We hear Christians say this all the time: we are all sinners... but what does it mean?
Lost at Sea (Full Flame Film Series) by Reinhard Bonnke:
My friend sent me this clip, which was played in the
Barnabas School of Missions yesterday: In this powerful segment from the Full
Flame Film Series, Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke shares on the true mission of the
Church and the calling of every Christian. This 10 minute clip tells us a thing or two about human nature.Lost at Sea (Full Flame Film Series) by Reinhard Bonnke:
Bible talks about sins in two ways:
1.
Specific
actions: People today think more in terms of sins, that is individual
wrong acts.
2.
Our nature:
Many people are unable to grasp the concept of sin as an inner force, an
inherent condition, a controlling power.
The essential nature
of sin
l
Sensuality
n
The
tendency of the lower or physical nature to dominate and control the
higher or spiritual nature. As Paul warns, the “flesh”.
n
This
view has significant shortcomings. It seems to disregard the fact that many
sins, and perhaps the worst sins, are not physical in nature. Further,
rigid control of one’s physical nature does not appear to have any marked
effect upon one’s degree of sinfulness. Ascetics attempt to bring their
physical impulses under control and yet they are not necessarily less sinful as
a result. Other sins may be present, including pride. The sinful nature,
repressed in one area, simply forces expression in some other area.
l
Selfishness
n
The
“choice of self as the supreme end which constitutes the antithesis of supreme
love to God”.
n
Preferring
one’s own ideas to God’s truth, or the satisfaction of one’s own will to doing
God’s will, or loving oneself more than God.
n
Problem
with this view: Some of what we do cannot really be characterised as selfish in
the strict sense, yet is sinful. For example, one can sin against God by
loving some other person more, or by giving their lives for a cause that is
opposed to that of God.
l
Displacement
of God
n
Failure
to let God be God. It is
placing something else, anything else, in the supreme place which is His.
n
Choosing
any finite object over God
is wrong, no matter how selfless such an act might be.
n
“You
shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3).
n
“Love
the Lord your God with…..(Mark 12:30).
n
The
major factor in our failure to love, worship and obey God is unbelief
(Erickson).
Terms emphasising
the cause of sin:
l
Ignorance: Some things done in ignorance were
apparently innocent in the sight of God, or at least he overlooked them (Acts
17:30). Yet at other points ignorant actions seem to be culpable (Ephesians
4:18). The source of evil
cannot be confined to ignorance. The root of evil is a mystery to us. If it’s
reason or rational, then the solution should be reason or rational.
l
Error: More abundant are references to sin as
error, the human tendency to go astray, to make mistakes. The primary terms in
the OT is used of sheep that stray from the flock (Ezekiel 34:6). The term in
the NT emphasizes the cause of one’s going astray as a result of being
deceived.
l
Inattention: “To hear amiss or incorrectly.” “refuse to
listen”. Failure to listen and heed when God is speaking, or disobedience
following upon failure to hear right.
Terms emphasising
the character of sin:
l
Missing
the mark: Failure to hit
the mark God has set, His standard, of perfect love of God and perfect
obedience to Him.
l
Irreligion: Impiety.
l
Transgression: “To cross over” or “to pass by”.
Transgressing a command or going beyond an established limit.
l
Iniquity
or lack of integrity: The
idea of injustice, failure to fulfil the standard of righteousness, or lack of
integrity.
l
Rebellion: Often translated “transgress,” but the
root meaning is “to rebel”.
l
Treachery: Breach of trust or treachery.
l
Perversion: “To bend or twist”.
l
Abomination: An act particularly reprehensible to God,
such as idolatry (Deut 7:25-26), homosexuality (Lev 18:22; 20:13), wearing
clothes of the opposite gender (Deut 22:5), sacrificing sons and daughters
(Deut 12:30) or blemished animals (Deut 17:1), and witchcraft (Deut 18:9-12).
Terms emphasising
the results of sin:
l
Agitation
or restlessness: The
original word resha’ is usually translated as “wickedness” but suggests the
concept of tossing and restlessness.
l
Evil
or badness: The word ra’
means evil in the sense of badness. It can refer to anything that is harmful or
malignant, not merely the moral evil. It can be used of food that has gone bad
or a dangerous animal.
l
Guilt: To do a wrong, the perpetrator ought to be
punished or the victum compensated, “sin offering”.
l
Trouble
Potential areas for
temptation and sin:
l
The
desire to enjoy things.
l
The
desire to obtain things.
l
The
desire to do things, to achieve. Assessing someone’s worth on their
achievements.
