Whatever Became of Sin?...

This is the title of a book by Dr. Karl Menninger, the eminent psychiatrist. For the most part, psychiatrists see all mental problems as a chemical imbalance  (because we do not have a soul, just a material body), so this book was revolutionary in thought. Billy Graham says sin is a disease. The only cure is the blood of Christ. [The solution to our three problems of sin, death, and Satan.] The three areas of sin are the pride of life, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes (cf. 1 John 2:15). The Greek word hamartia means to "miss the mark" or to fall short of a goal; it is an archery term and we sin when we miss achieving the norm or mark of God's law as the standard.

To label sin as human weakness, bad habits, mistakes, errors, or shortcomings merely makes the sin more dangerous--like mislabeling poison as the essence of peppermint! There are basically five names for sin: lawlessness (1 John 3:4); iniquity or deviating from right (Hos. 14:1); missing the mark (Rom. 3:23); trespassing or selfishness (Mark 8:34); and unbelief (1 John 5:10).

A renowned philosopher said that the "absurd is sin without God." Take God out of the equation and you can have no sin. When we violate our fellow man we sin against him; when we violate God's holiness we sin against Him. So what is sin? A succinct definition of sin is any want of conformity to, or transgression of, the Law of God, or the will of God.

Jesus mentioned sins of the heart--these have to do with our mental attitude. There are sins of commission (when God's Law is couched in negative terms, as R. C. Sproul says, such as "Thou shalt not..."), and sins of omission (not sins we haven't gotten around to committing yet, but where we fall short of the glory of God and fail to do what Jesus would do, or what is commanded). John Bunyan wrote a book Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners and Paul called himself the chief of sinners also, so we need not despair that our sins are too bad to be forgiven. Charlie Riggs sees sin as any thought, word, act, omission or desires contrary to the Law of God.

Of course, sin is universal and we are born sinners: "We are not sinners because we sin, rather we sin because we are sinners," as it has been said. The point to see our sin is not that we are "good enough to be saved, but bad enough to need salvation". "We can't escape our birthright," Billy Graham says.

Not all sins are equal though; there are some more heinous or egregious than others and are an abomination and special offense to God. There is no such thing as venial and mortal sins as Rome teaches. Venial being forgivable, and mortal being those the kill the justification of grace and require the sacrament of penance ("the second plank of salvation for those who have made shipwreck of their faith).

No sin can make you lose your salvation, and all your sins, as a believe, are forgivable and covered by the blood of Christ. But remember Christ is always making intercession for us when we sin (Heb. 7:25) and when we sin we only have to confess it and move on according to 1 John 1:9 ("If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness").  Soli Deo Gloria!

Whatever Became Of Sin?...

The man of few words President Calvin Coolidge was asked by his wife what the preacher preached about: "Sin" Then she asked him what he said: "I think he was against it." I'm not out to get anybody nor do I want a soapbox and I don't have an ax to grind; I simply think sin is not mentioned enough in the church today.

I heard that a renowned preacher doesn't preach on the "divisive" issue of "sin" allegedly because it is such a "killjoy" term. Today we hardly ever hear a preacher denounce sin or preach repentance. Sin doesn't exist in their jargon. Sin is a "taboo" word to some preachers who only want to preach what their church wants to hear. Eminent psychiatrist Dr. Karl Menninger, M.D. wrote a book called Whatever Became of Sin? as it is ignored in the therapy and since it is the root of all problems, it should be encountered. Famous philosopher Albert Camus wrote, "The absurd is sin without God." That means that if there is no God, there is no sin!

Actually, we are all sinners since sin is universal (we say "to err is human" and "nobody's perfect." Original sin is the result of that first sin in the so-called "perfect environment" of the garden of Eden. We must all see ourselves as sinners, even the worst of sinners to be saved: John Bunyan wrote, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners and Paul said that "Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief." Even Isaiah said, "Woe is me, I am undone...."

Samuel Rutherford said, "The greater sense of sin the less sin." The more sanctified we become the more aware of our shortcomings we become. It is the job of the preacher to take a stand and denounce sin and to intercede corporately for the church. To become Christians we must "renounce" sin and repent of all known sin. We cannot escape our birthright, says Billy Graham, and have a sin nature and even though we are saints, says Martin Luther, we are at the same time sinners (cf. Gal. 12:17).  Sin is the disease and the cause of all problems.

Sin is lawlessness (1 John 3:4); transgression of the Law; iniquity or deviating from right; trespassing or egoism (putting self first); unbelief (Rom. 14:23--"Whatever is not of faith is sin.") All unrighteousness and wrongdoing is sin (1 John 5:17; Gal. 6:1). Any thought, word, deed, act, omission or desire contrary to the Law of God is a sin. Any want of conformity to or transgression of the moral law is a sin. Sins cannot be labeled "mortal and venial" like Romanists insist, because all sins are mortal in the sense that they separate us from God and no sin is mortal in that it can cut off your salvation. According to Psalm 19:12 there is "unknown sin:" We are responsible for what we know but that doesn't mean we aren't sinning unbeknownst to us. It is only because we have a mind and a will that we are capable of sin; animals cannot be sinners or immoral.

A ""run-of-the-mill sinner looks like a saint compared to Adolf Hitler but can still go to hell--it doesn't matter how deep the water is that we drown in. There are sins of omission like failing to love our brethren; this is falling short of the glory of God or missing the mark and failing to achieve the aim of hitting the diving target. Sins of commission are when God forbids something like lust and we go ahead and do it, willingly or unwillingly, presumptuously or ignorantly.

All sin is against God (David prays, "Against you and you only have I sinned," in Psalm 51:4). Sin can be against our neighbor also according to 1 Kings 8:46. When we sin against God we violate His holiness, when we sin against our fellow man we violate their humanity. When we sin we are not demonstrating our freedom but proving our slavery if we do something unprofitable--"All things are permissible, but not all things are profitable, all things are permissible but I will not be brought under the power of any." (Cf. 1 Cor. 6:12; 10:23). Not all sins are as heinous, or egregious but some are actually an abomination to the Lord and detestable in His sight. Just calling sin "weakness, faults, mistakes, quirks, peccadilloes, etc. is like labeling poison "Essence of Peppermint" and making it more dangerous.

James 4:17 says, "If you don't do what you know is right you have sinned." The only cure from antinomianism or legalism is a knowledge of the Scriptures: "For by the Law is the knowledge of sin (Indeed it is the straightedge of the Law that shows us how crooked we really are.)" We are all culpable before God and to ourselves and to our fellow man and God doesn't punish us for one another's sins (Ezek. 18:4 says, "The soul that sins shall die.") We can be glad that God doesn't deal with us according to our sins or punish us according to our iniquities (Psalm 103:10).

Finally, no matter how we have sinned God is greater and bigger than our failures: "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow, though they be red as crimson, they shall be as wool" (Isa. 1:18).   NB:  Karl Menninger defined sin as the refusal of the love of others [and God].  Soli Deo Gloria!