Theological Thoughts for Thursday - On Sin, part 1.

I've been thinking a lot about sin lately. In Chinese they don't have a word for "sin." The closest word they have is something closer to "crime." That obviously poses quite a problem for missionaries to China.

Now, I believe very strongly that salvation is so much more than forgiveness from sin to avoid Hell. I believe in repentance, that we as Christians must turn away from our sin and toward God. Sin is anything that separates us from God.

All sin is of equal weight. "For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. For he who said, 'Do not commit adultery,' also said, 'Do not murder.' If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder you have become a lawbreaker." - James 2:10-11 The sin James is referencing before these verses is favoritism. It’s a lifestyle sin!

Jesus spoke out strongly against sin. He told those listening that if their right arm sins they should tear it off. Because it is better to have one arm while in Heaven than to be whole and in Hell. He tells them the same for an errant eye. Now, I have no Christian friends who take these words literally. That or my Biblical-literalist friends are doing much better than I at avoiding sin. In the sermon on the mount Jesus singles out murder and adultery. He says that if you even hate someone you are guilty of murder and that if you even lust after someone you have committed adultery in your heart.

Jesus spoke out strongly against sin. This is an undeniable fact. Now, how we as Christians choose to deal with this is another thing. I have Christian friends on all ends of the spectrum. I know one boy who is so terrified of his sin that he spends all of his energy fighting off his sinful thoughts and actions. He has no time or energy left to love God or love others. I have friends who are "F-ing Christians." I can do whatever I want because I'm a Christian. I'm sometimes mistakenly put in this group by others. I have one friend, who under the realization that she couldn't live out every tenant of the Christian faith, left the faith crushed under the yoke we supplied.

When Jesus offers the lowest and the least a chance at redemption he says, Follow me for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. In the Jewish faith, a yoke refers to the total sum of a Rabbi's teaching. Jesus blasted the Pharisees for giving a yoke that weighed down their followers - and promised his own followers an easy yoke.

This doesn't jive well with a literal understanding of some of the things Jesus has said about sin. What is easy about - even lusting after someone you have committed adultery in your heart? What is light about tearing off limbs that offend? Jews were obsessed with the idea of being sinless. The Pharisees showed all trappings of sinlessness. Jesus called them white-washed tombs and compared them to a cup that has been washed on the outside, but is moldy and gross on the inside.

I hold to the belief that Jesus spoke of sin - and avoiding sin - in a highly sarcastic manner. That in essence he conceded that a person could make it to heaven without Jesus by being sinless ... and then he gave examples of what that would look like. Incredible, impossible examples. Jesus lived a different life, showed a better way, and offered a new hope.