Sin and Redemption

There’s a running joke that Corrie and I have when we come across a mother who never sees anything wrong with her children.

That there is nothing that her son or daughter can do wrong.

That they are perfect little angels.

We call them mom googles.

Mom googles distort the truth.

They distort that reality of who the children are and what they are capable of.

The change the story and are a disservice to the mom and the children.

Mom’s aren’t the only ones who do this.

There are people in our lives that we know that can view the world through some sort of distorted glasses.

The cynical pessimist believes that there is no good at all in the world.

The joyful optimist never sees any problem and obstacle.

These are obviously two extremes, but never the less they both exist.

I’m not sure which end of the spectrum you lean toward, but if we are honest with ourselves neither one of these is healthy or right.

Many of us need a healthy dose of realism.

We need to see the world for what it really is.

We need to see the brokenness.

There is cancer.

Death.

Taxes.

Loss.

Sadness.

Broken bones, broken hearts, and broken relationships.

This realism is what Solomon brings to bear in Ecclesiastes.

He’s not wearing any optimism glasses.

He’s not wearing any mom glasses.

He’s looking out at the world and seeing the brokenness.

He is looking out and seeing the hurt and heartache.

But at the same time he isn’t a cynical pessimist.

He knows the brokenness, but he has also tasted the goodness.

He has balance and that’s why I call him a realist.

In the world we occupy there is both good and bad.

The fall of humanity is real and true in Solomon’s view of the world.

B/c it’s real and true in the world.

And that fall has caused things to exist that ought not exist.

And this thinking isn’t off base for Solomon’s instruction.

We’ve talked about how Ecc. is chasing after the Rediscovery or Recovery of Eden.

And what happened right after the creation narrative.

How was Eden lost?

Disobedience and Rebellion of Man.

But the fall isn’t the end of the story.

This is why we need a wholistic approach to the Biblical Story.

We need Biblical Theology.

In Christian theology, we talk about the redemptive history of the world.

And sometimes it is described and broken up into 4 parts.

Creation, Fall, Redemption, New creation.

And though we find redemption by faith in Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, we still live in the reality of the fall.

There is a harsh reality that the world is still broken.

That there is evil and wickedness that pervert God’s good creation.

And Solomon isn’t afraid to tackle the harsh realities of this broken world with some sprinkling of hope and goodness.

But we have greater revelation than Solomon had.

We have the fullness of the biblical story.

We don’t have to stop at the fall of man and the promise of salvation.

We find it’s fullness in Jesus’ life death and resurrection.

That’s a grace in the life of the believer this side of the cross.

But Jesus’ redemption hasn’t fully fixed the effects of the fall.

So even though we have a wider and fuller picture of God’s plan we still suffer in the reality of brokenness.

So let’s take a look at the world through some realistic glasses with Solomon.

Ecclesiastes 7:15 CSB

15 In my futile life I have seen everything: someone righteous perishes in spite of his righteousness, and someone wicked lives long in spite of his evil.

Life’s Not Fair

We’ve touched on this before, but in the ancient world the majority mindset was built around what is called Retributive Justice.

Retributive Justice is basically the understanding that if you do good things, then good things will happen to you and your family.

If you do bad things, bad things will happen to you and your family.

It’s a very tit-for-tat type of understanding on how the world works.

So the benefit for doing the right thing for being a good person was built around the idea that your life would be blessed b/c of your actions.

But Solomon here is observing that this isn’t always true.

The Good person, that is the righteous person perish, while the wicked lives a long life.

Not only does Solomon observe this, but we have a whole book in the OT that is the test case for retributive Justice being an incorrect worldview.

Job is described as “a man with complete integrity, who feared God and turned away from evil.”

And yet Job experienced the loss of everything he had.

Livestock, Servants, Children, and his health.

Now this is specifically hard to wrap our minds around when elsewhere in scripture God makes promises of prosperity when there is obedience.

Deut 4:40 “40 Keep his statutes and commands, which I am giving you today, so that you and your children after you may prosper and so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you for all time.””

While at the same time God says he is going to punish those who are his enemies and those who are disobedient.

So the real question when it comes to Solomon’s observation is “Is God a liar?”

If he promised good for the righteous and judgement for the wicked why does reality not match up with the promise.

Why is life not fair?

We believe that it would be so much better if the righteous recieved blessings and the wicked recieved wrath.

But here’s the thing, the world we live in is not perfect.

There is brokenness.

Things aren’t as the should be.

So we, in an imperfect world, face the reality that good things happen to bad people, and bad things happen to good people.

