Sin’s Top Dog

So what is the most binding sin of all? I’m not talking about the unforgivable sin, but rather the one that imparts the heaviest chain to those who have it, and is least likely to be repented of and delivered from. Well, let’s take a walk down memory lane in the Bible for a moment, and see if the scriptures can shed some light on the topic. Seems I remember a highly respected member of the most prolific religious order among God’s people when Jesus was here, and he was praying in the temple at the same time that a pathetic, despised publican was doing the same. Seems I also remember Jesus saying that the pathetic publican left the temple justified, while the Pharisee left being condemned (Lk. 18:10-14). And while we’re on that subject, it seems I recall that Jesus said that the prostitutes and the lousy publicans would go into the kingdom of God before the highly regarded religious leaders of God’s people (Mt. 21:28-32). In fact I think I remember the leaders of this prestigious religious order among the household of God, themselves saying that they would not believe on Jesus, and that the common people who did, only believed him because they were cursed and didn’t know the law (Jn. 7:47-49). And in the same vein I seem to remember yet another high standing Pharisee who invited Jesus to his house for dinner, and when a known prostitute slipped in and began weeping at Jesus feet and washing his feet with her tears, and drying them with her hair; this highly respected religious man was appalled. But not nearly as appalled as he and his friends were when Jesus declared her forgiven of her sins, while rebuking his respected host for a lack of love, and for not being more like her (Lk. 7:36-50). And then I remember the contrast between two people who were from the opposite spectrum of God’s people from one another. Seems one of them was a down and out woman who was nobody, and Jesus had to cast seven demons out of her to get her on the right road. The other one was the highest ranking man of God in Israel, which was the high priest. Well, it seems I also recall that this woman was the very first person that Jesus appeared to when he rose from the dead. And the high priest? Well, he’s the one that drove the final nail into the coffin of falsely condemning Jesus for blasphemy, and having the very Son of God put to death (Mk. 16:9; Mat. 14:60-64). Now there are other examples that we could use here, but I believe that this is enough consistent scriptural evidence for the point to be clearly made. And there is no such thing as a ‘truth’ that cannot be supported by consistent, flowing evidence of the scriptures.

So what is this sin that these honorable religious leaders of God’s people were guilty of, that was obviously a more damning sin than prostitution and general immoral living? Let’s borrow from our first example listed above, regarding the parable of the publican and the Pharisee to find the answer: “And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others” (Lk. 18:9). There it is my friend, the most binding sin of all, and the one that is most likely to keep a person from repenting - Self Righteousness. So why were these religious people of Jesus’ time so self righteous? It’s simple, the righteousness that they claimed was NOT the righteousness of God, but rather it was the righteousness that they imparted to themselves through their own traditions and doctrines that they had made to themselves. Jesus said it this way: “Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition” (Mat. 15:6). When the truth of God is added to by man, the truth of God is ALWAYS taken away at the same time. When enough of that gets done, all that is left is a system of righteousness that is NOT the righteousness of God. The apostle Paul understood this reality, and wrote the following: “For they [Israel] being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God” (Rom. 10:3). That is why Jesus was rejected by his own people. He was the walking, talking embodiment of the very law that God had given them to live by, but they had added so much of their own tradition to the law, and had taken so much truth away at the same time; that they saw Jesus as being a rebel and an enemy to “the faith,” which was really only their own religious system that they had concocted to themselves. If only God’s people could learn something from the Bible! NOTHING HAS CHANGED!! Nothing EVER changes. Christianity has done the exact same thing to the faith of Christ that those religious people of Israel did to the law. It was called Judaism then. As it was then, there are a few elements of Gospel FACTS left today, but sadly those facts by and large end up serving as a support system to the prevalent system of the traditions and doctrines of men. Modern Christianity is the Judaism of today, and anyone preaching the pure, unmixed truth of the real Gospel, and who is truly walking in the Spirit of God, is GOING TO BE SEEN AS AN ENEMY TO THE FAITH! I happen to know this by personal experience. And I assure you by personal experience and by the above stated Bible truth, that the down and out sinners are FAR more likely to receive the truth of God and the deliverance that comes with it, than those who are already ‘established’ in their Christian order. When you are under the traditions of men that have convinced you that you are righteous, when in fact you are not; you are not likely to repent and acknowledge a better way when it comes along. Friend, I exhort you to FORSAKE the death trap of today’s ‘Christian’ religion and draw nigh to CHRIST HIMSELF, who will “guide you into all truth;” if freedom from sin and from the spirits of this world is where you truly want to be (Jn. 16:13; II Cor. 3:17; Jn. 8:31,32). Amen.