Redefining Sin

Growing up there was a phrase thrown around "Don't drink, smoke or chew, or go with girls who do." A moralistic view of sin believes sin is simply bad things that we choose to do with our lives. This view is fundamentally flawed. One of the reasons it is flawed is because "badness" is usually erected and defined by our specific culture. For the conservative, fundamentalist badness is smoking and taking on an Aerosmith concert. For the liberal it might be littering that cigarette and judging rockbands by their cover. Both sides religiously have erected standards that categorize and thereby minimize a true nature of sin. Neither conservative or liberal definitions and categories of sin go deep enough to actually get at what is wrong with the world.

Sin in the Scripture is not simply an arbitrary list of things rendered "bad" by God or anyone else. In the Scripture sin is defined as anything that seeks to decoy itself and/or substitute itself for the Creator God. Pastor Tim Keller puts it like this. . ."Sin isn't only doing bad things. it is more fundamentally making good things into ultimate things. Sin is building your life and meaning on anything, even a very good thing, more than on God. Whatever we build our life on will drive us and enslave us. Sin is primarily idolatry" (excerpt from "Talking about Idolatry in a Postmodern Age" ).

If we want to find out where sin is in our lives, we have to look at our idols. An idol is anythingthat we seek to find ultimate security, satisfaction or significance in other than God. We tend to think of Baal or Aphrodite when we think of an idol. But, with this working definition of idolatry, an idol can be really bad things like Meth, illicit sex or greed...or very, very good things like the United States, a Mocha, a spouse or even ministry!

If we desire to grow in our spiritual lives, we begin to dismantle our personal idols and in so doing, will uncover the fact that our sin is not primarily about breaking rules. It is about broken relationship. In toppling our idols we will recognize how these idols held out the promise of security, significance and satisfaction apart from our loving and gracious Creator. And, often we will discover that the "sins" that emerge from beneath the idols of our heart were actually really good things that subtly became ultimate things.

But, keep in mind that the fruit from the tree in the garden was also a creation of God rendered "good". God himself declared it so. But, that goodness was never meant to replace the Creator Himself. And, that's precisely what happened in the garden that day. A simple act led to a monstrous substitution and the created world has never been the same. Adam and Eve are a lot like you and I. They tried to get something ultimate out of something good, and in the process led the human race in a place it was never intended to go.

Your sin and my sin...probably isn't sinister and evil. Truthfully, most of my sins are lathered in good intentions. But, good things are not ultimate things. Means never replace the End. The created order was never intended to replace the Creator. Any attempt to do so. . .whether intentionally or unintentionally. . .whether for good or for evil. . .is ultimately sin.