The trivialization of sin ...

I have come to wonder if one of the main problems in the evangelical world is the trivialization of sin. I'm sure many people would read that sentence and say, "yes - we've gotten too soft and are too much like the world!" But that's not quite what I mean. We are soft on sin - but not in the way most people mean it. They want to hear us condemn the sins of the world, and to do so loudly and angrily. In my limited experience (limited in that I am only one person and can only hear so many voices), I have heard too much of the "us vs them" style where "they" are the sinners, that "we" have it right, and that we are in a war with them. But that is so much politics and so little reflection of what I see in the New Testament. If Jesus did not come to condemn but to save, if we are all saved by grace, changed by grace, and maintained by grace - why do we self-righteously condemn the world - or worse yet other Christians? (And yes, I realize the irony of me, a sinner, critiquing other sinners in this way. By doing so, I put myself in the same category as those I critique. I just don't know what else to do but talk of what I see) None of us have it right, and we are all beggars telling other beggars where we found bread.

My perception of what has happened is that we have put all our eggs in the wrong basket. Well, maybe not the completely wrong basket, but perhaps a terribly deformed basket with all the wrong dimensions. To be sure, "the world" sins in great ways - but, then again, isn't that what we should expect? There is no reason in their mind why they should submit or even acknowledge God's law and no inclination in their heart to do so - so why are we surprised that they live like they do, advance the causes they do, and resent being told otherwise? Doesn't that describe you, Christian, before Christ reached into your life and gave you a new heart?

But that's not really what I'm talking about, either. That's an important conversation to have and one that has critical answers. What I am primaily talking about is the trivialization of the sin within the Christian world, the trivialization of the struggle, and the trivialization of what God says. Sin is not just the "big, bad sins" that are so obvious. Those who love the Bible as God's testimony to the Unique Word to humanity know that Jesus took the law - which the Pharisees had trivialized and made deal with purely the external - and turned it back inward, where it belonged. No longer was it enough to just "not commit adultery" - now it was about that internal action we call lust. No longer was it "good enough" to have never committed murder - now it was about hate in your heart and what comes out of your mouth. No longer is it about "seperating ourselves" from the worldly vices of "smoking, drinking, or dancing," but the much more tenacious sins of attitudes, words, and thoughts. But "Christians" recognize that these things are far more difficult to change in any real way, so instead of admitting defeat (because we don't really know how to defeat these things), we redefine the problem into something manageable. We become moralists - and weak ones at that.

However, one does not have to be a Christian to stop smoking. One does not have to be a Christian to stop drinking. One does not have to be a Christian to stop sleeping around. The last few decades have shown us that people can change their behavior in these areas aside from any commitment to Christ. A little scare from cancer, from aids, or the thought of losing your family or reputation is enough for many to stop these actions. But that's not the gospel. That's not how you enter a relationship with God - on the basis of your works (or non-works). You are not OK just because you don't do these things. Yet, because many christians have no real answers, they resort to fear, minimization of God's standards, or just stating the law. What's that saying, when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail? Law condemns, it has no power to change people. But when you trivialize God's law into some manageable acts or non-acts, you have done far greater damage ...

Because the Christian message is so much more radical, because it talks of a change so much deeper than these superficial things, I have found that many Christians, many popular Christian materials, and even many popular Christian teachers just don't go there because they don't have answers to these deeper questions. It's far easier to get everyone to eat Christian cookies and wear Christian underwear and go to church 14 times a week than to engage the depth of sin in ourselves and develop the humility to be able to engage the world in a way that actually attracts those in whom God is working.

I am so tired of sin being trivialized and making everyone "nice" and "bland." Jesus didn't die to make us "nice" and he didn't die to make us "boring." There is a grittiness to the fight against sin that just doesn't go well with our nice Sunday clothes and our guarded speech and our veneer of spirituality. There is a sense in which we are to be unified and similar - but diversity is also something "good" that God has designed into the world which he created. Someday we're going to see the depths of our sin - our motives and thoughts laid bare. I don't know if its a private conversation between us and God or out in the open for all to see, but I do think we will see the true depths of our sin so that we might finally understand the true depths of his mercy and love toward us. It will not be, in one sense, a pleasant experience for any of us - but I think many of us will be shocked of the sins we never heard of from our "respected teachers" because in the end, we suffer from a system - well-hidden - of self-justification (note: I absolutely believe in substitutionary atonement and that our sins were given to Christ who suffered for them, and his righteousness was given to us - and therefore there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus).

What I mean is that we feel we are right with God when we do these "Christian things" or when we avoid those "worldly things." We have a modified sense of justification by works. Jesus was good for us when we became Christians - but we've outgrown him now. We understand now what we need to do or not do to be right with God. The cross is for little kids and weak people - the rest of us will get there by self-discipline - self-discipline on these "easy" external things, of course. I so long to hear a sermon on the depth of sin within our hearts from a man who truly understands his own unworthiness and dependence on God. Someone who I can say, "He understands the struggle in our hearts and is not afraid to admit it in his own - and he knows where the only hope for this is to be found." Not someone who is so externally polished that the glare is blinding - like a brand-new, polished Statue of Liberty - but who is hollow on the inside. Or, in Jesus words, "whitewashed tombs full of dead men's bones."

I'm afraid that we have much of that going on in America today, and here in my hometown, too. Sin is trivialized by men who do not know how the gospel calls them to struggle with their own sin in a life-long war, where battles are won and lost, but who bring God's standards down to attainable levels (especially levels they can attain) and then divide the world into "us" and "them."

Lord, forgive me my sins. Grant me the realization of the depth of my own sins and your power and knowledge for the struggle before me. And the understanding that I do not talk as an outsider to the human race. Open my eyes and the eyes of my brothers and sisters - for your name's sake ...