Is It A Sin?

Lectionary Reading: Romans 4:1-8;13-17

One of the questions I hear a lot starts with, “Is it a sin to….” The end of the question varies – “to commit suicide”, “to get angry”, “to divorce an abusive husband”, “to use birth control”… depending on the issue at hand. The sad thing is, I hear a lot more talk about sin than salvation and a lot more consternation about being slaves to sin than celebration about being free in love.

Paul seems to have been hearing the same stuff from the Roman church. In Chapter 4 he launches into a tirade about Abraham, reminding the people that Abraham didn’t inherit the blessings of God because he was sinless (in fact, in you know anything about Abraham you know he had quite a few recorded sins) but because he was loved by God, and God forgave his sins. Paul stresses the important thing is not the law of interpretation, but the love of God. It’s a funny soapbox for a man who spent most of his life as a Pharisee – a teacher of the law. Yet his speech points out some neat things for us too.

Not Every Bad Thing Is A Sin!

I think one of the reason sin is so prevalent in our world is that we talk so much about it and have trivialized it to the point that everything seems like a sin. When we do that the real destruction caused by actual sin goes unnoticed amidst all the judgment over petty issues and personal ideals. There is a difference between casual acts of humanity that may not be in our best interest and sin. In Romans 4 Paul points out a scripture from the old testament that says, “Blessed are they
whose transgressions are forgiven,
and whose sins are covered.”

Transgressions and sins are different things. It reminds me of the old preacher’s joke. A woman walks up to her Pastor one day after church and says “You have to forgive me pastor, I am subject to a terrible sin. The sin of pride has gotten me.” The concerned pastor frowned and asked her, “what do you mean?”. “Well,” she began. “Every Sunday I look at all the women in church and realize I am the prettiest of them all. The whole time you are preaching I become aware of my beauty and how much better looking I am than the rest of your congregants.” The pastor laughed and said, “Oh Mrs. Jones – that’s not a sin. That’s a mistake!”

There is a difference in the two! Transgression means literally “To step across” (American Heritage Dictionary). It means to walk across a boundary. When we step outside of God’s will for us, we are transgressing. Its not hard to do – particularly when some parts of God’s will (where we should work, how we should vote or think about things like abortion, suicide, divorce or war) are not very clear. Still when we step over the boundaries, we are transgressing.

Sin is a conscious betrayal of God’s will by our action or inaction. Sin is when we know exactly what God wants, and deliberately do the other. Sin strikes as the very heart of God and God’s desire for who we are. I think its a mistake (but not a sin) to call every thing that someone does we find to be unacceptable a “sin”. What it does is surround us with sin – and overwhelm us with a sense of spiritual helplessness. By labeling everything sin, nothing gets examined – we just chalk it up to our “fallen nature”, ask forgiveness and move forward. But a transgression – that we could heal, learn from, or discover with – if only we did more than slap a skull and crossbones label on it and surrender to it. A sin reflects a betrayal of a deity. We may transgress against each other – but we do not sin against each other.

More clearly – there are differences between transgressions (forgiven) and sins (covered).

Transgression
Stepping over the boundaries
Sometimes we know where the boundaries are
Sometimes we don’t
We can transgress and not mean to do that
We can learn from transgressions
We can transgress against one another
We can be forgiven
We can forgive others

Sin
Deliberately betraying God
We know what God’s laws are
We know when we are stepping over them
We intentionally are choosing to disobey God – you can’t accidentally sin.
We can learn from the consequences of sin
We cannot sin against one another - a sin is a betrayal of deity
We can be forgiven by God
We cannot forgive the sins of another (only God can forgive)

By keeping a clear view of what we are doing – we are more spiritually prepared to learn from, seek forgiveness and allow God to change our behavior.

Its about Grace!

Further Paul goes on to remind the Romans once again that you cannot “work” out your salvation and you can’t work to get forgiveness. It is the Grace of God that frees you from your transgressions and covers your sins. When we spend so much time obsessed with what is a sin and what are the consequences – we miss the whole point of Christianity which is that Jesus Christ died and rose again to take this matter off our hands (and off our minds). Christ wants a glorifying body that reflects his love, power, change and peace to the world. But just going over again and again our sinful natures – we aren’t bringing anyone closer to God – we are simply hamsters on the wheel of guilt.

Its important people study the bible and know the absolute will of God. Its also important for people to study the bible so they know where the boundaries are and are less likely to transgress against God. But it is critical Paul reminds us – to dwell and celebrate the Grace of God that saves us, and embraced Abraham.

So in your life, instead of always asking the backwards question “Is it a sin….” Start by asking the frontwards question – “What does God want me to do or say” or “Is it the gospel?” –The Bible says every morning God’s mercy is new for us. It’s a new day. Don’t dwell on the failure. Live your life on the faith.