What's the Big Deal About Sin? Part 2
In Part 1 of this series, I told the story of how Christ saved me at age 40 from my life as a so-called Christian and how I struggled after my conversion to understand how I’d gotten it so wrong for so long. What had I missed? Was it simply the blindness of sin that kept me from understanding the Gospel, or did the Gospel message I’d been taught somehow fall short? In the end I realized that it was both. Yes, the “god of this world” had blinded my eyes to keep me “from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Co 4:4). But I also had never encountered a presentation of the gospel that really displayed that glory to me. Yes, I knew Jesus died as a sacrifice for sin, but one unspoken question always remained: What’s the big deal about sin?
That question exposes two fatal flaws at the heart of my misunderstanding of the gospel: 1) I misunderstood the nature of sin, and more fundamentally, 2) I misunderstood the character of God. These two points are so tightly interwoven that it’s nearly impossible to address one independently of the other. The nature of sin is, so to speak, shaped by what it stands in contrast to. Its character is delineated by the Character it opposes. God is perfectly holy—morally impeccable, always and forever the definition of perfection. As the apostle John puts it, “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (1 Jn 1:5). Hence, Paul tells us, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Ro 3:23).
That verse (usually pulled from its context) was nearly always a part of the gospel presentation I’d heard prior to my conversion. Yes, I would agree, all have sinned. Nobody’s perfect. I’m not perfect. But I am not God. Of course I fell short of his glory; I had no idea what that glory consisted of or what my relationship to it could possibly be. Nor, to be honest, did I care all that much. To be blunt, sin seemed more like God’s problem than mine. But I knew Romans 6:23: “the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Ro 6:23). I did want to avoid hell. And I did want God on my side, not against me. To be saved from hell I would happily “accept Jesus as my Savior.” And to keep God on my side, I would try to live according to his rules, insofar as they seemed reasonable to me, and insofar as they didn’t infringe too much on the way of life I wanted to live. In short, though I secretly felt like God was overreacting and that his expectations were unfair, under threat of repercussions, I would say I was sorry and try harder to be a better person. My repentance was exactly as shallow as my understanding of my sin. And my understanding of my sin was as shallow as my understanding of the character of God.
I think we all recognize that an apology isn’t sincere when the person who has wronged us doesn’t really think they have done anything wrong—or if they think we are overreacting—and they are just trying to humor or appease us. We mere mortals recognize such repentance is superficial. So to even begin to appreciate the glory of Christ in saving sinners, we have to believe from the heart that death really is the paycheck that we deserve (Ro 6:23). We have to be convinced that God is neither petty, nor arbitrary, nor unjust. On the contrary, we have to be utterly convinced of his kindness which “is meant to lead [us] to repentance” (Ro 2:4). If we aren’t, we will always see that free gift as little more than a get-out-of-jail-free card rather than the greatest treasure we could ever imagine.
So how can we begin to break through such shallow thinking about God and sin? I’d say the best place to begin is at the beginning—the first three chapters of Genesis. If you are anything like me, you’ve probably been guilty of reading those chapters far too superficially. Perhaps you’ve see them as little more than fodder for Creationist debates. Yes, God is the creator of all things visible and invisible. But we can’t afford to miss the point. The God who spoke the universe into existence was merely setting the stage for something even grander than distant galaxies and teeming oceans. He was setting the stage for the ultimate display of his character:
“So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.“And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Gen 1:27-28).
God has made us in his own image. Genesis (5:3) makes it clear that this “image” terminology is family language. God created this earth as a place to raise a family. The almighty and eternal, the true and living God, the creator of all things created us to be his children. There is no greater honor than to bear the image of God, no higher calling in all creation. Genesis 1-2 exist to help us see this. And as we reflect on the splendor and glory, and the grace and honor of man’s place in it, God expects us to see the horror of Adam’s sin for what it really is.
We will continue this series about sin in the new year, but I encourage you in the meantime to take some time to meditate on Genesis 1-3, carefully considering the greatness of our Creator God and the honor it is to be the beings who bear his image.
