Sin-Oh, I Don't Want To Read About That

I'm reading a book entitled " The Courage to be Protestant" by David Wells. I don't really like the title, because it really is about the courage to be Christian, not just those of us who have the title of being protestant. But that is the title nonetheless. It has to do with the "post-modern" world in which we live and to some degree the "emerging church" movement today. Now I know that just quoting from a book and not presenting personal thoughts and opinions might not be very interesting to many people, but this is just too good. Also, there are readers of this blog who may not believe in God and/or Jesus the Christ. I hope you will still read on.

God is grace and mercy. That is absolutely true and thankfully he is. But in our conversations and discussions on grace and mercy, we so often forget that he is also justice and judgment and that it is "sin" in the world that murdered Jesus the Christ, God's Son, on the cross. It was for "sin" in the world that Jesus the Christ came to earth and died. His sacrifice alone was an act of grace and mercy, because sin separates the world from God. Jesus the Christ's death and resurrection gives us the opportunity to be restored to God one person at a time.

Our belief in and acceptance of Jesus the Christ's sacrifice for us and our repentance of our sin, restores each believing person to God. Through Jesus the Christ's death and resurrection, God no longer holds believers' sin against us. For the believer this is a one time event, saved and restored for eternity. This is all about salvation. But sadly, even after we believe it, accept it and repent of our sin, we still commit sins. It takes a lifetime for the Spirit of God to transform our old habits and desires that prevent us from being more like God, to being those of God. For the believer this is all about transformation, not salvation. It is a journey of struggle and delight all mixed together.

I want to quote here from "The Courage to be Protestant" and let you just take it in. In the chapter entitled "God" there is a sub-section on sin. I believe it is the best explanation of sin I have ever read. Open your heart and mind. Have the courage to examine yourself and I'm positive the Spirit of God will speak to you. The quote starts in the next paragraph and continues to the end of this post.

David Wells says: "Sin, biblically speaking, is not only the absence of good. It also entails our active opposition to God. It is, then, the defiance of his authority, the rejection of his truth, the challenge to his sovereignty in which we set ourselves up in life to live the way we want to live. It is the way we wrench ourselves free from obedience to him, cut ourselves off from his grasp, and refuse to let him be God. It is therefore all the ways we live life on our own terms, to our own ends, with accountability to no one but ourselves.

Sin is described as missing the target (Romans 3:9; 7:5), falling short of a standard, or transgressing boundaries (Romans 2:23; 5:20; Galatians 3:19). [For those who do not know, these references are in the Bible.] However, the target missed, the path abandoned, the authority defied, the law transgressed are in each and every case God's. Sin is all about taking issue with God, defying him, refusing to submit to him, and displacing him from the center of existence. We are now disaffected with his rule, resent his claims on our lives, are hostile to his truth in the biblical Word, and are determined to pursue our own values, goals, and pleasures in defiance of what he has said.

At the heart of this sin that holds us captive is pride. The essence of pride is finding in the self what in fact can be found only in God.

We imagine that within ourselves we have power enough, wisdom enough, and strength enough to live in security, in the fullness of happiness, as we want to live, amidst all the conflicts and opportunities of life. Very finite preoccupations are therefore substituted for those that are eternal, and we then confidently take the place God once had. We therefore, redefine reality...This is the "autonomous self."

...once the self has established itself at the center of reality, its own judgments, no matter how flawed, are seen as ultimate and unchallengeable.

"There are professors who have left faculty meetings more enlightened by what they said than by what they heard!" (Cornelius Plantinga, from Not the Way It's Supposed to Be)

This same pride lies beneath so many other sins like indifference to others, injustice, and the many ways, some cruel and brutal, in which we live as if no one else counted for anything.

...sin is what has dissolved the center that holds all of life together, robbing it of its meaning.

...the orientation of our nature from birth, leads us inexorably to replace God with our own selves, to substitute our interests for his, and to redefine life around its new substitute center in ourselves." [End Quote]