A Short & Ugly Word

Looking Beyond Sin

Sin is that short ugly word we all like to avoid. It’s a word that gives pew warmers the titters. Even “sinners” don’t like that word. They may label it “just fun” or “a sad necessity” or “ lesser addictions” or even “rights.”

Reality is, those in the church are just as plagued with the pesky, sometimes gruesome disease of the human race the church calls sin. And frankly, it is downright embarrassing how many leaders in the church are right up there in the A ranks of the most skillful sinners! What to do? Many of us in the church community grew up with the notion that the best way to deal with sin was to get a healthy dose of “hell-fire and brimstone.”

That kind of “fear of the Lord” is to miss the real picture. The fear of the Lord gives life, makes us “strongly confident,” wise, clean, and more. The fear of the Lord is more about having respect for a very good king than a fear of a mean tyrant. And yes, because of this infusion of life from fearing God, we do hate evil.

The intention of hell-fire and brimstone is justice to right wrongs far more than punishment of sinners. And justice is not about being mean, but about corralling those who insist on remaining mean themselves and restoring life to the oppressed.

The word sin as we use it today has its entomological roots in the idea of being singularly guilty. The Hebrew and Greek languages of the scriptures both more generally define sin as “missing the mark” or “getting off the path.” Repentance is about getting back on the path of life again. And life, well that is the very thing you were created for; breathe in God’s clean air and enjoy the awesome love of Jesus.

Guilt is a negative word in our western culture but missing the mark is not really so negative. If we miss the mark we are encouraged to try again. We are raising the bar and calling people to a higher place. Guilt however, is associated far more with; you have done something terribly wrong. “Shame on you!!!”

Guilt is almost singularly spoken about in the context of the crucifixion in the NT. The OT is full of references to guilt but most are in reference to sacrifices to remove guilt. The very thing Jesus steps forward to do by his death and life! He removed all guilt. He killed all sin and started a new race of humans. That is why we call him the second Adam. Where is that new race anyways? I’m still looking for it!

I’ve contrasted guilt and sin just a little here to give you a context to consider how we could shift our paradigm and have the ability to say no to sin more often. We are often guilty (there’s that evil word again) of trying to be followers of rules about right and wrong instead of pursuers of life.

Let me go just a bit further: Before you said yes to Jesus and traded your messy life for his amazing one, sin was like a plague. It was always there, engaged and active. And frankly, you could enjoy it. Problem was you were an empty soul. When you said yes to God, you may have found some issues fell off in a blink. But horror! Others were still lurking in the closet 10 years later. Sin didn’t all disappear as you had hoped.

Now there is a distinction between being a slave of sin (addicted to the wrong path of life) or a slave of righteousness (addicted to the right path of life). Now, sin’s ability to fulfill you is empty, no matter how much you sin, it’s not the same as it was before you met God. Drats! And now you can’t escape that new pesky thing called righteousness. It is always lurking, calling to you, pulling at you. Aghh! You’ve got a new addiction and if you feed it, it will grow.

It’s almost like you traded one problem and got two. Now you still find yourself sinning but sin’s lost its fulfilling edge and on top of that you really find yourself wanting to do good things, mostly because of God’s love flooding your heart but find yourself still missing the mark of doing them well. Yep, guilt seems to still be active as ever huh?

So let’s end this ramble and take some action. I’m going to define two things that should help us break the back of sin in our lives. Two motivations that help us say no: One is removal of condemnation or guilt. The other is a conscience that is sensitive to what pleases God.

Very simple yet very core is this - God’s pleasure over our lives. Living free from guilt is our saying by faith, “God loves me (unconditionally/absolutely) therefore I have strength to please him.” Having a clean conscience by faith proclaiming, “God loves me (unconditionally/absolutely) so I have an authentic desire to please him. “

No condemnation means our status has been permanently moved to sons and daughters of God. Permanent family. A clean conscience means we are walking in really close friendship with God and care what He thinks about things. That is, real and transparent friends.

When we are feeling guilty or condemned it’s like subtle whispers in the back of our subconscious, “God is disappointed with you.” When we are hardened in our conscience, often it is because we are disappointed with God and don’t have a heart to listen right then…He is always talking.

• Not condemned = God is pleased with us.
• Clean conscience = We are conscious of God.

Be honest. It’s a good way to start with God. He may surprise you. It may help some of you to pray something like this on a daily basis:
“Even though I feel like a total mess today and even though I like sin a whole lot more than I like what I know about you (God), would you show me your love so I could maybe love you better?”

And then, make this confession of faith: (It takes faith to say this.)
“I believe because of Jesus that God is totally pleased with me right now and that He is actively engaged in my life because he really, fully loves me.”