Here's the deal:
Dictionary.com defines "sin" as, "Transgression of divine law; any act regarded as such a transgression, especially a willful or deliberate violation of some religious or moral principle." Whewww!!! That's pretty heavy, huh? No wonder people are turned off by Christianity. Even as a Christian, that definition sounds harsh...from an outside perspective, it wouldn't sell me on this whole Jesus thing either!
The Spirit-led Christian, however, would give you a very different definition of sin (notice I didn't say the "flesh-led Christian" - for more on what I mean by that, check out this post). Here's how I believe God defines sin: "Sin is anything that separates us from God." It's that simple.
"Yeah but how do I know what separates me from God?" Here's the key: through the process of getting to know God on a deep, personal level, His Spirit will make clear what can separate us from Him.
This is where a lot of people, Christian or not, get confused: Sin has nothing to do with what other people think. It has everything to do with our relationship with God.
It's a vicious cycle: non-Christians get caught up in feeling judged, and Christians get caught up in either judging or walking on eggshells around other people's sin, not knowing how to handle the issue. They may want to be a truth-light to people around them, but they don't want to turn people off to the concept of God either. What a quandary!
But hey, there's good news - we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God! (Romans 3:23) "Shane, you're bonkers...how is THAT good news?!"
It's excellent news. It means we're all in the same boat.
Brass tacks, it means that sin is a personal issue to bring to the Father, not a public issue to judge others for.
Remember the adulteress the people threw at the feet of Jesus? They were ready to stone her for her obvious life of sin. Remember Jesus' response?
What a powerful picture of God's grace and His heart toward our brokenness. This is a tremendous scene in Scripture because it gives us a look into the Father's heart toward our sin, as well as three concrete facts about sin:
1. No one is without sin
2. Christ does not approach our brokenness with condemnation
3. Once forgiven, we have to leave our life of sin
I'm not saying once we're forgiven by God and accept Christ that we'll never sin again, or should hold ourselves to that unrealistic standard. I'm saying we should be led by the Holy Spirit inside us, not led by the whim of our fleshly desires (in Leiman's terms, desires that are far from God's heart). Jesus wasn't being judgmental or condemning when He told the adulteress to leave her life of sin...far from it! In fact, His heart for her (and us) is the exact opposite: He offers us "life to the full," embracing life led by the Holy Spirit and leaving our old sin-dead lifestyle in the dust.
Problem is...more often than not, people, whether Christian or not, see sin as an interpersonal battle. We worry about what others think. Or we get up in arms when someone says we're sinning. Or we put up walls from God when others claiming to speak for Christ make us feel ashamed about our actions or convictions.
Truth is...even the best-intentioned bleeding hearts, those that just want to point you to God's truth in the least-judgmental way possible, still come across as judgmental. So consequently, Christians are seen as either super aggressive Pharisees or straight-up wimps, walking everywhere on eggshells. It's a lose-lose!
Crazy thing is...there's no way a Christian can talk about sin and not come across as offensive. Why? Because God's gracious truth is offensive (as I quoted from Eldredge in my last post). The last thing the Average Joe stewing in a lifestyle of sin wants to hear from a hoity-toity Christian is that Joe is a dirty, hopeless scumbag. Most likely, God has already been working on Joe's heart, alerting him of how sin is separating Joe from Himself. So whether they intend to or not, more often than not, Christians come across as judgmental.
Observe in the Scripture above - how did Jesus respond to the accusers? It is clear how Jesus handles the subject of sin...He didn't point to His own holiness with His words; He didn't give some pious, know-it-all answer. He pointed back to the pointers and highlighted the issue of sin in all of us. Since there's no way to not be offensive, let's stop avoiding the sin-fight and call it like it is, like Jesus did: it's not about pinpointing people's inadequacies, it's about realizing everyone's sinful nature and giving God's Spirit permission to redeem it.
Truth is meant to grate against the status-quo established and pandered by those deep in the bondage of sin.
It's meant to dispel what is false in someone's heart, like God's light dispels the darkness. And I think that's why Christians walk a fine line when bringing up the subject of sin: they let their mouths try to do what only the Holy Spirit was meant to. Too many Christians spend far too much effort putting words in God's mouth, instead of positioning themselves to speak God's words through their mouths.
And not to victimize Christians - like I said, we all sin! But inasmuch as Christians have displayed intolerance toward non-Christians' sinful lifestyles, non-Christians have been equally intolerant and prejudice toward Christians. I'll talk more about how Christians should address sin in others in my next blog post; but if you're not a Christian, a good question to ask yourself might be, "How do I view Christians these days?" Stop for a second and ask yourself, "Have I thrown eggshells at the feet of a Christian lately?"
Rick Warren, Pastor at Saddleback Church in California and author of the New York Times best-seller "The Purpose Driven Life," summarized this touchy issue in our culture:
Therein lies the point I'm making: stop viewing sin as something defined by the people around you. That's how religion operates, nothing but weights and measures to make you feel overwhelmed.
