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The Insidiousness of Sin – and God’s Remedy

The Insidiousness of Sin – and God’s Remedy

Sin is transgression of the law – a violation of the law of love – the protocols upon which the Creator built reality to operate. Breaking love also violates trust (faith) with God; thus, anything done without faith (trust) in God is also sin (Romans 14:23).

Sinfulness is the state of being out of harmony with God. Because of Adam, all humans are born into this condition. Sinfulness is characterized by fear and selfishness; these are the primary drives of the carnal nature. Fear and selfishness lead to acts of sin, which are acts that violate God’s design laws for life – the laws of love, truth, and freedom.

Temptation to sin can come from outside the self – for instance, lies being told, such as to Eve in Eden. Temptation can also come from within the self (the fallen nature) – from the feelings of fear and selfishness, and also from the subsequent habits of various lusts that we have developed through choosing fear and selfishness throughout life (James 1:13–15).

Being tempted from outside the self is not injurious to the one being tempted, nor is it an evidence of unrighteousness. It all depends on the choice one makes when tempted. Adam and Eve were tempted while still sinless – the temptation itself didn’t defile them, but their choice to believe the lie, break trust with God, and act in self-interest did.

Being tempted from within one’s self, from feelings of fear and selfishness, is not an act of sin nor evidence of an unrighteous character. Jesus was tempted in every way just like we are, including with powerful human emotions, as we see in His experience in Gethsemane; yet, Jesus was sinless.

Being tempted from within is evidence of the condition of sinfulness with which we were born; no injury to the soul occurs from mere temptation. But injury does occur when one chooses to say yes to the temptation – when in the heart they identify with, long for, and pursue the sin in mind, in imagination, even if they never carry it out behaviorally. Such choices of the heart corrupt the character and can remain hidden from other people. But the true condition of the heart is never hidden from God. We are either being healed in heart – having the law of love, truth, and liberty written in by the Holy Spirit through our trust in God and choosing of His methods (Hebrews 8:10) – or we are solidifying in fear and selfishness.

When someone does choose to sin outwardly – steals, assaults, molests, exploits, deceives, betrays, ruins another’s reputation with lies, embezzles – one not only injures their own soul, sears their conscience, corrupts their character, hardens their heart, and warps their own reason, but they also plant a sin-seed in the heart of their victim that, if not removed, will take root and spread sin into the heart of the victim choking out the fruits of righteousness and bring forth more corruption of fear and selfishness.

The following story is from my book The God-Shaped Brain: How Changing Your View of God Transforms Your Life:

Maria was not my patient but a member of my church. As she approached me one day after services, I could see the anguish in her eyes. She was obviously struggling with something; I could tell she was in turmoil. She spoke with a heavy accent and her words were hesitant, uncertain. She was obviously afraid, and I couldn’t tell what frightened her most – that I might not answer her question or that the answer I would give would cause her deeper concern.

She told me that her only daughter, Sylvia, was twenty-five years old and had recently married a young man named Hector. She had concerns about Hector prior to the marriage but never voiced them, deciding that if this was the man her daughter was going to marry she would do all she could to support them. The wedding was eight months ago and, under the circumstances as she came to know them, Maria could no longer be supportive.

It was only two weeks after they returned from the honeymoon that Hector first hit Sylvia. Initially Sylvia covered the bruises and kept the pain to herself. She made excuses in her mind: He didn’t mean it. He was tired. I upset him. I know he loves me. But as the weeks passed and the beatings became more frequent and severe, the young bride could no longer keep the truth hidden and, a couple of months ago, her mother found out. Since then, Sylvia had been coming over to the house on an almost weekly basis tattooed with new injuries.

Understandably, Maria was enraged. She confronted Hector, who responded with a detached indifference, looking at Maria with a sadistic pleasure in his eyes. The more she pled for her daughter and the greater her distress over Sylvia’s mistreatment, the more Hector seemed to enjoy it. She hated him, despised him, and the rage inside her was building to volcanic force.

Maria had lost her peace. She thought constantly of her daughter and Hector’s abuse. She counseled her daughter to leave her husband, but Sylvia reminded her of the sanctity of marriage and her commitment to stay. Sylvia continued to make excuses for Hector and to submit to his endless abuse. Maria’s anger built. She tossed and turned at night, unable to get the battered images of Sylvia from her mind – or purge her dreams of the battering she’d like to deliver to her son-in-law.

