The Nature of Sin, Pt 7: Not Rational
Psalm 38:1-10, 17-22 1LORD, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath. 2Your arrows have pierced me, and your hand has come down on me. 3Because of your wrath there is no health in my body; there is no soundness in my bones because of my sin. 4My guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden too heavy to bear. 5My wounds fester and are loathsome because of my sinful folly. 6I am bowed down and brought very low; all day long I go about mourning. 7My back is filled with searing pain; there is no health in my body. 8I am feeble and utterly crushed; I groan in anguish of heart. 9All my longings lie open before you, Lord; my sighing is not hidden from you. 10My heart pounds, my strength fails me; even the light has gone from my eyes. ….17For I am about to fall, and my pain is ever with me. 18I confess my iniquity; I am troubled by my sin. 19Many have become my enemies without cause; those who hate me without reason are numerous. 20Those who repay my good with evil lodge accusations against me, though I seek only to do what is good. 21LORD, do not forsake me; do not be far from me, my God. 22Come quickly to help me, my Lord and my Savior.
There is something odd about sin; it is relatively easy to talk about in the abstract, but very difficult to confess our personal sins in real time. In our earlier posting about original sin, we talked about how the phrase ‘original sin’ refers to the sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. This is true because as our common federal father we do in fact inherit certain characteristics from him. But it is only partially true. None of us reading this post even existed at that time except in the abstract sense that some of Adam’s nature (DNA) and nurture (training) has passed through all generations until it reached us. But if you think it is unfair to have Adam’s sin imputed to us by God, take a moment to consider this. God imputed Adam’s sin to us because Adam was our representative. But in the exact same manner God imputes the righteousness of Christ to us because He is the representative of all who believe.
Another thing to remember is that sin disrupts but does not destroy the believer’s relationship with God. Satan of course does not want us to understand this and so will burden the believer with condemnation over his or her sin. I have heard many a person claim that “I am not good enough to go to church.” This is of course a lie from Satan to keep that person out of church and thereby be assured of the gift of eternal life. Because of one’s tendency to sin, it is a natural thing to wonder about one’s relationship with God.
Consider that:
Our legal standing before God is unchanged even when we sin. Romans 8:1 says, ‘there is therefor now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus’, Romans 6:23 says ‘eternal life is the free gift of God through Jesus Christ’, and 1Corinthians 15:3 says that Christ died for the payment of all of our sins.
But our relationship with God is damaged, although not ruined. It’s like the relationships we can have with family members: there are times when although our love of a member has not changed, we are displeased with that member. It is the same with God: our sin displeases Him but doesn’t change the way He loves us.
Ephesians 4:30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Hebrew 12:5b-6 “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.”
Heart attitude matters. It is a hard thing to admit, but the behavior of a believer can be faked. In Matthew 7:23 Jesus told such people to ‘depart from me, I never knew you.’ If a person routinely displays behavior inconsistent with believing values then he was probably not a believer to begin with.
All this is to say that while we all have a sin nature, and so we all sin, we should not suppose our sin keeps us from fellowship with God. He provided a solution to that dilemma by offering His Son as a sacrifice for all of our sins. It is not OK to sin. It is OK to go to our heavenly Father confess those sins in repentance and seek forgiveness.
Why then do we sin? First it is because sin is not rational. It made no sense for Satan to rebel against God as if he thought he could elevate himself above the Being who made him, not did it make sense for Adam or Eve to think they could gain the wisdom of God. In either case the intent was simply not possible. Having a sin nature is not an excuse to continue to sin. Also sin does not ‘just happen’. It is a decision. It is a decision to turn away from good toward ‘not-good’ or evil. Why would anyone do that? We saw in the previous posting that Paul, second only to Jesus in the New Testament, still found himself doing what he didn’t want to do and not doing what he wanted to do.
Second, and I am being especially bold here, is that in relation to sin we can be stupid. It is one thing to adhere to the standards of God generally yet fail them in moments of weakness. It is more serious to deliberately (and continually) ignore those standards. Proverbs 1:7 tells us, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.” The Hebrew word here translated as fool indicates someone who is morally corrupt. We are taught what is right and what is wrong but knowing what is right we deliberately choose what is wrong just as did the Apostle Paul. The lesson to be learned is to return to God in repentance. If we continue unrepentantly in sin, we are the foolish—because we are willingly allowing ourselves to remain entrapped by sin. Jeremiah summarizes it pretty well:
Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?