The Terrible Cost of Sin.

[aiki]

I had a discussion with some fellow Christians a while ago now about the horrible Ravi Zacharias scandal. One of the members of the discussion remarked about what a good thing it was that, even at the end, Ravi could have turned in repentance and confession to God, restoring his fellowship with his Maker before dying. I responded that I thought such a thing was not just unlikely but impossible, given how Ravi had lived. I got a ferocious reply! Wow. I was accused of all sorts of terrible things and not allowed to make an proper explanation of what I meant. I went away sharply reminded of how lightly modern Christians treat sin, how much they count on God's forgiveness rather than relying on His "way of escape" from temptation and evil found in constant submission to the Holy Spirit. I went home, cracked open my Bible and wrote out the following:

I hold to a view of human free agency called “soft libertarianism.” This view holds that there are some genuinely free moments of choice people have in life, but as they exercise their free agency along a particular line in the choices they make, they settle themselves ever more deeply in that line, developing a momentum of sorts through those choices that carry the chooser with ever-greater force in the direction their prior choices have established. The Bible calls this “hardening.”

The effect of this momentum of choice is to increasingly limit a person’s future freedom to choose. We become caught in the current of our choices, one leading to the next, until that current of choice is so powerful in a particular direction, we cannot alter it or win free of its grip. Or, to work from the biblical idea of hardening, as one makes choices in a certain direction, again and again, the flexibility to choose in any other direction lessens until one loses entirely such flexibility, hardening into thinking and behaviour from which one cannot diverge.

Such a circumstance is evident in obvious form in the life of any addict. Whether it is an addiction to drugs, or drink, or inappropriate content, or cigarettes, or food, or whatever, this process of hardening is very apparent. A person looks at inappropriate contentography, for example, and stimulated by it, looks again, and again, each time growing more habituated to the act of doing so, until the impulse to look at inappropriate content ceases to be something the person actually chooses to do, but is a driving obsession, an addiction that now controls them, compelling inappropriate content-viewing behaviour.

We are made to form habits. We do so quite readily, under the right impetus. This habit-forming tendency may be a powerful ally in creating a holy life, an important “tool” for shaping thinking and behaviours that aids Christ-centered living. But our ready habituation to thoughts, attitudes and actions work in the evil direction just described, too. For this reason, it is crucially important for the Christian person to guard carefully along what lines they allow themselves to move in thought and deed.

Where in Scripture is this matter of hardening described?

Pharaoh, in the story of the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt (Exodus 7-14), is a prime example of hardening in the OT. During his reign, he had kept the Israelite nation under slavery, abusing them harshly, enacting cruel and bloodthirsty strategies to keep them under control (i.e. killing Israelite babies). When Moses confronted him, demanding the release of his people from Pharaoh’s dominion, the Egyptian monarch could not bring himself to let them go. Even in the face of repeated and awful plagues levied against Egypt by Jehovah, the God of the Israelites, Pharaoh could not bring himself to agree to the freedom of his long-time slaves. God had heightened Pharaoh’s already hardened attitude toward the Hebrews, too, making it doubly impossible for Pharaoh to accede to Moses’ demands. In the end, unable to overcome his long-established, hardened attitude of antagonism toward the Israelites, Pharaoh was destroyed.

Other examples of hardening are offered to us in Scripture:

2 Kings 17:9-14 (NASB)
9 The sons of Israel did things secretly which were not right against the LORD their God. Moreover, they built for themselves high places in all their towns, from watchtower to fortified city.
10 They set for themselves sacred pillars and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree,
11 and there they burned incense on all the high places as the nations did which the LORD had carried away to exile before them; and they did evil things provoking the LORD.
12 They served idols, concerning which the LORD had said to them, "You shall not do this thing."
13 Yet the LORD warned Israel and Judah through all His prophets and every seer, saying, "Turn from your evil ways and keep My commandments, My statutes according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you through My servants the prophets."
14 However, they did not listen, but stiffened their neck like their fathers, who did not believe in the LORD their God.

2 Chronicles 36:11-14 (NASB)
11 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem.
12 He did evil in the sight of the LORD his God; he did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet who spoke for the LORD.
13 He also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar who had made him swear allegiance by God. But he stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against turning to the LORD God of Israel.
14 Furthermore, all the officials of the priests and the people were very unfaithful following all the abominations of the nations; and they defiled the house of the LORD which He had sanctified in Jerusalem.

Jeremiah 7:23-26 (NASB)
23 "But this is what I commanded them, saying, 'Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you will be My people; and you will walk in all the way which I command you, that it may be well with you.'
24 "Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward and not forward.
25 "Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have sent you all My servants the prophets, daily rising early and sending them.
26 "Yet they did not listen to Me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck; they did more evil than their fathers.

