The S- word sin, who says its wrong?

We have all heard the saying everything that I want to do is either immoral, illegal or it makes me fat. It can certainly seem like that at times. Closely related to this is the feeling that God is some kind of Scrooge in the sky who, whenever He sees one of us having fun, leans over the balcony of heaven and shouts down “cut that out.” It would be wrong to suggest that there are not religious people who speak and act as if this were the case. The modern day Pharisee (a religious person who opposed Jesus) is alive and well and living on planet earth. This however is not the essence of Christianity.

I am going to deal with the issue of guilt and guilt trips a little later. But first I need to say something about this word that Christians throw around all the time, the “s” word sin. I am aware that the word itself it is a stumbling block to many, as it conjurors up pictures of priggish narrow minded, self righteous bigots. Many equate the word sin with a morality that is outmoded, old fashioned and prudish. It is however a word that Jesus used over and over, and He was none of these things. As I am sure you know, Jesus is regarded as the best teacher the World has ever known, and perhaps, just perhaps it is worth pausing to consider what He has to say on the matter. Perhaps most relevant to our discussion is the saying “He (or she) who sins is the slave of sin” (John 8:34). A softer more modern version of this might be “he who makes poor choices gets stuck.” It is neither exactly what He means, nor all that He means, but lets start with it. 


I said earlier that I did not always believe what I now believe about the Bible. And I need to admit that my first reaction to the pain I was experiencing in life, was to blame others. They say that at the break up of a marriage most couples blame each other 100% for their problems. Well in my first marriage that was certainly me. But the pain of the separation from my daughter went deep, deep enough so I started to ask the “why” questions. In my searching I became desperate enough to cry out to God. I have always said that if He had not been real, He would never have held me, but He is real and He did. The first thing that He needed to do in taking away what hinders and adding what helps, was to show me that I was far from guiltless, and that a large part of the reason I was suffering is that I was reaping what I had sown (see coming post). To put this another way, I was learning from the school of hard knocks that my poor choices had consequences. There were consequences for myself, and there were consequences for others, and none of them were good. The Scriptures tell us that one of the jobs of the Holy Spirit is to convince the Word of sin of righteousness and of judgement (John 16:8). I got this in spades, and even though I did not fully understand all that it meant, I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that at least part of what I was suffering was a direct result of my selfishness.

You might be saying “well at some level we are all selfish,” and you would be right. The Biblical puts it this way “all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Part of what the word sin means then, is to fall short of God's perfection, of His Holiness. I want to acknowledge “sin righteousness and judgement” have many times been presented in ways that are oppressive, self righteous and obnoxious (or worse). Nor is everything that is presented balanced or even true. But none of this is new, it was religion and the religious who crucified Christ. Religion has been responsible for both a great deal of evil and a great deal of good (it's a long debate if you doubt this). It is easy to allow the bad to deflect us from good, and from the real issues. It is easy to throw out the baby out with the bath water. Good choices have to do first with discerning good from bad and then embracing (adding) the former and throwing out (subtracting) the latter.

When we embrace the source of all good and live in close relationship with Him, we bear fruit. I am of course talking about Jesus. And among the fruit we bear we list love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22,23). It's process, it is not instantaneous. We do not need too much discernment to know that these things are good, and that the World would be a better place if more of us were bearing more of it. For my own part I want more of His fruit in my life, and I pray for it, and ask Him to take away the things that prevent it happening. I cannot be full of His Spirit and full of self at the same time. There are things that needed (and need) to be taken away, so that He can add the good things. In the end it is always what He call sin that hinders.

I need to say more here about the trinity “sin, righteousness and judgement.” I have heard people say that they believe that heaven and hell are right here on earth. I don't completely dismiss this but … Let me save the 'but' for later. What I don't completely dismiss is that the here and now can give us glimpses of heaven and hell. Only glimpses mind, I believer the realties are much deeper. We can get a glimpse of heaven if we think of a world where everybody fully exhibits the fruit of the Spirit mentioned above, where there is no hate, no cutting remarks, no rejection, no anger, no exclusion, no selfishness, no mean spiritedness, no put downs, no one-upmanship, no bad days, no grief, no pollution, no unforgiveness, no manipulation, no hidden agenda, no murder, no lies, no cheating, no theft, no sorrow, no tears, no death etc., etc., etc.. On the other hand we can get a glimpse (and just a glimpse) of hell if we take away all the good, pure, noble, kind unselfish things from the here and now, all the things that the Bible calls virtue and be left with all of the negatives (and more) listed above. In other words to take out all that the Bible calls and means by “righteousness."