Results affecting
the relationship with God, Genesis 3: Adam and Eve didn’t know sin but
committed sin.
l
Divine
disfavour: OT frequently
describes those who sin and violate God’s laws as enemies of God. NT focus on
the enmity and hatred of unbelievers and the world toward God and his people.
Although God is not the enemy of sinners nor does he hate them, it is also
quite clear that God is angered/disappointed by sin.
l
Guilt: Shame produces guilt, fear and a sense of
stain. They tried to cover up, but the thick leaves are not going to cover up
the stain in their nature. Guilt comes after there is an accusation. “Adam,
where are you”: where are you in relationship to me, rather than where you are
physically.
l
Punishment
l
Death
Effects on the
sinner:
l
Enslavement: No one is free as far as you are a human
being. Human beings as horses: you can either have Holy Spirit ride on you or
the devil ride on you! Sin becomes a habit or even an addiction. One sin leads
to another sin.
l
Flight
from reality: Avoiding
reality through positive language, eg. passes away instead of died, memorial
parks instead of graveyards.
l
Denial
of sin: Sin is relabelled,
so that it is not acknowledged as sin at all. Or to admit the wrongness of our
actions but decline to take responsibility for them.
l
Self-deceit: This is the most powerful type of effect. Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things and
beyond cure.
l
Insensitivity: As we continue to sin and to reject God’s
warnings and condemnations, we become less and less responsive to the
promptings of conscience. A shell, a spiritual callous.
l
Self-centeredness: We display a certain special alertness to
our own wants and needs, while we ignore those of others.
l
Restlessness: There is an insatiable character about
sin. Complete satisfaction never occurs.
Effect on the
relationship with other humans
l
Competition: Increasing self-centredness and
self-seeking, inevitably conflict with others. Whenever someone wins, someone
else loses. The loser, out of resentment, will often become a threat to the
winner. The person who succeeds will always shave the anxiety that others may
attempt to take back what they have lost.
l
Inability
to empathize: Being
concerned about our personal desires, reputation, and opinions, we see only our
own perspective.
l
Rejection
of authority: A social
ramification of sin. If we find security in our own possessions and
accomplishments, then any outside authority is threatening. Since it restricts
our doing what we want, it must be resisted or ignored.
l
Inability
to love: Since other people
stand in our way, representing competition and a threat to us, we cannot really
act for the ultimate welfare of others if our aim is self-satisfaction.
Resources:
Erikson, Millard J.
Christian Theology.
Whether self-love is the source of every sin?
Objection 1. It would seem that self-love is not the source of every sin. For that which is good and right in itself
is not the proper cause
of sin. Now love of
self is a good and
right thing in itself: wherefore man is commanded to love
his neighbor as himself (Leviticus 19:18).
Therefore self-love cannot be the proper cause of sin.
Objection 2. Further, the Apostle
says (Romans 7:8):
"Sin taking occasion by the commandment wrought in me all manner of concupiscence"; on
which words a gloss
says that "the law
is good, since by
forbidding concupiscence,
it forbids all evils,"
the reason for which is that concupiscence is the cause of every sin. Now concupiscence is a
distinct passion from love, as stated above (3, 2; 23, 4). Therefore self-love
is not the cause of
every sin.
Objection 3. Further, Augustine
in commenting on Psalm
79:17, "Things set on fire and dug down," says that "every sin is due either to love
arousing us to undue ardor or to fear inducing false humility." Therefore
self-love is not the only cause
of sin.
Objection 4. Further, as man
sins at times through
inordinate love of self, so does he sometimes through inordinate love of his
neighbor. Therefore self-love is not the cause of every sin.
On the contrary, Augustine
says (De Civ. Dei xiv, 28) that "self-love, amounting to contempt of God, builds up the city
of Babylon Babylon
I answer that, As stated above (Question 75, Article 1), the proper and direct cause of sin is to be considered
on the part of the adherence to a mutable good; in which respect
every sinful act
proceeds from inordinate desire for some temporal good. Now the fact that
anyone desires a temporal good
inordinately, is due to the fact that he loves himself inordinately; for to
wish anyone some good
is to love him. Therefore it is evident that inordinate love of self is the cause of every sin.
