The End of Sin As We Know It: How Our Misunderstanding of Sin Actually Makes Us Sin
A repentant plant.
Self-loathing is persistent. It’s somehow made its way over the centuries from medieval self-flagellation into our 21st century faith.
But it’s not biblical. And I’m over it.
Can we even hear the call of God through his prophets when they cry in the wilderness?
Our self-loathing makes us wince at the sound of “Repent of your sins!”
Our self-loathing has us hearing: “Wallow in despair, worm that you are, for all your mistakes because God’s watching closely and judging your every move.”
But all the prophets through the ages were sent by a loving God to call the hearts of the people back to Him. And if God’s words through the prophets were harsh, it was not in hatred but in alarm. I often told my kids, “Don’t worry so much about my displeasure with you. I’m just the rumble strip, warning you about where you’re headed. The really scary thing is the cliff you’ll drop off if you don’t heed the sound of the rumble strip.” The prophets are rumble strips, warning: “Repent of your sins!” To hear their message, we need better definitions of sin and repentance.
While repentance may bring about emotions—lamenting, regretting, grieving our choices—it’s not primarily about emotion but an act of will. It’s an invitation to change our mind, to redirect our course, to turn around from the direction we’re walking and to move towards God again.
And avoiding sin is not about working anxiously for perfection so we never break a rule. The word most used for sin in the New Testament is also used for arrows going astray. Other New Testament words for sin use the metaphors of losing your way or straying from the right path. Our western minds have imagined only an arrow that’s already landed—the damage is done, the mark has been missed and a bad score has been given. But there’s a reason the first followers of Jesus were called The Way. This is an ongoing journey. The question is: are we taking every step in the direction of God?
So our sin is every choice we make which moves us away from God, closes our hearts to God. Of course, that leads to certain behaviours—the more obvious sins—but it begins with a posture of the heart. And repentance is every choice we make to move towards God again, to soften our heart to Him.
Here’s why this is important:
The way we currently think about sin often leads us towards sin.
The way we currently think about sin leads us towards sin.
Here’s what I mean by that:
When we say “I’ve done too many bad things, God will never receive me” we turn inward, underestimating God’s love, instead of turning toward relationship with God. We’re sinning (turning away from God) and we need to repent (turn toward him again).
When we say, “Have I done enough yet to make God happy?” once more, we’re turning away from God, imagining our sanctification is something we desperately work on alone. We’re sinning (turning away from God) and we need to repent (turn toward him again).
Even when we say, “Who is God to judge me!?” we’re turning away in pre-emptive rejection of the God we perceive to be assessing our every act, waiting for us to slip. We’re sinning (turning away from God) and we need to repent (turn toward him again).
Every moment of crisis, every anxiety or concern presents us with a choice. It can become an opportunity to pray, to choose to say “there’s a God at work who’s bigger than my small understanding.” It can be an opportunity to realign our hearts towards God. On the other hand, we can choose, in that crisis, to say, “I have to fix this all alone” and now we’re turning away from reliance on God (which then often leads to the violent, destructive and unhealthy behaviours on our vice lists).
Sadly, the crisis of our own vice often leads us to this second choice, driving us to desperately solve our own sin problem. So our anxiety about what we understand as sin leads us to the actual sin of turning away from God.
Our anxiety about what we understand as sin leads us to the actual sin of turning away from God.
How can a plant ever expect to flourish if it cuts itself off from its own source of life?
I inherited a plant which had somehow contorted itself into a U-shape, steadily growing straight down towards the ground. So I put it in a place where it got more sunlight and it had a change of heart. Now it’s shaped like a very ungainly “S,” headed straight back up to the light. It makes me smile—a repentant plant. I keep it at the church, as a prayer for us all to remember to reorient our hearts to God, over and over again.
We think that our sin effects our relationship with God in a two-step transactional process:
We made a bad choice.
God has to break relationship.
It’s tit-for-tat. Not much grace in a relationship that punishes us with the cold shoulder every time we slip up.
But sin’s effect on our relationship with God is actually just a one-step process—we’ve chosen to break connection with God so why are we surprised if he feels far away? He goes nowhere. We stray from him. God doesn’t like our choice to break that relationship but he has empowered us with agency and he lets us use it, both to move away from and towards Him. He will not coerce us but waits for us to remember him again.
When we perceive God as the one who breaks relationship with us every time we sin, it’s no wonder we feel like we’re walking on eggshells. If we imagine he won’t receive us back until we grovel in self-hatred to show our remorse, it’s no wonder we live in resentment of Him.
But when we understand that we’re the ones who chose to wander from Him and he’s waiting for us to turn, suddenly everything is different.
And when our wandering is taking us toward dangerous places, it’s good to know our loving God sends prophets to warn us: Repent of your sins!