How Should Christians Call Out Sin in the Culture?

How should Christians call out sin in the culture? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity.

Well, hi there. I'm Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. This is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. You can call us right now with your question.

Pick up the phone. Here's the phone number. It's 833-862. 843-2673 or 833-THE-CORE. You can also post your question on our Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter accounts. You can watch Adriel in the studio right now live on YouTube and message us through our YouTube channel. And of course, you can always email us your question at questionsatcorechristianity.com.

First up today, here's a voicemail we received from one of our listeners named Joshua. When the Pharisees questioned Jesus, about a woman who was married to seven different men, and asked her whose husband she would be in the resurrection. And Jesus told them, would no one is going to be married or given in marriage in the resurrection? My question to that is, if that's so, why then does God make such a huge issue about marriage since the time of Adam and Eve, only to then, I'm assuming the Millennial Kingdom, say marriage will no longer be a thing? Am I understanding that correctly or am I missing something?

Thanks again. But that seems to contradict what Jesus himself said in the passage that you brought up from the Gospel of Mark, also in Matthew, but in places like Mark chapter 12 where the Pharisees asked about the resurrection and Jesus says very clearly there, you guys are confused. For in marriage, when they rise from the dead in the resurrection, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like the angels in heaven. That's Mark chapter 12 verse 25. And so why is it then, if that's the case, that the Bible does make a really big deal about marriage here on this world, in this world?

I think there's a really simple answer. One, the reason there is no marriage in the new creation is because our marriages here on earth are a type of, if you will, the union that exists between God and his people, the marriage supper of the Lamb, the relationship that Jesus Christ has with his bride. So in the new creation, we have the reality.

Here on earth, we have the type, the figure, if you will. The Apostle Paul makes this clear in the book of Ephesians, in Ephesians chapter 5 where he talks about the relationship between husbands and wives. He says wives submit to your own husbands, husbands love your wives, so on and so forth. And then he ties that relationship to the relationship that Jesus has with his bride in verse 32 of Ephesians 5.

This mystery is profound. I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. So brothers and sisters, our marriages here on earth are important.

They're so important. One of the reasons they're so important is because they're a picture of the relationship that exists between Jesus Christ and his bride. But in heaven, in the new creation, we're going to have the reality. And so we should value marriage and honor it as it ought to be honored, biblically speaking, now during this present time.

And then when we look forward to the new creation, we rejoice in the fact that we're experiencing the reality, the substance, if you will, of which all of our marriages here on earth were only a type. And so thank you for that question. May the Lord bless you. And if you're married, may the Lord bless your marriage. Joshua, thanks so much for sending that in. Great question and appreciate you being a regular listener here to CORE Christianity.

Well, we know there is a lot of uncertainty in our world today. So here at the CORE, we want to offer you a helpful book that really is written for times like these. Yeah, written by Hannah Anderson. It's called All That's Good. And it's going to help you, I think, navigate some of the tensions that we see right now in our culture and all that's good, recovering the lost art of discernment. You're going to be helped to recognize and enjoy all of the good and beautiful things in the world. In this book, Hannah Anderson helps you to develop your taste for all that is good in God's creation. And it helps also just in terms of navigating the world with confidence and joy instead of fear and cynicism. And there's a lot of that in the world today, isn't there?

Just fear, cynicism, just despair even. So we really need to think about these things and how we should respond as Christians and really give thanks for all that is good. So get a hold of this resource over at COREChristianity.com. Such a needed book right now for these times, and we'd love to give that to you.

And all you have to do is go to our website to find out more. For a gift of any amount, you can get All That's Good, Recovering the Lost Art of Discernment. And here is the website, COREChristianity.com forward slash offers.

That's COREChristianity.com forward slash offers and look for the book, All That's Good. Well, here's an email we received from one of our listeners, and he or she says, How come we as Christians don't boldly condemn wrong anymore? The apostle Paul didn't mince words when it came to Alexander the coppersmith and other wrongdoers. Is it still okay to condemn without reservations like Paul did?