In each of these examples, the same stubborn refusal to respond positively to divine warning is described. The hearts of the wicked were both hard and hardening further into sin. Even in the face of repeated divine challenge, these wicked men would not relent, caught in the powerful current of their sinful choices as they were.

Matthew 19:8 (NASB)
8 He *said to them, "Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way.

Mark 8:14-17 (NASB)
14 And they had forgotten to take bread, and did not have more than one loaf in the boat with them.
15 And He was giving orders to them, saying, "Watch out! Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod."
16 They began to discuss with one another the fact that they had no bread.
17 And Jesus, aware of this, *said to them, "Why do you discuss the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet see or understand? Do you have a hardened heart?

In this instance, the “hardness of heart” Jesus challenged wasn’t a hardness in sin, but in a way of thinking that blinded his disciples, preventing them from understanding his teaching. And his disciples were so hardened, so set in a particular line of thought, that it never occurred to them to think any other way than they were. What is sobering in this is that they were blind even though they were taught by God incarnate! It is true that, when teaching, Christ typically hid his full meaning from his audience, including, at times, his disciples. But in this instance, he speaks to them as though he expected that they should have understood what he was saying. It wasn’t that Christ was being purposefully obscure, hiding his meaning even from the Twelve, but that his meaning would have been perfectly clear to them if not for the hardening into a superficial, temporal system of thought that had blinded the disciples to the spiritual content of Christ’s words.

Acts 19:8-9 (NASB)
8 And he entered the synagogue and continued speaking out boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God.
9 But when some were becoming hardened and disobedient, speaking evil of the Way before the people, he withdrew from them and took away the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus.

Ephesians 4:17-19 (NASB)
17 So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind,
18 being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart;
19 and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.

Paul uses various phrases to express the idea of hardening: “darkened in their understanding,” “hardness of their heart,” “callous,” “given over to.” These all describe the hardening that happens within each of us for good or ill. The idea of being “calloused,” in particular, highlights the effect of hardening, indicating a lack of sensitivity, a sort of numbness morally, a blunting of the conscience, that fosters a “giving over” of the calloused person to “every kind of impurity.” Apparent in these phrases is the idea of being thoroughly set into a type of thinking and conduct from which the “given over” cannot be extricated.

Hebrews 3:13-15 (NASB)
13 But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called "Today," so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
14 For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end,
15 while it is said, "TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS, AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME."

The writer of Hebrews notes in this quotation that hardening by, and into, sin - in this case, the sin of unbelief - involved being deceived. Clarity is lost under the deceiving effect of sin, which is an important part of why it becomes so difficult, as hardening into sin progresses, to recognize the truth for what it is and to respond positively to it.

*Study continued in following post.*

 

[aiki]

*Continued from earlier post*:

Romans 2:5 (KJV)
5 But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;

In the biblical descriptions of the false teacher, one encounters a powerful description of the effect of hardening:

2 Peter 2:10-19 (NASB)
10 and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority. Daring, self-willed, they do not tremble when they revile angelic majesties,
11 whereas angels who are greater in might and power do not bring a reviling judgment against them before the Lord.
12 But these, like unreasoning animals, born as creatures of instinct to be captured and killed, reviling where they have no knowledge, will in the destruction of those creatures also be destroyed,
13 suffering wrong as the wages of doing wrong. They count it a pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are stains and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, as they carouse with you,
14 having eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart trained in greed, accursed children;
15 forsaking the right way, they have gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;
16 but he received a rebuke for his own transgression, for a mute donkey, speaking with a voice of a man, restrained the madness of the prophet.
17 These are springs without water and mists driven by a storm, for whom the black darkness has been reserved.
18 For speaking out arrogant words of vanity they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error,
19 promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved.

To summarize Peter’s comments, the willfully wicked:

Vs. 10 - Lose a wise and natural respect for authority, earthly and heavenly.

Vs. 12 – Develop a diminished capacity for sound reasoning, making criticisms from ignorance.

Vs. 13 – Become practiced in deception and delighting in it.

Vs. 14 – Grow consumed with sin, enticing others to do likewise.

Vs. 19 – Are ultimately enslaved by their sin, bound in moral and spiritual corruption.

Under these conditions, what is the likelihood of repentance and confession of wickedness? Sin changes the sinner, locking him down into profound self-deception and habits of living that enslave him.

