MUSELTOF COUNTERCULT AND APOLOGETICS
A
poll carried our some while ago asked people what the term 'sin'
meant to them. The average kind of answer was something like
'that which is wicked' or 'something which harms other people'.
But there did not appear to be any clear picture which people
held.
Of course, to some the question is nonsensical. They might say,
'Who can say what 'sin' is anyway, it just seems to be an
outmoded religious idea' - and yet these people are well aware of
moral outrage when the wicked go unpunished, they are well aware
of the outrage which they feel when some elderly person is beaten
senseless by some thug in order to steal maybe only twenty pounds
off them. They remember only too well the anger they felt when
that precious item was stolen from their car! In short, their
experience of life has shown them that certain things are simply
wrong. If one would not want ones own family to be wronged (and
who would?), one is agreeing that there are norms which we should
all seek to live by in order to achieve less suffering, anger,
stress and hardship. Here is where the ardent, postmodern, social
liberal - full of the influence of Relativism ("Who can
say what is right and wrong?") will often suddenly forget their
liberalism - especially if the wrong which they perceive is too
close to home!!
No, we must avoid all cop-outs here; We all know that we are
aware of right and wrong and good and evil even if we might
occasionally argue over definitions.
Christians accept the principle of Moral Depravity. This does not
state that all are as evil as they could possibly be, but that
all fall short of the holiness of God. We are all affected - to
one degree or another - by the events in the Garden of Eden. We
are in a state of Falleness. There are some truly evil people in
the world of course, but many others are a mix of many things;
but none are truly pure in either behaviour or knowledge.
In the Garden of Eden, Mankind effectively took to itself the
prerogative of deciding what comprises good and evil, since the
first couple rejected the freely offered divine instruction on
the matter!
The couple were evicted from the Garden in order to be allowed to
go ahead and form their own socieities based on their own
concepts of 'good and evil' - and we know that there have been
many attempts to produce the perfect society since then!
Martin Luther used the description, Homo in se incurvatus,
to describe the sinner. The phrase means something like 'mankind
curved in on itself'; this is an image of reaching in to oneself
rather than reaching out to help others.
I like Emil Brunner's definition of sin. The Swiss theologian
said this;
"Sin is the desire for the autonomy of man; therefore, in the
last resort, it is the denial of God and self-deification; it is
getting rid of the Lord God, and the proclamation of
self-sovereignty"
(Emil Brunner, Dogmatics, Vol 11, pp. 92-93).
So, in the final analysis, sin is the demand for 'man-rule' or,
'self-rule'. Above all, it is anti-God, although as long as ones
concept of 'God' does not make any real demands upon one, and
does not impinge upon ones so-called 'freedom', a concept of
"God" might be allowed.
Swami Vivekananda, founder of the Ramakrishna Mission, not only
said that there is no such thing as sin but, on the
contrary,
"...You are all God"
(Swami Vivekananda, Speeches and Writings, 3rd edition, G.A.
Natesan, Madras, pp.125)
New Age people believe something similar. Here is quite a handy
device for avoiding the responsibility of sin!!
No, we need to recognise the reality that some behaviour harms
ourselves or others, and we really have little or no excuse to
duck this reality when we see suffering all around us.
Some have said that the Bible gives a full definition of sin in 1
John 3:4. The NKJV says here that, "...sin is lawlessness". While
this is true, it is only a small part of what the Bible says
about sin. It is also not 'lawlessness' in the sense that, if one
knew what was contained in that law - and then set out not to
break it - one could be without sin! It goes much deeper than
that and is ultimately a spiritual matter. This is important to
point out since some works-based sects and cults really do seem
to believe that one just has to find out what this law entails,
and then not break it and - hey presto! - one can be without sin!
Rather, this speaks of the spiritual intent behind all of God's
laws, for the laws are not an end in themselves but point to the
holiness of God. Ultimately, we cannot be made 'unsinful' by
keeping any law, but only through the grace of God.
The apostle Paul said,
'For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being
justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in
Christ Jesus'
(Romans 3: 23-24).
As Christians we must cling to the reality of sin, yes; even more
so in a politically-correct culture which does not like that
little word 'sin'.
John Stott said this;
'To make light of sin is inevitably to make light of salvation
and so of the cross. To deny the just judgement of God is a
characteristic of false prophets, 'who say peace, peace when
there is no peace'
(Stott, Evangelical Truth, IVP,
p87).
As the epistle says, the whole world really does lie in
wickedness and we should be able to see the results of this all
around us - no matter how 'politically-correct' and 'liberally
unjudgmental' we are!
So, what is sin?
Sin is rebellion against God and we witness it everywhere. Not
knowing the true God inevitably leads to behaviour which is
unholy and sinful. We may clearly see sinfulness in acts of
adultery, murder, strife, selfishness, hatred and malice; but we
need to be aware that even 'nice people' are held under the power
of sin until accepting Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour! If
a person is motivated by self-interest and has no desire to walk
with Jesus Christ, that itself is sinfulness.
Yes, there is real hope, but not through our own efforts, but
through the work of Christ upon the cross.
Museltof
2002
(This article is © copyright Robin A. Brace
2002. If you want it on your own website please do the honourable
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