Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.
But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

• Romans 3:19-26

We have sinned, even as our ancestors did;
    we have done wrong and acted wickedly.
When our ancestors were in Egypt,
    they gave no thought to your miracles;
they did not remember your many kindnesses,
    and they rebelled by the sea, the Red Sea.
Yet he saved them for his name’s sake,
    to make his mighty power known.
He rebuked the Red Sea, and it dried up;
    he led them through the depths as through a desert.
He saved them from the hand of the foe;
    from the hand of the enemy he redeemed them.
The waters covered their adversaries;
    not one of them survived.
Then they believed his promises
    and sang his praise.
But they soon forgot what he had done
    and did not wait for his plan to unfold.
In the desert they gave in to their craving;
    in the wilderness they put God to the test.
So he gave them what they asked for,
    but sent a wasting disease among them.

• Psalm 106:6-15

“It seems, then, we are forced to believe in a real Right and Wrong. People may be sometimes mistaken about them, just as people sometimes get their sums wrong; but they are not a matter of mere taste and opinion any more than the multiplication table. Now if we are agreed about that, I go on to my next point, which is this. None of us are really keeping the Law of Nature. If there are any exceptions among you, I apologise to them. They had much better read some other book, for nothing I am going to say concerns them. And now, turning to the ordinary human beings who are left…”

• C.S. Lewis, Preparing for Easter (from Mere Christianity, chapter “The Law of Human Nature”)

Boilerplate

First, the concept of Lent is the preparation for what is to come, the anniversary of Christ’s death and resurrection between Good Friday and Easter Sunday.  But in some denominations, the entire time from Advent, the anticipation of Christ’s coming (remembrance of His birth but preparation for His return) to Easter (Christ’s resurrection from the dead)…  This bracket of time is a celebration of the entire life of Jesus Christ on earth.  Christ’s conception to His ascension and on to the Holy Spirit coming upon the Apostles at Pentecost can be presented and celebrated from early December until Pentecost Sunday.

Many denominations only focus on Christmas and Easter, or maybe the entirety of Holy Week from Palm Sunday to Easter, and then may or may not focus on Pentecost.

But for those that recognize Lent, the Lenten season in many denominations has an element of fasting.  Sadly, this is done as Jesus teaches us not to do.  They make a big deal out of it when we should do it in private, something just between us and God.  But that tradition stems from the forty days of fasting that Jesus did in the wilderness after His baptism and before His ministry started.  The Lenten season is kicked off on Ash Wednesday.  And after forty days, we reach Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week.  The concept of ashes is symbolized by at least one denomination having a cross painted on their forehead in ashes, sometimes from burning the palm fronds from the previous Palm Sunday the year before.  Again, that draws attention to the fact that they have started their fast.  But they are also announcing that they are Christians.  There is good and bad there.

So, when we are in the Lenten season, what should we focus on?  It depends.  We should focus on Jesus, but we might want to focus on our service to God.  What can we do better?  How can we spread the Gospel?  From Conception to Pentecost…  His mission was completed on earth, but He left us with something to do.

As for the Lewis book, it comes from a compilation of Lewis’ writings, edited by Zachry Kincaid.  In the book, there is a devotion, of sorts, from Ash Wednesday through Easter Sunday, the Lenten Season.  Each devotion contains suggested Scriptures and a writing of C.S. Lewis.

I am going to use my free time posts, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday afternoons (EDST) to correspond with that day’s devotion in the book.

Discussion

This quote from C.S. Lewis was from Mere Christianity.  The “powers that be” in England at the time of World War II asked C.S. Lewis to do a series of lectures over the radio.  The people of England were afraid and a calm voice on the radio might be helpful.  What resulted was the book, Mere Christianity.  I have read it more than once, and it is like the writings of the Apostle Paul.  You might have to reread it a few times to get all of what he is saying.

But in this quote, he says that all sin, and then in a moment of a little sarcasm, he points to those who think that they are perfect.  He momentarily excludes them, but if they are human, they sin.

The way many people avoid the concept of sin today is to establish relative truth, but relative truth is nonsense.  If what you call a righteous act, but the Bible calls a sin, that is not your relative truth, that is a lie on your part.

In my young adult years, they avoided the idea of right and wrong altogether and said, “If it feels good, do it.”  At the time, I asked some of my friends if they would not prefer to say, “If it still feels good in the morning after, do it.”  That might limit the sin to not getting drunk, not doing certain illegal drugs, and not having sex leading to pregnancy.  But then, that only avoids the earthly consequences or rather focuses on the consequences rather than the fact that it was wrong to do those things.

Am I being unreasonable?  No.  Am I being hypocritical?  No, especially when I say that everyone sins and I am a member of the human race.  I celebrated this beautiful day with a donut.  I should not be eating that much sugar.  I got distracted with silly things today and I am scrambling to keep up my writing pace.

In other words, if I had done a better job of keeping my eyes on Jesus, I might have done a better job today.

And guess what.  Tomorrow will have its challenges also.

But God loves me, and at times puts up with my messes just because he loves me.

Yet, I am not the one who establishes what is right and what is wrong.  God does that.  You and I may have our personal opinion about a topic, but I will not argue about what is sin, I will leave that up to God.  And when you look at a wall that is painted blue and you call it pink, that is just silly, that is unless you are color blind.  The wall is still blue.  That is factual, but how would you know, unless some loving person told you in a loving way?

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.