Yes, it is. I guess it depends on what we're talking about. It's sort of a blanket statement to say we as Christians don't do this anymore. I certainly know that there are many Christians out there who do this and probably do it too much.

I think one of the dangers is we can be over the top in condemning everything that we just disagree with. Calling everything a heresy, even if it isn't necessarily a heresy, or maybe it's not one of those doctrines that is foundational core, if you will, when it comes to the Christian faith. But you're certainly right that you do see this in scripture. My mind goes to the book of Galatians, for example, where Paul basically gives this stern rebuke to the church in Galatia because they were being deceived by false teachers.

He says these false teachers were not preaching the gospel at all. He has really, really strong words for them. Of course, he has strong words for others as well. You mentioned Alexander the coppersmith, an individual who's mentioned in 2 Timothy 4. Verse 14, Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm.

The Lord will repay him according to his deeds. I think the greatest example of these strong words, if you will, is our Lord Jesus himself in Matthew 23, where he gives a rhetorical lashing to who? The religious leaders, the scribes and the Pharisees because of their hypocrisy, because they should have known better. I think the Bible and Jesus, the apostles, they do have strong words, strong condemnations for certain sins, for certain people even. But usually those are directed toward hypocritical religious leaders. Certainly, if we're taking the example of Jesus in Matthew 23, that was the case. We are called as believers to be characterized by a graciousness in our speech.

I think that's something that we really need to recover today, especially when you think about how a lot of these discussions go in broader culture related to things like politics and culture. It seems like there isn't a lot of grace and there isn't a lot of charity. Just listen to what the apostle Paul said in 2 Timothy 2, verses 24 through 26. The Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, that they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will.

We have to have a balance here. We do call out and condemn those things, especially that undermine the Christian faith, false doctrine, false teachers, hypocrisy, so on and so forth. But even as we're speaking against the sins that are out there in the world, we do so patiently enduring evil with gentleness because we have the hope that God is drawing people to himself. He's bringing people to repentance and so really important that we get this right and that we don't go over the top and just sort of condemning everything and everyone who disagrees with us, just because we don't like the way they approach things maybe, but also that we're not afraid to speak the truth firmly, especially when Christians are being harmed by some false teaching.

Thank you for that question. May God bless you and may God give you wisdom as you seek to speak the truth in love. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and if you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life, we would love to hear from you. Here is the phone number. It is 1-833-843-2673.

That's 833-THE-CORE. And if you get our voicemail, feel free to leave a message. We do our best to check our voicemails once each day. You can also email us your question. And if you've got a question about maybe about doctrine or theology or how your Christian life is going or how Christianity intersects with today's culture, we'd love to hear that as well. And our email address is questions at corechristianity.com.

Here's a question we received from one of our listeners named Mel. Mel says, I'm doing the Romans Bible study and really enjoying it. On page 73 it states, when God justified us, we were declared innocent of all our sins once and for all. Are we declared innocent as in never having committed the sins, or are we declared forgiven in that Christ has paid the penalty for our sins?

Yes. Well, I don't have the Roman study right in front of me. I can't look at page 73, but your question is a very clear question and a really good one. So what does it mean that we're justified? This is a really important biblical term, friends. Well, first, sometimes you hear people say justification means just as if I've never sinned.

That's, you know, essentially the first part of your question. Is that what justification is? It's as if God is treating us like we've never sinned. Or is it that our sins were forgiven? Well, justification does involve the forgiveness of sins. I think of Romans chapter 4, in particular verse 6. Listen to what Paul said, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one whom God counts righteousness apart from works. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, whose sins are covered.

Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin. So here Paul is talking about the doctrine of justification. He began earlier actually in Romans, and then in chapter 4 he says, What shall we say was gained by Abraham our forefather according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about but not before God. Well, here it's clear that justification is the forgiveness of our sins, but it's also more than that. So it's not just that all of our sins are forgiven. That's one part of justification, but he includes in this this idea of God counting righteousness apart from works. And then later in Romans chapter 5, Paul is going to talk about this gift of righteousness that God gives to us, and we sometimes refer to this as the imputation of Christ's righteousness.

