Are We Solely Responsible for Our Sin?

If it's true that we're tempted by the devil, how can we still be responsible for our sin? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of Core Christianity. Well, hi, this is Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and 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 at this number. It's 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. Of course, you can always post your question on one of our social media sites, and feel free to email us at questionsatcorechristianity.com. First up today, let's go to Genesis, who's calling in from Massachusetts.

Hi, Genesis, how are you? Good, and my question is, if you can pray to God, since God and the Holy Spirit is one person, if you can pray to the Holy Spirit also? Genesis, thank you so much for giving us a call, and what a great question, and you're right, we are called to pray to God, and we believe in one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the Holy Trinity.

Now, these three persons are distinct, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, but we're talking about one God. Now, ordinarily, in the Bible, prayer is offered to the Father, in the Son, and through the power of the Holy Spirit. So, Jesus is our mediator, the one who has given us access to approach the throne of God, to pray to God, and we're praying in the Spirit, under the influence and empowered by the Holy Spirit. So, oftentimes, you get that language from the Apostle Paul in places like 1 Corinthians and elsewhere, of praying in the Spirit. But is there anything wrong with addressing our prayers directly to Jesus or directly to the Holy Spirit?

I don't think that there's anything wrong. Again, we're talking about one God here, and so I think ordinarily, when we're thinking about prayer, it's helpful to use the formula that's given to us in Scripture. We're praying to the Father through Jesus in the Spirit, but if you were to direct your prayers to the Lord Jesus, as Stephen does in the book of Acts, for example, or Jesus even talks about in the Gospels, or if you say, blessed Holy Spirit, fill my heart today, that's perfectly fine. And so, so wonderful to hear from you, Genesis. Thank you for giving us a call, and again, what an excellent question. God bless you. Hey, Genesis, thank you so much for listening to CORE Christianity.

Great to have you there in Massachusetts. Wonderful to hear from our younger listeners, Adriel. It really shows that they are digging into God's Word with some great questions. Yeah, yeah. What an excellent question. I mean, we're talking about the Trinity and prayer.

I love it. You're listening to CORE Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. We'd love to hear from you. If you have a question about the Bible, the Christian life, doctrine, theology, you name it, you can call us right now, 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. Let's go to Mike calling in from Kansas City. Mike, what's your question for Adriel? Hi, my question was regarding divorce.

I was wondering, like, if the spouse that got cheated on and they got divorced, is that spouse allowed to remarry? And I'll listen off air. Hey, Mike, thank you. I mean, obviously a really, a really heavy question. And we know these kinds of marital conflicts, you know, just heartbreaking.

There is a lot of pain. Jesus does give teaching on divorce. In Matthew chapter 19, verse three says, the Pharisees came up to him and tested him by saying, is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause? And Jesus answered, have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female and said, therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate. And so there you have the focus on this union that God has created. Divorce, it's really like an amputation. When you think about what God has done in uniting man and woman in, in marriage, it's, it's a severing, it's a, it's a painful thing.

And, and many know this. And they continued, they said to him, why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away? And Jesus said to them, because of your hardness of heart, Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning, it was not so. In other words, this was not a part of God's, you know, created purpose.

He allowed this. He made provision for this because of sin and because of the hardness of the human heart. And then he goes on to say in verse nine, I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality and marries another, commits adultery. And the reason he can say that, that you've committed adultery in that situation is because technically you're still married.

You're still united. The, the marriage wasn't dissolved, but there are, it seems in scripture, some things that do and can dissolve the covenant of marriage. And one of them is adultery. And so when someone, it doesn't mean that someone who's been cheated on is obligated to get a divorce. I know that there are many instances where there's infidelity and God brings great about, God brings about great healing and restoration. But it does seem that that is a legitimate grounds for divorce and that the person who was cheated on is free to be married to someone else in the Lord after the divorce has been finalized.

And so there's the answer to your question. Jesus addresses it in Matthew chapter 19 and appreciate you calling in. Pray that the Lord is with you and grants you wisdom and grace. This is Core Christianity with pastor Adriel Sanchez. Love to hear from you. Maybe you have a question about how your Christian walk intersects with what's happening in our culture right now.

Maybe you've experienced some type of persecution at work or at school. Hey, let, give us a call. Let us know.

We'd love to pray for you. As a matter of fact, here's the number. It's 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. Let's go to Annabelle who is calling in from Kansas. Annabelle, what's your question for Adriel? Hey, so my question is, is do you believe anybody can go to heaven?

