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Sins of Omission: The Failure to Glorify God · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to Reformed thinking. Today we are starting a full
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deep dive into the source texts concerning A theological reality
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that most of the modern world just, you know, entirely
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ignores. Yeah, we are looking at the
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theology of the sins of omission and the absolute necessity of
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the active obedience of Jesus Christ.
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Right. And the mission for this deep
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dive is to shatter the comfortable illusion of a clean
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moral slate. We are looking strictly at what
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the biblical text and Reformed theology say about the good we
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fail to do. Because I mean, society
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conditions you to feel like a good person if you have simply
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avoided scandalous crimes. I am speaking directly to you,
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the listener, right now. Yeah, you might sit back and
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think, well, I haven't murdered anyone.
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I haven't stolen a car, I haven't committed treason
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against my country. So I am standing on solid
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ground. But the text we are evaluating
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today will challenge that comfortable assumption with the
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severe, unrelenting standard of God's holy law.
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The texts expose the terrifying reality of our silent
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rebellions. So to establish the truth of
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this matter, how are we approaching the sources?
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Well, we are going to look closely at the historical
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context of the 1st century church that helps us understand
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the specific audience receiving these mornings.
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Oh, right, because context is everything with these epistles.
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Precisely. We'll also analyze the original
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Greek syntax of the epistles of James and Paul's letter to the
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Romans. We need to parse the specific
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verbs and tenses the Holy Spirit inspired.
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And then we are processing all of that through the theological
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framework of the 17th century Westminster Shorter Catechism.
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Yeah, to uncover the true gravity of these silent
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rebellions. This isn't about abstract
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philosophy, you know. It is about examining the divine
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standard of perfection. It's about understanding how our
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daily passivity registers in the courtroom of heaven.
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So we should probably start by dismantling the worldly
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definition of sin. That is a great starting point.
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The secular world defines sin solely as breaking rules.
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It is always viewed as an act of Commission.
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Right. Like you cross a line, you break
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a law, you do a bad thing. But the biblical definition of
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sin identifies it as a deficiency.
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Yes, a severe lack. Think about an employment
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interview. Imagine you walk into an
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employer's office. You sit down and you hand them a
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completely blank sheet of paper. OK, blank sheet.
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Yeah, and you declare I have never stolen from a cash
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register, I have never insulted a customer, I have never
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vandalized company property? Which means you haven't done
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anything wrong, right? Well, you haven't done anything
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wrong, but you also haven't done the job you were hired to do.
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You have produced 0 value. You've simply avoided getting
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arrested. That analogy captures the fatal
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flaw in human self evaluation. Florida State handing God a
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blank sheet of paper and claiming innocence is a
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catastrophic misunderstanding of what He requires from His
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creatures. How does that blank sheet of
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paper mirror the difference between sins of Commission and
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sins of omission in our source texts?
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We have to look at the Westminster Shorter Catechism
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here, specifically question 14, which provides A strict boundary
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for our understanding, right. Question 14 asks what is sin?
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And the answer is given with incredible precision.
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It says sin is anyone of conformity unto or transgression
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of the law of God. Notice that first phrase want of
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conformity. Yeah, that word want in 17th
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century English means deficiency, lack and absence.
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It is not just the active crossing of a boundary.
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Which would be the transgression part of the definition, right?
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It is the failure to measure up to the standard.
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Wherever a creature does not measure up to the holiness,
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love, reverence, gratitude, and obedience that God's law
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requires, sin is present. So a blank sheet of paper is
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just a record of pure deficiency.
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It is a failure to conform to the image of Christ.
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I'm looking at the exegesis of James chapter 4 verse 17 in our
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notes and the Holy Spirit makes this terrifyingly clear.
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Oh yes, the text reads. Therefore to him that knoweth to
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do good and do with it, not to him it is sin that is a.
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Completely different paradigm than just avoiding bad behavior.
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It really is. If we break down the Greek
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structure of that verse, the weight of the command becomes
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even heavier. What does the Greek reveal
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there? Well, the phrase begins with the
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perfect active participle I dori.
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That means to the one who has, is known and continues to know
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the good. OK, so it implies A settled,
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ongoing knowledge of what is right.
