Bitter-Sweetness

 

The preacher catches wind that someone in his congregation is living in egregious sin. And this Sabbath his text just so happens to be about that particular sin. That’s a bit unsettling, but he actually preaches verse-by-verse. Nobody can accuse him of cherry picking a verse just to deal with sin behind a pulpit instead of face to face.

So he ascends to the pulpit and preaches his heart. He preaches truth. He calls sin what it is, speaks of the odiousness of this particular sin, and calls for repentance. It hits the target. The man living in that sin feels guilty, ashamed, and even a bit angry. He leaves. Never comes back.

Some might hear a story like this and assume that the preacher should have coddled a bit more and not been quite so bold in naming sin. That’s not a conclusion, though, that most in my people will come to. They believe, I think rightly, that we must be truthful. Sin is sin. It kills. We cannot pretend it doesn’t. It is loving to address sin.

What we’ll do in these moments is reassure ourselves that we did our job by stating the truth, and doing it so compellingly that the sinner was cut deeply - but sadly sometimes they are choosing their sin over Christ. It happened before – remember the Rich Young Ruler or Demas in love with the present world, or others walking away from the kingdom because sin seems to be sweet.

Sadly, some people do hear the message of the kingdom and choose the fleeting pleasure of sin over the treasure of Christ. But is it possible that the reason this person is “choosing their sin” is because they aren’t seeing the beauty of Jesus?

I do agree with Thomas Watson that until sin be bitter Christ will not be sweet. But I kind of wonder if he has that flipped a bit. What if we said, “Until Christ is sweet, sin will not be bitter”.

Question to myself - Am I preaching Christ as compellingly as I’m preaching sin? Am I being as clear about the Good News as I am naming sin? Let us be truthful about sin. 

But let us preach Christ so wonderfully and beautifully that the bitterness of sin becomes obvious held next to the radiance of His splendor.