Like if they've committed murder or rape or if they're gay, you know what I mean? Like does, can anybody go or? Annabelle. Oh, go ahead. I'm sorry. I cut you off there a little bit. We were following up.

We were following up. Sorry, because he likes God and Jesus. They forgive everybody, right? When someone turns to the Lord, even if they've committed terrible sins, murder, adultery, you name it, right?

There is grace for repentant sinners. It's not like, well, that one sin, and there are so many examples of this in the Bible. David committed murder, rape, adultery, we might say.

There's debate about that. What exactly was going on with him and Bathsheba? I mean, it's clear that he took her. He was in this position of power.

She probably couldn't say no. Here we have real heinous sin. You think of others in scripture, Moses.

I mean, you just go down the list. The Bible is full of people used by God mightily who had done horrible, horrible things. Now, does that excuse their behavior?

No, not at all. God doesn't justify sin, but he does justify sinners. There are two things to note. One, 1 Corinthians chapter six, the warning that Paul gives in verse nine. Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?

Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And then Paul adds this, Annabelle, in verse 11. And such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the spirit of our God. What is the sin? Is it murder? Is it homosexuality?

Is it being a drunkard? Is it, you know, I've lived a life of stealing and greed. Paul says to the Corinthians, that was you guys. You were there. You were living in that way.

And don't be deceived. People who live in that way, they just embrace this lifestyle. They're not going to inherit the kingdom of God. But such were some of you. In other words, and this doesn't mean that they didn't continue to struggle with sin, but they were justified.

They were washed. They were saved. And so the answer to your question is absolutely. There is grace. There is mercy. The blood of Jesus Christ is able to cleanse even those who have committed these sins that sometimes, you know, people hear about the murder.

Really? Can God really save that person? The answer is yes. And again, it doesn't justify the sin, but it is the grace of God that justifies sinners. And so that should give us all hope because each one of us, we come before God and we have sinned. Maybe we haven't committed the act of murder, but there is murder at times in our hearts. Jesus makes us very clear in the Sermon on the Mount.

I just preached on this last Sunday. Annabelle, you have heard, Jesus said in Matthew chapter 5 verse 21, that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder and whoever murders will be liable to the judgment. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment.

Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the counsel. And whoever says you fool will be liable to the hell of fire. In other words, it's not just what we do with our hands. It's what's going on in our hearts. The law of God has jurisdiction over our hearts. And so we bring our hearts to the Lord and say, cleanse us by your grace.

And He does. God bless. And I'm so thankful for that justification because the last time I was on the 405 freeway in Los Angeles, I had murder in my heart. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's one of the, right. That's, there's a lot of murder in the heart that happens on the freeway, especially during the traffic hour. Yeah.

Rush hour. Right. So, yeah, well, that's actually what Jesus is doing there in the Sermon on the Mountain.

He's highlighting the fact that so many people, they hear about these greats. I've avoided that. I've never cheated on my spouse. I've never killed someone. I think I'm good. And there are a lot of people who just sort of assume that. I think God is going to let me into heaven because I'm a pretty good person.

I've never done anything that's going to land me in jail or anything like that. And Jesus says, God is looking at your heart. He sees the anger that's brewing there, the lust that is there. And each of us has to come before the Lord. We're humbled by the law and we're cast upon God in His grace.

That's the only hope that we have. And so love that question. And I'm so grateful for the mercy of God towards sinners.

Amen. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. By the way, you can leave us a voicemail on our voicemail system 24 hours a day if you aren't able to call in during the live program. That number is 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. Let's go to Judith calling in from Tennessee. Judith, what's your question for Adriel? Oh, hello.

Yes, this is Judith. My question is, since the Sabbath and Jesus worships on the Sabbath, which is the seventh day, which is Saturday, I've often asked pastors why they can't offer a Saturday afternoon service like the Catholic Church does. I'm no longer a Catholic. I'm a born-again Christian. But when I ask pastors, they hem and haw and I would think, is it because a Saturday evening service would interfere with their football watching time? I don't know. Anyway, I just think if they would offer a Saturday afternoon service, say about four o'clock or about that time, they'd attract a lot of high school students and college students and people like me.