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Precisely, and it is paired with the present active infinitive
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poyane meaning to do, and then the negated present active
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participle mar poyonti meaning and is not doing.
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Wow. So this specific grammatical
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construction highlights a continuous willful failure to
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execute the good that a person already understands they should
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do. Yeah, it's an ongoing choice.
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Furthermore, James chooses the specific word hamartia for sin
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here. And Hamarti means missing the
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mark entirely, right? Right.
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He avoids using the word paraptuma, which denotes a false
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step or a trespass over a forbidden line.
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By using hamartia, James clarifies that failing to reach
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the standard of God's glory is in itself a damnable offense,
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regardless of whether you cross a negative boundary.
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I am trying to put myself in the shoes of the original 1st
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century Jewish Christian audience reading that letter
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from. James, right, the believer
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scattered in the dispersion. Exactly.
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I mean spot on. They were raised meticulously on
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the strict negative commands of the Mosaic Law.
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Their entire religious upbringing was dominated by Thou
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Shalt Not. Thou shalt not kill.
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Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false
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witness. Yeah, they define their personal
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righteousness by their restraint.
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Hearing James declare that their passivity equals guilt must have
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hit them like a Thunder clap. It rewrites the moral Ledger.
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It says that the absence of action is not neutrality, the
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absence of action is rebellion. Which forces us to ask why this
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happens. Having defined the nature of
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omission, we have to look at the greatest and most devastating
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omission of all. You mean failing to glorify the
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Creator? Yeah, I want to bring up the
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concept of practical atheism. OK, practical atheism.
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What does that look like in daily life?
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Well, a person might hold entirely correct doctrine on
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paper. You might sign off on the
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Westminster Confession, believe in the Trinity, and affirm
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justification by faith alone. Sure, theological orthodoxy.
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But then you run your household, your career, and your daily
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schedule without any active, conscious reference to God.
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You live practically as if God does not exist.
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How do the sources diagnose this specific quiet rebellion?
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The diagnosis is laid out with staggering clarity in Romans
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chapter one, verse 21. Oh right, the Apostle Paul
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writes. For although they knew God, they
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did not glorify him as God or give thanks.
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Notice the specific verbs used here in the original Greek.
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They are in the aorist tense. What does the aorist tense
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indicate there? It points to a definitive
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historical turning away from the duty of worship.
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Paul does not describe humanity as ignorant.
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He says they knew God. The testimony of creation was
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undeniably clear to them, yet they suppress that truth.
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And the root of all their subsequent evil was an omission.
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They did not glorify Him and nor were they thankful.
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This text reveals that the vertical breach guarantees a
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horizontal collapse. What do you mean by vertical
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breach? The act of ignoring God and
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withholding His rightful glory, that vertical failure to give
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thanks, is the mother sin birthing all visible societal
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moral decay. Oh wow, so before men worship
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idols or descend into visible scandalous corruption, they have
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already committed the deeper idolatry.
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Right. The idolatry of refusing the
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true God is rightful glory. That brings to mind the first
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commandment. It demands that you love the
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Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and
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with all your. Mind, God does not ask for
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partial interest. He does not ask for occasional
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nods of acknowledgement or scraps of your time when it is
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convenient. He requires a total living
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devotion. To give him anything less is a
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cosmic insult. It is a massive moral failure.
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Because you are living in His world, breathing His air,
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sustained by His Providence, and yet withholding the very praise
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you were created to offer. That is the essence of handing
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him the blank sheet of paper. That is a brilliant way to frame
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it. Since failing to glorify God is
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the root issue, we must look at how this failure manifests in
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normal daily life for you, the listener.
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The sources categorize these everyday omissions in highly
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specific ways, don't they? They do.
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The first category is the neglect of worship.
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And this is not just about skipping church services.
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Right, it's a part issue. A person might attend services
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outwardly, sitting in the Pew every Sunday while their heart
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is entirely cold and distracted. They might view the Lord's Day
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simply as a matter of convenience, singing hymns with
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their lips while their mind is tallying up the week's business
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expenses. Or planning an afternoon
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activity. This is living as though God is
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optional, treating fellowship with Him as a secondary concern.
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What is the second category of omission?
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The second category is the neglect of gratitude.
