From the TeachingtheWord Bible Knowledgebase

"Sin" is a term we don't hear very often in postmodern society. Sin is often trivialized: "We've all made mistakes" - "We've all made some poor choices in life" - "Nobody's perfect" - "I'm just making a lifestyle choice." Cohabitation outside of marriage used to be called "living in sin" and considered shameful. But if that phrase is used today, it's usually just to make fun of the idea that it is morally wrong.

Trivialization of Sin in the Evangelical Church

Sadly, the trivialization of sin has infected the Evangelical church. Examples of this abound. According to a recent survey, 19% of those who are living with a partner outside of marriage identify themselves as Evangelical Christians.¹ A well-known mega-church that is built on the Purpose-Driven Church model found that although 91% of its people stated that their highest value in life is having a deep personal relationship with God, 25% of the church's singles, 38% of its single parents, and 41% of its divorced members "admitted to having illicit sexual relationships in the last 6 months."²

The Purpose-Driven Church and Emergent Church paradigms affirm people in their sins, and do not confront them from Scripture with their need for true repentance and faith in Christ. They do not confront people with the Biblical teaching that those who are truly born from above, though not perfect people, will live changed lives as a result of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

Often a focus on "acceptance" and "affirmation" means that today's church turns a blind eye to mankind's total depravity, the eternal consequences of sin, and the immense price that had to be paid for sinners' redemption by the Son of God Himself. The Bible's clarion call to repentance and faith in Christ is being supplanted by a therapeutic "gospel" that leaves people feeling better about themselves, but still eternally lost. Religious bookstores (it's a step too far to call most of them "Christian" anymore) are full of books that supposedly present the Gospel of God's provision of salvation from sin for eternity, but instead they offer nothing more than psychological self-help for the here and now.

Joel Osteen's, Become a Better You: 7 Keys to Improving Your Life Every Day, is typical. Mega-church pastor Osteen radically twists Scripture as he helps lead the growing chorus of those who trivialize sin, while also promoting a prosperity "gospel" and trivializing marriage:

The Scripture urges, "Let us come boldly to the throne of grace." Why?

"To receive mercy for our failures."³

Here Osteen supposedly quotes Hebrews 4:16, which is in the context of a powerful exposition of man's sin and unbelief, the Bible's ability to expose the depths of our sinfulness before God, and work of Christ as the High Priest who shed His own blood to pay the debt of our sins. Verse 16 actually says, "Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy" - not for mere "failure" but for sins that nailed the Son of God to the cross - "and find grace to help in time of need."

Osteen goes on:

Don't pray, "Oh, God, I blew it again. I'm a miserable failure as a parent. I lost my temper. I yelled at my kids. I know I don't deserve anything good in life."

No, if you want to receive something good from God, come to Him humbly and with reverence, but come to Him with boldness. "God, I've made mistakes, but I know you love me, and I'm asking for forgiveness; I'm receiving Your mercy. Then go out expecting God's blessings and favor....

...Especially in relationships that don't work out, you may hear that voice telling you, "You are to blame. You're not attractive enough. You didn't try hard enough."

...Quit receiving all the accusations. Quit allowing the condemning voices to take root, crowding out the good things of God in your life. Some people are practically addicted to guilt. They don't know what it's like to feel good about themselves..."⁴

The Biblical Definition of Sin

Is this how the Bible speaks? Is sin merely a "mistake" - a "failure" - a "wrong choice" - or "bad behavior"? How does the Bible define sin? Sin is any lack of conformity to, or violation of, the law of God (1 John 3:4, Romans 4:15). As such, it is the most serious problem in the universe. Sin isn't merely an offense against God's law, which emanates from the holiness of God. That is bad enough. But beyond that, sin is an offense against God the Lawgiver Himself (Exodus 32:33, Deuteronomy 32:51, Psalm 51:4), and it is an offense by creature against Creator (Ezekiel 18:4). Sin is a doubly-deep problem, and as we shall see, man is doubly condemned.

How Sin Came Into the World

The first book of the Bible, Genesis, tells us that God created a perfect universe. He made the first man, Adam, and placed him in the perfect creation along with his wife, Eve. There was no sin, suffering, or death in the world. Our first parents were created in the image of God, and had direct fellowship with their Creator. He gave them the mandate to exercise dominion over the earth, to populate it, and to care for it. God also gave our first parents the command to be perfectly obedient to Him. Since God is absolutely holy, nothing less would maintain unbroken fellowship.

But man, made in the image of God, was not a robot. God gave Adam and Eve the freedom to choose, to obey Him or to rebel against Him. God warned our first parents about the consequences of rebellion: physical death, and spiritual death - eternal separation from God.

The bad news is that our first parents chose to rebel against God. Their disobedience brought physical and spiritual death upon themselves. It also introduced disorder, suffering, and death into the human race, and the entire creation.

By the disobedience of Adam, sin entered the world, and death through sin (both physical death and eternal separation from God), and thus death spread to all men, because all have sinned (Romans 5:12). We are all sinners from conception (Psalm 51:5) because we have inherited Adam's sin nature. But beyond that, we have all broken God's law ourselves (Romans 3:23, James 2:10).

Not a Trivial Matter

We read in Isaiah 59:2 that our sins have separated us from God and have hidden His face from us. Left to ourselves in our rebellious state, we face the inevitable consequence of our sins: eternal separation from God in Hell (2 Thessalonians 1:8-9, Revelation 20:12-15). Because God is perfectly holy and just, our sin demands the ultimate penalty.

Mankind is doubly condemned. First, through the offense of Adam as the federal head of the human race, the guilt of Adam's sin was imputed to all mankind and the human race condemned (Romans 5:18-19). Second, every human being is condemned because of his own personal unbelief and sin (John 3:18-20, Isaiah 59:2). In other words, we are not sinners because we sin; we sin because we are by nature sinners. Furthermore, the entire created order was brought under God's curse because of Adam's sin (Genesis 3:16-19, Romans 8:22).

So sin is not a trivial matter. The disease, natural disasters, hatred, wars, and death that we see all around us are the results of sin. The difficulties we face in our own lives are the results of sin. In many cases these things are the immediate consequences of our own personal sin. But beyond that, they are the result of the fact that our first parents by their disobedience plunged the entire human race, and the entire created order, into disorder and futility as the result of their first act of disobedience against God.

Dealing with the sin problem cost God an immense price: the death of His only begotten Son. The Bible tells us that the only way the sin problem could be dealt with - sinners saved from Hell, and the created order ultimately redeemed from the curse - was for a perfect substitute to take men's place, experience the wrath of God on their behalf, and fully atone for their sins. Praise God, that is exactly what Jesus Christ has done.

References:

1. The U. S. Religious Landscape Survey 2008, available online at http://religions.pewforum.org/, page 68. This survey was conducted by The Pew Forum on Religion in Public Life, a research arm of The Pew Charitable Trusts.

2. A survey conducted by George Barna as reported in G. A. Pritchard, Willow Creek Seeker Services: Evaluating a New Way of Doing Church (Baker Books, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1996), p. 236.

3. Joel Osteen, Become a Better You: 7 Keys to Improving Your Life Every Day (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2007), page 90.

4. Osteen, page 91.

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