Church and "Sin"

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek." (Rom. 1:16)

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[Author's Note: This essay briefly explores the difference between the "Gospel" preached in most mainline churches and the true Gospel of Jesus Christ...and the reason why that difference, tragically, will probably remain.]

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The "Offense" of the Gospel

The modern church understands very well the "offense" of the Gospel. (1 Cor. 1:23) In order to keep the “good” people as congregants, it has had to re-define the sin issue. Sin is no longer the inherent depravity of all individuals, for which our outward “sins” are merely the symptom.

No, people are inherently good, we are told, not depraved, and therefore the focus needs to be on “sins” (plural) which, because people are inherently good, are cast simply as the results of people making “human” mistakes, despite their better judgment, inclination, or intention.

More religious education, more church attendance, maybe even just more concentration on being good, or more awareness that my sin causes others problems, should be enough to lick the sin problems plaguing my life here on earth and any issue with God in the hereafter.

According to the theology passed off as the Gospel in many churches, it is not that we have a deep seated, unchanging bent towards sin and rebellion, but that occasionally we “slip-up.” And God, being a stickler for details can’t allow that.

For any church whose main goal is self-perpetuation, the message is this: “Confess your sins to Jesus and He will forgive you, (and, by the way, maybe try to clean up your act a bit for next week”...)

The average churchgoer will normally agree to confessing that they believe that Jesus died for their sins. The problem is that many are not sure that they really have any.

And in the same breath with their confession, they will endorse and live by the Universal Assumption - the assumption that they are "good people", not like the "sinners", and that God generally agrees with their own justifications of their life choices. (See The "Sincerity" Loophole).

In other words, the average churchgoer’s unspoken assumption is that Jesus’ death takes care of his slip-ups (big and little), but his record of good works ultimately separates him from the big-time sinners whose record of good works is sorely lacking and, frankly, whose sins are way beyond God’s capacity to forgive anyway.

God will have to grade on a curve - (He can’t really mean it when He says He demands absolute holiness) - and it will be no problem for me to gain admittance to heaven because the rest of mankind is so obviously beyond mercy.

Accordingly, the words we actually think while we mumble our weekly confessional in church, is along the lines of:

“Dear God, I have probably screwed up a couple of times this week (although I can’t specifically remember how or when), and I thank you that (despite the fact that you are so petty as to take account of each of these, no matter how immaterial) Jesus came to take the penalty (that in your cold-hearted, unforgiving justice you demand.)”

And the church hierarchy assures us that God will grant this forgiveness, but get out there tomorrow and try harder not to do it again, or win one for the Gipper, or some such nonsense.

We must think God is a fool.

The sad truth is that today's church offers a safe haven for all those seeking to leave undisturbed their grasp on the Universal Assumption, and its grasp on them. In fact, church may be the safest place of all, because the church-goer regularly comforts himself with the thought that he is "good" people, primarily because he attends church. And the whole underlying church dynamic sans Gospel acts as a constant re-affirmation of the Universal Assumption - that we “good” people have nothing to fear from God.

Escape From Judgment

"What, then, shall we do?" This is the question of those actually pricked in heart by the Gospel message, those who have come to comprehend that the Universal Assumption is a lie.

They may not yet believe that they are capable of the horrors of a pedophile, or even an adulterer, but they have a strong suspicion, a growing realization, that things are not right with them at all, that deep down they are prone to entertaining the vilest of thoughts. They are acutely aware of their own internal struggles, of the road rage, the lust, the temper tantrums, the barely containable unfocused anger against the world, and on occasion against those they love.

They know something is deeply amiss, but they dare not admit it to the world, for what will the world think?

The problem sensed by these people requires a remedy well beyond "Jesus died for my occasional loss of control," or "forgive me my miscues." It is "God, have mercy on me, a sinner" for I am a rebel at heart, and I cannot help or change myself. And I feel strangely compelled to try to continue to carry on this charade in the hope that I will not be discovered as I really am. I am tired of doing so, and know that God is not fooled, either now or at the Final Judgment.

If, when, we pray this prayer to God, according to Paul in Romans 6, an incredible thing happens.

What the Creator has decided to do, for each of us, is analogous to the kiss bestowed on Sleeping Beauty, or on the frog by the Princess.

He takes our old spiritual self and joins us to Christ on the cross, outside of Time, away from our senses and emotions, far below our conscious level of existence. We are there crucified with Christ, - our Old Man (see Romans 6), the human nature we inherited as part of the human family, dead and buried, - and then joined with Him in resurrection life. His righteousness is now ours (2 Cor. 5:21).

No longer rebels by nature we are finally fit for the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of our Father.

We still struggle while still here on earth with the remnants, the habits, the thought patterns of the old nature, but our sin engine is now dead, and at our physical death, once we are clothed in our new resurrection body, we will no longer struggle with these either.

This is the mystery of salvation and the awesome power, and Love, of God. All to this end: that we might be translated out of the race of Adam, and out from under judgment, into the race of His Son, and the objects of His favor, that we might be transformed from rebels by nature to something radically, radically different - Princes and Princesses of the King of the Universe, actual sons and daughters of the Most High God.

Such is the goodness and mercy of God.