Sin is so insidious We barely notice when it begins to grow in our hearts. Like a deadly virus infecting first one person, then another, we pass sin to others without a care – infecting them with a cutting comment, cruel laugh, retaliatory strike, or cold shoulder. Every injury cherished, every slight retained, every wound unhealed remains a festering pocket of evil’s seed, germinating more injury, spreading more pain and suffering. Maria’s heart was infected and she barely knew it (pages 183–185).

One of Satan’s master strategies is to get the wicked, the people who reject God – who reject salvation, who reject love, truth, liberty – to sin in order to harm, injure, and wrong others. Not only does this increase their own guilt and shame, that they deny and thereby sear their own consciences and further solidify evil in their characters, but their sin also infects the righteous with the seeds of anti-love, anti-truth, anti-freedom. Satan uses these seeds of sin to tempt righteous people to seek to eradicate sin or evil through the methods of the evil one, thereby further corrupting the victims through the practice of Satan’s methods. Satan is so good at this that people who engage their pursuit of eradicating evil by practicing anti-God methods actually feel good about what they are doing.

Contrast the two methods:

  • An innocent man is shot and killed by authorities, and the response of the community is to riot and destroy other innocent people’s property and sometimes injure other innocents – which leads to further cycles of hate, resentment, retaliation, and violence in the community. It is this eye-for-an-eye mentality that eventually blinds the entire world.
  • A racist gunman goes on a shooting spree in a church in South Carolina, but the church members forgive the man and call on the community to forgive. Or a gunman holds Amish schoolgirls hostage, murdering five of them, but the Amish community forgives the man and even helps the murderer’s family. Both examples deescalate violence and bring healing to souls.

Satan revels in instigating evil and then inciting outrage in the offended, fomenting them to attack the evil by using his methods. We don’t forgive, we don’t love, we don’t seek to redeem the offender – we don’t follow Jesus’ words to love our enemies and pray for those who spitefully abuse us. Satan deceives good people to seek to punish, destroy, dominate, control, and forcefully eradicate wrongdoers and call it “justice” – and cycles of violence perpetuate and spread, and sin takes over more and more hearts.

Some will no doubt protest and argue for the need of police, “just wars,” and judicial punishment. To those who are stuck in the world’s imposed-law view, it seems so right. But the Bible says, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death” (Proverbs 14:12 NIV84). The way of the world is Satan’s way; it cannot heal hearts, and it only spreads the sin-sickness.

We must stop looking at the sin, stop focusing upon the injustice, stop ruminating over our outrage, and fix our eyes on Christ. For it is by beholding that we are changed; this is the design law of worship: We become like what we spend time viewing, beholding, and meditating upon. When we spend our time watching the news cycle – the perpetual drubbing of social injustice, deceit, exploitation, and wrong – it incites more fear, more outrage, and more justification to use the methods of evil to stop the evil. We spiral downward into ever-increasing depths of selfishness and fear.

But we have a message that breaks the sin-cycle, the violence-cycle, and the corruption-cycle; we have a message that frees the heart from fear and selfishness – and that message is Jesus, our Creator God whose laws are design laws, the principles of love built into reality.

When wronged (and we have all been wronged), when outraged (and we have all been outraged), when wounded by evil (and we have all been wounded), turn away from the evil and fix your eyes on Christ. Spend a contemplative hour each day meditating upon the life of Jesus. Make Him your heart’s desire. Admire Him, rejoice in His love, bask in His truth, be immersed in His presence, be renewed by His character, drink deeply of the healing waters of heavenly truth and love, and allow God’s Remedy to wash away your pain, heal your wounds, and cleanse you from all fear, guilt, shame, anger, bitterness, and selfishness. And then go out into this evil and corrupt world and “love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you” (Luke 6:27, 28 NIV84).

Yes – sin is insidious, but where sin abounds, God’s gracious healing Remedy abounds all the more!


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Testimony 24

I wanted to thank you very much for presenting your understanding of God. I’ve always been troubled by this question: Why did Jesus have to die? Since my conversion I understood that The Father & Jesus are one, I did not have issues with that. But was there not any other way to save us than for Jesus to die? I guess I actually had a question about God – if He is so wise, how come He did not find another way? I did not see the real ‘beauty’  in the cross. Only when you explained the picture in the medical context, Jesus providing medicine for my selfishness, have I started to finally ‘see the light’. Thank you so much. Your seminar, “Healing the Mind,” are absolutely marvelous & have shared them with my family and many other people, including colleagues at work. Thanks, thanks, thanks. May God bless you abundantly in your ministry.