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Think about how many daily mercies you consume with 0
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Thanksgiving directed toward heaven.
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Like your food, your health, your safety, your friendships.
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Yeah, fallen humans are experts at receiving gifts while
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completely ignoring the giver. We often view our blessings as
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entitlements. So true.
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When we recover from sickness or secure promotion, we attribute
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it to our own resilience or hard work.
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Rather than falling on our knees and gratitude, The third
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category is the neglect of obedience and stewardship.
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So knowing you ought to reconcile with an estranged
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brother or give generously to the Saints, but you delay.
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Or knowing you should govern your tongue when you're angry,
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but you just let it fly. You use your time, your
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intellect, and your money purely for self promotion instead of
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treating them as a divine trust meant for God's glory.
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That practical breakdown brings to mind a neighbor everyone has
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probably had at some point. Let's call it respectable
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irreligion. Respectable irreligion.
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Picture a man who is incredibly polite.
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He pays his taxes on time. He mows his lawn.
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He never gets involved in any public scandal.
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He is generally considered a pillar of the community, but he
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never prays. Right.
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He never acknowledges Christ. He never opens the Scriptures.
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The world looks at him and says that is a good man, but heaven
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looks at him and sees a rebel. He is constantly committing
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these sins of omission. If we link your example of the
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respectable neighbor back to the historical context of James, we
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see the exact same attitude in his original audience.
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Because James was addressing merchants.
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Yeah, they were making grand business plans.
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They were saying today or tomorrow we will go into such
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and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make profit.
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They were traveling to distant cities, utilizing the Roman
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roads, engaging in commerce while completely omitting God's
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sovereign decree from their schedules.
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They fail to say if the Lord wills, we will live and do this
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or that. They were Orthodox in their
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state of theology, but they were practical atheists in their
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calendars. They assumed tomorrow belonged
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to them. That presumption is a massive
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sin of omission. I look at my own life and the
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constant pull to live like those merchants is undeniable.
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It is so easy to just make the plan and forget the Lord.
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I want to use an analogy of a broken compass to get into the
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theology behind why we do this. OK, a broken compass.
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Let's unpack that. If you have a compass and it
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fails to point N, it does not just forget to point N, It has
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not made a simple mistake. Its internal mechanism is
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ruined. It is structurally compromised.
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So if this omission in our lives is so constant, if we are
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perpetually failing to pray, failing to give thanks, failing
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to love God with our whole heart, is it just a bad memory?
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Is it just that we are distracted by our phones and our
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busy schedules? Or is there a systemic
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corruption in the human machine? The compass analogy gets right
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to the core of the matter. A failure to consistently point
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north indicates A fundamentally ruined instrument.
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Which brings us squarely to the Reformed doctrine of total
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depravity. We must clarify that omission is
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not an innocent weakness. It is not a symptom of an overly
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busy schedule or a lack of focus.
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It stems from a heart that is completely estranged from God, a
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condition inherited from our fall in Adam.
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Romans chapter 3 declares there is none that understandeth,
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there is none that seeketh after God.
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The language is devastating. It does not say that man is
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sincerely seeking God, but occasionally getting distracted.
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It says the natural man does not seek after God at all.
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His mind is darkened, his affections are corrupted, and
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his will is bent away from righteousness.
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That is a crucial distinction. It means our failure to do good
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is not an accident. It is a feature of our fallen
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nature. The natural man has a moral
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inability, not a mechanical inability.
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He cannot glorify God because he will not, and he will not
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because he loves darkness. His desires are fixed upon
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himself rather than upon the Lord.
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This is why omission is so pervasive.
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We see a brilliant Old Testament precedent for this in First
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Samuel chapter 12, verse 23. Oh, what does Samuel say there?
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The prophet Samuel says to the people, Far be it from me that I
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should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you.
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The Hebrew word used there for ceasing is Mccaudle, right?
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That it means to stop or to leave off.
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Samuel recognizes that stopping a righteous action is the
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literal equivalent of starting a rebellion.
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To cease praying for the covenant people is a direct
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offense against Jehovah. Omission is not a passive
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mistake, It is an act of refusal governed by a depraved nature.
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Because that diagnosis of total depravity is so severe, it is
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human nature to invent softer theologies.
