It is shocking to me that someone else’s sin seems to shock us. I can only surmise that our shock is the fruit of not having a very clear idea of ourselves. I’ve often suggested that so many of us seem to think, though we’d never articulate it this way, that we were saved from the really bad sins, but once we are saved, there’s only little ones left for us. When some professing believer commits the bad sins, well, maybe we should question the profession.
This flows also out of ignorance of Scripture. The Bible is chock full of redeemed sinners committing great whopper sins. I don’t need, for further evidence, to provide a list of redeemed sinners in our own day committing whopper sins. Your secret sins suffice to make the point, the ones you know about but no one else does.
It is a terrible thing that we seem to have so little understanding of what terrible sinners we are. Perhaps few things demonstrate the scope of our, again, even believers, sinfulness than the hard truth that we are even capable of excusing our sin on the basis of our sinfulness.
“I’m a sinner” is supposed to be a confession, not a defense. Can you imagine a bank robber on trial for robbing a bank, and claiming to be not guilty on the basis of the truth that he’s a bank robber? “Sure, I robbed the bank. But what do you expect? I’m a bank robber.” We think if we name our sin it suddenly is no longer a sin. Struggling with impatience? Just tell yourself you are struggling with impatience, and your conscience will be soothed. It’s a sort of “Name It, Blame It” theology.
How then do we acknowledge the reality of our sinfulness and our sins, without excusing our sins on the basis of our sinfulness? By repenting. By recognizing that affirming “I’m a sinner,” while true, is a shameful truth. I don’t have a sin problem. I am a sin problem. The problem is I sin, because that’s just the kind of person I am.
We’re not the first to do this. Paul’s imaginary Arminian friend in Romans 9 makes the same kind of claim. “Why does He still find fault?” I’m a sinner, and so I’m going to sin. How could He judge me? The simple answer is because I am a sinner. That’s the fault. That’s exactly where the guilt lies.
Which is why we should not be shocked, but should be saddened, when we, or someone we care about commits grievous sins. It is that which is common to man, which doesn’t cover the sin but exposes man. We are called saints, and called to be saints. We are declared just and called to be just. We fail, which is why He died for us.
A few weeks ago I had occasion to send out this message to the twittersphere:
Sometimes our grievous sin reveals we are not in Christ. Sometimes our grievous sin reminds us why we need Him. Few times anyone at a distance knows which.
It’s a reminder we all need, all the time. We are great sinners, redeemed by a great and holy Savior, being washed by a great and Holy Spirit, beloved forever of the great and holy Father.