On the flip side of this, the reality is that none of us are righteous.

None of us deserve the good life, b/c in our own little way we are all wicked and disobedient.

Regardless of how hard we try we will never obtain perfection.

That’s the realistic glasses that Solomon is looking at the world through.

And if all we had of God’s revelation to us was the first 7 chapters of Ecc then we would be lost and w/o hope.

We would be living in despair.

But heres what we need to have and know.

We need to have an eternal perspective.

We need to see the world and everything in it as it truly is, temporary.

The wicked may prosper and the righteous may perish, but this world is not all there is.

The prosperity of the wicked is ultimately short lived

The righteous must take a long-view.

But if no one is righteous how can we have a long view.

If we are all imperfect and live in rebellion against God, where is the hope.

The hope is Jesus.

The good news found in the redemption arc of the Bible is that God knows the brokenness, wickedness, and rebellion of his creation.

He knows that in order to be safe we need righteousness.

Not a righteousness that comes from ourselves, but a righteousness that is given to us from his perfection.

That’s why Jesus came, to take our place.

To stand between God’s wrath and our judgment and take on your sin, wickedness, and rebellion.

He bore your sin and now offers you his righteousness.

You can never be righteous, but you can be made righteous.

Jesus can create you into something you could never obtain.

And so you can know that even though you may face persecution, death, and pain in this world this isn’t all there is to life.

There is an eternal kingdom that awaits and the only access is through faith in Jesus Christ.

Trusting that he is the lamb that took away the sin of the world.

We have to keep this in view or we run the chance of not listening to Solomon’s next instruction.

Ecclesiastes 7:16–18 CSB

16 Don’t be excessively righteous, and don’t be overly wise. Why should you destroy yourself? 17 Don’t be excessively wicked, and don’t be foolish. Why should you die before your time? 18 It is good that you grasp the one and do not let the other slip from your hand. For the one who fears God will end up with both of them.

Stay Balanced

It would be easy to read these scriptures and find that Solomon is saying that a little wickedness and a little righteousness are both okay.

That there isn’t something to strive toward.

But the reality is that’s not what he is saying.

He is cautioning against self-righteousness.

That’s what he means by excessively righteous.

Or as some translations say “overly righteous.”

Or as momma used to say “Don’t get too big for your britches”

Becoming overly or excessively righteous carries with it this idea that you are only pretending to be righteous.

That you don’t understand your true place in the righteousness hierarchy.

The excessively righteous are those that add to God’s Revelation.

They are making up rules and regulations that God hasn’t established.

In fact, the excessively righteous believe, even if they won’t say it that God’s instruction isn’t enough.

They need to help clarify it and add to it.

This is what the pharisees did.

They were adding to God’s rules and instruction.

When you add to God’s Word you are saying that God’s word isn’t sufficient.

You are saying that you know better than God.

You are saying that his Revelation isn’t sufficient.

And ultimately saying his salvation, forgiveness, and grace isn’t sufficient.

Rather you see yourself as sufficient.

This is a problem b/c self-righteousness puts you in the driver seat of God’s grace.

And we have the arrogance to think that we are more righteous than we really are.

We think that we are good enough for God and at times we can be disillusioned enough to think that we are better than God.

That’s what we think when we hijack and modify his instructions.

Or God forbid that we face adversity.

When we face the realities of life and we act excessively righteous we think it unfathomable that these bad things could happen to me.

We can fall into the trap of resting in our own righteousness and thinking, “I don’t deserve to be treated like this. Doesn’t God know who I am. Shouldn’t he be more grateful that I am on his team.”

This is the heresy of self-righteousness.

And the trap that the overly or excessively righteous falls into is that when adversity and struggles hit them they are destroyed.

They are devastated.

B/c they believe that they are too good, too holy, too righteous for anything like that to happen to them.

But the reality is that their righteousness is built upon themselves and not on the truth.

A real and true righteousness that comes from above will recognize that if the most perfect human who ever walked the face of the earth faced trials and difficulties then what makes you think that you are immune to it.

Jesus promised that our lives would be hard.

That our roads would be difficult.

And to think that you don’t deserve that is to blaspheme him.

To call him a liar.

So don’t be overly righteous, but also don’t be overly wicked.

What?

Is Solomon allowing for us to be somewhat wicked?

Is he excusing wickedness as long as it isn’t excessive?

No, again he is facing the reality.

We all have wicked tendencies.

We all are disobedient and rebellious against God.

But we don’t have to live there.