So you have these two parts of justification, if you will. The forgiveness of sins, but also the free gift, the crediting of righteousness, if you will. Whose righteousness? It's the righteousness of Jesus Christ. It's the perfect life that he lived that's given to us, credited to our account so that we could stand before a holy God even though we've broken God's law and be safe, be justified, be at peace with this God. And so that's really the best way to understand justification, what we see there in Romans chapter 4 verses 5 and following. And because of that, we are declared innocent.

We're justified. There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, Paul goes on to say in the book of Romans. And so thank you so much for that question. Glad to hear that you're reading our Romans Bible study, and I hope that it's blessing you.

You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Just a reminder, we have a wonderful group of people that support this program on a regular basis. We call them our inner core. And if you listen and you believe this program is helpful, we would encourage you to consider joining that inner core. These are folks that make a monthly contribution of $25 or more to keep this show on the air because we don't receive money from a particular church or denomination or the government.

We depend on people just like you to keep this show going. So if you want to learn more about the inner core, just go to our website corechristianity.com forward slash inner core. Well, here's a voicemail we received from one of our listeners. This is from Carlos. The question is, in Genesis, three, five, when the devil is speaking, he is saying that if we eat the fruit of life that I will be open, and we will become like one of them. So in Genesis three, 22, God said the same thing. So my question is, are we considered a God, not like God, but in His image of being a God? Carlos, excellent question.

I love it. And I think you're on to something here. So part of this is what does it mean to be made in the image of God? Well, we are called to reflect the Lord Himself, the divine ruler, the King of Kings, if you will, as He's depicted in the early chapters of Genesis.

This is something that's made absolutely clear. And so in one sense, yes, the people of God made in God's image were always to reflect God, who He was, to the world around them. In the way in which they exercised dominion over the initial creation, in the way in which they ruled, if you will, the problem was sin entered the world. And so the image of God was broken, if you will, not taken away, but broken so that we don't reflect God the way we should today.

And we see this all over the place, don't we? People don't reflect God in loving one another, His light, His truth, His goodness. And so the image of God needed to be restored in mankind.

That's what Jesus did for us in the incarnation by coming to earth to restore the image of God in humanity. Now, what does it mean where God places the tree of the knowledge of good and evil there in the garden, and you have this language of mankind becoming like God after eating the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Well, that tree, it's sort of like this judgment tree, this language in the Old Testament of good and evil, of discerning between good and evil. It was something that rulers in particular, kings, were called to do. So again, you have this idea of man exercising this sort of kingly rule as God's, we could say, vice regents on earth, reflecting His rule over creation in a good way, in a loving way.

That's what they were called to do, to render just judgments, to cast the serpent out of the garden when He came in, but they didn't. And so we do, I mean, Peter says we're partakers of the divine nature in Christ. In one sense, we really do reflect who God is. We're not God, right? There's a sharp distinction between God the Creator and us creatures, but we get to participate in the life of God. We get to experience His grace, His mercy in His salvation, and especially when He glorifies us on the last day by the power of the Holy Spirit.

And so in our lives today, we should be reflecting God, His goodness, His light, His love, Jesus, the one who restored the image of God and humanity if we're in Him by faith. Thank you, Carlos, for that question. May the Lord bless you.

Thanks, Carlos. Appreciate you being a regular listener and digging into God's word. We always appreciate our listeners who take time to really explore the Bible and then ask those tough questions.

Here's a question we have from Joel in Terre Haute, Indiana. Joel, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? I was reading in Revelation 1-1 out of the NASB, and I had a different take on it that somebody had given me recently, and I wanted to see what you thought. But it says the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his bondservants. Now, I'd always believed that revelation. It was God gave giving John the revelation of who Jesus was. But depending on the translation that I look at, some of them have the hymn and his and calfs referencing Jesus. So is it God giving Jesus the revelation, or am I missing something? And if it is that, how does that play into the Trinity?