Reply to Objection 1. Well ordered self-love, whereby man desires a fitting good for himself, is
right and natural; but
it is inordinate self-love, leading to contempt of God, that Augustine (De Civ. Dei
xiv, 28) reckons to be the cause
of sin.
We want to love people. Augustine says it’s
not proper love if it’s not from God. But if you go to your spouse and say “I
love you out of my love for God”, it might not sound very impressive. We have
preconceived notion of what is love and what love from God is, and if it goes
against our notion, we disagree with it. Whatever is God
is love. God is the source of love. When it says we should deny ourselves, it’s
denial of your selfish self, not your whole person. Self-affirming love, not
self-effacing love. Pride and self-love is inordinate love.
Reply to Objection 2. Concupiscence, whereby a man desires good for himself, is
reduced to self-love as to its cause, as stated.
Reply to Objection 3. Man is
said to love both the good
he desires for himself, and himself to whom he desires it. Love, in so far as
it is directed to the object of desire (e.g. a man is said to love wine or
money) admits, as its cause,
fear which pertains to avoidance of evil: for every sin arises either from
inordinate desire for some good,
or from inordinate avoidance of some evil. But each of these
is reduced to self-love, since it is through loving himself that man either desires good things, or avoids evil things.
Reply to Objection 4. A friend is like another self (Ethic. ix): wherefore the sin which is committed
through love for a friend, seems to be committed through self-love.
If I am filled with love for someone and I
am changed by this relationship, then it will impact on my relationship with
others. Relationship is a power. A child with distorted relationship with
his/her parents will have distorted relationships with others until he/she is
healed. The Spirit of God is love. Everything I love, I should love out of my
love for God. Loving myself out of the context of our love for God is an
inordinate way of love. Love God, then you will be able to love yourself, and
love others. We are made in God’s image so even when we look at our enemies, we
are looking at God, even though it is a distorted image of God. Love is radically
relationally structured. Love: It is so that we might gain a community.
Thomas
Aquinas, Summa Theologica 2.77.4; accessed electronically at http://www.newadvent.org/summa/2077.htm#article4
Additional notes on sin, from TH602 Miyon Chung's class S1 2016:
Sin can be seen as the misuse of freedom.
After
sin, everything suffers from disharmony.
Pelagius’
view is optimistic: Sees everyone as having a fresh start as Adam did, and that
sin is moral.
Augustine:
Sin is in nature.
What
happened to this country 50 years ago impacts us today and we can’t change it.
Our parents’ shortcomings impact us and our shortcomings impact our children.
Unless work is done to recover. Recovery cannot lead one back to the point
where it has never happened, but gives us a bigger capacity as a person.
The
cross is the wisdom of God. It shows us freedom. On the cross, God was for me,
not against me. Freedom to participate in God’s reconciling works. A relational
freedom we can learn from the cross. Self-sacrifice is a means to the end. We
use selfish means to gain relationship: to gain something for me, or for my
children. On the cross, God sacrificed Himself to gain relationship for the
others. The source of sin using one word: stain. It is in all cultures, where all
tried to offer sacrifices to purge their sins/ gain favour from their gods.
Shame. Fear: the kind of fear that drives us away from God and relationships,
making us hide from God.
Adam was naïve. He was content w/o a partner but God suggested it and then he recognises it. So he chooses not to refuse Eve when Eve gave him the fruit: to protect his relationship with Eve.
Temptation is the
ability to tell between a mandarin and an orange, not a mandarin and a
strawberry.
Sin is systemic. It
is greater than all of the actions we have committed. I am not responsible for
the sins of our forefathers, but I suffer from the evil fruits from my nation.
Sin is thorough and universal. Those of us who live in a more peaceful and
economically well off countries have a greater responsibility towards the
marginalised and unreached. God advocates the rights and wellbeing of the poor
and the marginalised. We either stand with God or against God for this. It’s an
obligation, not an option.
Japan’s reconciliation
with the other countries: although the current generation are not responsible
for the war crimes, but they need to address their wrongdoings in their history
textbooks. Victims will keep crying out telling their stories until they are
satisfied.
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