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We want to a stake the crushing weight of our constant
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omissions. It's like a doctor prescribing a
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cherry flavored cough drop for a patient dying of lung cancer.
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Yeah, the cough drop treats a surface symptom, making the
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patient feel temporary relief while completely ignoring the
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lethal root destroying their body inside.
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People run to these false theological refuges to feel
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better about other blank sheets of paper.
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Let us break down a few of these common teachings that attempt to
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soften the blow of God's law. What is the first major
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theological error our sources contrast with the Reformed view?
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The first false refuge we must address is the Roman Catholic
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distinction between mortal and venial sins.
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Ah, the Papist system. They categorize certain sins as
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severe enough to sever grace mortal sins, while others are
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deemed minor. Right, minor sins supposedly not
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threatening the souls final standing.
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This system treats omissions and lack of perfect love as venial
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minor defect that can be burned away later in purgatory.
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But James 2.3 shatters this entirely.
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It states that whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point
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has become guilty of all of it. Breaking one part of the law
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breaks the whole, because God's holiness is indivisible.
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A failure here to perfectly love God is not a minor defect, it is
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a violation of the entire covenant.
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That completely destroys the idea that we can categorize our
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sins to make them feel manageable.
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What about Arminianism? I know many evangelicals lean
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heavily on the idea of free will to explain away our constant
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failures. Arminianism is the second major
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error we must reject. It promotes the notion of a
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neutral free will capable of choosing good on its own.
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Armenian theology suggests that man is just spiritually sick,
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capable of reaching out to take the medicine if he chooses.
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It implies we have the inherent capacity to consistently do the
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good we know we ought to do. But the doctrine of omission
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rooted in total depravity proves that even on our best days, our
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highest actions are saturated with sin.
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Because we never love God with absolute, unblemished
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perfection, our wills are bound by our corrupt nature.
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The. Compass cannot fix itself.
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I see this playing out constantly in modern church
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culture. If you assume man is just sick
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and has free will, you design your chirp services to appeal to
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that free will. This brings us to the seeker
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sensitive and pragmatic church movements.
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These movements seem to commit a massive corporate sin of
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omission every single Sunday. They absolutely do.
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These pragmatic movements step into the pulpit and offer life
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tips on how to have a better marriage, how to be a better
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leader, or how to manage finances.
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In doing so, they deliberately hide the wrath of God, the
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necessity of repentance, and the blood of the substitutionary
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atonement. They omit the very gospel that
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saves in order to be culturally palatable and increase
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attendance. By failing to declare the whole
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counsel of God, they commit a grievous sin of omission.
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They leave their congregations unaware of the holy standard
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they're failing to meet. And the most extreme version of
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that horizontal focus has to be the prosperity gospel.
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It is the ultimate expression of using God rather than glorifying
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Him. The prosperity gospel focuses
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purely on horizontal material issues like health, wealth and
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earthly success. While entirely ignoring the
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vertical requirement of God's holiness, it teaches people to
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view God as a vending machine for their earthly desires.
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Which is the ultimate failure to glorify Him for who He truly is.
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God becomes a means to an end rather than the end Himself.
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All of these systems, Roman Catholicism, Arminianism, Seeker
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sensitive pragmatism, and the prosperity Gospel prescribe the
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cough drop. They leave the lethal root of
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total depravity completely unchecked and offer a false
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peace. Now that the law has done its
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heavy lifting, it has exposed our complete spiritual
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bankruptcy. It has shown us that our blank
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sheet of paper is actually a record of treason.
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We move now to the only theological solution capable of
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answering this impossible debt. I want to look at a banking
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analogy to understand how the gospel actually works here.
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Imagine you owe a bank $10 billion.
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OK, you are completely bankrupt. Right.
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If the bank president comes down and unilaterally wipes your debt
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to zero, you are no longer in debt.
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That is an incredible relief. But your bank account balance is
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still 0. You cannot buy a house, you
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cannot buy food, you cannot gain entry into the Kingdom of heaven
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because you have no positive wealth.
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We do not simply need our massive debts wiped to zero, we
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need a massive deposit of positive wealth to enter heaven.
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How does the Reformed understanding of the twofold
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obedience of Christ address both the debt and the need for
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positive wealth? That banking analogy perfectly
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illustrates the necessity of the twofold obedience of Christ.
