What is Sin, a Marginal Belief: A Series on Christianity's Core Beliefs

As I have been listening to Christian conversations and browsing through the Christian forums, I have realized that one of the most prevalent, and most volatile marginal doctrines that Christians fight over today, is the doctrine of sin. Before I go any further let me make clear that I believe sin itself, in its general form, is a core doctrine. If sin did not exist, there would be no need for a savior. Sin is therefore a very important and necessary doctrine for Christianity. What I count as marginal, and unnecessary for us to fight over, is what counts as sin.

I have a feeling this is going to be a much more controversial idea than I discussed about end times theology in my previous post, End Times, a Marginal Belief: A Series on Christianity's Core Beliefs, so let me be as clear as possible. Some of the areas most heavily debated as regards to their status as sins are the issues of abortion, homosexuality, and premarital sex. These are not the only areas, but the ones I would consider the hottest topics in current sin debate. Each side has Scripture to back up their argument. There are those who can "prove" abortion is a sin, and those who can "prove" it is not. There are those who can show conclusively that homosexuality is a sin, and those can show that it is not. There are plenty of parents who can show in Scripture where premarital sex is a sin, and plenty of teenagers who can show their parents from the Bible that it is not.

We spend countless hours arguing that certain actions are or are not sins. But here is the question we must ask ourselves: how does "proving" an action to be a sin or not effect our salvation? If I prove to a gay man that homosexuality is a sin, does that somehow nullify his status as "saved" until he overcomes that sin? Absolutely not, because the promise and the good news of the Bible is that Jesus forgives us our sins even if we are still committing them. But if that same gay man is shown that homosexuality is not a sin, does that in any way change his relationship with Jesus Christ? Absolutely not. His status as a Christ-follower remains the same whether homosexuality is shown to be a sin or not.

If a woman who has had an abortion is shown that her act was a sin, how does that effect her? It makes her feel terrible and places a great deal of guilt on her that Jesus himself does not place on her. She cannot go back and undo the abortion. And just the same as the gay man, if she is shown that her action is not a sin, it does nothing to effect her relationship with Jesus. She remains saved and in Jesus' care whether her abortion is proven to be a sin or not.

Proving something to be a sin and proving something to not be a sin do absolutely nothing for a fellow Christian's salvation. All proving something to be a sin does is to place a heavy burden on someone that we are not willing to carry ourselves (Matthew 23:4). And proving something not to be a sin, does nothing at all, except at the very worst to lead into a belief that there is no such thing as sin, which clearly contradicts Scripture, which leads to my next point.

I am not saying that we should preach a "no sin" theology. Scripture is clear that humankind needs salvation from sins. What the Bible is not always clear about, however, is what constitutes sin. Yes we have the commandments in the Old Testament, but not all of them apply today. The trick is trying to decipher which commandments apply under the new covenant and which do not, and there is not agreement on which ones apply and which do not. And certainly Jesus and Paul give certain sin lists, which I think we would do well to abide by to the best of our ability. For those sin areas that are clear, I think it is our responsibility as Christians to do our best, with the help of Jesus, to overcome them and live upright lives. But it is not our responsibility to tell other people how they need to live their lives as is clear from Matthew 7:3 ""Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?" It is condemning upon ourselves to point out the sin in others, unless it directly affects us. Matthew 18 certainly indicates that if someone has sinned against us, we need to point it out to them; but anything else it outside of our scope.

Back to my main point, the Bible is not always clear about sin. Paul himself explains in 1 Corinthians 10:23-30,

23 All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable All things are lawful, but not all things edify.

24 Let no one seek his own good, but that of his neighbor.

25 Eat anything that is sold in the meat market without asking questions for conscience' sake;

26 FOR THE EARTH IS THE LORD'S, AND ALL IT CONTAINS.

27 If one of the unbelievers invites you and you want to go, eat anything that is set before you without asking questions for conscience' sake.