And we shouldn’t live there.

We shouldn’t give ourselves over to wickedness.

Instead we are to flee from wickedness.

We shouldn’t excuse or justify our wickedness and rebellion.

B/c wickedness and foolishness could lead to an early death.

So we shouldn’t be excessively wicked and we shouldn’t be overly righteous.

What do we need?

We need to be balanced.

And how do we find that balance.

The fear of the Lord.

Ecc 7:18 “18 It is good that you grasp the one and do not let the other slip from your hand. For the one who fears God will end up with both of them.”

True fear of the Lord will keep us in balance.

B/c fearing the Lord will keep you in your place.

It will reveal your tendency toward self-righteousness.

And show you that there is no way you can be righteous before a holy God through the works you have done.

And fearing God will reveal the depth of your sin and rebellion against him.

Knowing that Judgement waits for those that live in wickedness and foolishness.

Fear of the Lord will drive you to dependence and repentance.

It will keep you on the straight and narrow.

Not thinking too much of your self and not thinking too little of God.

The reverence and awe of God will keep us in our place.

“The right life walks the path between the extremes, shunning self-righteousness, but not allowing one’s native wickedness to run it’s own course.”

and the Only way to walk the path is to have a correct view of yourself and of God.

Fearing God is the pathway to godliness.

After helping us to see the pathway to Godliness, Solomon points out the reality of Sin in our world.

Ecclesiastes 7:19–20 CSB

19 Wisdom makes the wise person stronger than ten rulers of a city. 20 There is certainly no one righteous on the earth who does good and never sins.

Sin’s Reality

Before he gets to sin, Solomon makes a comment on wisdom and the fact that wisdom makes the wise person stronger than 10 rulers of a city.

Wisdom isn’t separated from sin as far as we might think, in fact, wisdom is tied to righteousness.

And righteousness is tied to God.

You see the wise person is going to make wise decisions.

Fearing the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

So when living a life chasing after wisdom it draws us closer to God.

Therefore, making us stronger, wiser, and righteous in the eyes of the Lord.

Wisdom is a precious gift from God and is only accessed when we love and fear the Lord.

Like the rulers of a city, wisdom governs our thoughts.

It governs our actions.

Wisdom governs our will.

Governs our speech.

When we acquire wisdom that comes from above, generally our lives will be better.

There is no guarantee that they will be, but the principle is there.

When we live life the way that God designed it to be lived then generally our lives will be better.

But we have to be careful here of not falling into the trap of self-righteousness if we live wisely.

Meaning that we don’t need to believe that b/c we are making the wise choices and we are living life guided by wisdom that we deserve to be blessed.

Rather true wisdom that springs from fearing God will protect us from arrogance and self-righteousness.

Not only that, but living wisely and chasing after wisdom will help us to avoid sin.

B/c as has been stated earlier.

There is no one who is righteous, meaning that we all sin.

We all fall short, but wisdom draws us to repentance.

We need to take a break here and recognize the pervasiveness of sin.

Everyone is bent toward sin.

Every one is subject to the fleshly desires of our hearts.

Wisdom acts as a buffer by guarding our thoughts, actions, words, and will, but it can never do it perfectly.

There are some teachers and theologians that teach that they don’t sin.

This is to go against the truth of scripture.

Here in Ecc 7:20 “20 There is certainly no one righteous on the earth who does good and never sins.”

Rm 3.23 “23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God;”

Rm 3:10-12 “10 as it is written: There is no one righteous, not even one. 11 There is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. 12 All have turned away; all alike have become worthless. There is no one who does what is good, not even one.”

So we can never think that we have reached perfection or perfect righteousness.

No matter how wise we believe we are or have become.

If we stand idly by we will be ensnared.

Growing in wisdom is growing in righteousness, but growing will not be completed this side of glory.

So that leads into an example of people sinning against one another.

Ecclesiastes 7:21–22 CSB

21 Don’t pay attention to everything people say, or you may hear your servant cursing you, 22 for in your heart you know that many times you yourself have cursed others.

Sin’s Reality

The reality is we have all probably over heard someone talking about us.

Or even cursing us.

This is part of living in a broken world.

What’s more than that, we have all probably taken part in such conversations.

Sin is universal.

We all do it. We all battle against unrighteousness and foolishness.

So when you hear someone say something about you don’t pay attention.

This is even more scandalous b/c this example is of a servant cursing his master.

The master is called to ignore the servants word.

When in reality the servant could be severely punished for the words he said.

But punishing someone for their harsh words could be out of pocket.

