Talking About Sin in a Sinless Age
Sin is bad, but exactly how bad?
The English Puritan Ralph Venning wrote a book called The Sinfulness of Sin. That might sound like a silly tautology. Yet Venning’s title is I believe well-chosen. He explains it this way: “sin is sinful, all sinful, only sinful, altogether sinful and always sinful”. This corresponds with the pervasive power of sin as underscored in scripture: According to Jeremiah: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jer 17:9). And Paul remarked that we were all “dead in trespasses and sins” (Eph 2:1; Col 2:13). I haven’t read much Augustine, but I can tell you as a parent that original sin is real. I never taught my kids how to lie, steal, or hurt others - they did it unprompted like it was in their DNA. Toddlers would torture their mamma for an oreo cookie! So let us be clear, sin is more than social, sin is personal, sin is ubiquitous in human experience, so much so that we can even call it a dark power that we grow up to be enslaved by!
But talking to people about sin is hard if people no longer believe in sin. I cannot speak for America, but certainly in the United Kingdom and Australia, the words “sin” and “sinner” are no longer an affront. Sin means “naughty, but fun.” To be a sinner is to rage against the machine, to live by your own rules, to be a rebel who refuses to knuckle under any authority. The only people who are against sin are moralizing geriatrics found in churches. For instance, not far from where I used to live was a Tattoo Parlor called “Sin the Skin” and close by there was an Adult Sex Shop called “Sinsational.”
This is important because we must never forget that sin is an offense against God. However sin hampers our personal flourishing, irrespective of how sin harms the people around us, sin is fundamentally an affront to God. God is the party most offended by our sinning. Unless we can explain that point, clearly and comprehensively, the gospel, which declares the forgiveness of sins, will never make sense.
So how do you speak about “sin” in a world where “sin” is something to be celebrated, not to be loathed? In such a context, how do you say “Jesus died for your sins” or “I am a sinner saved by grace” to people who no longer believe in sin?