When I was growing up, I would 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. But. it also seemed to have
something to do with God. However, it seemed to me as I heard people use
the word, that a sin could be just any offense against religious or
moral law. Often it seemed to be simply 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 founded in 1989, and which today has nearly six thousand
regular attendees at five weekly services.
Pastor Keller writes, "Most people think of SIN primarily
as simply 'breaking divine rules'. But SIN is not just doing bad
things. SIN is taking what we prize as a good, some self-beneficial
thing, and making it into the ultimate thing. It is seeking to
establish our 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 on whatever we base our identity and self-value, we essentially
end up "deifying" it. We will look to it with all the passion
and intensity of worship and devotion, even if we think of ourselves as highly
non-religious. Many look to their work and career for their cosmic
significance. We want to be rid of our feeling of nothingness ----- we
want to know that our existence will not have been in vain.
He continues ----- "There are an infinite number of
personal 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 influences ahead of such interests
in others. If our highest goal is the good of our nation, tribe or race,
then we will tend to be racist or nationalistic. Thus, only if God is our
ultimate goodness and life-center, will we find that our heart can be drawn out
not only to other people in other families, races, and classes, but to much of
the world in general.
Pastor Keller believes it is far harder than we think to
have a self-identity that doesn't lead to the exclusion of some other
people. There is a real culture war taking place, he says, inside our
own disoriented hearts, wracked by desires for things that in effect control
us. Things that lead us to feel superior and exclude certain other
people.
Everybody has to live for something. Whatever
that something might be, it will become the "Lord of your life",
whether you think of it that way or not. Jesus is the only lord, if you
receive him, who will fulfill you completely, and if you fail him, will forgive
you for eternity.
Pastor Keller concludes by declaring that "SIN" is
not simply doing bad things. It is putting what you call the
"good" things in the place of God. So, the only solution is not
just to change our behavior, but to re-orient 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 summer at CPC.
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