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Our salvation requires 2 distinct but inseparable
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actions. 1st Is Christ's passive obedience right?
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Yes. This refers to his willingness
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to bear the curse of the law, suffering the wrath of God on
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the cross for our specific acts of rebellion, our debts.
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He paid the $10 billion we owed for our lies, our lusts and our
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thefts. He bore the penalty for every
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transgression. He wiped the Ledger clean, but
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as you noted, a 0 balance does not merit heaven.
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God's law requires perfect positive righteousness.
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It requires a life that never handed God a blank sheet of
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paper. This brings us to Christ act of
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obedience. This is where the gospel becomes
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incredibly robust. We are not just for given we are
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provided for. For 33 years, Jesus lived a life
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of relentless, flawless devotion to the Father.
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He never miss a single prayer. He never lacked gratitude for a
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single meal. He always submitted his will
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entirely to the Father's plan. When he was weary, tempted,
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hungry, and sorrowful, he continued to pursue the glory of
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God without a single microsecond of omission.
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He loved the Lord his God with all his heart, with all his
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soul, with all his mind, and with all his strength every
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single day of his earthly life. This is the positive wealth you
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mentioned. He generated a perfect record of
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righteousness that He did not need for himself, as He is the
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spotless Lamb. So how does that act of
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obedience actually become ours? How does his perfect record deal
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with my record of constant omission?
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How does it fix your prayerlessness?
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Your cold worship and your respectable irreligion.
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Yeah, legally, how does that transaction work?
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This is the glorious Reformed doctrine of imputation.
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It is the great Exchange. On the cross, Christ carried the
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guilt of our specific omissions. The Father laid upon him the
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guilt of our prayerlessness, our cold worship, our squandered
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time, and our wasted mercies. He was punished for our failure
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to do good. In return, through faith alone,
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Christ's perfect record of glorifying the Father is
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credited or imputed to the believer.
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It is legally deposited into your account.
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When God the Father looks at you, He does not see your zero
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balance. He sees the 33 years of perfect
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active obedience rendered by His Son.
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You are clothed in His positive righteousness.
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This. Is the only remedy for our
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devastating deficiency that changes everything about how we
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approach God? We do not approach Him trying to
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hide our blank sheet of paper. We approach Him holding up the
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perfect record of Jesus, Jesus Christ.
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But that realization demands a response.
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We cannot just hear this theology and walk away
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unchanged. What does the proper biblical
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response look like in the life of a believer?
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The proper response to everything we have analyzed is
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repentance, faith, and grateful obedience.
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Repentance must be relentlessly God centered.
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You cannot simply feel sorry that your sins have ruined your
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life or damaged your reputation. You must grieve because you have
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dishonored the Creator. True repentance cries out with
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David in Psalm 51. Against Thee the only have I
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sinned. It stops making excuses for
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neglect. It acknowledges that the
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omissions were acts of treason. Faith, then, is the empty hand,
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receiving crisis act of obedience.
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You bring absolutely nothing to the transaction but the sin that
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made it necessary. Following this, we enter the
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third use of the law. The third use of the law is such
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a comforting doctrine. Once you understand
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justification, it means the law is no longer a crushing weight
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condemning us. Grateful obedience follows
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justification. You do not obey to earn
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salvation or to keep your account balance positive.
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You obey as a rule of gratitude driven by the indwelling spirit.
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You pursue holiness because you have been made a new creation.
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You strive to pray, to give thanks, and to love your
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neighbor, not out of terror, but out of profound, I mean out of
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immense love for the Savior who kept to law perfectly in your
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place. I am going to leave you with an
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eschatological reality pulled directly from these texts as pro
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tribulation premillennialists assert the return of Christ for
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His Church before the tribulation is an imminent
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reality. The bridegroom is at the door.
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You do not have guaranteed years ahead of you to waste
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impassivity. The time is incredibly short.
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The King is coming to gather his bride, knowing the severity of
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omission and knowing the brilliant grace of Christ's
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active obedience. How will you alter your daily
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schedule tomorrow? How will you ensure your life
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actively glorifies the coming King?
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Thank you for joining us for this deep dive on reformed
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thinking.