Think on this. If God is just (and He is) there has to be a hell. If death is simply annihilation, non existence, then there is no justice. Simple annihilation is simply too good for those who have murdered millions, for the Hitlers and the Stalins and the Pol Pots of this world. And if there is a hell, it follows that there must also be a heaven. Think on this too. If you are to be there for ever and ever and ever, how many of the negatives from the above list do you want to be there? And if there are to be none of them, then you and I are excluded unless ….

Unless what? Unless God somehow makes it possible. And He has and does. God made Jesus Christ to be sin for us, so that He could give us His righteousness, and in doing so be just to forgive us, and just to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21; Philippians 3:8,9; 1 Peter 3:18; Romans 3:26; 1 John 1:9). So this is all about taking away our sin and adding His righteousness. But He will not force it on us. He has given us free will, freedom to choose, even if that freedom means rejecting Him. We can choose “not God”. But we need to realize that if we choose “not God” we are left with none of His virtues and with all (and more) of the mean and hateful things of this World.

So what is conversion? Conversion is about agreeing with His assessment of things, taking on His righteousness and giving Him permission to take away the things that hinder and add the things that help. So will we not have free will in heaven? I believe we will, but we will (those of us who get there) already have chosen the good, already chosen to cooperate with God in transforming us into the image of His Son, making us like Jesus (1 John 3:2). We will not want to choose what displeases Him. Paul's prayer in Colossians 1:9 is interesting in this regard. He prays that they “be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.” It is my belief and understanding and sure hope that when we are full of the knowledge of His will we will run to it, because we will know that it is best. In the spiritual wisdom that attends it, we will know that not only are His ways good and right and proper, they are smart and (as the prayer in Colossians continues) full of the positive and wonderful fruits of righteousness. On top of this, we will be out of the presence of the Tempter and his minions! In its place there will be “pleasures for evermore” (Psalm 16:11).

Speaking of pleasure and coming back to the subject of sin, some will ask “Are there not pleasures in sin too (everything I enjoy is either …)”? Of course there are, the Bible tells us that too, but it does not stop there. The phrase I am thinking of is “the pleasures of sin for a season” (Hebrews 11:25). The implication is that these pleasures do not last. They are only for a season. Again in my own experience I have found that the pleasure of the things the Bible call sin are in the end hollow. On the other hand that form of godly sorrow that leads to repentance, leaves no regrets (2 Corinthians 7:10). At the end of your life will you wish you had been more selfish, broken more hearts, resented more people, manipulated more, chewed more people out, told more lies, hated more people, watched more pornographic movies, accumulated more stuff etc., etc., etc? On top of all of this, the things the Bible calls sin entraps and enslave us. Indeed as we have already said “He who sins is the slave of sin.”

So sin, who says it's wrong? In the end I believe that we all will. The Scripture tells us that on that day, every mouth will be stopped and all the world be seen to be guilty before God (Romans 3:19). Part of what this means is that our excuses, denials and rationalizations will be seen by all, for what they are, excuses, denials and rationalizations. We will know this,know that it is known and will have nothing to say. Paul is speaking here about guilt before the Law. Not one of us keeps even the 10 commandments. Who never told a lie, who has never dishonoured father or mother, who never looked at a woman the wrong way, who never took something that did not belong to him (another's reputation?), who has not put their trust in something other than God (it's called an idol) etc., etc., etc. Without His righteousness we are lost. That is why we need to trust in His righteousness, not our own. That is why when we choose not to believe in and trust Him, we are already condemned (John 3:18). It is because we are choosing not to be forgiven, choosing to reject the only solution to our problem.