Overcoming Sin is NOT the Great Commission | ask Theocast

the point of the Christian life not to sin? Let's talk about it.

I'm John Moffitt. I'm the pastor of Grace Reformed Church and host of Theocast. This is Ask Theocast where we answer your questions from a pastoral and Reformed perspective.

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If you have any questions or comments, please leave those below. We try our best to read all of those and reply. This conversation about sin and the

Christian life seems to be circulating itself not only in my church and all of my counseling sessions, but I can see it in the

Facebook group. I can see it online. We don't really know what to do with sin. We have been told our entire

Christian life that we need to be fighting sin. We need to be battling sin. We need to be mortifying the flesh, which

I agree with all of that, but there's it seems to be that sin and the fight against sin has become the point of the

Christian life, and there's a really important historical reason of how we got here, and to be totally frank with you, if the

Christian life is just about fighting sin, that seems like a very meaningless life, which some people would push back and say, well,

John, you mean giving God glory is meaningless, and that's not what I'm saying, but there is an emphasis.

It seems like every day, whether it's your Bible reading, going to church, podcasting, journaling, it's all centered around trying not to do whatever besetting sin that's been tripping you up for the rest of your life.

For men and women, it's lust, pornography, anger. I mean, the list of what we struggle with goes on, and people are always searching for how do

I get rid of this sin, and it's probably not an annoying sin. It's something that is damaging, and you hate it, and you hate the fact that you struggle with it, and you're probably even watching this video because you saw the title of the video of overcoming a particular sin.

Well, I want to take a biblical approach to not only sin, but the purpose of the Christian life. Like, what are we doing?

Is the Christian life just about not sinning? So there's a word that we use a lot at Theocast, and we will link to a video called,

What is Pietism?, and we did an entire episode called Leaving Pietism, but I'm going to give you a brief explanation of what it is so you can understand how it very much directly connects to this issue of sin.

Pietism is an overemphasis on the introspection of the

Christian life, your holiness, what are you doing, and I think a Christian should focus in on fighting sin and being holy.

It is not only helpful, but necessary, but the emphasis is this, it's why.

Pietism creates this angst within believers because what it's drawing towards is your obedience and your fight against sin is directly connected to your assurance.

God is good with me. I know that I'm saved because I fight sin and because I do these spiritual acts.

I know God's good with me. And so, Pietism comes in and it gives you all of these things to always be self -examining.

You're always self -examining. You're always thinking about your motives. Have I done enough? Do I need to do more?

Well, the Bible takes a different approach, and this is why this is a Reformed channel because we're going to explain to you that the

Reformation really recovered what we call an objective reality. It says, no, I'm assured

I'm good because of something outside of myself, not what's within me. So our attention from Scripture is always pushed away from us, not in.

A good example of this, which we use a lot, 2 Peter 1 .9, when Peter gives a list of godly attributes of what we should be doing, and then says that these aren't true about you and increasing, you have forgotten that you have been cleansed from your former sins.

His motivation for godliness and when we fall back into sin is always the cross of Christ and putting us back to our cleansing.

That is something that's outside of yourself. So he's saying your assurance and your motivation is always outside of you, never inside.

Well, what Pietism has done, it's become a part of almost our entire Christian ecosystem. Everything that we do is centered around, am

I doing enough? Looking introspectively, spiritual disciplines fall into this. I think

Christians should be disciplined, but we're disciplining ourselves in really Pietism. A piety is good, and that's what

I want to talk about right now, is piety. Piety is doing those actions that are required of us in Scripture to fulfill, here we go, the

Great Commission. This is what we've done. The Great Commission is overcoming our sin. That's what

Pietism says. That's what it leads you to. The greatest thing I can do, Great Commission, meaning the

Great Commandment, the Great Outgoing, the greatest thing I can do in the Christian life is not sin, but that's not what

Jesus says. The Greatest Commission is the proclamation of the objectiveness of Jesus, the objective realities, who

Jesus Christ is. The gospel is not the good news that you may not sin. The gospel is the good news that Jesus saves sinners and restores them completely.

Not almost, but completely. So what we are going to be, this is 1

John, we are not yet, and there we hope, right? John literally says that we purify ourselves as he is pure, because we're looking to something that is outside of ourselves.

We are gazing towards it. For the rest of our time, I want to just look at Hebrews. I think Hebrews is going to be super helpful here, and understanding the

Great Commission, the writer of Hebrews uses this language. So Hebrews 12, we're so familiar with this section of Hebrews, but I want us to walk through it bit by bit, and just listen to where the emphasis is put as it relates to our pursuit of fighting sin, and what the

Christian life is about. He says therefore, therefore what? He just got done in chapter 11 talking about how faith is what saved them, sanctified them, carried them through.