B/c you remember what you said earlier about that same servant.

You aren’t better than them.

You have fallen into the same trap they have.

You weren’t meant to hear what they said.

Just as they weren’t meant to hear what you said.

You aren’t superior b/c you caught someone sinning against you.

This is one way that wisdom makes us strong:

Knowing what to hear and what to ignore.

Many things that people say about you aren’t true and if they are then maybe you need to examine your heart, actions, and words.

But don’t be overly concerned with what others say or think about you.

Let wisdom guide your speech and heart when it comes with how to deal with others.

Don’t let anger and frustration take hold, rather fight against your natural instinct and chase after Godliness.

You can’t control what you hear people say about you, but you can control your reaction to it.

Lead by example and be as James puts it

James 1:19–21 CSB

19 My dear brothers and sisters, understand this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger, 20 for human anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness. 21 Therefore, ridding yourselves of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent, humbly receive the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

Check you heart and your actions by the wisdom and righteousness of God.

Solomon continues to lead us toward wisdom, but also shows that it doesn’t solve every problem.

Ecclesiastes 7:23–25 CSB

23 I have tested all this by wisdom. I resolved, “I will be wise,” but it was beyond me. 24 What exists is beyond reach and very deep. Who can discover it? 25 I turned my thoughts to know, explore, and examine wisdom and an explanation for things, and to know that wickedness is stupidity and folly is madness.

Grasping at Wisdom

Solomon is grasping at wisdom.

But the problem is that wisdom comes from an infinite God and and as finite creatures we can never obtain it fully.

He’s tested all that he’s talked about so far and was determined to find and grab a hold of wisdom, but it was beyond him.

Wisdom from above is so out of reach when we are searching for it under the sun.

The wisdom that Solomon is searching for only has one source.

It only has one reference point and it is the fear of the Lord.

The reason Solomon can discover it is b/c he is looking in the wrong places.

If he would step back and observe the truth he would see that true, perfect, and lasting wisdom is out of reach when we have the wrong starting place.

I mean truly is there anyone who has made a better attempt at understanding life and catching wisdom?

In v. 25, he shows us the extent of his search.

He wanted to know, explore, and examine wisdom.

He wanted to understand how the world works around him.

And this is commendable.

The pursuit of wisdom is good thing.

And The fact that Solomon doesn’t give up is also commendable.

But we also need to know the starting point of wisdom.

We need to know the person from which all wisdom flows.

We also need to be cognizant of the fact that we will never have perfect wisdom.

That the wisdom we search after will never be perfected in our lives, but we can always grow in wisdom.

Again I want to stress to you that there will never be a time in your life that you attain perfect and flawless wisdom.

But that doesn’t mean you should abandon the search

That you should abandon the pursuit.

Rather you should press into the wisdom God has granted you and lean on him for more wisdom.

I love what James says in the NT about wisdom

James 1:5–6 CSB

5 Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God—who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly—and it will be given to him. 6 But let him ask in faith without doubting. For the doubter is like the surging sea, driven and tossed by the wind.

We will never know all the answers.

But we should rest in the fact that we know the God who does hold all the answers.

We believe that God will give us the answers we need to exercise wisdom in our lives.

We have access to the creator and sustainer of the universe.

The perfect giver of gifts that will grant us wisdom on how to live our lives in such a way that honors and glorifies him.

“knowing the limits of our wisdom is part of wisdom. The more we know, the more we should realize how little we know, and that whatever wisdom we gain comes as a gift from God.”

Part of Wisdom is knowing how little wisdom we actually have.

And to circle back to sin in this broken world, we need to have the wisdom to flee from sin.

Ecclesiastes 7:26–28 CSB

26 And I find more bitter than death the woman who is a trap: her heart a net and her hands chains. The one who pleases God will escape her, but the sinner will be captured by her. 27 “Look,” says the Teacher, “I have discovered this by adding one thing to another to find out the explanation, 28 which my soul continually searches for but does not find: I found one person in a thousand, but none of those was a woman.

Avoiding Sin

I wish this text was a little easier to explain.

I know that as I read it some of you were getting a little uncomfortable with Solomon’s language when it comes to women.

Is Solomon a misogynist?

Did Solomon think himself and men in general as better than women?

I think one of the things that we have to really think about is that for Solomon and for many men, women are their weakness.

He wouldn’t be talking to a mixed audience as he was giving this sermon.

Rather it would only be men he would be talking to.

And we can see even in the scriptures that men, time and time again, are overcome by the lust in their hearts.

