From The Thirsty Theologian:
The story of the Prodigal Son illustrates the fact that “you are not a Christian if you enjoy sin.” Mike McKinley writes,
"The son’s turnaround began when he saw the reality of his sin clearly. He realized what a fool he had been, how offensive behavior and attitudes were, and how ratty the pleasures of sin were in comparison to the joys of his father’s home. In Jesus’s words, “He came to himself”—he came to his senses.
Since a Christian is dead to sin and alive to Christ, when he does sin, he finds that it doesn’t suit him. He cannot be comfortable living in it. Although sin may provide him with a moment of pleasure and enjoyment, he is later plagued with feelings of regret, disappointment, and shame. If a true follower of Jesus is snared in sin, he will eventually have a moment like the Prodigal son, had in the pigsty where he comes to hate his sin. He does not grow in an ever-increasing love for sin, but as time goes by, he hates it." ~ Mike McKinley, Am I Really a Christian? (Crossway, 2011), 70.
HT:BR
2 comments:
While I don't have any problem with your (or Mike's) key point: that we should hate sin, (though I'm not sure I'd say you are not a Christian if you enjoy sin - surely the point is not doing it even though it might be enjoyable), my bigger issue with this quote is that I don't think that the Prodigal Son says what Mike McKinley is saying it says.
There is no evidence that the Prodigal Son turns around because he hates the sin, I'd suggest instead that reading the story tells you he turns around because he realise he'd be doing better with his father. It's a more difficult theological idea to draw a neat box around, but I don't actually think the story says what Mike suggests it does.
Interesting that you you make this comment. Shortly before posting this I criticized a popular speaker who (in my opinion) used Scripture to say more than it did. I didn't disagree with the point the person made, just that the Scripture they used didn't say what they said it said.
We need to take care.
At the same time, read some of the OT quotes found in the NT ... some are quite a stretch. I do not mean to imply that gives us license. I think it means we need to be careful when challenging Spirit-led usage of Scripture. The question is how can we know ...
Finally, “Lk 15.17 But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! 18 I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”’ This doesn't really give us much to work with. Seems like speculation is called for and as long as it's consistent with the whole of Scripture, we'll be ok if we recognize it is conjecture on our end and don't turn it to law.
I'm happy with both; he came to hate the sin he once thought he would enjoy and he came to realize any life with the father is better than one without.
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