Exposing Sin - part 2

“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 3:23-24 NRSV)

“Why do people say that babies are sinners? They have not done anything wrong so why would God punish them for being sinners when they are so innocent?”

The root of the word sin means “to miss the mark”. In the style of writing used by many of the Bible writers they would many times say the same thing twice in a row but slightly differently. This can be seen in the above text where sin (missing the mark) and falling short of the glory of God are presented as basically the same thing, just said a little differently. If we put ourselves mentally into the context of the Roman culture of Paul's day it would become obvious that one of the scenes a person might be very familiar with in that day would be people target practicing with bows and arrows or with spears. A great deal of target practice had to take place before a person was ready to serve in the armed forces just as it is still true today. A person's ability to hit a target accurately and solidly determined to a great extent the value they had to the armed forces as well as for many other applications.

Most of the world for many centuries lived in this kind of context. Think how different the story of David and Goliath would have been if David had not spent a great deal of time practicing marksmanship with his sling and stones. The scene would have had quite a different storyline if David's stone had fallen short of reaching the giant.

Since sin simply means missing the mark, what is the mark that is being missed by sinners? Well, according to this text it is the glory of God. Glory is another of those very confusing and sometimes nebulous words that means very different things to different people, some of which are very far from its main meaning. Often the first thing that comes to our mind about this word is a bright, glowing light around a person or object. This is due to our external orientation about what we think is important, one of the key hallmarks of sin. I think this has been a major distraction from understanding the real implications of this term. Without launching into a study of this word too far, I will simply say that as I have come to understand it so far, the glory of God is primarily the essence of who He is, His personality, characteristics and relational attributes. Of course these are the very things most understood by us because of the flood of lies that has filled our minds and hearts about what God is like received from the father of lies. Being immersed in so many of these false ideas, both inherited and learned, is precisely the description of what being a sinner means.

But then one would logically ask, “How does that apply to babies and young children? They haven't even had a chance to learn any lies.”

While it is true that babies don't have any learned and accepted lies about God consciously, particularly in the intellectual arena, they have depraved natures that are filled to some degree or another with natural selfishness just because they are born to sinful human parents. Given over to growing up with these natural tendencies and propensities to selfishness and all sorts of other less than God-like attributes, they will grow up to reflect more of the spirit of Satan than the Spirit of God. In short, they simply do not have within them the wherewithal to live and think and grow naturally into a perfect reflection of God. In very many ways it has to be admitted that it is really true - “all fall short of the glory of God”.

However, this is where the pain and distortions of our already present lies about God and sin cause many of us to react with revulsion and anger, protesting that it is not fair that God should punish babies and little children for being sinners when they are far too young to be held accountable for their condition. That is absolutely true! However I would like to point out that there are a great deal of false assumptions behind that statement that have to be addressed before we can see the real truths about God masked by our many distortions. This is very similar to the problem imposed when an innocent man is asked how long it has been since he quite beating his wife. The problem is not with the man but with the assumptions embedded within the question.

Let me simply expose a few of the assumptions that can be found within this kind of question. There is a flash of anger and an unspoken accusation that God is not fair and cannot be trusted to always be fair. Then there is an assumption that God arbitrarily punishes (inflicts pain and suffering) anyone and everyone found to have sin in them. Behind that assumption there are potentially hundreds of other more serious problems and distortions depending on what you believe about the “punishment of the wicked”. That is such a deep reservoir of lies about God that it would take books to unpack them all. But all of those ideas are potentially behind the anguished emotions evoked by this simple question.

The very fact that we are upset and asking these kinds of questions betrays the presence of the true image of God still resident in our hearts even with all our misunderstandings about Him. Our hearts demand fairness and we get upset when innocent people are threatened or punished unfairly. We sense that arbitrary determinations without consideration of circumstances and unbiased evaluation is somehow wrong. If we are completely honest with our souls we also have to admit that the typical beliefs about the punishment of lost sinners is dramatically out of proportion to anything we feel they should deserve and leaves a deep but suppressed feeling of resentment hiding in our minds and emotions. Then to add insult to injury, we are often saddled with a fear of even expressing those feelings in case we too will increase our own punishment for challenging the sovereign determinations of the Almighty who many believe must never be questioned.

All of these ideas add quite a bit more complexity to the simple answering of the question about babies and sin. They are very serious issues and must be faced squarely and resolved or the simple answers to the question are cast into doubt because of all the other assumptions not yet resolved. But since I don't have the time or space to address all of those things right here I will take the risky choice to venture a simpler answer and trust God to bring more light where it is needed.

I find it very helpful to remember what the original definition of sin is – falling short of the glory of God – missing the mark. Without insinuating all sorts of other definitions and ideas into it right away, it is much easier to admit that not only babies but any human being is not just like God, especially when the real truth about Him begins to dawn on our hearts. None of us are naturally 100% unselfish, kind, compassionate, full of faith and joy and love every minute of every day. But when the truth is uncovered we will find that God is all of those things and much more. We all fall short of the glory of God when looked at from that perspective.