Jude, the brother of James, makes similar observations:

Jude 1:10-13 (NASB)
10 But these men revile the things which they do not understand; and the things which they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals, by these things they are destroyed.
11 Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain, and for pay they have rushed headlong into the error of Balaam, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.
12 These are the men who are hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted;
13 wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam; wandering stars, for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever.

Vs. 10 – Critical without understanding, act like unreasoning animals.

Vs. 12 – Boldly selfish, promising much but delivering little, fluid in belief and values, dead and uprooted morally and spiritually.

Vs. 13 - Creatures of darkness and futility.

Again, the question arises: Under such conditions, especially if they are sustained over a long period of time, how likely is it for a person to change, to break free of their willful hardening into such living and take a new tack?

Peter answers this question in graphic style:

2 Peter 2:20-22 (NASB)
20 For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.
21 For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment handed on to them.
22 It has happened to them according to the true proverb, "A DOG RETURNS TO ITS OWN VOMIT," and, "A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire."

Here, a distinction might be worth observing between the lost person who has never encountered the Gospel and never been born-again by the Spirit and someone like Ravi Zacharias who did as Peter describes above, and did so, not once, but again and again throughout his adult life and career in Christian ministry. The degree of willfulness in Ravi’s gross sin, and his prolonged persistence in it, make it extremely unlikely - really, effectively impossible - for him to act utterly contrary to his wicked line of choices and, in his final moments, repent of his sin.

This isn’t to say that the door to a renewed and right relationship with God was, by God, closed to Ravi at some point while he still lived. No, it was that Ravi’s hardening into sin served to blind and deafen him to repentance and fellowship with God, binding him in darkness he knew to reject and so enslaving him in a way far more profound and destructive to Ravi (and others) than had he never heard and responded in faith to the Gospel. All along in the process of hardening, the Holy Spirit would have been acting to convict Ravi of his sin, even bringing divine discipline to bear upon him at some point, but Ravi persisted in his sin over many years, regardless. Under such a circumstance of very profound determined rebellion and consequent hardening, is it possible for Ravi, in his final moments of earthly life, to have repented of, and confessed, his sin – sincerely – making things right between himself and God? The effect of hardening would give very good grounds to say, at least practically, not. Theoretically, perhaps, one could say such a possibility existed, but this is to admit more to a philosophical or academic point, than to an actual and distinct likelihood.

Romans 1:18-32 is also an extremely sobering description of the progression of hardening and the magnification of evil that occurs over time as hardening proceeds. This passage, too, strongly suggests that after a certain point, those who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, turning to worship of things other than God, and becoming bound in terrible wickedness, eventually are so far gone in sin that they cannot be recalled. This hardening is profound such that the hardened sinner comes to hate God and revel, not just in a wicked act, but in the fact that it is wicked.

Again, it is not that God has withdrawn from such people the offer of salvation and fellowship with Himself. It is their own rebellious and evil choices that move them along the hardening (and warping) process described in Romans 1, past a point of no return.

With God, of course, all things are possible – even the reversal of a lifetime’s hardening into sin. But does Scripture give us good grounds to think such a reversal is common? There is the problem of the contravention of human free agency, if one holds that such reversals are frequent or normal. If God simply undoes the effects of our evil choices, are we really acting as free agents? Only as our choices bear their consequences – for good or ill - can we say we have freely chosen. For example, if God had simply undone the choice of Adam and Eve to disobey Him, and continued to do so every time they chose contrary to His will, could we say that Adam and Eve had real free agency? Would their choices matter if God conformed all the consequences of their choices to suit His will regardless of how disobedient and God-hating those choices were? The effect of their choosing would be the same as if they were mere puppets or robots totally under God’s control.

Just as with Adam and Eve in Eden, God generally lets the consequences of our wicked choices bear their full fruit. He must, if He is to have creatures who genuinely love Him. And so, if we choose to grow hardened into sin, made blind and deaf to Him as a result, eventually incapable of thinking or desiring to be free of our selfish rebellion toward Him, God will allow it – even though it means the majority of those He has made travel the Broad Way to their eternal destruction. (Matthew 7:13-14)

Thus, an event like, say, Paul’s reversal on the road to Damascus stands out, not just because it was so dramatic, but because it was very unusual. In Scripture, there are many more accounts of people irretrievably hardened into sin who fall under the terrible judgment of God. This is, for example, the story of the OT Israelites who, again and again, migrated as a nation into sin and, though often warned by God’s prophets of the impending doom of their rebellion and wickedness, persisted in it to their terrible ruin, falling into cruel bondage to enemy nations. This is the story of individuals, too, in Scripture who persisted in evil to their ultimate destruction: Judas, the people of Noah’s day, Pharaoh, the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, Jezebel, etc.

