Ananias is judged for deception. Peter says, look, even after you sold it, the money is still at your disposal. Why is it you have contrived this deed in your heart, as if God isn’t going to know? This whole thing about laying it at the apostles feet, and so there’s this pattern established, that there’s going to be people in the group who know about this. People who were fairly well off, they have property, when they bring money and lay it at the apostles feet, the assumption is going to be, that they’ve sold something and they’ve given it all. Peter says, look, you could have just told us, it’s still at your disposal, it’s your property. But for you to create the impression or to not clarify what you’re doing, it’s an act of deception and this was a serious matter, lying to the Holy Spirit, God used the incident as an object lesson.
Deception would be kind of a high-handed sin, something done pre-meditatively, that’s a sin against God. Part of the logic here, why God would do this, is to have their minds hearken back to look at what’s happening here and what’s happening here is not a lesser version of what happened in the Old Testament. But didn’t Jesus die for that sin? It’s a judgment call, and doesn’t have anything to do with whether the atonement was effective or not. John talks about the fact that there is a sin unto death, that God can decide this is the best way to sort of handle the matter. If you’re going to just persist in doing these high-handed sins, these sins with pre-meditation, God can choose to deal with it another way.
This concept of a sin under death, the sin under death is not like a checklist and these are the ones that people get killed for, it’s not like that. It’s that you’re going to hit a certain point where God decides you’re not going to have a further opportunity to repent and be useful and your Christian life is not going to be what it should be, because your time on earth is up now and God can do that to teach whatever lesson or no one will really know. This case, it’s very public and based on what Peter says, the message is telegraphed that God is the one who’s actually judging the people who are involved at this point. The atonement does’t guarantee that God does not judge his people, even to the point of death. Believers and unbelievers, but believers they suffer when they sin, doesn’t mean that their salvation’s reversed, it just means your time here is over.
Your time is over, and sin has to be judged or else it looks like there’s no consequence to your actions. Most Christians are under the impression that Jesus died for our sins, and here we got a case of a micro judgment where a man was punished and a woman died. It’s harsh, but look at what Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 5, where he talks about delivering the case, the person living in incest with the woman, its an odd situation, they were related. Paul says if the person doesn’t repent, deliver that person unto Satan. Since it’s the Holy ground concept, where just as in the Old Testament, Israel was Holy ground, everything around you is under the dominion of divine beings called demons in Deuteronomy 32:17.
In the New Testament, the Holy ground is believers, because that’s where the presence of God now dwells. It doesn’t just dwell in one spot or a temple, we are the temple, and to be handed over to Satan is to be put out of the community. If this is the way you want to live, then you need to be around those people that embrace that kind of behavior, but it’s not going to be acceptable here. This person’s behavior, that’s not a sin unto death, Paul doesn’t go that far, because the second letter to the Corinthians, he talks about this guy coming back, when he renders this verdict, it’s with the express wish that this guy would repent, come to his senses, and that’s what happens. There’s nothing in this account about Ananias, that they didn’t really believe, even if they believe, God’s not going to accept them anymore, their salvation was lost, there’s none of that language, but you do get a physical judgment that’s pretty harsh.
Deception would be kind of a high-handed sin, something done pre-meditatively, that’s a sin against God. Part of the logic here, why God would do this, is to have their minds hearken back to look at what’s happening here and what’s happening here is not a lesser version of what happened in the Old Testament. But didn’t Jesus die for that sin? It’s a judgment call, and doesn’t have anything to do with whether the atonement was effective or not. John talks about the fact that there is a sin unto death, that God can decide this is the best way to sort of handle the matter. If you’re going to just persist in doing these high-handed sins, these sins with pre-meditation, God can choose to deal with it another way.
This concept of a sin under death, the sin under death is not like a checklist and these are the ones that people get killed for, it’s not like that. It’s that you’re going to hit a certain point where God decides you’re not going to have a further opportunity to repent and be useful and your Christian life is not going to be what it should be, because your time on earth is up now and God can do that to teach whatever lesson or no one will really know. This case, it’s very public and based on what Peter says, the message is telegraphed that God is the one who’s actually judging the people who are involved at this point. The atonement does’t guarantee that God does not judge his people, even to the point of death. Believers and unbelievers, but believers they suffer when they sin, doesn’t mean that their salvation’s reversed, it just means your time here is over.
Your time is over, and sin has to be judged or else it looks like there’s no consequence to your actions. Most Christians are under the impression that Jesus died for our sins, and here we got a case of a micro judgment where a man was punished and a woman died. It’s harsh, but look at what Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 5, where he talks about delivering the case, the person living in incest with the woman, its an odd situation, they were related. Paul says if the person doesn’t repent, deliver that person unto Satan. Since it’s the Holy ground concept, where just as in the Old Testament, Israel was Holy ground, everything around you is under the dominion of divine beings called demons in Deuteronomy 32:17.
In the New Testament, the Holy ground is believers, because that’s where the presence of God now dwells. It doesn’t just dwell in one spot or a temple, we are the temple, and to be handed over to Satan is to be put out of the community. If this is the way you want to live, then you need to be around those people that embrace that kind of behavior, but it’s not going to be acceptable here. This person’s behavior, that’s not a sin unto death, Paul doesn’t go that far, because the second letter to the Corinthians, he talks about this guy coming back, when he renders this verdict, it’s with the express wish that this guy would repent, come to his senses, and that’s what happens. There’s nothing in this account about Ananias, that they didn’t really believe, even if they believe, God’s not going to accept them anymore, their salvation was lost, there’s none of that language, but you do get a physical judgment that’s pretty harsh.