I always felt that Jesus, the only thing he did not know was the day that he was coming back. Yeah, hey, thanks for that question, Joel. Revelation 1-1, a very important verse in terms of properly interpreting the book of Revelation. So a couple of things. Let me just read the ESV, and I put the NASB up here as well so I could see what you were looking at.

Very similar. The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him, Jesus is the one who's receiving this revelation, which is not to say that he doesn't know something. He's here acting as this prophet, if you will, for the people of God. God gave him to show his servants the things that must soon take place.

So I don't see any problem here with regard to our doctrine of the Trinity. Of course, we know that the persons of the Holy Trinity are distinct, but Jesus Christ, in his threefold office, he's prophet, priest, and king. And so he does receive and give revelation as the great prophet of God's people. Now, what's interesting here is Revelation 1-1 is actually, I mean, we're thinking about this in its context and what John is picking up on, echoing the words of Daniel 2, verse 28. This was the revelation that was given with regard to Nebuchadnezzar in these visions, these dreams. The king, excuse me, verse 28. But there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days.

Your dream and the vision of your head as you lay in bed are these. So there's this revelation that's given here related to the latter days. John, here in Revelation 1, verse 1, picks this up, and he refers to the things which are going to take place very soon, the things that must soon take place.

This idea of what's coming, the sort of world history and God's work in the midst of these various nations that are rising up and falling. That's, I think, contextually what John is doing. He's setting us up for these visionary prophecies that are coming, and the one who received this revelation was Jesus for the good of his people, for the good of the church.

And so if the question is, does this contradict or pose a problem for our understanding of the doctrine of the Trinity, I would just say no. This is part of Christ exercising that office, the office of a prophet, on behalf of the church. And he does that today by revealing to us by his word and spirit the will of God for our salvation. Christ is still working in this way today by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Thank you for that question.

You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. We have a listener named Kayla who called in this question, Adriel. She says, in 2015, I lost my son in a motorcycle accident. How do I move on from this grief because I think about him every day? Kayla, I am so sorry to hear about that tragic accident.

I wouldn't want to say, well, you should be moving on by now, that kind of a thing. These kinds of tragedies, I think, stay with us for the rest of our lives. It doesn't mean that there isn't healing and comfort that we can receive from the Lord. And this is one of the things that I think we see in Scripture. I think of Paul's words in 2 Corinthians 1, verse 3. Listen to what he says about our God. He says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. My prayer for you, Kayla, is that you would experience the comfort of the Lord by the grace of the Holy Spirit in this affliction. We do grieve when loved ones die, but remember what the Apostle Paul said, we don't have to grieve as those who have no hope.

Why? Because Jesus Christ has conquered death, because we have the hope in Jesus of the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. That doesn't mean that it's not painful. That doesn't mean that we just forget about it.

No, not at all. And there will be grief, I think, for the rest of your life, but it doesn't have to be a hopeless grief because of what Jesus Christ has done. And may the Lord give you His comfort by the grace of His Spirit. And Bill, I just want to loop you in here because I know you've worked with this subject in particular with grief. Do you have any added thoughts as well for someone who's wrestling through those feelings of grief after a tragedy like this? You know, one of the best things that can really be helpful to a person is to be involved in some kind of a grief group. There is something so healing, Adriel, about being with others who have been in the same boat, who have experienced the same kind of pain that you have. And there's actually a Christian grief support group that many churches run around the country. And I've known people that have been in those groups, and they tell you, man, this was probably the best thing to help me. I don't want to use the word move past, but to help them really deal with that grief. So Grief Share is the name of that group.

Yeah. Kayla, may the Lord be with you and bless you and comfort you in the midst of this time. And may He give all of us a firm hope in what Jesus has done, the resurrection of Christ for our good and the good of our loved ones. As we explore the truth of God's Word together.