Spiritual Ponderings

For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. 2 Cor. 5:21. Sin is a fundamental relationship; it is not wrong doing, it is wrong being , deliberate and emphatic independence of God . The Christian religion bases everything on the positive, radical nature of sin. Other religions deal with sins; the Bible alone deals with sin. The first thing Jesus Christ faced in men was the heredity of sin , and it is because we have ignored this in our presentation of the Gospel that the message of the Gospel has lost its sting and its blasting power. The revelation of the Bible is not that Jesus Christ took upon Himself our fleshly sins, but that He took upon Himself the heredity of sin which no man can touch. God made His own Son to be sin that He might make the sinner a saint. All through the Bible it is revealed that Our Lord bore the sin of the world by identification, not by sympathy . He deliberately took upon His own should...

Yesterday I was traveling with my wife to an appointment when I suddenly had a question that I shared with her. What does damnation or damned mean? I know that we hear people say, 'Damn you' as an expletive many times, but in reality what does this word actually mean? If we knew what it meant we might have a much better idea of what we might be saying to a fellow human being when we use such terms in moments of passion. This term comes from the Bible, at least the King James version of the Bible. I decided that next time I had a chance I would look it up and find the root word and see how it was used elsewhere which often gives a much clearer understanding of what a word really means. Meanwhile I left the question hanging as I often like to do to give God time to offer me insights that help me better know His ways and the terms we use to explain them. So it was not a great surprise when this morning upon opening up today's reading from My Utmost that I found myself conf...