As we head into Holy Week I have been struggling with the question of sin as it comes up frequently. Here is a brief paper I wrote on the topic, so I thought I'd share. Enjoy!!
Where to begin with the question of sin? The Bible declares that we are made in the image of God, yet it also declares that all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God (Rom 3:23), and yet at the same time we are still morally culpable for our actions. In this short essay we will look at answering the following; What is sin- original, social, and actual. My feelings and direction on sin, and what are the practical, ministerial implications of my understanding and position regarding sin. Let’s first begin with a definition of this term we are examining: sin.
According to Hoekma, sin is a perverse way of using God given gifts and powers. (Hoekma, 113-132). This is a way of looking at sin as the taking of God’s good creation and disrupting that image. Much like what we see happen prior to and then after Gen 3:15; pre curse and post curse creation. Nothing is the same afterwards. Plantinga also has an interesting definition of sin; the willful breaking of shalom. (Plantinga, 10) Shalom in the Bible means “universal flourishing, wholeness and delight- a rich state of affairs in which natural needs are satisfied and natural gifts are fruitfully employed.” (Plantinga, 10) In other words, shalom is the way things are supposed to be. Sin is then the breaking of shalom willfully, which is a result of the stain of the image of God in men to begin with. Plantinga goes on to say that, “sin outstrips other human troubles by perverting special human excellences.” (Plantinga, 3) I think that last statement gets to the heart of the affect on our imago Deo; our excellences in God’s image are perverted. Still present, but perverted. This is much like a giant Maple tree that has grown crooked, still a Maple but not as useful for shade as it otherwise would have been. We still reflect our God image, but is has been stained.
But sin does not have to defeat us, we know what sin is. And our gracious and loving God sent His son to save us from ourselves. 1 John 4:10 states, “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent His son to be a propitiation for our sins.” God does not want us to be defeated, although we are stained from birth through original sin. God not only sent his son, but we are also able through scripture and study to assess sin and assign it characteristics that allow us to comprehend and avoid it. Hoekema lists the multiple facets of the nature of Sin in chapter 9. I feel that an understanding of sin’s nature is valuable in learning how to deal with it. First, sin does not have an independent existence. This stresses that sin in actuality is the perversion of something which was good, a defect. Augustine called it the deprivation of that which is good. The reason that sin cannot be independent is evident in that it can be conquered. If sin were actually a substance, an actual part of the essence of man, then how would we be able to conquer it? It is this understanding that allows man, through the redemptive work of Jesus Christ to break free from sin and to change course. Sin is not a physical aspect of man, it is a perversion of the direction of man.(Hoekma, 169)
Secondly, sin is an essence that is related to God and the will of God. If there is no God, there is no sin. As we see all through scripture, it is the law (the Law of God) that brings consciousness to sin. Rom 3:20 declares that “…through the law we become conscious of sin.” Rom 7:7 states it as follows, “Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what it was to covet if the law had not said ‘Do not covet’”. (Hoekma, 171) The law gives us understanding, knowledge that at the end of the day, all is sin acted out by us and is against God.
Third, sin has at its source in the heart. (Hoekma, 171) I understand the implication here. Sin is essence, not physical. What is the heart? It is the emotion of man. The spring of both the good and evil that man is capable of. Mat 15:19 states. “For out of the heart comes evil thoughts, murders, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony and slander.” This also leads to the 4th and most interrelated point on sin, sin includes actions and thoughts. The “lust of the flesh” that it spoken of in Galatians 5:16 encapsulates in the word ‘flesh” the entire human nature. (Hoekma, 172) It is our innermost being that is marred, that is perverted. Plantinga reinforces sinful thoughts as sin by delineating further that just assuming that you are offending God in some way is evidence of sin. (Plantinga, 22)
Lastly, at the root of all sin is pride. In some fashion we want to be like God. (Hoekma, 173) That was the overriding impulse in Gen 3:5 with the fall of man. Augustine sums it up in this manner:
And what is the origin of our evil will but pride? For “pride is the beginning of sin.”(Ecclus 10:13) And what is pride but the craving for undue exaltation? And this undue exaltation, when the soul abandons Him to whom it ought to cleave as its end, and becomes a kind of end to itself.” (Hoekma, 173)
Plantinga sums it up very nicely, going on to paraphrase Niebuhr and the idea of security. This also is a version of pride as we (man) are looking to gain what we want when we want it:
At bottom, says Reinhold Niebuhr, we human beings want security. We feel restless and anxious in the world because we are both finite and free, both limited and unlimited. We are persons of seemingly endless possibilities and of immense power, but we are also creatures utterly dependent on the good offices of our Creator. So we live on the edge of finitude and freedom, anxious lest we miss opportunities and anxious anew when we have exploited them…but our anxiety as Niebuhr observes, is only the context for sin, not its cause. Out base problem is unbelief. Failing to trust in the infinite God, we live anxiously, restlessly, always trying to secure and extend ourselves with finite goods that can’t take the weight we put on them…Unbelief says Niebuhr, yields anxiety, which yields alternating pride and sensuality. (Plantinga, 61)
This is the base and I agree with this assessment. We, man, want to secure for ourselves with a degree of certainty, what we can gain for ourselves. While God wants us to live dependent on him for all things, like the Israelites as they wandered the dessert getting food only daily, or the sparrow which neither reaps nor sows, God wants us to rely on him for life and our daily needs. We, however, sin marred as we are and prideful, want to usurp that power from God to ourselves. In essence, that is what I believe is the issue.
