"His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, 4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire."
Here's Mark Driscoll's take on this passage from a sermon last May in his sermon series on 1 and 2 Peter:
“When anyone tells me that Christianity is a great religion, I freak out. I absolutely blow a gasket. I can barely remain in my own skin. It’s not another religion. Religion is about control, religion is about fear, religion is about punishment, religion assumes all you have is this evil, rebellious, sinful, hard-hearted, stubborn, stiff-necked old nature. We have to control you, we have to intimidate you, we have to manipulate you because deep down, the longings of your heart, the desires of your soul, the appetite of your will is just only evil, continually, all the time. Regeneration says absolutely not. You have the Holy Spirit, you have a new nature, you have brand new, fresh, passionate, free desires. What’s happen is this. Some of you will say ‘But I’m tempted.’ There are lesser desires, what he [Peter] calls ‘sinful desires’ in the world. Your flesh and the world will conspire to tempt you to settle. Some of you, that word desire, you’re like ‘that’s right, desire is bad.’ No, it’s not. Desire is the answer to sin, not the cause of it. When you sin, it’s because you have too weak of desires. When you sin it’s not because you are passionate, it’s because you are not passionate enough! You’re settling—sex, food, money, gambling, alcohol, fornication, adultery. Christ, passion, joy, freedom, happiness, enthusiasm, are so much better than these little temptations, these petty pleasures, these wicked temptations that want us to settle for something or someone other than Jesus. See some of you come here and you come from these religious backgrounds and say ‘Don’t have passions, don’t have desires, don’t get excited, you’ll get into trouble.’ No, you won’t, you’ll get into worship, and that will keep you out of trouble.”
Amen! Here's the video of the entire sermon if you've got a little spare time:
No comments:
Post a Comment