You win!

Happy anniversary bro...

Great point, Wesley. I agree, as much as thoughts and actions are a full expression of sin. However, to my point, it is not thoughts and actions that damn us, but rather the broken state of affairs into which every human is born. Sinful thought and deed are evidence of the deeper state of sin. That state is not made more real by those thoughts and deeds just exposed.

I don't think there are any rollbacks in life...as with any of Chris' software releases!

This is one of the nerdiest things I have read in a long time...and I understood every word! Yikes!!!

I agree with you. I have come to believe that "missing the mark" is at its core living apart from Christ and not merely having a bad thought or a bad action. Those are just outward expression of a heart attitude that says, "I can do it on my own."

If you define sin only as an action, then I completely agree with you. However, I do not think this view appropriately describes the depth of human depravity. What you are describing is the external expression of sin: behavior. There are more internal expressions of sin, thoughts, but again, those are an expression of a deeper issue. When I do not behave like a sinner externally, but am living apart from Christ I am living in the flesh, which is sin.

As Christians, we are indeed regenerated. We have been made perfect in our spiritual union with Christ. He has taken up residence by the Holy Spirit within our spirits. However, we are still unregenerated in our minds and in need of progressive sanctification. The flesh is still present and needs to be dealt with mercilessly where we discover its influence.

Simply describing sin as actions and thoughts puts us into the moral wranglings of, "How close can I get to the line without going over?" Understanding sin as the state of a broken relationship with God cuts through all of that mess. It is the only standard by which we can truly judge our thoughts and behaviors. There are no gray areas in our relationship with Jesus.

In this sense, I do not believe that quoting Rom. 14:23 is incorrect. Paul is describing our conduct among other believers and how we may violate each others conscience based upon various practices. Again, these are the externals. The internal bottom-line is can I engage in them by faith? That is to say, can I with a clean conscience profess that what I am doing is a genuine expression of my relationship with Christ. If not...it is sin.

Thanks Peter. There is so much to say on this topic. Obviously, McVey has written several books on it!

I was going through some recovery material last night that talked very succinctly about this. It put it this way...

God gives us a crisis of truth in our lives. That crisis comes in a couple of ways:
1. Crisis of conscience
2. Crisis of circumstance

A crisis of conscience can easily be ignored. However, a crisis of circumstance cannot. Where it gets confusion is in the time God allows us to repent after bringing the crisis of conscience. We are confronted with a truth and our conscience alerts us to its veracity. However, because the consequence is not immediate, we may choose to ignore that truth. What is actually happening is God is allowing us time to repent, a grace period, before he lifts his hand of protection and allows the crisis of circumstance to manifest.

An example might be as follows:
My conscience tells me that I should not use porn; that it will damage my marriage. However, because I can seemingly control the behavior and it isn't producing negative consequences I choose to ignore my conscience and continue in the behavior. In effect, I mistakenly interpreted the lack of consequences as permission to continue the behavior.

Eventually I become more ensnared by the behavior and one day look around and realize that my marriage and life is deteriorating. I am plainly no longer able to control the behavior and my marriage is suffering.

I thought this was really profound!

My recovery efforts have also made an enormous difference. I don't want to leave the impression from this post that things are just horrible. They aren't. I wrote it out of some current pain. My wife and I are closer than we have every been, in large part because of the work that the Holy Spirit has done in my heart through my recovery journey. Thanks for the comment, Kelly!

Hey Luke...thanks for the comment. I didn't know you had a blog. I'm definitely following you now!