The Real Face of Sin

We’ve been deceived, misled, duped into believing a lie from the enemy.

The social, philosophic and religious traditions continue to spread the hoax that sin is fun, enjoyable, pleasurable and really only bad if we get caught, or if we hurt someone in the process – although nobody seems willing to agree on what classifies as “hurt”.

The accuser (that is, the devil) has conned us into misunderstanding, and then falsely teaching that God the Father simply doesn’t like it when we have fun sinning.  It’s as if we’re a bunch of irresponsible children drinking from a chocolate fountain and then making a mess of the white furniture as we do.  We’re having the time of our life until the big bad mean God shows up and starts punishing everyone.

We’ve been conned into believing that God is actually the accuser, rather than satan, which is, of course, completely ludicrous.  

The Penal Substitution view of the Atonement has done great damage to the popular understanding of not only God’s character, but also of the nature of sin, salvation and the Great Commission.  This common view now demonizes God as the judge, jury and executioner for every “black mark” on our record, and effectively brings us back to the very human conception of “salvation by works,” where the goal seems to be simply doing more good than bad during our lifetime, and hoping it’s enough.  This is precisely what we would expect from a human religion or philosophy.  This is precisely what we should expect from the “father of lies,” whose goals are to deceive and to accuse.

But fortunately for us, God’s Word is full of light, truth and clarity.

In Matthew 1:21 we see that the Messiah would be called “Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

Notice here that He doesn’t save people from the punishment of their sins, but from the sins themselves.

In John 3:17 we are reminded that God didn’t come into to the world to condemn the world, but rather to save the world.

And of course Jesus’ whole ministry told a consistent narrative that we are not condemned for our sins, but encouraged to repent – to leave sin in the rear view mirror and not turn back.

It turns out that God is concerned about sin, but perhaps not for the reasons we thought.

The biblical word for sin roughly translates to “missing the mark”.  The natural question that emerges is “what is the mark?”  And unfortunately this is another thing people have a hard time agreeing on.

One way to answer this question is to look back to the Creation account and attempt to understand the original purpose of creation in general, and the purpose of humans in particular.  Among other things, we read that humans were made in the image of God, given meaningful work in the garden, and then walked/lived in close relationship with God.  So however else we would define each of these, we could argue that the “mark” involves bearing God’s image well, stewarding creation and walking in unbroken relationship with God.

Another way to answer this question is to lean into the invitation to discipleship.  “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”  In Jewish culture the disciples of a particular teacher/Rabbi would do everything within their power to mimic/mirror/reflect the actions, words and character of their Rabbi.  So we could view the “mark” as “Christ-likeness”.  

Still others may choose different priorities as the “mark,” such as the pursuit of happiness, pleasure, accomplishment, or the old classic “eat, drink and be merry.”  

What if we started to hold up the definition of sin next to each of these “marks”?  

When we are missing the mark, we are failing to reflect God’s image, we are failing to steward creation, we are failing to walk with God.  

When we are missing the mark, we are failing to model our lives after our Rabbi.

When we are missing the mark, we are failing to find happiness, failing to find pleasure, and failing to accomplish our goals.  

Sin is antithetical to happiness.  

Sin bears no similarity to pleasure.  

Sin is not cute, funny or fun.

Sin is vile, wretched dog vomit (2 Pet. 2:22).  By grace we can eject poison from our system through vomit.  So how disgusting and dumb would it be for us to start lapping up poisonous vomit?

Paul sheds some wonderful light on the subject: “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom. 6:23)

For years I had misread this text to say that the “punishment for sin is death.”  But that’s not what it says!  It’s the “wages”, not the punishment.

Picture a job interview.  When all goes well and the employer wishes to offer the job to a given candidate, they can then negotiate the terms of employment.  Both parties must be in agreement in order for the employee-employer relationship to begin.  A part of these negotiations inevitably revolves around wages/compensation.  What is fair?  What is expected?  When all parties agree, the work can begin, and over time the agreed-upon wages are given in accordance with the work.

The wages of sin is death.

We aren’t punished FOR our sins, but BY our sins.  But it’s even worse than that, because our fair wages are antithetical to the very core of our nature as beings created in the image of God – who of course is the creator and sustainer of life.  Sin isn’t just a problem because it hurts us.  Sin is a problem because it unravels God’s good creation.  Sin is a problem, because we were created to LIVE!

Many years ago I heard about a tactic that Arctic hunters would use to fend off dangerous wolves.  They would take a sharp knife and coat it in blood (from elk or some other game), and then wait for the blood to freeze.  After it had frozen, they would coat it in more blood, and repeat the process several times.  After several coats, they would go out into the tree line and secure the knife to the ground with the blood-coated blade sticking up.  Drawn by the scent of blood, a wolf would discover the blade and begin to lick it.  As the licking continued, the wolf’s tongue would get cut open, and before long, the blood it was tasting was its own.  Eventually the wolf would bleed to death from licking the bloody knife.

This is perhaps the best picture of sin that I’ve ever come across.

Sin is never good, never enjoyable, never cute and never fun.  But we can be deceived by the enemy into thinking that it is – just like the blood-coated knife.  

“But God so loved the world that He sent His one and only Son so that whosoever believes would not die, but have eternal life.”

I love how Paul finished his statement in Romans 6:23 – “The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  

We work for sin.  We work for death.  We work hard for disappointment.

But Christ offers us every good and perfect gift for free.

“Go and leave your life of sin.”  “Repent, for the kingdom [of life] is here.”

There really is good news in the Gospel, but it’s hard to find it until we’ve unmasked the real face of sin.