Let’s Not Water Down Sin. It’s Serious.

 

Today, we use all sorts of euphemistic and "non-offensive" terms to try to soften, tone down, or trivialize sin. But the truth is sin is serious – very serious - as seen by the fact that the penalty for sin is death, even eternal death. And sin is heinous in God's eyes, who is perfectly holy and hates sin. Though God is abundantly merciful and forgives our sin if we repent, because of the cross, this does not negate the “evil” and “grievousness” of sin. Nor does it give us a license to sin. Anyone who thinks he can abuse God’s grace like that has never truly experienced His grace. True believers, who have been radically transformed by God, are very grateful for God’s grace and earnestly desire to show their love and appreciation to Him by “obeying” His commandments, not continuing in and excusing their sin. All who deny this and cry “legalism” only evidence that they have bought into the lie of antinomianism. God’s Word is perfectly balanced. It does not advocate either extreme - legalism or antinomianism.  

I believe the watering down of sin is largely attributable to modern psychology, which is founded on humanistic principles. Psychology not only tries to palliate sin, but it also attempts to remove any guilt or responsibility for sin. First, it claims that we are born innocent instead of sinful, in clear contradiction to God’s Word. Second, instead of viewing ourselves as sinners who have offended God, deserve judgment, and need forgiveness, psychology teaches that we should see ourselves as helpless victims of our circumstances who cannot control what we do, thus removing all personal accountability. In other words, we are told that we should blame our “unacceptable or aberrant behavior” (aka sin) on our parents, our environment, biological factors, and everything and everyone else except “ourselves.” I’m not denying the fact that these things can influence us. However, the real reason we sin is because we are born with a sin nature and “choose” to sin. Common sense tells us this. From the earliest age (as babies), we sin – all on our own, without anyone showing us how to do this. Every parent knows this. We don’t have to teach our children to be selfish, get angry, or disobey. They do this naturally. In fact, we have to teach them “not” to do these things. They, like all of us, are not born innocent but sinful, as evidenced by our sinful behavior. So, it’s nonsense to think that we are born with a clean slate. Just turn on the news, and it should be quite obvious that man is born in total depravity. Thus, let’s not minimize sin or treat it lightly. Sin is SERIOUS.

What are the ramifications of not viewing sin seriously? If we do not see our sin as truly evil, then we will not see how destitute our spiritual condition is and that we desperately need a Savior (Jesus Christ) and God’s grace. Thus, it is essential – no, it’s critical – that we recognize our sin for what it really is and not make excuses for it. And the way to do that is not only to pray that God would open our eyes so we can recognize our sin, but also to read God’s Word – and not just the positive parts (e.g., His mercy and forgiveness), but yes, the challenging parts, too, including God’s law, which defines sin and is used by God to convict us and drive us to Christ, who alone can save us by His grace.