Choosing to See My Separation from God

I remember the first time I stole something. I was six or seven years old, and I walked out of a store with a candy bar in my pocket. When I didn’t get caught and nothing bad happened, I was surprised. As a child I then decided it wasn’t really wrong to take something from someone when you wanted it more than they did. A few years later, however, when my bike was stolen, I changed my mind. There was something messed up about the world when people could actually steal from me.

I was on to something. Every philosophy and religion recognize there is something fundamentally wrong with the world. Most, however, disagree on what the fundamental problem is. What exactly is the root of human dysfunction? It’s all around us. Even a child can see there’s something wrong with the way things work.

The word “sin” carries varying definitions and innuendo depending on who uses it. To some, it might mean socially unacceptable behavior, while to others it could be nothing more than a mistake or a weakness. Still others see it as a silly or overly restrictive, outdated concept that shouldn’t be taken seriously; after all, we have evolved beyond the need for such primitive explanations of the human situation. And then there are those who only see the wrongdoing in others, never in themselves.

There is a growing group of people who choose to see sin as having nothing to do with morality but rather understand it to describe purely an ontological problem: physicality is what’s wrong with the world. If we could find a way to shed our corporeal entanglements and escape to a purer spiritual state of being, then we would experience “salvation.” Sin or evil, in this way of thinking, is nothing more than being stuck in a material world. 

But how do these varying perspectives account for a world that so easily justifies stealing candy bars and bicycles and much, much worse?

Cut Off from God

The Christian faith teaches that “the problem” is related to human choices. It’s a moral issue. It manifests as rebellion against divine order. Instead of submitting to God’s rulership, we are driven to operate as individual masters of our own kingdoms. We’ve chosen to do things our way, separate from our Creator’s intentions and instructions. It has disrupted and twisted everything. 

The problem isn’t always immediately recognizable in us because it’s an accumulation of all the little choices to do life without God. It is ultimately rooted in our alienation from all that God is, a heritage going back to our very first ancestors. We were designed to live in close, intimate connection with Him. But long ago in a garden, the choice to defiantly take one bite from a piece of fruit (Genesis 3) started an avalanche that carried all humanity out of God’s presence. The result is a spiritual and moral infection that has tainted all that was created good with deadly consequences. And that’s what the Bible calls sin.

Sin: Making Our Own Rules

The Apostle John defines sin quite bluntly: “Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness” (1 John 3:4 ESV). Lawlessness here is not referring to specific acts such as exceeding the speed limit while driving or stretching the truth while telling a story or even committing murder. It’s describing a way of walking through life with the understanding that I am the one who sets the rules for myself; there is no legitimate authority outside of me to which I must bow. 

Thus sin, according to John, is a lifestyle of following ‘my own feeling of what’s right’ as the ultimate guide. I need not submit to boundaries that others put on me. All rules are “manmade” and culturally bound and therefore suspect or corrupt. A god of love, after all, would never expect me to do something I don’t feel good about. I must be true to myself. 

So much of sin flows out of this resistance to authority that’s outside my own understanding and feelings. Or it comes from plain ignorance of God’s expectations. Overall, sin is “missing the mark” of what I ought to be because the connection with my Maker, from which I was intended to operate, has been cut.

What to Do About Sin?

While many only see a need for self-improvement, stronger will-power or a way to rid themselves of guilty feelings, for a Jesus follower sin must be addressed directly, honestly, and at the root. The first step is to choose to confess it as a genuine problem (1 John 1:9). This is difficult in our present culture, since actualizing the self has become the way many define what is ultimately good. This is practically lived out as, “I am my own law; I am my own god.” To deal with sin God’s way, we must acknowledge that our drive toward lawlessness (resisting His wise and loving authority) is real and that it has corrupted and continues to corrupt our lives and the world. It has resulted in alienation from God Himself and His intended purpose for the world (Romans 1:21-32). We have to first admit we have a sickness before we can pursue a cure.

We then have to choose how we’re going to respond to it. Ignore our lawless impulse? Embrace it as a misunderstood natural part of who we really are? Or, as the Bible calls us, to hate it and turn from it (Romans 6:12-13). But, as anyone who has ever tried to turn away from sin knows, to do so feels unnatural. It cannot be done merely with a little more will power (Romans 7:21-24). 

Humility is the next ingredient needed. We must acknowledge that we have hurt God in our lawless state and we cannot fix ourselves; a power from the outside is needed to break the grip it has on us, lift us up and resolve the consequences of our lawlessness (1 Peter 5:6), and reconnect us to our source of life.

This is where faith comes in. We must dare to believe that Jesus’ suffering on the cross accomplished what God says it was meant to do: yours and my release from our lawless state of being (Colossians 1:13, 14, 22). The cross is the ultimate expression (counter-intuitively) of God’s goodness. It doesn’t matter necessarily that we fully understand how Jesus’ atonement works. We simply choose to humbly accept our need for an outside Rescuer and finally submit ourselves to do life God’s way, with His help, connected to His community. Confession becomes a vital part of the process.

“Therefore, confess your sins to one another and the pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working” (James 5:16).

The Choices Cannot be Avoided

A follower of Jesus cannot ignore sin. Even for a committed disciple, sin can be subtle, deceptive and always corruptive. We must learn to hate the tendency in ourselves to be our own rule-makers. It’s often easier to settle on merely hating the sin we see in others.

I have written several posts exploring what have traditionally been understood as cardinal sins (seven of them: pride, greed, lust, sloth, gluttony, anger, and envy). These are the core ones we share in common with all humans and from which all other sins spin off. From them rebellion, lawless habits, and the sickness of our souls spring, and we must choose what we’re going to do with each that’s at work in our lives. Taking them seriously is a first step in getting at the root of humanity’s dysfunction and experiencing true redemption for ourselves as individuals and for the world.

Sin is the problem. It has cut me off from God. It has done its corruptive work in me. Are we ready to call it what it is and deal with it God’s way?

Response:

• What’s my definition of sin?
• In what ways do I still live as if I am my own rule-maker? 
• What is my reaction to being told by an outside voice what’s right and what’s wrong for my life?
• What would it take for me to admit that I am sinful, with a sickness in my soul and need to change the way I think about it?
• Jesus, what do you want to show me about my sin that keeps me separated from God?

(Edited and reposted from November 11, 2019 “Choosing to Recognize the Problem” and May 31, 2021 “Choosing to Recognize My Own Sin”)