You know the story of how Adam landed us in the dilemma we’re in—first sin, then death, and no one exempt from either sin or death. That sin disturbed relations with God in everything and everyone, but the extent of the disturbance was not clear until God spelled it out in detail to Moses. So death, this huge abyss separating us from God, dominated the landscape from Adam to Moses. Even those who didn’t sin precisely as Adam did by disobeying a specific command of God still had to experience this termination of life, this separation from God. But Adam, who got us into this, also points ahead to the One who will get us out of it. (Romans 5:12-14, The Message)
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Having spoken last week about what I called “original goodness,” but also having acknowledged that one of the problems we can have is falling too far on the side of goodness and ignoring the whole issue of sin, it seemed appropriate that this morning I’d try to offer the necessary balance by following my discussion about original goodness with some thoughts on what’s commonly called “original sin.” It’s the idea that the so-called original sin of the Book of Genesis (the choice of Adam and Eve to eat the fruit off the forbidden tree) has effectively tainted human nature so that we’re all “sinners by nature” so to speak. That’s the very traditional way in which it’s spoken of. But as I was reflecting upon the idea of “original sin” one of the things I started thinking about was the definition of “sin.” What exactly is “sin?”
Most people probably think it’s a very simple thing. The kneejerk reaction if asked the question is probably to say that “sin” is breaking the rules that God has laid down for us. And yet, if we think about Scripture as a whole, we might discover that sin is both more than that and less than that all at the same time. Clearly, it’s not just about breaking rules. Setting aside the fact that we as Christians believe that Christ came to set us free from the law (which are the rules, if you will) there’s also the fact that Romans 5:14 refers to “those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam.” The point here isn’t that there were those who never sinned, but rather that there were those who sinned even though they did not break a command. So, obedience to what God wants of us appears to be more than just slavish devotion to a bunch of rules and regulations, and sin itself has to be more than simply breaking the rules and regulations. As usually happens, when we start to think deeply enough about any topic related to faith we find that it’s a lot more complicated than it might appear at first glance. One thing that I have reflected a lot on over the years is how to interpret Scripture. Most people “interpret Scripture” so to speak through a very narrow lens. They pick and choose their favourite Bible verses, and they make those Bible verses the be all and end all of what Scripture says - both in terms of what it promises and what it condemns. But the Holy Spirit has been suggesting to me, especially over the last few months for some reason, that there’s a different way of interpreting Scripture. Scripture - God’s Word - is about more than the words on the page. Even Jesus acknowledged that, for example, in the Sermon on the Mount, when He discussed the law with the repeated refrain “You have heard that it was said … but I say to you …” In other words, Jesus was saying that you can’t just recite the words; you have to go a little deeper than just the words on the page. God’s Spirit has to guide you into what Scripture is saying. You might say, then, that properly interpreting Scripture has less to do with the letter of Scripture and rather more to do with the spirit of Scripture.
When we think about sin, the mistake we most often make is to choose the letter of Scripture over the spirit. When we do that, the problem is that we usually start with ourselves and our own biases rather than with discerning God’s will. So we decide what we like or don’t like, and then we search the Bible to find verses that support our position, and we ignore anything that doesn’t fit with our pre-conceived notions. But the spirit of the gospel goes beyond the letter of the gospel. As an example, let’s consider Adam. What was his sin?
Is that a silly question? I mean, it’s kind of obvious, isn’t it? After all he did violate a commandment. God said, “don’t eat the fruit off that tree,” and Adam (and Eve) did it anyway. But is that really the point? Was that really the sin? Or, at least, was that really what led to the consequences? Think about the story. “When they heard the sound of God strolling in the garden in the evening breeze, the Man and his Wife hid in the trees of the garden, [they] hid from God.” The issue in Genesis isn’t so much the eating of the fruit; it’s the destruction of the intimate relationship that humanity had enjoyed with God up to that moment. Adam and Eve ate the fruit, but what was far more important was that they chose to try to hide from God. From that, I believe that the spirit of the word is that “sin” isn’t so much violating rules (which we all do, and which God is willing to forgive) it’s doing anything that so damages our relationship with God that we’re unable to believe that God can forgive, or it’s anything we do that damages someone else’s relationship with God in that same way. That also seems to be Paul’s point when he speaks about the Genesis story: “... sin disturbed relations with God in everything and everyone …”
We sin when we deliberately close ourselves off from God; we sin when we decide that breaking a rule places us beyond the ability to be reconciled with God; we sin as well when we damage other people’s relations with God. That comes right out of the Gospels. When you think about the life and teachings of Jesus, and how He related to those around Him, you discover that He was always harshest not on those whom we would normally consider the sinners (you know who I mean - the adulterers, the prostitutes, the thieves, whom Jesus was always willing to associate with and forgive) but rather on those (such as the Pharisees) who set themselves up in judgment against those with whom Jesus associated, those whom Jesus loved and those whom Jesus forgave. It seems to me that those today who rely on the letter of Scripture and take it upon themselves on the basis of that letter to judge and condemn others for their actions and to tell them how sinfully they’re acting really need to do some soul-searching of their own.
As I seek to immerse myself in the spirit of the gospel (in the spirit of God’s Word) it seems to me that at its heart real sin (the dangerous kind that leads to all sorts of negative consequences) is that which we do that holds us back from loving God, or that which we do that holds others back from believing that God loves them. That’s the original sin of Genesis - Adam deciding to hide from God; humanity deciding to cut itself off from God - which sometimes we do simply by ignoring the spirit of God’s Word and its ability to change us and instead relying on the letter of God’s Word and changing it to suit our biases and prejudices.
We all do that sometimes. Being humble requires us to admit that we all do it sometimes. So, if that’s true, then where’s the good news in all this? Paul shared it at the end of today’s passage: “... Adam, who got us into this, also points ahead to the One who will get us out of it.” The good news is Jesus, Who came to bring us back into a true, grace filled, loving relationship with God, summed up by the word “salvation.” We’re not being saved from sin; we’re certainly not being saved from God. Mostly, we’re being saved from ourselves. Jesus came to do that for us. Jesus came to be “Emmanuel” - God With Us - and that tells us something important. We can’t hide ourselves from God - whether we try to do it out of our own feelings of shame or guilt, or whether we try to do it because of the feelings of shame or guilt that others have heaped upon us - we can’t hide ourselves from God. No matter how broken and irreparable our relationship with God might seem to us, God is still seeking us out. “Where are you,” God called to Adam. Not because God didn’t know where Adam was, but as an invitation to Adam to come out in the open and re-enter the relationship. That invitation is there for all of us all of the time!
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