You‘re probably somewhat familiar with the idea behind the yin and the yang symbol.  Part of the idea is that good and evil necessarily coexist.  They always have coexisted, still do coexist, and always will coexist. 

The Bible teaches something radically different.

Ponder these words from a Christian theologian:  “Nothing about sin is its own; all its power, persistence, and plausibility are stolen goods.  Sin is not really an entity but a spoiler of entities, not an organism but a leech on organisms.”

That‘s right.  The message of the Bible is that sin is not necessarily inherent in this world.  Nor is sin necessarily inherent in the human condition.  Prior to the rebellion we read about in Genesis 3 there was no corruption, no stain, and no sin in all of creation. 

The goodness of creation preceded (and is therefore distinct from) the fall into sin and all of its effects.  Evil can in no way be blamed on creation.  Evil can only be blamed on the fall.

Think about what this mean… No matter how closely sin and “the stuff of creation” may be intertwined in human experience, sin is never to be identified with the stuff of creation.  Sin always remains distinct from the stuff of creation.

Let’s consider some examples:  Prostitution (and other sexual aberrations) do not eliminate the goodness of sexuality.  Political abusiveness cannot wipe out the God–ordained character of government and the state.  Blasphemous art cannot obliterate the creational legitimacy of beauty and art itself.

Do you see what sin is doing in each of those examples?  Sin is something like a parasite.  Sin cannot exist by itself; it has to feed off of something good in God’s creation.  Sin is an uninvited guest that has to keep tapping its host for sustenance. 

In C.S. Lewis’ wonderful book The Screwtape Letters, the demon Screwtape admits that “Pleasure is God’s invention, not ours.  He made the pleasures — all our research so far has not enabled us to produce one.  All we can do is encourage the humans to take the pleasures which God has produced at times, in ways or in degrees which he has forbidden.”

In another place Lewis wrote this:  “Goodness is, so to speak, itself.” What he means by this is that goodness is original, independent, and constructive while sin is derivative, dependent, and destructive.  “Goodness is, so to speak, itself:  badness is only spoiled goodness.  And there must be something good first before it can be spoiled.”

That’s the scenario… sin is a parasite on the goodness of creation.  It is not itself a part of creation.  Evil is a completely other entity that introduces itself to creation and feeds off of it.  It doesn’t naturally fit or belong there!

This is an incredibly important point if you want to properly understand the Bible and Christian thought.  Every other religion / philosophy / worldview will in some way fall into the trap of identifying some aspect of creation as THE VILLAIN.  (And sometimes even as THE SAVIOR.)

The Bible is utterly unique in rejecting that view.  Only the Bible keeps creation and sin distinct.

Only the Bible shows us that sin is really just the ugly distortion and perversion of something God created to be good.  Sin is a caricature of the good.

Human beings after the fall — though they are now travesties of humanity, as God originally created humanity — are still human beings, which God originally pronounced as “Very Good!” Now we are just spoiled human beings.

A humanistic school that utterly rejects God is still a school.  Knowledge and education are still good.  But it’s a “spoiled good” now.

A hurtful relationship (say, with your mother or father) is still a relationship, and relationships are good.  But this one, sadly, is a spoiled good.

A crooked business is still a business.  Atheistic culture is still culture.  Ungodly thinking is still thinking.

In every case, what something “still is” points to the remaining goodness of creation.  But it’s now been spoiled by the fall.  It’s been twisted and warped by the parasite of sin.

We need Someone to attach the parasite to Himself and take it all away from us.

The prophet Jeremiah tells us that it’s the work of a false prophet to proclaim an easy and painless message of “Peace, peace!” when there is no peace (see Jeremiah 6.14; 8.11).  Peace is not easy.  Nor is it painless.

In fact, true peace is actually quite difficult and hard won.  Consider the words of theologian John Stott, as he reflects on the pain that is frequently involved in the work of peacemaking…

“When we are ourselves involved in a quarrel, there will be either the pain of apologizing to the person we have injured or the pain of rebuking the person who has injured us.  Sometimes there is a nagging pain of having to refuse to forgive the guilty party until he repents.  Of course a cheap peace can be bought by cheap forgiveness.  But true peace and true forgiveness are costly treasures.  God forgives us only when we repent.  Jesus told us to do the same: ‘If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him.’ How can we forgive an injury when it is neither admitted nor regretted? 

“Or again, we may not be personally involved in a dispute, but may find ourselves struggling to reconcile to each other two people or groups who are estranged and at variance with each other.  In this case there will be the pain of listening, of ridding ourselves of prejudice, of striving sympathetically to understand both the opposing points of view, and of risking misunderstanding, ingratitude or failure.”

But regardless of the pains or inconveniences, all Christians are called to be peacemakers.  “Blessed are the peacemakers,” the King said, “for they shall be called sons of God” (Matthew 5.9).

The Bible speaks about this often — see 1 Corinthians 7.15; 1 Peter 3.11; Hebrews 12.14; Romans 12.18.  In the family, in the workplace, in the community, and in the church Christians are to be bent on peacemaking.  Note that this is not just a call to passively be in favor of peace, in which we refrain from being responsible for any strife or conflict.  It’s more than that.  It’s a call to peaceMAKING.

Think of the work of Christ in the gospel.  He was not just passively in favor of peace between God and man.  He actively, self-sacrificially sought “to reconcile”… “making peace by the blood of his cross” (Colossians 1.20; see also Ephesians 2.15).