Ever notice how many people are turned off by the concept of Christianity, saying "no thanks" to God because religion's expectations are too high? Religion gives us a list of do's and don'ts a mile long, and people get burned out just looking at it. As a result, people perceive sin and the Christian life as a long and complicated list of ingredients to make the perfect cake. "Use this brand of flour only," and "DON'T YOU DARE use this ingredient, or else you'll mess up the whole thing." In reality, the recipe of the Christian life is simple once you get to know the author, and sin is nothing more than a fly in the batter. Jesus took the fly out of that batter 2,000 years ago...so why do you keep putting it back in?
Exactly. God lays it all out when we get to know Him. He explains everything in clear language in His Word and through His Spirit's intimacy with us. Jesus didn't call us to point out each others' sins (remember the speck and the plank?); He called us to live in Truth and shine Truth's light.
I wish the word "sin" would go away. It's caused so many misunderstandings of God's heart for us. Instead, I wish we would use the word "separators." It paints a much clearer picture and calls sin what it is - a wedge between us and the Father. A wedge that God sent His Son to remove, so we could have direct access to the Father. That sounds like a loving God to me! Not some picky, pious, pompous Pickle-Puss jumping at every opportunity to condemn us.
But the issue remains - these "separators" must be dealt with. Christ did that, so we've gotta get with Him to get sin gone! There's no free ride to God's life for us without acknowledging Jesus' role as wedge-remover. He's the Separator Terminator. ("He'll be back..." - Christian joke, wink wink, giggle giggle)
There are so many aspects of sin that run rampant, and it's so sad that people today can't see that. It really is...sad. They literally can't see it (remember the John 14 quote from my last post?). Some people even wear sin like a merit badge, giving it all the power it can stomach. That's why it's crucial to realize the role our culture - people around us, even - plays in shaping our view of God, sin and Truth. Hey, if Christ didn't come to be counter-cultural, I don't know why He came. Therefore, if you believe Jesus' way is the Truth-path, you must observe that there are aspects of our culture's belief system in direct opposition to the Truth.
It's that simple. It's a big stinky elephant trying to fight for room in our hearts...how could it not be obvious?
Dictionary.com defines "sin" as, "Transgression of divine law; any act regarded as such a transgression, especially a willful or deliberate violation of some religious or moral principle." Whewww!!! That's pretty heavy, huh? No wonder people are turned off by Christianity. Even as a Christian, that definition sounds harsh...from an outside perspective, it wouldn't sell me on this whole Jesus thing either!
The Spirit-led Christian, however, would give you a very different definition of sin (notice I didn't say the "flesh-led Christian" - for more on what I mean by that, check out this post). Here's how I believe God defines sin: "Sin is anything that separates us from God." It's that simple.
"Yeah but how do I know what separates me from God?" Here's the key: through the process of getting to know God on a deep, personal level, His Spirit will make clear what can separate us from Him.
This is where a lot of people, Christian or not, get confused: Sin has nothing to do with what other people think. It has everything to do with our relationship with God.
It's a vicious cycle: non-Christians get caught up in feeling judged, and Christians get caught up in either judging or walking on eggshells around other people's sin, not knowing how to handle the issue. They may want to be a truth-light to people around them, but they don't want to turn people off to the concept of God either. What a quandary!
But hey, there's good news - we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God! (Romans 3:23) "Shane, you're bonkers...how is THAT good news?!"
It's excellent news. It means we're all in the same boat.
Brass tacks, it means that sin is a personal issue to bring to the Father, not a public issue to judge others for.
Remember the adulteress the people threw at the feet of Jesus? They were ready to stone her for her obvious life of sin. Remember Jesus' response?
'Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her...' Jesus straightened up and asked her, 'Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?' 'No one, sir,' she said. 'Then neither do I condemn you,' Jesus declared. 'Go now and leave your life of sin.' (John 8:7b, 10-11)
What a powerful picture of God's grace and His heart toward our brokenness. This is a tremendous scene in Scripture because it gives us a look into the Father's heart toward our sin, as well as three concrete facts about sin:
1. No one is without sin
2. Christ does not approach our brokenness with condemnation
3. Once forgiven, we have to leave our life of sin
I'm not saying once we're forgiven by God and accept Christ that we'll never sin again, or should hold ourselves to that unrealistic standard. I'm saying we should be led by the Holy Spirit inside us, not led by the whim of our fleshly desires (in Leiman's terms, desires that are far from God's heart). Jesus wasn't being judgmental or condemning when He told the adulteress to leave her life of sin...far from it! In fact, His heart for her (and us) is the exact opposite: He offers us "life to the full," embracing life led by the Holy Spirit and leaving our old sin-dead lifestyle in the dust.
