7 DEADLY ZINS: The wine is good, the zins are bad

Don't get your shorts in a knot. This is not a wine review but an illustration. There is an exquisite Lodi region California wine called 'The Seven Deadly Zins.' The label lists the zins as Wealth, Vanity, Greed, Sloth, Gluttony, Envy, and Lust. The name is a clever pun spun from the fact that seven wines come from seven growers to comprise this big, bold and fruity spicy flavour that is great with barbecued meats. Connoisseurs say it has a spicy nose with raisins, jammy blackberry, walnut and black pepper, a bit of raspberry, tomato and cola. In the States it's $14.95 and in Canada it's $22.95 if one is lucky. The wine is good. 

Some of the seven are precisely the kind of zin or sin that offends God. Christian theology informs us that God is a three-personal God, three distinct persons not manifestations while remaining one being - God. Clearly it is something that must be received by faith because visual evidences are in shorter supply than they were in early New Testament times. Then, Jesus, the second person was actually resident on earth in human form. The Holy Spirit, while invisible most of the time, occasionally demonstrated his presence in the form of a dove that appeared in timely fashion. And God, the Father, also invisible, spoke intelligible and audible words such as "this is my beloved son with whom I am very pleased."

By the time Jesus was schedule to leave earth, he had clearly promised that in his absence, the Holy Spirit would continue to be with the disciples and all who follow Jesus anytime, but he would also be inside them, living within them. That is up close and personal. And this promise was given because Jesus is inclined to be graceful to us, God the Father loves us and the Holy Spirit partners with us. Since that is the dynamic or this relationship with God, it becomes clear that when we find sins so tasty, we risk offending the God-one inside us. So, the scripture declares a caution, "Don't grieve the Spirit of God." Do you know how he can be grieved? By us committing zins, well sins, such as lying, anger, corrupt language, bitterness, unforgiveness which are mentioned in verses that surround Ephesians 4:30, "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”  

Are these sins deadly? They cost us more than money. Unless we give them up, they certainly kill everything that God would powerfully accomplish in us and through us. That's because by continuing to sin, we quench the Spirit, dampen the spiritual fire. And there is an accompanying command against that.   I Thessalonians 5:19, "Do not quench the Spirit.” The wine is good. The zins are bad.

THE TRINITY AND THE CHURCH

We all acknowledge a strong connection between the doctrine of the church and the doctrine of God, yet I seldom read anything that emphasizes the close relation between church and the doctrine of the Trinity. In fact, the doctrine of the church originates from the Trinity. God's covenant with people whether in the Old or New Testaments has always been this, "I will … be your God, and you will be my people" (Lev. 26:12; 2 Cor. 6:16). His people, God's people, are his possession. God can say that. He formed them for himself. His people were and are supposed to sound forth his praise (Isaiah 43:21).

God revealed himself in inspired scripture, as the three person Creator God who said, "Let us make man in our image." This living God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit created everything for his own glory, including people. When humanity's earliest antecedents disobeyed God, the Father introduced redemption to his people, the story of which is traced in scripture until it is ultimately realized in the Son's atoning death. Israel was once God's chosen people. The Father sent the Son to be incarnated as a Jew. Except for a few Jewish believers, Israel rejected Jesus. Thereafter, all who place exclusive trust in Jesus the Son become not only disciples but the temples of the Holy Spirit and together they are the people of God known now as the church. The church is a divine embrace of people that includes Gentiles, an international selection, whom the Apostle Peter called a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God (1 Peter 2:9) and adds that they once were 'not a people' but now are 'the people of God' (vs.10).

I AM - THAT'S A NAME?

To understand what the human is, we must understand who God is and the bible provides that identification. We are required to listen to the bible's declarations about God and God's grace enables us to make the quantum leap to acceptance. God is the only self-existent and eternal being, existing in a way like no other being in the universe. He exists without origin or beginning. God confessed this concerning himself when Moses expressed his concern to God who had called him to lead the Israelites. Moses didn't know how to answer the Israelites if they were to ask him the name of the God whom he represented. God told Moses "I AM who I AM" and God instructed Moses to tell Israelites, "I AM has sent me to you." (Exodus 3:14). This name connotes existence without origin or beginning. God simply is, over and out. It signifies self-existence and eternality. God is the ultimate being, the one prime reality and source of all other reality. God is infinite. God is He, a pronoun which in this case speaks less to gender and more to the meaning that He has personality characterized by self-consciousness as well as self-determination. The essence of God distinguishes three persons who are neither three gods or three parts or modes of God but rather are coequal and coeternal. This trinity of persons that comprises the ultimate being confirms his communal personal nature.

TO UNDERSTAND WHO WE ARE, WE MUST UNDERSTAND GOD

To understand who we are, we must understand who God is. Psalm 8:1 says, “O Lord our Lord, how majesty is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.” God is the ultimate reality, existing in and of himself with an infinite existence that is unlike any other being in the universe. He is without a beginning and he doesn’t have an end date. God has personality and the essence of God is distinguished in three persons, a trinity of persons, who are neither three gods or three parts or modes of God but rather are coequal and coeternal.

David wrote this psalm to praise the incomparable Creator of this entire universe. How big a deal is that?

We view the sun positioned in the heavens of our planet. The sun is 865,000 miles in diameter. If we create our own scale, reducing the sun to the size of a beach ball two feet in diameter, we can commence a staggering comparison. You step off eighty-two paces (a pace being two feet long), and put down a mustard seed to represent the first planet Mercury. Sixty more steps and you put down a beebee for Venus. Walk seventy-eight more paces and for earth you put down a pea. One hundred and eight steps further you will be at Mars and you will put down a pinhead. Then you may scatter some fine dust to represent asteroids and mark off seven hundred and eighty-eight more steps and mark Jupiter with an orange. Nine hundred and thirty-four steps further and for Saturn you put down a golf ball. Another two thousand and eighty-six steps and Uranus will be marked by a marble. Two thousand three hundred and twenty-two steps more and you mark Neptune with a cherry. That will have taken you two and one half miles and you aren't even near Pluto. However, if you swing this two and one half mile arm around you will have a mass surface of five miles in diameter and that will represent our solar system. You will have to travel another six thousand seven hundred and twenty-two miles on the same scale before you meet another two foot ball to represent the nearest other star.