Sin is...

I've heard a lot of talk about sin recently, and not in the traditional sense of naming what is and what isn't, but in a way that encapsulates sin with a single statement or idea.

- I heard recently that all sin could be covered by covetousness, wanting what we don't have and aren't granted by God. Since God grants all things for our good, to desire something else is to desire something other than what has been given us. One could draw distinctions between healthy desire and unhealthy, of course, but I think the point is well made.

- On another 10 commandments line, having other Gods encapsulates all other sin. For to do anything disobedient is to place your own needs and wants ahead of God's and thus, make that thing or person a God ahead of He who is God.

- Idols. Same thing really, only to make images, even of God (in a fashion meant for direct worship) can be considered sin. God is not to be seen and can not be imagined in his true form, it is beyond comprehension, and any effort to do this reduces God to that particular rendering. Reducing God limits God and is sin. This is somewhat redundant, but to gaze upon something in a God-like way, literally or figuratively, is sin.

- I heard John MacArthur once say sin is to break the greatest commandment. That of not loving God with everything you have all the time and not loving your neighbor as yourself. Since this is almost NEVER done, it can be said that we're almost always in a state of sin all the time, in a true sense of the word. Then one can (and he did) bring that full circle and say, who are we to categorize sins we deem to be especially evil? When we're breaking the greatest commandment virtually every hour of every day?

- Randy Pope drew a nice illustration where one had a target. To shoot an arrow and hit the bullseye is to live by faith, in righteousness. To have your arrow fall short is to have transgressed, to be long is to have trespassed. Both are sin, and I think when we lapse into a moralistic bent, we would be well reminded of this.

- Keller said in a wonderful message on "Preaching the gospel", sin is basing your life on anything but God. If that sounds trite, listen to the full message because it will blow you away. The brilliance of this statement is within the context of preaching, this crosses generational and philosophical boundaries. It cuts through the post-modern, relativist thinking, avoiding the lists of certain moralities that can perhaps be up for debate (and will be debated within that way of thinking). The real genius of that statement (attributed really to Luther) is it also seeps into the 'modern evangelical' paradigm (modern meaning, not post-modern). If the basic approach to preaching in the 20th century is, "You're bad, get better" and the basic practical out-cropping of that becomes, "The purpose of life is to be a good person", then you have built an unfortunate barrier that is very tough to deconstruct. Keller goes on to say that these things which are essentially idols, be they good living, loving your children, working hard, etc, once they become more important than the righteousness of Christ, you are in fact, sinning. A test of this might look like this.

You have a mother who loves her children and her husband is a poor father who is hindering the psychological development of the children. The woman has great difficulty forgiving. Trusting in Christ, loving Christ more than she loves her children, she gets to the point where she can forgive the father. However, in the case where she simply can't forgive him, that is a clear indication that she doesn't love Christ more than her children.

All that to say, I have developed my own offering. Sin is to feel inadequate. OK, so we are inadequate, right? Well, for the non-believer, you are inadequate, yes that's true. And to be inadequate, you're in your fallen state and you are in sin.

To be a believer and to feel inadequate is sin also, not because you are inadequate but because you live as if you are. Because what you're really saying is, though Christ died for me, and his perfect life of sinlessness has been imputed to me and I'm empowered to live in that same way, to feel inadequate is disbelief! You are saying, "I don't believe it. I don't believe in Christ's perfection. I reject the notion that these things are possible for me."

Keller via Luther goes on to say, the moment in which we sin, in that moment, we don't believe the gospel. It is also restating the first commandment to have no other Gods before God, which Luther says in the Larger Catechism simply means, is denying the truth of the gospel.

I don't think this is the same as true humility. Humility is knowing your limitations that have been given you by design. Or simply proper perspective and reflection on who you are and not boasting of the gifts you have been given.

False humility is lying in order to be perceived as properly humble. You are then seeking man's approval as no one would be falsely humble before God; there's enough reason to feel genuinely humble. Yet even before God, we should not feel inadequate. That is an affront to God because he made us adequate, through Christ! Steve Brown's ministry is based on the message that "Christian, God is not mad at you!" God is mad at unbelievers and they would be wise to do business with God on that issue. But this idea we have as believers that Christ's righteousness is not available and that God does not look at believers as perfect causes great problems for us as we revert to our old master...sin.

Who has walked into a room of people you don't know in some area of work, or church, or whatever it may be and naturally assumes that everyone in there has more capabilities than they? I do that all the time. Even at things I'm good at, whether it be a game, speaking, music, whatever. I usually find this isn't true at all and chastise myself for the doubt, for feeling inadequate.

God does not call us to live this way. Not to go through life like a bull in a china shop, trying to overwhelm everything in your path because that is arrogance. But certainly not to enter the situations of life lacking confidence or self-belief.

One of my favorite verses, in fact, my favorite verse is 2 Timothy 1:7. For God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and of self discipline. Maybe I just discovered why that is my favorite verse because that verse describes the opposite of how I often am, but it contains assurance of who I can be. If only I could live my life with that in mind all the time, I would not feel inadequate, I would constantly have the love and power of Christ in view, and I could be a better, bolder disciple.