WHATEVER HAPPENED TO SIN?

 …for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Romans 3:23 (NIV)

                There are three words that to seem to have disappeared from our vocabulary; sin, guilt, and shame. There was a time when we would never talk about sex openly, but we were comfortable taking about sin. Today, we can talk about sex anywhere, but don’t every mention sin, that is a real no no.

                I have been reading “God in the Dock” by C.S. Lewis. In the chapter titled, God in the Dock, he talks about the difficulty he faced with sharing the gospel with people of his day.

“Apart from this linguistic difficulty, the greatest barrier I have met is the almost total absence from the minds of my audience of any sense of sin.”

“Early Christian preachers could assume in their hearers, … a sense of guilt. Thus the Christian message was in those days unmistakably the Evangelium, the Good News. It promised healing to those who knew they were sick. We have to convince our hearers of the unwelcome diagnosis before we can expect them to welcome the news of the remedy.”

(God in the Dock, pg. 243-244)

                Most people today do not see themselves as sinners. Sin has been replaced by “bad choices” or “alternative lifestyles.” We are told that guilt and shame are psychologically bad for our mental health, so we must eliminate them. We are told that our actions are the consequences of political, social, and economic circumstances outside of our control. If only our circumstances were better than we would act better. This is fostered by a widespread belief in the basic goodness of humanity. Humanity is no longer seen as fallen and sinful, but as evolved and advanced.

                Which brings up another reason why the concept of sin has been jettisoned from our world. The widespread belief in Darwinian, microbe to man, evolution has reduced humanity to nothing more than one of the higher animals. Because ultimately we are just the product of random chance there is no real morality, therefore there is no sin. Each person is free to set their own moral boundaries wherever they like.

                At the very heart of our faith is the reality that we have a spiritual problem that needs to be dealt with. The reality of sin in a person’s life is what can lead them to true repentance and wholeness. When King David was confronted with his sin against Uriah and Bathsheba, he didn’t try to excuse his behavior. Instead, he owned it.

For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge. Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.
Psalm 51:3-6 (NIV)

                Throughout the Gospels, as Jesus encountered people, He offered them not just a change of their circumstances, but He offered them something far greater; the forgiveness of their sins. Everyone is Jesus’ day believed that physical maladies were caused by sin in a person’s life. For Jesus to forgive their sins was to set them free. Without any sense of sin in our lives, we will not turn toward God for forgiveness.

                I once had a couple come to me to ask my advice. They had been dating and now the young lady was pregnant. As we talked about their situation, the young man stated, I’m not ashamed of what we did. At that point I responded, but you should be. We have been so programmed to not feel shame or guilt over things that, in our heart, we know are wrong. We have short-circuited our moral compass. God never intended for shame and guilt to tear us down. He intends for shame and guilt to lead us back to Him and to the only source of freedom, His forgiveness.

                In Romans 3, Paul confronts us with the reality of our lives, then leads us to the solution for the problem. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. Romans 3:22-24 (NIV) We all have a spiritual problem and God has offered us a spiritual remedy through Jesus Christ. As long as we deny the reality of sin, we will remain slaves to sin. It is only in coming to grips with the truth that we can be set free.

                The other day Suanne and I took a walk on the beach along Lake Michigan. We noticed that the beach was littered with small shells. We were puzzled by this, so we looked it up. It turns out that there is an invasive species of mussel that has taken over. It has pushed out the native mussels and is affecting the quality of the lake. This all began because big, ocean-going ships dumped their ballast into the lake without thought for what was contained within that “foreign” water. Before we knew what was happening the lake was infested.

                Sin has entered our world. When we lived with an awareness of sin, we were able to moderate its affects. But we live in a different world today. Today, we live in a world that denies the reality of sin. By doing that, we are facilitating the spread of sin. Sin is like these invasive mussels that will continue to grow unchecked unless we do something to stop them. Denying the reality of sin doesn’t solve the problem, it only makes it worse. It is only by coming to grips with the reality of sin that we can hope to turn the tide in our own lives and in our world.

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:23 (NIV)