But then we start feeling defensive and insist, “But its not my fault that I found myself with this brain and set of emotions. My parents..., my friends and teachers and abusers..., Adam and Eve got us into this mess.”

Every bit of that is true. And its also true that its not fair that we have been imposed with all these problems. But it is also still true that we are what we are right now. But is this state of unfairness because God is not fair or is there much more that we are not looking at when we accuse God of not considering all the facts and circumstances? Is it really God that is not fair or are we the ones that ultimately are found to not be fair in our evaluation of God? Are we willing to consider a lot more truth about God before launching our tirades against Him? Are we willing to honestly challenge our own beliefs about Him and expose our lies with His own testimony about Himself in place of Satan's?

Here is the bottom line issue inherent in the question of how God relates to “sinner-babies” – “How does God treat sinners of any kind?” That is the question behind the question that we must really face and not accept our assumptions as unquestionable facts. We get angry when other people judge us harshly without trying to find out our real motives and try to understand who we are and what we are really like. But yet we are doing that to God all the time. We judge God severely and accuse Him in our hearts of atrocities that we will not tolerate in those around us, much less would be willing to do ourselves – at least we hope not. We must face squarely the things we think and say and feel about God in the light of fairness and allow the truth about Him to emerge while we suspend our judging assumptions against Him. The real issue in the Great War is the accusations against God and every one of us participate in these accusations whether we are conscious of it or not.

So what is the truth about how God treats and relates to sinners? Here is what Paul says right after he declares that everyone is a sinner. “They are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” That includes babies, unborn children, teen-agers, tottering, senile old folks and everyone in between. Even more shocking, it includes good, kind, generous, lovable people and revolting despots like Stalin and Hitler – and the people who have abused you and me the most severely. That becomes much more difficult for many to accept, but God is not limited in His grace. He sent Jesus to Redeem absolutely every human being who ever has or will exist on this planet – no restrictions. Jesus took upon Himself the results of every sin that every human being ever commits and justifies every sinner who ever exists so that there is nothing that can “separate us from the love God, which is in Christ Jesus.” (Rom. 8:39)

So where does that leave the baby who is born a sinner with a selfish disposition – or even a sweet disposition? It puts them exactly where every other human is found – under the justifying atonement of Jesus Christ who has redeemed every sinner on earth. Does that mean that every sinner will end up in heaven? That is a very interesting question and the answer will likely surprise many. But that is another topic that would get me going far too long as well. If you would like to think more about that you can spend some time on another blog site linked on the sidebar called surprise ending. There are also some other sites that I ran across very recently that have a lot of wonderful material about these things that I want to spend more time perusing myself. I have added links to them on this site as well for those who wish to explore deeper like I want to.

I want to make one more distinction about the definition of sin that has been very problematic and troubling for many people including myself for many years. I was raised, as most people are, to believe that sin was primarily something people do – you know, wrong actions, bad things that hurt others or ourselves or “offend” God. What I have been learning more and more clearly from the Bible and other good sources is that external acts that we generally label as sin are really symptoms of the presence of sin, not the real essence of sin. By the time we commit open acts of “sin” we are way past the point of initiating the choices that put us into a state of sin. Most people misunderstand the true nature of temptation and where temptation actually occurs. What most people label as temptation is simply an opportunity to indulge in outward activities that express the sinful desires produced by the state we have already fallen into inside our hearts some time before. By that time we are already victims of succumbing to temptation and are entrapped by sin in our heart before we express it outwardly.

Sin is really the state of being out of synchronization with God's perfect ways of living and the natural laws He designed for us to operate within that cause us to thrive and grow. Sin is being disconnected in some way from the only Source of life in the whole universe. Sin deceives us into believing that we can extract life from any other sources than from God and can live life successfully without Him. The natural consequences of living disconnected from power is an eventual loss of power and finally death – the absence of all life.

Jesus came to instate an arrangement whereby those who were disconnected from life could continue to have life even while they were rebelling against the very Source of life. He arranged a period of probation – grace – during which we could accept the truth about God and discard our lies and animosity toward the One who loves us passionately and wants us to live joyfully in His presence forever. This arrangement is called the Atonement and Redemption. Every person has the option to participate in this free gift and be transformed by it if they choose to accept it. If they do they can be permanently and inextricably absorbed into a unified body which will literally ultimately become part of God's own being. This arrangement is so stunning and seemingly bizarre that even the angel's of God cannot hardly believe it. But it is true, and you and I have the option to accept this arrangement based on God's faith in us. He supplies all the power, the love, and even the faith. What we bring is our choice to accept and be transformed by allowing our minds and hearts to be filled and captured by His loveliness.

God, I have to worship You because of these things You are showing me. Thank-you for salvation and Redemption that You give me as a free gift. Make me Your experiment of grace and transformation. Live in my heart today and make me Your dwelling place here on earth. Pour Your blessings through me to others today and fill me with Your Spirit of grace and love. Attract others to Yourself by the work You accomplish in me, in spite of me even. Glorify Your name in my life today and help me to bring honor to Your reputation.

(next in series)