M. W., Australia

 

Testimony 30

God lead me to your book “The God-Shaped Brain” while I was searching for another book about the brain and then to your interview about your book on HeartWise Ministries [where] I found out about [Come And Reason Ministries]. I’m now devouring the webcasts of your Bible studies. I have been so greatly blessed and I thank God so much for your courage to speak the Truth in love no matter what. Listening to you contrast the two opposing systems (laws) and digging deep to unearth the hidden treasures in the Bible makes me so incredibly happy and I feel very blessed to be part of your Bible Study Group although I live far away. I am just so excited that there is a group of people that is spreading the Truth about the character of God and it saddens me how few realize what our Father in Heaven is really like.

Kessy B., Australia

 

Testimony 12

I have been really blessed reading your response to the various questions on your site.

K.C., OH, USA

 

Testimony 72

I am blown away by the truth that you present. God’s Design Law makes so much sense! You have validated my impression that, if God is love, He would not kill those who don’t want to know him. If God gives us choice, then how can He destroy us if our choice is not to follow him. Thank you for opening my eyes and heart to the pure love of God seen through Jesus. The love I now have for Jesus is deeper and free from condemnation. My heart has been opened to love others as Jesus loves me. May God continue to bless your God-given insight into His word and your ministry. The truth has set me free!

H. Miller, Centereach, NY

Testimony 37

Hearing Dr. Jennings’ presentations in person came at a pivotal moment in my spiritual journey that began about nine months ago, when the fault lines inherent in my belief system began to crack under questions that most reasonable people end up asking about God and His nature. These were questions I couldn’t find answers to, and they shook my faith. I was unable let it go any longer and be satisfied. My Christian experience became distant. I was afraid; the fear in me rose like thorns, pushing me away from Jesus. And then someone heard my questions and introduced me to this ministry, and my life has totally changed.

I can tell you that this new, “present truth” message is far grander and life-changing than when I shifted from being an agnostic and then a nominal Christian. It has radically altered my worldview, because it reveals a God that makes sense. It is a revolution. I believe that Dr. Jennings’ message is the final message that must go to the world. If any message could be called “righteousness by faith,” as abused as that term is by the right and the left, this is that message, because Jennings’ biblical message identifies a God who is different, whose character isn’t an impossible contradiction.

I walk this path now without fear. I see people differently, and the Holy Spirit burns in my heart. Many call Dr. Jennings’ message false and compromising, but it isn’t false, because I’ve seen the fruits within my mind and body. It is not compromising, because in this message is the only road to holiness that makes any sense. No longer do I behold a pagan god who is always angry and suspicious. Instead, I behold a God who is freeing and loving, always working for our good, and giving me every reason to love my enemy even to my own death, just as Jesus pleads with us. God is good.

Anthony L., CA, USA

 

Testimony 25

I just want to say thank you so much for your conversations via YouTube. I regularly tune in to your lectures, “Let’s Talk” sessions, and many others. Through these I’ve found greater depth and meaning to God’s word. Thanks for all that you do and please continue. I’m currently working in the middle of Silicon Valley at Stanford University. I feel like God really has me in the right place right now and I’m sensing that your teachings might be part of it.

B. F., Silicon Valley, CA, USA

 

Testimony 31

It was very touching to hear the testimony of your class share how viewing God’s true character has changed their lives. My feelings are the same – there is so much freedom in knowing that God LOVES me – regardless of my… just, REGARDLESS! I’m still blown away by the true gospel, the fact that God is not ready to strike us when we fail. He is not arbitrary. He simply loves us and warns of the natural consequences because He can’t stand to see us suffer. I AM IN LOVE WITH THIS GOD!!!

Ceil V.,  UT, USA

 

Testimony 66

I am incredibly grateful for the transformative impact you’ve had on my life, and words cannot fully express my appreciation. Over the years, I have been an avid listener and follower of C&R and extend my heartfelt thanks for creating the C&R mobile app. It has allowed me to immerse myself in your lessons repeatedly, enabling me to grasp the profound significance about the Character of God, Design Law, the protocols for life, the reasons behind the current chaos, and Christ’s mission to restore everything. They have deeply touched me. Having studied with various churches, I came away with the perception that God is no different from the deities of ancient Greek or Roman mythology—demanding sacrifices and taking pleasure in bloodshed. Thanks to your transformative teachings, I have experienced a profound awakening to the true nature of God and the immense power of His love. It is truly a remarkable and liberating sensation to finally grasp the truth and embrace the empowering nature of God’s laws. My self-perception has become brighter and more infused with love. My journey of growth continues on a daily basis.

