warning: this is long! please read if you're interested.
this is just an account of what i believe. this is not to offend anyone, or try to manipulate anybody, but i thought i'd share
the first thing i'd like to share here is an interesting take on sin:
What is sin?
Sin is failure - "Missing God's Mark"
The Bible understands sin fundamentally as failure.
Sin is a failure of the human heart.
The biblical word "sin" means primarily "missing the mark" or "falling short." It refers to our inability to be what God desires us to be. It speaks of our failure to fulfill God's intention for us.
Sin infects the core of our being, the nucleus of our existence or, to use the biblical word, the "heart". And as a result, our attitudes and actions are polluted. Our minds are actually hostile to God.
So pervasive is sin's sway that the Bible speaks of us as slaves to it.
Our first reaction upon hearing this may be to protest. "Nonsense!" we object. "This makes us out to be despicable and wicked. Talk of sin pervading our hearts fails to note how often people do good deeds."
The biblical authors do not deny that we occasionally do what appears right. On the contrary, they hold out the prospect that we can indeed engage in good acts. Yet the claim that we are able to do good must be tempered. Repeatedly we discover that beneath our seemingly good acts are at best mixed, and sometimes selfish motives.
How often do we find mixed motives at work in even our best conduct? Even our apparently good acts regularly arise out of a self-righteous attitude or self-serving motivation. So easily we grow smug about how much more "self-sacrifical" and "giving" we are than most "other people" we know. And how often do we carefully measure the kindness we show toward others according to the personal profit we hope to gain?
In these and many other ways, we show how deeply ingrained sin is in our hearts. We fail - we fall short of God's standard.
Sin is a failure of community.
We were created in the image of God, the imago dei - not biologically, but in being relational beings - emotional, psychological beings who need and love each other. "Sin" therefore, is the failure to reflect the image of God.
God is the community of the different facets of Father, Son, and Spirit. If this is the image of God, then we are created to be like it - a community. Because we are created for community, sin is a failure of "community".
We see this failure of community in rebellion against God, our quarreling with each other, and our misuse of nature and creation. But it is equally present in what we don't do.
Again, we may respond with a protest: "Isn't this all merely outdated theological talk? Isn't the idea of sin passe in the contemporary world? And have we not simply evolved beyond the consciousness of sin?"
We know sin only through the Gospel
Indeed, we live in a society that avoids the label "sin." We don't like to think of ourselves as sinners. Oh, we willingly acknowledge our shortcomings. But we don't attach blame to them. We excuse our foibles and even our despicable deeds as the product of some illness, or view ourselves as victims.
The contemporary denial of sin ought not to surprise. Ultimately, a true sense of sin comes only as we hear the gospel. We cannot see the radical depth of our human failure until we come to see the depth to which God suffered on our behalf.
Our sin - our breach of community - is so serious that it could only be overcome through the sacrifice of Jesus.
"Sin" denotes the tragic human failure which cost Jesus his life. But how did we get caught up in this?
Sin has been with us "from the beginning"
If "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God", are we created sinful? No - sin was not "the beginning" itself. Rather, sin entered the world through a willful human act - the "fall" of Adam and Eve. Through their act, the first humans introduced enmity into a creation that had only known harmony.
Why do the effects of Adam's sin extend to all his descendants? And above all, how is it that I am a sinner?
- Federal headship > Adam is our representative > Adam chose for us.
At first glance, the idea of federal headship appears to violate our individualistic sensibilities. Are we not responsible solely for ourselves? Is not my sin mine alone?
Yet at many levels of contemporary life we actually see this principle at work. One obvious area of human government. The President and the Congress are the designated representatives of the people in the United States. Their decisions have grave implications for each citizen and future generation of America.
Perhaps in a similar fashion God designated Adam to act on behalf of all his descendants.
- Natural headship > Adam is our progenitor > We chose in Adam
This status suggests we were all present in him when he sinned.
"Nonsense! All this happened centuries before I was conceived. How then can anyone assert that I was present in Adam?"