In light of the blinding, warping, deafening, corrupting and hardening effects of sinful choices, it is vitally important that Christian believers not grow complacent toward sin, thinking at some point down the road, when indulging sin is perhaps no longer so pleasurable, that they can simply return to God, unaffected by the momentum of their wicked living. This is not what God’s word indicates will happen, commonly. Instead, believers who’ve persisted in treating sin lightly will find themselves eventually set in sin such that turning to God ceases to be an option that even occurs to them, blinded, deafened and calloused in their minds and heart, their conscience seared and the Spirit quenched. So it is God’s word warns,

Proverbs 6:12-15 (NASB)
12 A worthless person, a wicked man, Is the one who walks with a perverse mouth,
13 Who winks with his eyes, who signals with his feet, Who points with his fingers;
14 Who with perversity in his heart continually devises evil, Who spreads strife.
15 Therefore his calamity will come suddenly; Instantly he will be broken and there will be no healing.

Proverbs 29:1 (NASB)
1 A man who hardens his neck after much reproof will suddenly be broken beyond remedy.

 

[aiki]

I wanted to add to my comments on this matter of the cost of sin a bit further, posting what I wrote to a fellow poster on CF a while ago on the idea of repenting of sin just before one dies. Below, I list the immediate costs of living in sin:

1. Loss of fellowship with God.

God made us to be in fellowship with Himself (1 Corinthians 1:9; 2 Corinthians 13:14; 1 John 1:3). It is the way to be most fulfilled in life. The joyful, contented, meaningful life we're all striving for in one way or another can only be encountered in intimate communion - fellowship - with our Maker. One misses out on this wonderful fellowship under the thinking that at the end of life one will repent and come to faith in Christ.

God also intends that loving, joyful fellowship with Him be the prime motivation for our Christian living. In the absence of this intimate, spiritual communion, believers search for other, lesser reasons to be as God has called them to be. None of these reasons, being lesser, can achieve in the life of a believer the same results as proper fellowship with God. Duty, fear, religious piety – none of these produce the life of Christ that fellowship with God does. They may produce temporary, faltering periods of external righteousness, but they cannot sustain consistent (and joyful) holiness, as the delight in walking in close communion with God does.

2. Hardening. (Hebrews 3:7-8; Proverbs 28:14; Proverbs 29:1)

Humans form habits very readily, habits of thought and behaviour, in good directions and bad. It's the way God has made us. As habits form and are strengthened over time through repetition, one becomes hardened in those habits. Eventually, a habit can have such momentum in one's life, one can't resist it at all and doesn't even think to do so. It becomes reflexive and at such a point often develops a physiological/biochemical component that powerfully reinforces the habit, making it extremely difficult to undo. Depression is like this, as is anxiety, and various addictions (drugs, booze, inappropriate content, food, gaming, etc).

Living in rejection of God becomes, over time, a habit. And as such a habit is maintained, the one maintaining it grows hardened in it. And the greater the hardening, the more unlikely it is that a person will turn - sincerely - toward God in the last moment of their life. It's doubtful they will even think to do so, except perhaps selfishly, having spurned Him all throughout their life. If such a person has any thought of God and the hereafter in their last moment, it will be to serve themself, as has been their habit all along, to make repentance, not about honoring God, not about responding to His love, but about protecting and serving themself. And God, of course, responds accordingly.

3. A life of rebellion and sin blinds, deafens and scars. (Romans 1:18-32; Titus 1:15-16; 1 Timothy 4:1-2)

Not only does one grow hardened in sin over time, but one also becomes blind and deaf to moral and spiritual things, blunted to the conviction of the Spirit, calloused toward the things of God (Ephesians 4:18-19). This compounds the effect of hardening, making it even more unlikely that, in the last moment of their life, a person so affected will turn to God in sincere repentance.

4. Sin always produces death. (Romans 6:23; James 1:15; Galatians 6:7-8; Romans 8:12-13)

When one sows the "wind" of sin, one will always "reap the whirlwind" of sin. And God promises us that the harvest of our sin is always some sort of death: death of joy, of peace, of fellowship with Himself, of truth, of meaning, of conscience, of relationships, of physical and psychological health, and, ultimately, eternal "death" in hell.