28 But if anyone says to you, "This is meat sacrificed to idols," do not eat it, for the sake of the one who informed you, and for conscience' sake;

29 I mean not your own conscience, but the other man's; for why is my freedom judged by another's conscience?

30 If I partake with thankfulness, (AU)why am I slandered concerning that for which I give thanks?"

Paul went on to say to act in a way that glorifies God. The best way we can do that is to love one another and not to focus on what is or what is not sin in another person's life. There are so many things in our culture today that are not clearly reflected in Scripture as sin or not. And as I have shown, if these things are sins, we can be confident that Jesus forgives them. If they are not sins, then we have nothing to worry about.
Blessings,
-Brandon

Now Go and Sin No More

Recently I was involved in a debate with some other Christians regarding how to address the problem of sin. An acquaintance of ours was struggling with a particular sin and explained that he was discouraged because he has done everything his Christian friends have told him to do and nothing seems to be helping; he is enslaved to this sin. The advice he received was classic. He was told numerous times by numerous people that he just needed to try harder and give it up to Jesus and that he would overcome his sin. When the other Christians whom I was debating with heard this, their response was as classic: they said that sin is bad and that he needs to keep trying and to have self-discipline in order for him to overcome it. I agree that sin is bad, but telling someone to keep trying harder when they have tried as hard as they can and are at their wit’s end is like telling someone who is falling out of a tall building to not to get so close to the windows; it may be true but that is not what they need to hear right now. As the saying goes, Christians too often shoot their wounded. David Kinnaman relates this story in his book, UnChristian: He tells of a woman, Lisa, who went to a Christian event and was sitting with some of her Christian friends at a table discussing the topic of pregnancy. At one point Lisa brought up that she had a friend who was pregnant and really going through a rough time. Her boyfriend left her and there were some other things going on in her life. When Lisa told them that her friend was contemplating abortion and that she, herself, could empathize with her, Lisa’s friends turned on her. They condemned the friend for wanting an abortion and condemned Lisa for her empathy. Lisa was left out of the conversation for the rest of the event. Lisa had not even told them that she had an abortion earlier in life (Kinnaman, 2009, 181f). Instead of showing compassion to Lisa and her friend, the women immediately jumped on her saying that it is a sin even to empathize with a woman wanting an abortion. There are other situations in churches where a person reveals a sin of theirs, already feeling bad about it, and then is immediately jumped for being such a sinner.

What is wrong with this way of approaching people? Aren’t we to help out other people if they are sinning and point them in the right direction? Isn’t that one of the jobs of a Christian? Absolutely not. That does not mean I believe we ought to go on sinning because, hey, we are saved by faith not by works, right? I believe as a Christian it should be our goal to overcome our sins. Notice I said “our sins,” not “other people’s sins.” As Christians, we are so ready to point to other people’s sins and tell them they need to try harder so they can stop sinning, while at the same time we continue on with our sins, as hard as we are trying to give it to Jesus and overcome it. I think Matthew 7:3-5 is helpful here: “Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and behold, the log is in your eye? You hypocrite, first take the log our of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.” But people most often interpret this passage to mean that once you no longer have a log in your eye, you can help another person take the speck out of theirs. This assumes, however that we can remove the log from our eye. I believe, however, that we are intended to understand that as long as we are alive, we will have a log in our eye. Therefore, we will never be in a position to tell another person that they need to stop sinning or to try harder, because we will always have a log in our eye until we leave this earthly life.

Romans is particularly relevant here. Reading through Romans 7, Paul is clear that while we live, there will be a constant struggle between the spirit and the flesh. He was honest about his own struggles, saying, “I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate” (v 15). Paul could not overcome sin in his own life. It is this statement he uses to build up to the conclusion of his argument where he says in Romans 8:1 “there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” We will always have sin in our life. There will be times when we are doing better; there will be times when we are doing worse. What will help us get through the difficult times is the knowledge that my sin in no way affects the amount of love God has for us. God love and accepts us just for who we are, and no sin can limit in any way God’s love for us. If we have sin in our lives, all our lives, we have the confidence to know that there is no condemnation.