He says, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses, these are all the people who have testified. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, these horrendous sinners, you know,

Abraham who sold his wife twice, these horrendous sinners who were saved by God and preserved by him, and did works of righteousness by faith, not because they were overcoming their sin.

He says, let us lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely to us. This is how the writer of Hebrews sees sin.

It's something that it's an annoyance and in the way. It's not the point of the Christian life. It's in its annoyance, and it's in the way of the point.

He's saying it's the thing that's tripping us up for what the Christian life is about. So he says this, lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely to us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

What is this race? It's something that's achievable. It's something that's worthwhile. It's something for us to focus in on.

He tells you, looking unto Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the

Father at the throne of God. I don't think Jesus ran a race that we could just not send.

That's not the point. He redeemed us. He adopted us. He is calling us our own so that we might be one day in his presence and enjoy him forever.

Yes, without sin, but heaven isn't just without sin. Heaven is the joy of Jesus, looking unto

Jesus, the author, the beginner, the one who founded us, and the one who's going to complete us.

The Great Commission is running throughout our life with the joy of Jesus being our pursuit, and sharing in the burdens, and sharing the joy of Christ with others.

You see, sin is the thing that gets in the way of the real purpose of life, which is

Christ. And let's not just...when I say that, sometimes we think about, oh, Sunday mornings, or my

Bible reading, or devotions, or journaling. No. If you go back, and I'll use one other passage,

Hebrews, I'm sorry, Ephesians 4. Paul says, walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.

You know what he doesn't say? He goes, now if you've been called by Jesus, now I need you to pursue not sinning.

He actually takes proactive words to deal with people, and he says, with gentleness, and meekness, and patience, be eager to maintain the bond of peace.

He's saying, the Christian life is focused on caring for the body, caring for the people of Jesus, those who are called out by Him.

Later on, in chapter 4, verses 11 through 16, he's saying, when this body functions properly, it builds itself up into love, the most important part of our life.

I mean, Paul says in the Corinthians, right? If you speak in the language of angels, but you have not love, or you can sing, or you can do all of these miracles, but you have not love, it's worthless.

So he's saying, when our church functions as it should, we are built up into love. You know what gets in the way of that?

Sin. Sin is not the goal. Sinlessness is not the goal. Being built up in love, caring for people who are burdened down, who are dying, who have cancer, who have been abused and hurt, your life has so much more meaning, so much more meaning, than just you waking up today and not giving in to your sin.

You should wake up every morning with the race before you and say, I have someone to love. I have someone to care for.

I have a burden to carry. I can set someone free from the fear of condemnation, that they are going to be judged by God, and the gospel can set them free.

That becomes the focus of our life, not, well, I hope I don't give in to this today. And at the end of your day, and you lay your head down on your pillow, and you think, well,

I didn't give in to that sin today. I'm a good Christian. No, you're not. You're not a good

Christian, because you didn't perfectly love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and you didn't perfectly love your neighbor. You may not have given in to that sin.

Well, good job. Pat yourself on the back. Jesus is not going to do that. Jesus is not going to pat you on the back for that.

God looks at you and accepts you because of what Jesus has done, and then with our failing and falters, we go forth, and we love people, and we care for them when we preach the gospel.

We love and care for our church. That is what the purpose of the Christian life is, and may

I say with full confidence with Jesus, that is the Great Commission. Go into all the world and make disciples.

So my encouragement to you is that if you're struggling with a besetting sin, and it seems like it's consuming your life, you've been tripped up by pietism, go read our primer,

Faith vs. Faithfulness. Go listen to the episode we did on leaving pietism. Get your brain around the reality of that you've been so introspective.

Your whole life is just about you, and realize that the gospel sets you free from you, and it gives you the energy and the joy to love and care for people.

I'll quote one last verse. This is Romans 15. Paul says, those of you who are spiritual are obligated to care for the failings of the weak.

Strong Christians are not ones who are sinless. They are not ones who have overcome all sins.

It's those who battle their sin and set it aside, as Hebrews says, so that they can care for others.

Now that is the Great Commission. Whether it's administrating the gospel to the lost, or carrying the gospel to those who are weak and struggling, that's the greatest joy and hope of the

Christian. Hopefully this is encouraging for you. Please leave us your feedback, interact with us, leave us a comment.