I'm a senior. I would love to go to a Saturday afternoon service. And I know at Christmas time, this past Christmas, when Christmas fell on a Sunday, Christmas Day, on that Saturday, they offered three services, like one at three, one at five, one at seven. So if they're able to do that, why not offer that every week? I just think that would be a wonderful thing.

I mean, it would work really well for me. So it sounds, Judith, like it's less a sort of theological conviction. Well, Saturday is the Sabbath. Why don't we just have Saturday services? That was the Sabbath day in the Old Testament. And more of just, well, why don't we do this just to attract high schoolers and college students and those who maybe are going to have a hard time getting up on Sunday morning, Saturday evening is a little bit better.

I hear that. And I know that there are many churches that do have, I was a part of a church for some years that they had a Saturday evening service. It was basically their Sunday morning service, just a little bit more contemporary, that kind of thing. And other Christian traditions do have Saturday evening prayer and worship leading into Sunday.

They'll call them Vespers services. But I would say fundamentally, I mean, the reason we worship on Sunday, there's a theological reason, there's a biblical reason. And while the Hebrews under the Old Covenant, they gathered together on the Sabbath day in the New Testament, it's clear that believers began to meet on the first day of the week. You see this throughout the book of Acts.

You see this in 1 Corinthians as well. And the reason was because Jesus rose again from the dead on the first day of the week. And so Christian worship every Sunday is a commemoration of the fact that Jesus Christ has conquered death by his resurrection. I know a lot of churches, we celebrate Easter once a year, but really every Sunday is the proclamation that Christ is risen from the dead. We gather on the first day of the week because Christ is risen, because it's in him that we enter into the true Sabbath rest. And so instead of resting at the end of the week on Saturday, we rest, we enter into that rest at the very beginning, signifying that he has accomplished the work that we could not do. Now, does that mean that there's anything wrong with having a Saturday evening service?

I don't think so. And I think that there are churches that do that and have opened up opportunity for that. But I would say one of the reasons we meet on Sunday is precisely for that reason, to highlight the fact that Christ has risen. And this is exactly what the apostles of our Lord began to do throughout the pages of the New Testament. And so it wasn't like some later tradition. Sometimes you'll hear people say, well, that was something that was introduced by the Catholic church or something like that.

And the answer is no. The apostles themselves started meeting on Sunday for worship, to break bread, to fellowship, to participate in the sacraments of the church, baptism and the Lord's Supper, to hear the teaching of the apostles. And so that's what we do in line with what God has called us to in worshiping on the Lord's day.

Thank you so much for your question. May the Lord bless you as you continue to seek his face. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Love to hear from you if you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life. Also want to tell you about a great series of Bible studies that we have for you. You can find them at our website. And these are studies that you can use individually for your own devotions, or you could use them as part of a small group or a Sunday school class.

Yeah. I mean, I love what we do here at Core Christianity, answering questions about the faith every single day. But we want to give you other resources outside of this, you know, these 30 minutes that we have answering tough questions, resources like Bible studies that you can go through on your own time by yourself or with friends, family members, or with your church. We have a number of studies throughout the Old Testament, the New Testament. There's one on the Gospel of Luke that I want to highlight right now. If you're interested in studying the Gospel of Luke, this would be a great resource, a 10-week study through the Gospel of Luke. And you can get ahold of all of these Bible studies over at corechristianity.com.

They're available for a gift, a donation of $15 or more. And all of our studies, you can download them via the internet, get a PDF, or you can get a hard copy. They're beautiful studies, and I know that you'll be encouraged by them. By the way, we also have leader's guides for each of the Bible studies as well.

So if you are leading a small group or a Sunday school class, they'd be great for you. You can check them out again at corechristianity.com forward slash studies. Well, we do receive voicemails and emails here at the Core, and you can email us anytime. Here's our email address. It's questions at corechristianity.com.

Here's one that came in from a listener named Jill. She says, the other day I was listening to your program and your response about sin and its origin. You said we were ultimately responsible for our own sin, making decisions to sin like Adam. But I'm confused about what Satan has to do with our sin. If the Bible shows us that he tempted Jesus, he deceived, he lied, he lured, then we subscribe to things like Satan tempts me or Satan made me sin, then how are we solely responsible? I understand free will and our ability to make choices, but isn't it also true that Satan does have responsibility for sin, prowling the earth, preying on our weaknesses, and confusing our thinking so that then we sin? Hey Jill, thank you so much for that excellent question, and the answer is that the evil one, Satan, does bear some responsibility, and he is going to be judged.