This sin has originated since the fall, and with regard to original sin I agree with the Augustine/Calvinistic/Reformed school of thought that man has received both the corrupted sin nature and guilt from Adam. This has corrupted man to the core. Every aspect, every part of man cannot escape its affects. This has left us in a state of complete depravity, or as Hoekma calls it Pervasive Depravity (Hoekma, 150). Quickly defined this means that the corruption of original sin extends to every aspect of man and that there is not present in man, by nature, the motivation to love God. Many passages reinforce this belief from a scriptural standpoint including Eph 4:17-19, Tit 1:15-16, Rom 8:7 and many others. From the aspect of sin coming in through one man and being redeemed though one man I refer to Rom 5 where Paul reinforces he point that as sin came into the world through one man, so too was sin removed from the world by the “free gift” of one man. Christ accomplished this for us while we were still sinners. What an act of love from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
This sin manifests itself socially and actually. I think we have already covered the aspect of actual sin. All of our actions are sinful. Nothing we do is not marred. We have evil thoughts, compulsions, desires and we either act or think with our thoughts. Here is the paradox as I see it; man is born is sin. Every aspect of our lives is sinful and no part is unstained. Our thoughts, actions, physical appearance, everything is distorted by sin. Yet, Scripture still calls us to be morally culpable for our actions. So, how can God expect a sin polluted mind to make a decision that the thinker will be held accountable for? It doesn’t seem possible. This is what I think Entwistle is referring to when he talks about Tillich’s “contradiction of man” where man is created by God, has God’s image, and yet still has turned from God (Entwistle, 154) , and Erickson’s response to it:
Sin has very serious consequences when it comes to the relationship of sinner and God. These results include divine disfavor, guilt, punishment and death. Physical death, spiritual death and eternal death flow from the consequences of sin. Sin also has consequences that affect the individual sinner. These include enslavement, flight from reality, denial of sin, self deceit, insensitivity, self centeredness, and restlessness. These effects on the sinner also have social implications in competition, inability to empathize, rejection of authority, and inability to love. …[as a group] we may be so conditioned by membership in a group that our very perception of reality is colored by it… This conditioning is something so subtle and thoroughgoing that we may not be aware that there is a given side of a given issue, or even that there is an issue at all. (Entwistle, 155)
Here is the contradiction to our lives. We are enslaved. We suffer from self denial, self centeredness, the inability to love, the inability to empathize. A thoroughly distorted view of creation is what we’re left with. A far cry from Genesis 1, instead we now suffer from the wrath of the curse of Gen 3:15. This is evidenced further in Scripture when lists the works of the sinful flesh:
Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorceries, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you as I warned you before; those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Gal 5: 19-21)
It sounds very similar to the Entwistle passage. It also sounds very burdensome. What does our flesh, our nature marred by sin provide us? It gives us nothing but misery. Entwistle tells us that the ultimate consequence of sin is dread and misery (Entwistle, 153) and Plantinga suggests that all sin ultimately springs from misery. (Plantinga, 3) We see people like this in our lives every day.
But the new reality given to us in Christ Jesus is that we can find contentment in knowing that we have been “blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms.” (Eph 1:3). We should not lose hope, we should not despair. Here is what we should do in seven simple verses from the book of Romans to break the shackles of sin that we are all under:
Acknowledgment of God as Creator
Romans 1:20-21: "For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened."
We are sinners
Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God.”
God loves us and wants us back
Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His love toward us, in that, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
God offers us the gift of eternal life
Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Confession and Belief is how we accept the gift.
Romans 10:9-10 “That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."
Christ is all you need
Romans 10:13 “For whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.”
Determination for salvation
Romans 11:36: "For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen."
There are many verses like this in Scripture. But God created us for his pleasure and wants us back for his pleasure as well. We are assured that we can call upon the name of the Lord and have his atoning sacrifice eradicate, regenerate our inner beings to help assuage the effects of our sin nature. James 4:8 reminds us to “Draw near to God and he will draw near to you.” God’s word is truth, and life and it stands. If we draw near to him, he will draw near to us. And God’s Holiness cannot stand in the presence of sin, therefore through the sanctification of His Grace and Spirit, His drawing near to us will inevitably lead to the subjugation of the sinful flesh. And we can be assured when we have received the Spirit of God in us, and that is through the production of the fruits of the Spirit. In Galatians, Paul tells us that the manifestations of the Spirit indwelling in a person are evidenced by the fruits of the Spirit that person produces:
By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. There is no law against these things. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with it’s passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit. –Gal 5:22-25
To sum up this essay, what can be said of sin. Through our own willful rebellion we have turned from God and incurred His just and holy wrath. Every decision, every aspect of our lives is stained by that rebellion. While it seems hopeless, praise God that we have been brought back, redeemed through the blood of Christ as Paul writes in Eph 2. While in our sinful state we have the inclination to stand on our head and tell the world it is upside-down, we must realize that the cure for our condition can only be found in the atoning work of Christ Jesus.
Bibliography
1) Entwistle, David N. Integrative Approaches to Psychology and Christianity
Eugene, Oregon: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2004
2) Hoekema, Anthony A. Created in God’s Image
Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1994
3) Plantinga, Cornelius Jr. Not the Way it’s Supposed to Be- A Breviary of Sin
Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1995
4) The New Oxford Annotated Bible NRSV, 3rd Edition
New York: Oxford University Press, 2007
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