I'm not asking what some sins are - we all know that. We all know that murder and rape and greed and blasphemy are sins. But what is it that those have in common? What does all sin have in common? What is the one thing that makes a sin - any and all sin - a sin?
Well, personally, I think that anything that we do that violates the will of God (love Him and love others) is sin. That pretty much encompasses everything. Obviously murder is not very loving towards others, specifically the other that one would need to make dead in order to qualify for the act of murder. Blasphemy shows a lack of respect for God, which kinda messes up the whole thing about loving Him.
All sin comes from one thing: us. We can blame our upbringings, we can blame the other people around us, and we can blame Satan, but it all still comes down to one thing, and that's simply us. Whatever the sin was, it happened at the point where I decided that my will and my desires were more important than God's will and His desires. I was gonna do what I wanted to do, no matter what God wanted me to do.
So... That's what I think sin really is: a defiance of God the creator on the part of Man the creation.
And I really think that's the best way to think about it. Not to say that I'm the definitive source for understanding on the nature of our relationship to God or anything like that, but I think it helps to understand sin at its most basic level. By understanding sin at its most basic level, we can understand a whole lot of other stuff, too.
For instance... If all sin is understood to simply be defying God, then all sin takes on the exact same weight. It doesn't matter what the sin is - if it's something sexual, if it's something violent, if it's something dishonest, if it's something arrogant... it really just kinda stops mattering. It's still sin. It's all still trying to put yourself above God, and that just ain't gonna work.
He is, after all, God.
It really doesn't matter how much we sin - it's not gonna mess up God's plans.
It also doesn't matter how righteous we are - we're not doing God some huge favor.
He's God. He's got it under control and we don't.
Our faith doesn't change God's world, it changes ours. God is going to be God whether we act like it or not, whether we even believe in Him or not.
Look up at the heavens and see;gaze at the clouds so high above you.If you sin, how does that affect Him?If your sins are many, what does that do to Him?If you are righteous, what do you give to Him,or what does He receive from your hand?Your wickedness affects only a man like yourself,and your righteousness only the sons of men.
- Job 35:5-8
God is Perfect. God is Holy. God is Love.
We aren't.
We're aiming for that, sure... But we fall short. So very short. All of us.
And here's the thing about that... It really doesn't matter how close we think we're getting, we're still an impossibly huge distance from that Holy Loving Perfection.
My righteousness is not defined by anything I am or say or do except that I have chosen to allow God to redefine my life and steer me towards His Righteousness. I am a sinful creature, no doubt, but my sins have been forgiven, which is a pretty amazing thing... right up until I start taking that forgiveness for granted and turn that into a sin on its own.
Think of the worst person you know - just the absolutely most depraved creature of sin you've ever encountered. Think of all the horrible things you know that person has done, and all the horrible things you've heard he or she might have done, and all the horrible things you've imagined that person could have done.
And now remember that you're really not any better.
The nearest star to the earth after the sun is Alpha Centauri, some 4.37 light-years, or 25.8 trillion miles, away. The earth itself has a diameter of just under 8,000 miles. So let's say there's a guy standing on the exact opposite side of the earth from me, and I'm looking straight up at Alpha Centauri. Yeah, that other guy (who is standing in the Indian Ocean, about 1,000 miles off of the coast of Western Australia, just FYI) is a whole 8,000 miles further from Alpha Centauri than I am, but considering that even if we were standing in the same place, we'd still be 25,800,000,000,000 miles away from what we're looking at, and on that scale, another 8,000 miles in either direction just really isn't that big of a deal.
And that's how it is with us and God and everyone else around us. I really don't have any special view on righteousness. Even if I am closer to God than another person, I'm still so very far from God that I'm not exactly out on my own. My righteousness is not defined by me, it's defined by God. When I try to get the righteousness thing going on my own, I mess it up, because I am not - by definition - capable of attaining righteousness on my own. I can only become righteous by being made righteous by the love of God through the sacrifice of Jesus.
So I've had that running around in my head for a while now, and it's led me to some interesting places as far as how it can be applied to spreading the Gospel.
I know I'm still pretty bad at it sometimes - maybe even a lot of times - but I've noticed that God has helped me stop judging people quite so very much, and for that, I'm thankful.
There are people in the world who have committed murder and have yet to accept Christ and His teachings as the way to a better life. It doesn't do me or them any good to think of myself as better than them just because I've never actually killed a guy. I've certainly thought about it enough. I've wished just as much harm on people, maybe even more. And who knows, if I'd been in the same circumstances, maybe I'd have stumbled the same way they stumbled. It doesn't matter - I need God's forgiveness just as much as they do.
I may not have ever robbed a bank, but I've definitely taken things that weren't mine.
I may not have ever been a prostitute, but I've definitely taken liberties with my libido that I shouldn't have.
I may not have ever sacrificed children to Molech, but I've definitely taken God out of His proper place in my worldview and replaced Him with something worldly and empty.
Sinning just a little is still sinning a whole lot. Even 99.99% pure is still impure.
When we realize that our sin is just as heinous and wretched and damnable as the sin of everyone else on the planet, we can relate to them a little better.
When we realize that it's our sin as well as their sin that put Jesus on the cross, we understand a bit more of the commonality between us all, and that's when we can show them how we've escaped the unending doom of our own lives of constant failure.
You know that you're not supposed to judge people, I know that I'm not supposed to judge people. I'm not saying anything new here, and I'm not saying anything extra-Biblical. I'm just saying that we've got to make it real to us, because the one thing that I hear more than anything else about Christians is that we've apparently got a bit of a reputation for judging people. That ain't cool. That's not how Jesus operated, and I think it's a pretty safe bet to say that He's a good example to follow.
Of course, that's just what I personally believe... And that's what we'll be talking about next week.
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