The Big Lie And Decoder Rings

THE BIG LIE AND DECODER RINGS

Here's the "Big Lie": You can sin and not die. We hear it all the time. The world trivializes sin. Much of the church trivializes sin. I have heard some pretty elaborate theories on how to sin and get away with it.

Have you heard the one that God looks through the blood of Jesus at our sin and can’t see them? Kind of like those decoder rings we used to get in cereal boxes when we were kids. Do you remember them? A piece of paper would have all kinds of letters on it printed with all kinds of colored ink. When you took your decoder ring and looked through the red glass, all the red disappeared and you only saw the dark letters. You could read the hidden message then.

Really? Do you think God does that? Do you think we can sin, do whatever we want, and God doesn’t see it? What do you think that does to our concept of God? Not too smart. Not too holy. Pretty easy to fool Him.

What does that do to our concept of man? We can sin. We don’t have to repent. We don’t have to change our life. Pretty appealing theology for sinners.