Chris P., Lake Mary, FL, USA

 

Testimony 43

Two years ago I stumbled upon your book, “Could It Be This Simple,” and then found “The God-Shaped Brain” videos on YouTube, your bible study class, and the ‘Come And Reason’ mobile app. I shared your book with a friend and after nine months of showing love, patience, and kindness this person has been changed by the love of God, too. The same love that healed me, I now express to other women in tangible ways, such as to a Baptist woman with high anxiety and childhood trauma. She was extremely happy and relieved when I shared about the so-called “judgment of God” and burning in hell. She had no desire to serve a God that was so harsh. I have repeated the phrase dozens of times to her. “What we believe has power over us, but we have power over what we believe…”

This message that you are sharing has changed my life. I will continue to serve other women and bring this message of God’s healing love to their lives by sharing your books, YouTube videos, and The Remedy Bible app. Keep up the good work. Don’t be discouraged. God is doing a mighty work in and through this ministry!

Jill L., Midwest, USA

 

Testimony 9

I really enjoy with you the view of a gracious God. Thank you for sharing the work you are allowing the Lord to do in you.

L., Queensland, Australia

 

Testimony 44

We were given a gift of the DVD set, “God and Your Brain,” and we just finished watching it. The truths in this are so powerful and truly an answer to a prayer. We’re seeing hope where once we thought God wasn’t answering our prayers to be free of certain mindsets. He answered with these DVDs and we are hungry for more. Thank you!

Daniel T., Easley, SC, USA

 

Testimony 67

I was introduced to Come And Reason by a friend of my mother-in-law, who gave me several CD’s of Dr. Jennings. The clarity of the message and recognition that God’s is a God of love was so clear, advancing beyond Dr. Maxwell’s message. However, grappled with Maxwell saying God used emergency measures for the fallen world. Now after several years of being a regular listener of the Come And Reasoning bible study class and attending Jennings’ meetings in Dallas/Fort Worth, TX, things are becoming clearer for me. Design law versus imposed law has added so much to my personal understanding of theology. This message has really impacted my work in counseling so many people miserable because they are searching for and trusting human governments to create order and peace or believing in a God who says love Me or I will kill you. I am grateful that I have an alternative view to offer my clients that makes sense. I teach a bible study class on a semi-regular basis and I value the materials that Come And Reason so freely offers to aid me in presenting this vital message. Thank you for continuing to provide advancement in our very limited understanding of a Infinite God that is rational and believable.

Dr. Roger D, Arlington, TX, USA

 

Testimony 71

When I was 9 years old, I remember setting at our devotional table with a hunger and thirst for God that wanted more, deeper, BETTER. I can remember literally crying and pounding on the table, “I know these teachers didn’t mean to give us error. They taught what THEY had been TAUGHT, but didn’t ANYBODY READ THE BOOK?!?!?” It mattered to me then. It mattered to me as a teenager. It matters now as I teach bible classes. It didn’t have to be so hard as I watched so many give up and lay God’s great plan and gift of salvation aside as being “impossible.” Then, a friend sent me a link to Come And Reason’s website. I grew excited. YES! FINALLY! Then another friend told me to stay away, saying her son had just broken up with a girl because she was involved with Come And Reason and that “Tim Jennings preaches a false gospel.” But, AFTER many years of developing an authentic and, dare I say FUN relationship with Jesus, through the Holy Spirit I see this message has been around a LONG time, since the apostle Paul, Ellen White, Graham Maxwell, Ray Foucher, and yourself (though I admit, you’ve made me back up, rewind and replay the clips, and get out my well-worn Bible on a few things.) I’m so thankful I have found LIGHT during these DARK days. I am not alone.

Vicki DiNitto

Testimony 14

We really appreciate your views on the judgment and they make good sense considering our free choice.

Anonymous

 

Testimony 11

I would love to have a copy of “Healing the Mind” DVDs to have in my therapy office. I enjoy having clients check out materials to enhance their therapy experience. I have sat under Dr. Jennings’ teaching at an American Association of Christian Counselors convention and respect his work greatly.

K.B., LA, USA