Several years ago, during one of my ongoing educational pursuits, I reached out to a professor at Wheaton College whose work aligned with my research (the overlap of psychology and theology). He generously sent me a draft of a book he was working on called “Why Sin Matters.” I was intrigued and fascinated by his approach—he wasn’t obsessed with sin, rather he was captured by grace. What he recognized and articulated was that “understanding grace cannot be done without understanding sin.” If we dismiss sin, then we cheapen grace.
We are currently in the thick of Lent, a season of introspection in preparation for Easter. The same can be said about resurrection as the professor said about grace: we cannot understand resurrection without understanding death—the death of the soul that is the result of sin and separation from God.
Scripture offers us remarkable insight into the nature of sin and grace, death and resurrection. Consider King David, a person the Bible describes as “a man after God’s own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14), who, sadly, was also a man all too familiar with sin. In Psalm 32, written after he had asked God for the forgiveness of a horrendous sin in his life, David brings out four different facets of sin:
“Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.” (Psalm 32:1–2).
Transgression: Implies a defiance. It is a deliberate rebellion against God.
Sin: Implies a defect. It literally means to miss the mark or fall short of God’s requirements.
Iniquity: Implies a distortion. It denotes “perverseness” since it comes from a Hebrew word meaning “bent” or “crooked.” Human nature is warped, bent, and twisted instead of being perfect and true.
Deceit: Implies a deception. This aspect of sin is what makes it so hard for someone to voluntarily confess his or her wrongdoing.
One of the universal characteristics of sin is that we almost never immediately want to come clean. Instead, we tend to do one or more of the following when we are confronted with our actions:
We try to cover it up. I recall a quote that went something like “A sin is two sins when it is defended.” Adam and Eve did this after their first sin in the Garden of Eden. They immediately tried to “hide” themselves from the presence of the Lord (Genesis 3:8). Yet, Scripture warns us, “He who covers his sins will not prosper” (Proverbs 28:13).
We attempt to justify ourselves. We convince ourselves that we have a valid reason for what we did, or we place the blame on someone else. This type of response goes clear back to the Garden of Eden again, when Adam tried to place the blame for his sin upon God and Eve: “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate” (Genesis 3:12).
The Hebrew word translated Satan is not a name, but a description, as in “the satan,” which means the accuser. Adam’s first response to God after eating the forbidden fruit was to accuse Eve. One might recognize that the human created in God’s image is now reflecting the image of the Satan. This is a consequence of disobedience, of turning against our Creator, as well as our own nature, the Creator’s image in which we are formed.
A peculiar distortion of sin is that we are unaware of our own sin. Sometimes we sin in ignorance or presumption. That is why David prayed, “Who can discern his errors? Acquit me of hidden faults. Also keep back your servant from presumptuous sins” (Psalm 19:12–13). While some sins (such as murder, adultery, and stealing) are rather obvious, other sins (such as pride, selfishness, and gossip) are not. But according to Jesus, sins of the heart can separate us from God just as easily as sins of the body.
Until we recognize our own responsibility in sin, we will never find forgiveness, since scripture never declares that the blood of Jesus ever cleansed an excuse.
In the last few weeks of Lent, as we prepare for Easter when we celebrate resurrection and grace, may we remember the words of Paul to the Roman believers: “But thanks be to God! You have been set free from sin and have become bound in righteousness.” Understanding the terrors of sin grants us a grasp of the true treasure of our freedom in grace. With that we can genuinely say “Happy Easter!”
Grace and Peace,
Rev. Stephen Carl