, anomia for sin in the Bible. Anomia literally means “without lines;” it means without laws. The Bible uses this word anomia to define sin in the last days. This is the unique word used in the Bible to describe the sin of the final generation of people before the Lord comes again. This is the word used to describe the antichrist. The antichrist is called the man of sin, the man of anomia, the man of lawlessness, the man without laws (2 Thessalonians 2:3). The Bible says, the spirit of anomia, the spirit of lawlessness, is already at work in the world. Is that not true of our time? Is it not true of this generation that we are not simply stepping across the line or slipping across the line. The lines are becoming blurred. Are they not? People are not sure where to draw the lines or where the lines are. There are some people saying there are no lines. We begin to call good evil and evil good. We are not sure what is right and what is wrong anymore. Anomia. That is sin.

Finally, there is this word “opheilemata.” “Opheilemata” is a word translated sin in the Bible, and it means “debt or duty.” It is the word Jesus uses in the Lord’s prayer in Luke’s gospel where Jesus says, “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors” (Luke 11:4). This word “opheilemata” is a word that refers to duty—duty to God and duty to people. It is sin when we do not do our duty to God or do our duty to people.

All of these words are in the Bible because God wants us to understand that we are all sinners. God wants us to understand there is none righteous, no not one (Romans 3:10-11). These words are not there to make us depressed people. These words are not there to make us a guilt-riddled people. They are there in order that we might understand the beauty and the majesty of God’s mercy and grace. That we might come for cleansing. That we might come to be washed. That we might cleanse the temple. How do you cleanse the temple? It is not hard.

Barb was gone last weekend to visit her family in California. Monday night around our house, Drew, Heather and I were scrambling to clean the house because Barb was going to be home Tuesday morning. We really worked on cleaning the house. We vacuumed the main floor and the upstairs. We cleaned the basement. We did the dishes. I actually got down and scrubbed the floor in the kitchen. Barb has often told us that she does not want things to be surface cleaned. She wants things really clean, which means you have to lift up the throw rugs and vacuum underneath. You need to move the furniture and vacuum behind. I mean really clean. It is hard to clean a whole house.

But it is not hard to clean your temple. It takes humility before God, a willingness to get down on your knees and say, “Lord, I repent. Forgive me.” “If we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us [wash us] from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

There is a great lie going around today. It says that Christians do not need to repent anymore. Christians do not need to seek forgiveness anymore because they were forgiven when first they were saved. Have you heard that lie, that you do not need to repent anymore? You do not need to seek forgiveness anymore because you were forgiven once and for all when first you were saved? There is some theological truth in that statement, but it does not square with holy scripture. It is true that when you ask Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior with respect to soteriology, with respect to eternal salvation, your sin is forgiven— past, present and future—and you are bound for heaven.

But there is more to sin than that. Sin breaks fellowship in the life of the Christian. Sin breaks fellowship with God. We lose joy. We lose power when our sin has not been confessed, when we do not repent. We need to seek forgiveness daily for the sake of our Christian walk. That is why in the Lord’s prayer the tense of the Greek indicates that we are to daily say this prayer, “Forgive me of my sins. Forgive me of my trespasses as I forgive others daily.” We need that washing. We need that cleansing.

Some people have called me recently and are kind of concerned because some prophecies have been circulating in the Christian community concerning the date June 9th, which is coming this week. I want to preface what I am going to say with this comment. I believe in prophecy. I believe in the spiritual gift of prophecy. I believe that the power of the Holy Spirit manifests itself in prophecy. But I also believe we need to be cautious. It is my observation that for every hundred prophecies you hear, many of them, and perhaps ninety-five of them are bogus because we see in a mirror dimly and because so often the flesh gets involved. These prophecies that have come from some segments of the Christian community and even some pastors claim that on June 9th there is going to be a devastating event that brings America to its knees. John Jay Hinkle, who is a pastor in another part of the country, claims that the Lord told him that evil is going to be ripped out of the world on June 9th.

I do not believe that because the Bible tells us that evil will not be taken from this world until the consummation at the return of Jesus Christ. That is when the wheat will be separated from the tares. That is when the good and bad fish will be sorted from the dragnet as Jesus told us. Evil will not be taken from the world until Jesus comes again, No one knows the day or the hour the Bible says. So it is not June 9th. The moment people start saying it is June 9th, you can be pretty sure it is not. Most of these people who are giving these prophecies are saying that they are not prophesying the end of the world and the return of Christ. They are just saying something cataclysmic is going to happen on June 9th. It is going to bring our nation to its knees, and there is going to be revival. I hope they are right. I will be surprised if something happens on June 9th, but I hope they are right. I hope something happens in America that brings our country to its knees, that brings us to revival. The truth is that we cannot make that happen. It is in the hands of God.

But you can do this. You personally can seek revival. You can seek renewal. You can come to Christ this morning in repentance and seek His washing, His cleansing of your temple, that you might have the joy and the power of Christ. Some people view communion kind of like Hanukkah—a remembrance of a cleansing that took place long ago. For us as Christians, as we come to this table, we should view it in a more active sense than that. We remember what Christ did on the cross, and we remember the forgiveness we received when we first embraced Him as Savior and Lord. But we also come confessing anew the sin that is in our lives. We come in repentance seeking His washing, His grace, and His mercy that His joy and His power might be poured anew on us.

Let us look to the Lord with a word of prayer before we partake of the bread and cup. Lord Jesus, we thank You for dying for us on Calvary’s cross. Thank You that You are indeed the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Lord, as Christians, we come to You in this moment. We confess our sin, not just past sin, but Lord, sin that we know we commit every day. We are less than perfect. We know that before You all of our righteousness is as filthy rags. Yet You love us. Your grace and mercy are proclaimed in Your word. We come with confidence asking for Your forgiveness. We come with humility asking for forgiveness, knowing that You are merciful and just to forgive us our sins. Lord, we commit ourselves anew to You this day. We hunger and thirst for righteousness. Give us revival in our lives that we might have the full measure of Your joy and power day by day. We commit ourselves anew to you. In Jesus’s name. Amen.