The problem with Twenty-first Century Evangelicalism and sin isn’t just an issue of quantity. It is its overall neglect of sin’s true nature.
In his book The Faith-Shaped Life Ian Hamilton cites George Swinnock, who was addressing the problem of the attitude to sin in his day. In Chapter 16 (Faith’s Great Sorrow), Hamilton notes that Swinnock’s words “remarkably describe twenty-first century evangelical Christianity:
We take the size of sin too low, and short, and wrong, when we measure it by the wrong it doth to ourselves, or our families, or our neighbours, or the nation wherein we live; indeed, herein somewhat of its evil and mischief doth appear, but to take its full length and proportion, we must consider the wrong it doth to this great, this glorious, this incomparable God. Sin is incomparably malignant, because the God principally injured by it is incomparably excellent. ~ George Swinnock, Works of George Swinnock (Banner of Truth)
Hamilton tells us that this is a basic and elementary truth which “our present generation of Christians has all but lost sight of.” He observes that sin is often presented as in terms of its “psychological pains and its relational disruptions.” While this is true, he notes the true heart of the matter,
The heart and horror of sin, however, is not its effect on me, but its effect on God, ‘the incomparably excellent God.’… Sin’s ultimate tragedy can only be defined theologically, not psychologically or relationally.
We’re given the example of King David who committed adultery with Bathsheba and then conspired to murder her husband. David committed atrocities against others, yet he wrote in Psalm 51:4:
Against Thee, Thee only, I have sinned, And done what is evil in Thy sight, So that Thou art justified when Thou dost speak, And blameless when Thou dost judge.
Ian Hamilton writes,
…until men and women are helped to see that the horror of sin is that it is against God, and makes you his enemy (Rom. 5:10), Jesus Christ will never be seen for what he most essentially is, the One sent from God, and by God, to reconcile us to God, deliver us from the coming wrath, and fit us for eternal fellowship with God. The root of all our ills is our sin-ruptured relationship with the living God.
We’re pointed to Isaiah’s experience of a vision of God in Isaiah 6. Hamilton reminds us that: “If we are to see sin for what it truly is, we must first come to see God as he truly is.”
He is right! To understand the necessity for the cross, we must comprehend the Attributes of God and His distaste for sin. Sadly we live in an age where it is fashionable for some professing Christian leaders and ministers to question aspects of Christ’s work on the cross. They allow this culture to redefine what sin is, and hence the gospel.
The last sentence in Chapter 16 caps it off neatly: “Grasping even a little the exceeding sinfulness of sin will magnify the Saviour’s love and grace in your eyes.”
P.S.
Often it is difficult to keep a proper balance in our walk (mostly true of me). We can get so caught up in our sins that our condition derails us. A recent tweet by Mike Reeves gives us some correction:
Christian, don’t look to your behaviour, your feelings or your faithfulness for your standing before God. Jesus Christ is your righteousness and your status. Always there, always reliable, always the same.
I further recommend reading Reeves’ Foreword to Thomas Goodwin’s ‘The Heart of Christ in Heaven.’
Maranatha!
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