In fact, Corrie and I were reading in Numbers just a couple of weeks ago and it was the Caananite Women who introduced sin to the camp of Israel b/c they were seducing the men and the men acted unwisely in their dealings with the women.

In all reality, the two biggest seductions for men, both ancient men and modern men, are sex and money.

And if we are chasing after and pursing ungodly women then they will be destructive in our lives.

Not only that, but Solomon has already made it apparent that everyone is a sinner.

That there is no one who is righteous.

So he isn’t just picking on the women here.

But he is using them as an example.

The lust of a woman can trap and ensnare a man.

But the one who escapes the sin will please God.

I can’t help but recall Joseph’s story in Genesis 39.

Joseph is hated by his brothers, sold into slavery, then b/c of God’s grace in his life he is made great in Egypt.

But one instance in Joseph’s life is when his master’s wife, was trying to seduce him.

But what does Joseph do?

He escapes her.

He flees from her

In fact, he runs away from her so fast and with such fury that he leaves his clothes behind.

Joseph does this b/c of his love for God.

Gen 39.9 “So how could I do this immense evil, and how could I sin against God?””

That’s what we all need to do when we are faced with sin.

We need to flee from it.

We must not be enraptured or captured by the sin that will entangle us.

We must flee sin.

But that’s not the end, we must also cling to Jesus.

Running away from sin is good, but we must also hold fast to Jesus so that we can see sin for what it really is.

This is what Joseph did.

He was clinging to God while also fleeing from sin.

On the flip side, Solomon didn’t do this.

He embraced sin.

That sin eventually lead to his down fall.

And what was Solomon’s sin letting non-God fearing women control his thoughts.

He chased after women that God has specifically commanded them to avoid, precisely b/c he knew that these women would move the hearts of man away from himself and toward sin and wickedness.

Deut 17:17 “17 He must not acquire many wives for himself so that his heart won’t go astray. He must not acquire very large amounts of silver and gold for himself.”

1 Kings 11:4 “4 When Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away to follow other gods. He was not wholeheartedly devoted to the Lord his God, as his father David had been.”

Women were Solomon’s vice and they ended up destroying him.

They ended up turning his heart away from God.

B/c he didn’t flee from them, and cling to God.

Rather he ran from God and clung to his wives.

Now not all women are wicked and evil.

The Bible praises many women for their godliness. Pro 31.

Luke 8. Women supporting Jesus’ ministry.

But Solomon’s life caused him to be a little jaded toward women.

B/c of his own disobedience and rebellion.

We can see that throughout the world sin has it’s effects on the lives of everyone.

That’s b/c many of us prefer sin to godliness.

But there is hope.

There is redemption.

Sin isn’t the end of the story.

But it is our reality.

Ecclesiastes 7:29 CSB

29 Only see this: I have discovered that God made people upright, but they pursued many schemes.”

Redemption’s Calling

Again, Solomon is making a call back to the garden of Eden.

The fact that man disobeyed God in the garden caused ripples that would affect all of creation.

All of humanity has fallen into iniquity.

When we were created we were created to be in fellowship and relationship with God, but instead Adam and Eve representatives of all mankind choose to pursue other schemes.

And since that decision was made humanity continues to pursue sin.

Continues to pursue rebellion.

This brings to full force the reality that there is no one righteous no not one.

Every man woman and child has fallen short of God’s perfect standard.

and even if we consider ourselves good, we will never be good enough.

B/c we have taken what God made straight or upright and made it crooked.

When Man was originally created we were created with original righteousness.

We were in right standing with God. We were in perfect fellowship with him.

But rather than staying there, sin enticed Adam and Eve.

And they traded original righteousness for original sin.

Adam was the root that corrupted the entire tree of humanity.

The problem with humanity is our propensity to sin.

The reality that outside of Jesus we are incapable of pleasing God b/c we are infected with the disease of sin.

And isn’t it good news that we have more than just the knowledge of our brokenness and sinfulness.

That there is more to the story than just a bunch of rebels shaking their fists at God.

God is in the business of restoration.

He is in the business of reconciliation.

He is in the business of redemption.

So God offers away to take what we bent.

What we made crooked

And he straightens it out again.

How did he do that?

Through the offering of Jesus.

Through Jesus’ sacrifice we can be covered.

We can be redeemed.

We can be reconciled to God.

We can experience restoration.

God fixed the problem that we created.

And he want you to repent of your sin.

Follow after him and chase after wisdom.

He’s calling out to you.

Are you going to answer?