When I was growing up I would sometimes
hear adults speak of "sin". I was taught that it meant doing a
"bad" thing or failing to do an appropriate "good"
thing. I was told sin should definitely be avoided. It was
characterized as a regrettable action taken or not taken by someone. It
seemed to have something to do with God. But, it seemed to me that a sin
could be just an offense against religious or moral law.
Often it seemed just to be the treatment of other people unfairly or cruelly.
In my middle-age years, I
became curious for a more precise definition of "sin." I came
across the writings of Rev. Timothy Keller. He is the Senior Pastor of
the Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, which he started in 1989, and
which today has nearly six thousand regular attendees at five services.
Pastor Keller writes, "Most
people think of sin primarily as 'breaking divine rules'. But sin is not
just doing bad things, but making what we prize as "good"
self-beneficial things into the ultimate things. It is
seeking to establish a sense of self by making something else
more central to our life's significance, purpose and happiness than our
relationship to God.
Pastor Keller believes that our
need for self-worth is so powerful that whatever we base our identity and
self-value on, we essentially end up"deifying". We will look to
it with all the passion and intensity of worship and devotion, even if we think
of ourselves as highly irreligious. Many look to work and career
for their cosmic significance. We want to be rid of our feeling of
nothingness ---- to know that our existence has not been in vain.
He continues ---- "There
are an infinite variety of identity-bases. Some people get their sense of
"self" from gaining and wielding power, others from human approval,
others from self-discipline and control. But everyone is building their
identity on something !"
This leads Pastor Keller to
cite the Christian doctrine of "original sin" ---- humanity's
inherent character defect of pride and self-centeredness. "The Bible
explains again and again, he says, that people's hearts are inescapably
drawn toward selfishness and
pride. The Bible tells us how we should live as God's people. But
it also says, "you can't and you won't."
Human society is deeply
fragmented when anything but God is our highest love, says Pastor Keller.
For example, if our highest goal in life is the good of our family, we will
tend to care less for other families. If our ultimate goal in life is
just our own individual happiness, then we will put our own economic and power
interests ahead of those of others. If our highest goal is the good of
our nation, tribe or race, then we will tend to be racist or
nationalistic. Therefore, only if God is our ultimate good and life
center, will we find our heart drawn out not only to people of all families, races
and classes, but to the whole world in general.
Pastor Keller concludes ---- it
is far harder than we think to have a self-identity that doesn't lead to exclusion.
The real culture war is taking place inside our own disordered hearts,
wracked by inordinate desires for things that in effect control us, that lead
us to feel superior and exclude those without them, and that fail to satisfy us
even when we get them.
Everybody has to live for
something. Whatever that something is becomes "Lord of your
life", whether you think of it that way or not. Jesus is the only
Lord who, if you receive him, will fulfill you completely, and, if you fail
him, will forgive you eternally.
Sin is not simply doing bad
things, it is putting the "good" things in the place of God. So
the only solution is not simply to just change our behavior, but to reorient
and re-center our entire heart and life directly on God.
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These thoughts are brought to
you by CPC's Adult Spiritual Development Team, hoping to encourage
you to pursue some spiritual growth this Spring at CPC.
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