But what about when Jesus tells a person to “go and sin no more?” Shouldn’t we follow that as our example? This is one situation where I would say no. Jesus taught us not to judge another person or to point out their sins (unless it directly relates to you, and you need to speak to that person as directed in Matt 18). Jesus could deal with people’s sins because he was perfect and sinless. But notice how Jesus did deal with people’ sins: he dealt with people and their sins in a very gentle and loving way. He did not push anyone to try harder or to have a stronger faith. Jesus simply told people to “go and sin no more.” But this was after he showed them no condemnation. The best example of this is found in John with the adulteress woman who was brought to Jesus by the religious leaders. Jesus stated, “let he who is without sin, cast the first stone.” When they had all walked away and Jesus had asked the woman, “has no one condemned you?” She responded, “no” to which Jesus replied, “then I do not condemn you either.” Let us no longer condemn people for their sins, as if they separate a person from God. If they are stuck in sin, the best way to help them out is not to tell them to try harder, or to give up completely to Jesus; the best thing we can do is give them an environment of grace where they are loved despite their sin. A person cannot overcome sin in the midst of pressure to overcome it. A person overcomes sin only when they are shown the love and grace that Jesus himself showed to people.
Blessings,
-Brandon

Related Links
http://whatjesusdiddo.blogspot.com/2011/03/church-and-society-to-judge-or-not-to.html
http://whatjesusdiddo.blogspot.com/2011/03/charlie-sheen-grace-of-god-and.html
http://whatjesusdiddo.blogspot.com/2011/03/threat-of-punishment-or-promise-of-love.html
http://whatjesusdiddo.blogspot.com/2011/03/rob-bell-love-wins-and-universalist.html
http://whatjesusdiddo.blogspot.com/2010/11/christians-voting-without-judging.html

Christians: Take Responsibility So You can be the Cure

It is the greatest feeling to finish another chapter, and I just finished the fifth chapter in my book, discussing how Christians today should interact with contemporary outsiders. One area where our interactions have fallen short of the desire of Christ, is in our interactions with the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender crowd. Ask anyone on the street what the Christian perspective on homosexuality is, and they will say Christians view homosexuals as sinners who are going to hell. This comes from the outspokenness of Christians about gays being responsible for all of the tragedy's that have taken place in the last ten or more years. 9/11 was blamed on the gay population, Katrina was blamed, the death of American soldiers over seas is blamed for the homosexuality in America. Christians have a bad reputation when it comes to how we interact with the gay population.

Jim Daly has a wonderful article entitled "My Take: Christianity not to Blame for Anti-Gay Bullying" in which he says that Christianity is the cure for this type of anti-gay treatment of homosexuals. He is referring to the recent suicides of some gay teenagers that made the news last month. I agree with Jim that Christianity, as it was meant to be, is the cure. But I highly disagree (can one mildly disagree I wonder) with him that Christianity is not to blame. I think the biggest problem is that the Church is not standing up and taking responsibility for itself. The blaming of homosexuals for the recent disasters in our country was done by prominent church leaders, not merely nominalist Christians. If Christians cannot stand up and take at least some of the blame for the anti-gay treatment, taking responsibility for its part, it will never be able to take the position as the cure for the accepting of gays and lesbians. When Christian leaders can stand up and say, "we are sorry for preaching hatred and judgment against homosexuals, and we ask for your forgiveness so we can begin the healing process," Christians can then begin to be the cure by exemplifying Christ Jesus in showing long deserved love and compassion to the gay and lesbian, the bisexual and transgender population of the United States. This is what Rev. Mark Tidd, Sr. Pastor of the Highlands Church in Denver, Colorado did. You can read about his remarkable transformation in a blog entitled Evangelical Changes His Views on Homosexuality and Church Grows as a Result. This pastor was deeply effected when he experienced first hand the love God had for a family with a gay child in his congregation. He changed his views and his church grew from 80 to 300. That is a stamp of approval from God on this pastor and his change of belief if I ever saw one. Remember, God loves and embraces all of humankind, whether it be straight or gay, black or white; He accepts all who desire to enter into His kingdom.
God bless.
-Brandon