There is a biblical answer to our objection: you were indeed in the Garden of Eden. Specifically, you were in Adam's "loins" (their words!) when he chose to sin. You were there in the same way Levi was in the loins of Abraham when he paid the tithe to Melchizedek (Heb 7:4-10). Hence, one must consider and understand the context in which the scriptures were written. It is no use taking things out of context - doing so, one can justify even murder, from the bible! And in context, the biblical authors did not live in our Western, individualist society. They possessed a profound sense of the unity and solidarity of humankind, something we may lack today.
- Non-headship > Each of us is Adam > Each chooses Adam
We are Adam. But perhaps the Book of Genesis is not reporting only the story of one man in prehistory. Suppose the "Fall" is not just an event in the primordial past but a tragedy that we all experience in the present. What if the Genesis story is a description of what happens when we make our own sinful choice?
Adam's disobedience decimated the pristine experience of community with God, humans, and nature. But we too are guilty of destroying the semblances of community here and there that emerge among us. Nations break the peace through war. Families quarrel and feud. Marital bliss becomes the casualty of abuse. And the list continues. As we find ourselves guilty of undermining community, we gain a glimpse of the awfulness of the primordial human sin.
Our sin is not merely the result of what we ourselves do. Rather, it comes to us through our participation in humankind. Adam as our "natural head" altered the human nature. As a result, we inherit what theologians often call a "depraved nature".
The depraved nature comes to us in the same way as do the other basic human characteristics we all share. In a sense, sin is now a part of our common human makeup.
The humanity and world that we are born into, engage, and live in, is corrupted and already had sin in it before we existed. This was beyond our individual control. As a result, we sin because we are sinned against. Because we are sinned against, we learn to sin, and continue to sin, to "miss the mark" of God's desire for community.
when i first read this (and this is the simplified version, i had to read a whole chapter on it!) i admit i was daunted. but the way i understood it may help explain (and simplify) "the great christian argument".
i sat down and really started to think about christians claiming that everyone was a sinner. a lot of the time, we say it with a holier-than-thou attitude, so it comes off as if we believe that everyone else is a sinner. and if we base sin on actions alone, then i can see where this self-righteousness can come from. if we base it on actions, then essentially one can 'work' their way out of sinfulness by adhering to set of moral laws and ethics.
but sin is more than just actions that we willingly commit.
sin was a present force before we even existed. i think it is necessary to take this with a degree of humility.
we were not alive for thousands of years, and we do not know everything. there were things that happened beyond our control.
i then thought about what sin really
was, if it
wasn't only a willingly committed action. the passage is right - thinking about sin did start ruffling my individualistic sensibilities. we seek to develop our own system of right and wrong. we seek to be our own judges and dislike being accountable to a 'higher authority'. we seek to live the way we please. we do not want to be accountable to others, nor do we take responsibility for anything we don't want to be responsible for. we live with our own judgment of what is right and what is wrong. we do what we deem is right. even hitler did what he thought was right.
but if the bible is true, if there is truly someone, a God who we will be accountable to in the end, then something has gone terribly wrong. if this is so, and this applies to
everyone, then we are sinning against the poverty stricken who live in parts of the world we have never been to - by doing nothing. we are sinning against the child who has been kidnapped and is being trafficked in the sex industry - perhaps we unknowingly buy a product whose profits fund it. we are sinning against the slave workers by buying their products - or not buying their products -
we just don't know. the concept of sin hits hard with the concept of universal responsibility for community - our fellow human beings. and the thing is, we don't know and may not be aware when it is we
do sin.
in this way, we are all equally sinful.
that christian who preaches on a pulpit is no less guilty of sin than the ten dollar whore. the difference is that christians believe jesus christ gives the ability to
not sin. not through our own righteousness, but through mercy. this is not to say that we believe we no longer sin, but that his sacrifice provided
needed forgiveness.
but it really did humble me. you may not know how your actions ripple and affect others. sin is everywhere. it's inescapable. and this makes us all equal, none better or more "good" than the other,
all needing forgiveness.