5. Sin never affects just the sinner. (Romans 5:12)

Sin sends ripples outward from the sinner, harming others in a multitude of ways the sinner cannot always see or anticipate. Consider the fallout from the sin of Adam and Eve; consider the results of the sin of King David with Bathsheba; consider the effects of the sin of Achan on the Israelites. And so on. As a person grows corrupted by sin, their thinking fouled and twisted by it, they behave in reflection of that corruption which always, in one way or another, hurts others. There is no sin, really, that doesn't have this effect in some way and measure. This is why Paul the apostle wrote to the Corinthian church, "A little leaven leavens the whole lump." (1 Corinthians 5:6-7)

 

[Bobber]

I had a discussion with some fellow Christians a while ago now about the horrible Ravi Zacharias scandal. One of the members of the discussion remarked about what a good thing it was that, even at the end, Ravi could have turned in repentance and confession to God, restoring his relationship to his Maker before dying. I responded that I thought such a thing was not just unlikely but impossible, given how Ravi had lived. I got a ferocious reply!

Like you posts on other subjects...as for this I wouldn't consider it wise to be trying to speak in absolutes at just who won't make Heaven when it comes to personal names. Judas would be an exception for Jesus clearly told us. Others. Might be best to leave that in the hands of God.

 

[aiki]

If Ravi had been someone who didn't know better, and had not had the Spirit convicting him, I'd hold out hope of him repenting. But he would have to have lived as he did against his conscience, the truth of God's word, and the conviction and discipline of the Spirit for years. Under such a circumstance and in light of what I laid out from Scripture, I can't see that Ravi could have repented finally of his sin.

I don't mean to say, though, that Ravi wasn't saved. On that matter I cannot speak with any certainty. Assuming he was saved, his eventual inability to repent would have meant a loss - totally, I think - of any heavenly reward from God, no "well done" from His Heavenly Father. Ravi's salvation, however, has nothing to do with his success in living a certain way.

 

[Bobber]

I don't mean to say, though, that Ravi wasn't saved. On that matter I cannot speak with any certainty.

But you did say in your OP , "I thought such a thing was not just unlikely but impossible, given how Ravi had lived."

But fair enough if you're saying now that NO you don't know as an absolutes he wasn't fine. My point is we just can't know these things. I think how you've qualified your statement seems better.

 

[aiki]

But you did say in your OP , "I thought such a thing was not just unlikely but impossible, given how Ravi had lived."

But fair enough if you're saying now that NO you don't know as an absolutes he wasn't fine. My point is we just can't know these things. I think how you've qualified your statement seems better.

I can see how you might have understood my words to be referring to Ravi's salvation. I changed the sentence preceding the one you've cited above to read "fellowship" instead of "relationship" so that it doesn't seem like I'm talking about Ravi's salvation. Thanks for your observation.

 

[A_Thinker]

I had a discussion with some fellow Christians a while ago now about the horrible Ravi Zacharias scandal. One of the members of the discussion remarked about what a good thing it was that, even at the end, Ravi could have turned in repentance and confession to God, restoring his fellowship with his Maker before dying. I responded that I thought such a thing was not just unlikely but impossible, given how Ravi had lived.

Repentance is the method by which one restores their fellowship with God.

Such can be done at any time before physical death ... as demonstrated by the repentant thief on the cross ...

 

[aiki]

Well, one certainly ought to repent - if one can. But, as I showed from Scripture, sin and the effect of hardening into it means that, at some point, one no longer can repent; one may simply become too deafened, blinded, calloused and twisted by sin to repent. Modern Christians, however, have this notion that they can carry on in sin with impunity, suffering none of the things I outlined from Scripture that occur when one sins.

The repentant thief was an unusual case. The other thief didn't repent, nor did the majority of the curious onlookers to Jesus's crucifixion. But this comports with what Jesus said about few finding and traveling the Narrow Way. (Matthew 7:13-14)

 

[A_Thinker]

Modern Christians, however, have this notion that they can carry on in sin with impunity, suffering none of the things I outlined from Scripture that occur when one sins.

This discounts the reality of God acting in the life of a believer. I've seen christians get very clear messaging from God to adjust their path (like Jonah ... or Paul).

It may very well be that God's ultimate action in Ravi's case ... was to take him home ...

 

[Bobber]

Repentance is the method by which one restores their fellowship with God.

Such can be done at any time before physical death ... as demonstrated by the repentant thief on the cross ...

And you know a great interesting thing about that. This man probably didn't know or understand a thousand and one theological answers to theological sparrings that we see took place hundreds of years after Christ ascended. All he knew was Jesus was Lord and could forgive sins.

 

[aiki]

Just to be clear folks: God occasionally moves some pretty wicked people to repentance. But this doesn't utterly negate all that Scripture warns us of regarding the blinding, deafening, hardening, and twisting effects of sin. I'm not sure why such a blind eye is turned toward what I've pointed out in this thread, but there is great danger in turning such an eye to sin.

 

[aiki]

Bump.