the nature of sin

Taught by Mike Reeves at UCCF South Summer School, June 2009.

What is the fundamental nature of sin?  Unbelief, pride, and incurvature.

1.  Sin = Unbelief

Popularly, the definition for sin touted today is: idolatry.  This was the answer given by Ulrich Zwingly, the Zurich reformer.  He saw his ministry as an anti-idolatry ministry; that was his problem with Roman Catholicism.  So his ministry in Zurich was: get rid of the idols.  Churches were stripped of anything – particularly images – that were considered idolatrous.  Though he played 7 instruments, he stripped organs out of churches for fear of the power of music capturing people’s hearts in an idolatrous fashion.  But the problem was that he didn’t give the gospel instead – he said instead of serving idols, serve God instead.  This doesn’t get us much further – it only leads to works.

Luther was able to go deeper.  Problem of sin for him: not treating the wrong thing as God, but treating the real God the wrong way.  Idolatry is the consequence of the real problem of sin: unbelief.  Yes, unbelief leads to idolatry – by committing unbelief you set yourself up as an idol in your own heart; but doubting God’s word was the heart of the problem.

“Whatever is not of faith is sin”

So sin is at heart unbelief, and thus essentially is a relational problem.

word and image pt (i)

Part 1 of 2.  Taught by Ann Brown, at UCCF South Team Days March 09.

We are people of the Word, saved by an historical Saviour and called to verbally communicate the gospel; yet we live in an image-driven culture.  And there is a long-standing suspicion of the image in our protestant church.  What are the roots of this nervousness?  How should we engage ourselves with this culture?

1. What are the roots of this nervousness?

Post-Reformation, many churches were stripped bare of any imagery, and made completely bare.  As Protestants, we are heirs to this tradition, so we do well to examine it.  During the Reformation, waves of iconoclasm (burning of images) swept across Europe.  One of the first outbreaks was in Wittenberg, shortly after Luther nailed his theses to the door in 1517.  He, however, didn’t incite the violence; in fact, he tried to stop it.  But many people emptied the churches of the visuals of the old order, perceived as the idolatry of Roman Catholicism.

Images weren’t always despised in Christendom.  Augustine of Hippo and Pope Gregory in the 7th Century gave a role to images.

Images are useful for “the illiterate, who read in them what they cannot read in books”

- Gregory 600AD.

Compare this with our culture – people can read, but don’t like it!  They prefer the visual.

calvin on prayer, cont.

Part 2.  A summary of Book 3, Chapter 20 of Calvin’s Institutes.  

 

4. Who to pray through: The importance of a Mediator

5. Different types of prayer: The importance of prayer with thanksgiving

6. Private and public prayer

7. Use of words and singing in prayer

 

 

4. Who to pray through

 

It is impossible for any human to approach God’s presence in his own name, without alarm and dread for God’s majesty.  But God in his graciousness has provided his Son Jesus to be our advocate and mediator, through whom we can approach God boldly, securely, and confidently (Hebrews 4:16), knowing that nothing will be denied to us because nothing is denied to him (1 Timothy 2:5, 1 John 2:1). 

calvin on prayer

Part 1.  A Summary of Book 3, Chapter 20 of Calvin’s Institutes. Surprisingly practical!

 

1. Why is it so important?

2. If he knows everything, why bother praying?

3. Rules of engagement

 

1. Why is it so important?

 

Man is utterly destitute and without hope, were it not for God’s intervention; but God has chosen to give us Christ, and so we call out to him, and the Spirit makes those requests possible. Prayer “digs up those treasures which the Gospel of our Lord discovers to the eye of faith”, and therefore is such a necessity because our only safety is in calling upon the name of our sovereign Father and resting in his omniscience. 

how to be a heretic: an introduction to 5th century christology

Part 1 of 3 on the Doctrine of Revelation, taught by Mike Reeves on UCCF Summer School with the South massive.  Listen to it here.

In church history, around the 4th-5th century AD, there was a big debate in Christology (the study of how Jesus could be God and man).  This is a crucial subject as it affects all other doctrine, as we shall see when we consider the doctrine of revelation and Scripture (to follow).  

calvin’s institutes, book 1, chapter 9

 

 

 

Chapter 9: The subverted piety of replacing Scripture with revelations

(follows from previous post)

 

A fantastic chapter on the divine marriage of Word and Spirit, where Calvin tackles a heresy of his day in the teaching of the Libertines.  

calvin’s institutes, book 1, chapter 8

 

 

Chapter 8 The credibility of Scripture

(follows from previous post)

 

We need our assurance of the truth of Scripture to come from an authority higher than our own judgement; nonetheless, there are proofs to its truth and trustworthiness:

calvin’s institutes, book 1, chapter 7

 

 

Ch 7: The Spirit and the Church in relation to Scripture

(follows from previous post)

 

How can we know that the Word of God is the Word of God?

calvin’s institutes: book 1, chapter 6

 

Ch 6: The need of Scripture, as a guide and teacher, of God as Creator.  

(follows from previous post)

 

We need more than the heavens and earth to guide us properly to God.  So, to this God added the light of his Word, to make himself known unto salvation.  

He bestowed this privilege on the elect.  “For, seeing how the minds of men were carried to and fro and found no resting place, he chose the Jews for a peculiar people, and then hedged them in that they might not, like others, go astray.”  In the same way he retains us in his knowledge – if he didn’t, even those who appear the strongest among us might fall away.  

 

The Scriptures work like spectacles.

calvin’s institutes: book 1, chapter 5

 

Ch 5: Knowledge of God – in creation and governance of the world.

(follows from previous post)

 

True blessedness is found in knowing God.  So, that none may be excluded, God has been pleased “to daily place himself in our view, that we cannot open our eyes without being compelled to behold him.”

“His essence indeed is incomprehensible, utterly transcending all human thought; but on each of his works his glory is engraven in characters so bright, distinct, and illustrious that none, however dull & illiterate, can plead ignorance as their excuse.”  (see Romans 1:20).  The heavens and the earth (and the human body, as a “miniature world” in this respect) give innumerable proofs for even “the most illiterate peasant”, indeed for anyone with the gift of sight!  

But if, in order to apprehend God, we need not look further than even our own human bodies, “what excuse can there be for the sloth of any man who will not take the trouble of descending into himself that he may find him?”