Jesus is the Ultimate Peacemaker. 

Indeed, consider again the particular blessing that is commanded over peacemakers in the beatitudes:  “they shall be called sons of God.”

The prophet Isaiah declares, “Share your food with the hungry and provide the poor wanderer with shelter… then your light will break forth like the dawn…”

This is a “theme verse” of sorts for the Grace and Peace Winter Shelter here in St. Louis.  Earlier this year — back in early March — several volunteers from Cornerstone enjoyed preparing a meal for the shelter and meeting the guests who spent the night there that evening. 

Below is a description of the shelter’s ministry, from their web page…

The Grace and Peace Winter Shelter has been offering temporary, overnight shelter during the colder months to homeless women of St. Louis since 1986.

The Winter Shelter operates in the basement of Grace and Peace’s building in an urban area on the west side of the city. By the grace of God, many suburban churches have sent helping hands and meals. Neighboring churches and agencies have also sent help. As a result, the shelter ministry extends well beyond the boundaries of the congregation of Grace and Peace.

Many women have come back year after year to stay at Grace and Peace during the winter, citing the warm community there that they like to call home. Many have also “graduated” to apartments of their own.

The Winter Shelter receives no government funding, relying instead on volunteer helpers and meal providers as well as on donations to cover staff stipends and other expenses.

The story of the church is a story full of men and women who learned wisdom from God’s Spirit and God’s Word, and then applied that wisdom with wit, skill, and beauty.  Martin Luther is merely one example.  Over the next few posts under “The Story” category, we’ll enjoy a sampling of Luther’s colorful sayings…

On Humility
“God creates out of nothing.  Therefore, until a man is nothing, God can make nothing out of him.”

“If you perhaps look for praise and would sulk or quit what you are doing if you did not get it — if you are of that stripe, dear friend — then take yourself by the ears, and if you do this in the right way, you will find a beautiful pair of big, long, shaggy donkey ears.”

“Affliction is the best book in my library.”

On The Bible
“The Bible is alive, it speaks to me; it has feet, it runs after me; it has hands, it lays hold of me.”

“I’d like all my books to be destroyed so that only the sacred writings in the Bible would be diligently read.”

On Marriage and Family
“Think of all the squabbles Adam and Eve must have had in the course of their nine hundred years.  Eve would say, ‘You ate the apple,’ and Adam would retort, ‘You gave it to me!”

“People who do not like children are swine, dunces, and blockheads, not worthy to be called men and women, because they despise the blessing of God, the Creator and Author of marriage.”

On Faith
“Faith is the ‘yes’ of the heart, a conviction on which one stakes one’s life.”

“The truth is mightier than eloquence, the Spirit greater than genius, faith more than education.”

“Our faith is an astounding thing — astounding that I should believe him to be the Son of God who is suspended on the cross, whom I have never seen, with whom I have never become acquainted.”

Mark Twain once said, “Sincerity is everything.  If you can fake that, you’ve got it made.” Twain’s trademark cynicism often makes for witty observations about life in this fallen world, but the idea of faking sincerity is so pathetic that one can hardly smile for blushing.  Why do we blush?  Because we know the shame of fakery, play–acting, and wearing different masks to fit the occasion in which we find ourselves.

But King Jesus — when he gave his followers the kind of straight talk that we all long for, in the Sermon on the Mount — said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5.8).

Pure in heart.  Sincerity.  Living one life and living it out in the open before everyone.

This is not so easy to pull off as we’d like to believe.  If you reflect on it deeply for even a couple of minutes, you’ll think about the different masks you’re tempted to wear, according to the situation or circumstances. 

How many of us play different roles depending on the audience?  Are we truly one and the same person for the spouse, the children, the church, the boss, the pious friend, the foulmouthed friend, the neighbor, the relative who thinks this way, the relative who thinks the other way, the enemy, and the stranger?  To cite a trivial example perhaps, are we the same driver regardless of whether the officer is following us or not?  Or something not so trivial at all — are we looking at web pages of the same character when we’re alone as when we’re in public? 

When we put on different masks, this is not reality, but play–acting.  It is the essence of hypocrisy.  Many people find themselves weaving such a web of deceit and insincerity around themselves that even they can no longer tell which part of them is real and which part is make believe. 

But Jesus calls his people to lives of single–minded sincerity, free from the wearying schizophrenia of a divided self.  He calls us to be pure in heart, both in our relationships with God and with man.  He calls us to be free from all falsehood.  He calls us to transparent lives of utter sincerity, in public and in private. 

This is the freedom and wholeness to which Christ calls us… lives without guile, where thoughts, words, actions, and motives are pure and unmixed with hidden deceits. 

This is the kind of purity that Jesus is interested in — the “in heart” purity.  Just as the kind of poverty he was interested in five verses earlier was the “in spirit” poverty.  The emphasis here is inward, moral, heart–righteousness… as opposed to outward, ceremonial, rule–righteousness. 

King Jesus is no fan of mere rule–righteousness.  He had a few choice words for that kind of hypocrisy — see Matthew 23.25–28. 

Only the pure in heart will see God.  If this is so, then we need to daily run to Jesus Christ.  He alone is without guile; he is the only man who is absolutely pure in heart.  May we be found in him, growing into his likeness.

Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord?  And who shall stand in his holy place?  He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully… Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart… Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me… Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart… And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith… The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.
—The Holy Scriptures