He has been judged, truly, definitively at the cross, but at the end of history, he's going to be thrown into the lake of fire, in part because of his work as the tempter, going against God. But there are two passages of scripture that I want to highlight for you in answering your question. The first one is in James 1, verse 13. James said, let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one, but each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death. And so while a lot of times we might attribute our temptation to the evil one, Satan, and he does contribute to that, often, I want to say most often, we're drawn away by our own sinful passions, those desires that we begin to cultivate and entertain and then give into, and that gives birth to sin.

And so that's why we're responsible, because we're the ones who are truly saying yes to this evil behavior. The other passage to bring into play here is what the apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians, chapter 10, verse 13. No temptation has overtaken you. And this includes the temptation of the evil one. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape that you may endure it. In other words, you aren't forced to sin or coerced to sin. Even when the evil one is tempting us, we still have a decision, and God is faithful. He's giving us grace. He's calling us to flee from temptation, to abstain from it, to lean on his grace, and yet there are times where we don't, and we fall, we sin.

And in those situations, again, we're responsible. And so we confess our sins and say, God, be merciful to me, and give me the wisdom and the grace to flee from temptation. When you provide those ways of escape for me, Lord, help me to go through the exit, not to linger, to be like Joseph in Potiphar's house, right? I'm getting out of here.

That's what we need to do. God bless you. By the way, we have a great core question on this topic, Can the Devil Read My Mind? You might be helpful for you to check that out.

You can find it at corechristianity.com forward slash questions. Let's go to Debbie, who's calling in from St. Louis, Missouri. Debbie, what's your question for Adriel? Hi. I had a question about if aliens exist and if God made them.

This is for my daughter. I don't know how they ask her. Hey, Debbie, thank you for that question. A lot of talk in recent days about ET and aliens with some of the stuff in the news. Here's what we can say. We know from the very beginning of scripture, Debbie, this is what I would say to your daughter, that God made all things the heavens and the earth. The language that's used there by Moses in Genesis 1, God making all things the heavens and the earth, is a reference to the things that we can see, but also to the unseen world, the heavens there referred to the angelic hosts as well. There is, and I think you can say this too, there are heavenly beings out there that God has created, angelic hosts that we can't see. There is an unseen world. Now, with all the talk about extraterrestrials and other sort of created intelligent beings out there, there's the question of, well, what exactly is that?

And there's a ton of speculation. I think we just have to stick with what the Bible clearly says. There is nothing that exists in all the universe that wasn't created by God. John highlights this in the very beginning of his gospel, speaking about Jesus, the one who created all things. He says, all things were made by him and apart from him was not anything made that was made.

And so he's doubly emphatic about this. There isn't some sort of ET out there that wasn't created by God. And other people have noted, even when you say, well, there might be intelligent life out there, it just begs the question, well, who created that?

So it doesn't really answer anything for us. We know that God made all things. We know that there is an unseen world out there. And we know that God is sovereign over everything and that by his providence, he upholds the universe. And so we rest in those realities, in those facts. And I think that's what the Bible clearly teaches.

And that's what I would share with your daughter. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Got a quick email question for you here from Christopher. He says, I was playing a new video game that recently came out, and I began to question the magic used in the game. It's about knights and wizards battling and taking each other's land. Should the use of magic like witchcraft be avoided in video games?

Thank you for this question. This comes up a lot with regard to entertainment, media, the fantasy books that we read. Do I need to avoid a book because of the use of magic? What about Tolkien's Lord of the Rings?

I'm actually reading through that with my kids right now, which has been a lot of fun. And so I would say a couple of things. Not necessarily. I don't think that means you just have to avoid it.

Of course, are you spending a ton of time playing video games every day? There might be better ways to redeem the time that God has given you, but there's nothing wrong with some entertainment. I would say there are bad kinds of entertainment, things that are dishonoring to the Lord. And so you have to check your conscience with this. If it's something that really bothers your conscience and you can't do it in good conscience, then I would say just, well, then avoid it.

But I don't think that just because there's fantasy or magic in a movie or a video game or a book that it needs to be avoided altogether. Hey, thanks for giving us a call, and may the Lord bless the rest of your week. God bless. Thanks for listening to CORE Christianity. To request your copy of today's special offer, visit us at corechristianity.com and click on offers in the menu bar or call us at 1-833-843-2673. That's 833, the CORE. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this program and be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's word together.