Problem is...more often than not, people, whether Christian or not, see sin as an interpersonal battle. We worry about what others think. Or we get up in arms when someone says we're sinning. Or we put up walls from God when others claiming to speak for Christ make us feel ashamed about our actions or convictions.
Truth is...even the best-intentioned bleeding hearts, those that just want to point you to God's truth in the least-judgmental way possible, still come across as judgmental. So consequently, Christians are seen as either super aggressive Pharisees or straight-up wimps, walking everywhere on eggshells. It's a lose-lose!
Crazy thing is...there's no way a Christian can talk about sin and not come across as offensive. Why? Because God's gracious truth is offensive (as I quoted from Eldredge in my last post). The last thing the Average Joe stewing in a lifestyle of sin wants to hear from a hoity-toity Christian is that Joe is a dirty, hopeless scumbag. Most likely, God has already been working on Joe's heart, alerting him of how sin is separating Joe from Himself. So whether they intend to or not, more often than not, Christians come across as judgmental.
Observe in the Scripture above - how did Jesus respond to the accusers? It is clear how Jesus handles the subject of sin...He didn't point to His own holiness with His words; He didn't give some pious, know-it-all answer. He pointed back to the pointers and highlighted the issue of sin in all of us. Since there's no way to not be offensive, let's stop avoiding the sin-fight and call it like it is, like Jesus did: it's not about pinpointing people's inadequacies, it's about realizing everyone's sinful nature and giving God's Spirit permission to redeem it.
Truth is meant to grate against the status-quo established and pandered by those deep in the bondage of sin.
It's meant to dispel what is false in someone's heart, like God's light dispels the darkness. And I think that's why Christians walk a fine line when bringing up the subject of sin: they let their mouths try to do what only the Holy Spirit was meant to. Too many Christians spend far too much effort putting words in God's mouth, instead of positioning themselves to speak God's words through their mouths.
And not to victimize Christians - like I said, we all sin! But inasmuch as Christians have displayed intolerance toward non-Christians' sinful lifestyles, non-Christians have been equally intolerant and prejudice toward Christians. I'll talk more about how Christians should address sin in others in my next blog post; but if you're not a Christian, a good question to ask yourself might be, "How do I view Christians these days?" Stop for a second and ask yourself, "Have I thrown eggshells at the feet of a Christian lately?"
Rick Warren, Pastor at Saddleback Church in California and author of the New York Times best-seller "The Purpose Driven Life," summarized this touchy issue in our culture:
Our culture has accepted two huge lies. The first is that if you disagree with someone's lifestyle, you must fear or hate them. The second is that to love someone means you agree with everything they believe or do. Both are nonsense. You don't have to compromise convictions to be compassionate.
Therein lies the point I'm making: stop viewing sin as something defined by the people around you. That's how religion operates, nothing but weights and measures to make you feel overwhelmed.
Ever notice how many people are turned off by the concept of Christianity, saying "no thanks" to God because religion's expectations are too high? Religion gives us a list of do's and don'ts a mile long, and people get burned out just looking at it. As a result, people perceive sin and the Christian life as a long and complicated list of ingredients to make the perfect cake. "Use this brand of flour only," and "DON'T YOU DARE use this ingredient, or else you'll mess up the whole thing." In reality, the recipe of the Christian life is simple once you get to know the author, and sin is nothing more than a fly in the batter. Jesus took the fly out of that batter 2,000 years ago...so why do you keep putting it back in?
Exactly. God lays it all out when we get to know Him. He explains everything in clear language in His Word and through His Spirit's intimacy with us. Jesus didn't call us to point out each others' sins (remember the speck and the plank?); He called us to live in Truth and shine Truth's light.
I wish the word "sin" would go away. It's caused so many misunderstandings of God's heart for us. Instead, I wish we would use the word "separators." It paints a much clearer picture and calls sin what it is - a wedge between us and the Father. A wedge that God sent His Son to remove, so we could have direct access to the Father. That sounds like a loving God to me! Not some picky, pious, pompous Pickle-Puss jumping at every opportunity to condemn us.
But the issue remains - these "separators" must be dealt with. Christ did that, so we've gotta get with Him to get sin gone! There's no free ride to God's life for us without acknowledging Jesus' role as wedge-remover. He's the Separator Terminator. ("He'll be back..." - Christian joke, wink wink, giggle giggle)
There are so many aspects of sin that run rampant, and it's so sad that people today can't see that. It really is...sad. They literally can't see it (remember the John 14 quote from my last post?). Some people even wear sin like a merit badge, giving it all the power it can stomach. That's why it's crucial to realize the role our culture - people around us, even - plays in shaping our view of God, sin and Truth. Hey, if Christ didn't come to be counter-cultural, I don't know why He came. Therefore, if you believe Jesus' way is the Truth-path, you must observe that there are aspects of our culture's belief system in direct opposition to the Truth.
It's that simple. It's a big stinky elephant trying to fight for room in our hearts...how could it not be obvious?
