Is it OK to Talk About Sin Anymore?

It almost feels like a sin to mention sin these days.

The Christian Scriptures (especially expanded in the books of Genesis and Romans) describe us all as deeply flawed from birth, and it gets worse--God is unhappy with these fundamental flaws.

Our first parents sinned and the poison of that rebellion passed to all of their progeny. The fatal flaw of sinfulness passed like a rogue gene from soul to soul, generation to generation.

So we’re not malfunctioning machines that need a little fixing through education, economics or evolution. We’re fugitive traitors who need forgiveness and freedom from the nagging guilt that haunts us.

But this makes many of us grow skeptical and we shift in our spiritual seats.

Rather than side-stepping the existence and centrality of sin, let’s listen to what Jesus says about sin.

Luke 5:30-32 30 And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?" 31 And Jesus answered them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance." 

When modern people hear the word sin, they find it deeply off-putting. Maybe you do too.

Many of my unbelieving friends and yours reason this way: “It’s not right to judge other people who are fundamentally flawed. It’s not right to condemn others who live in a self-serving way seeking personal happiness. The right thing to do for a flawed friend is to have compassion.”

The irony is that our culture doesn’t like sin because the idea itself sounds self-righteous, immoral and sinful. 

When outsiders to the Christian story hear a Christian talk about sin, what they hear the Christian saying is “I have the right to judge people for their flaws, because I am better than other people.”

While there might be some limited truth to that conclusion, with all due respect to reality, even if you meet a sinful, misinformed Christian spouting his supposed superiority, this is not what the Christian doctrine of sin is teaching. 

According to the book of Romans, all of us are born sinners-we are born into a sinful condition- and we all sin according to that tragically bent nature.

This may strike you as viscerally unpleasant but that’s actually how the story goes.

Did you get that? We are born into a sinful condition (see Romans 5). Wait! You might object: “How can a person be judged if they are not at fault?” We reason that a person should be blamed only if they personally choose to do wrong. 

But what if sin is not just making bad choices. What if sin is more of a condition like a terminal disease? Jesus considered us all as sinners stuck in the universal condition of sin, in desperate need of his saving.

Jesus reasoned that a sin-sick person, circling the drain of death needs a doctor who will supply the sin- saving antidote. 

Psalm 51 and the book of Romans explain that Sin is a basic inborn condition like a diseased spiritual heart. Its desires are distorted and tilted toward the wrong. 

Theologians describe this original sin as a pair of glasses that we all wear with scratches on the lens. We look out at the world but our spiritual vision is flawed. We then specifically sin as we seek to order reality around our self-focused vantage point.

Sin is a condition like gravity and has heavy consequences.

And deep down, our sin-shirking culture actually believes in sin after all.

Theologian Simeon Zahl thinks that our scientific society conveniently re-labels sin as cognitive bias. Have you heard that term? Social scientists study mass culture and have found empirical evidence that proves that humans are self-centered, self-oriented, and self-seeking.

This scientific finding is about as surprising to the Christian, submitted to the story of Scripture and aware of their own sinfulness, as a study that proves that ice is cold or that the sun is hot.

One cognitive bias, the Fundamental Attribution Error, is the fact that collective humanity attributes good things that happen to us to our own efforts and bad things that happen to us to extrinsic, outside sources.

Moreover, the Fundamental Attribution error attributes bad things that happen to others to the bad attributes of another, rather than outside influences.

For instance, if I get a promotion, it is because of my own good effort. But if I don’t get the promotion, it’s due to the negative outside forces like my terrible boss or the system. But if my buddy doesn’t get promoted then it’s clearly due to his laziness. We maintain the erroneous view that we’re awesome despite the truth.

Christians would call this hypocritical, two-faced, biased thinking sin. But our scientifically baptized culture washes the category of sin out of the picture and renames sin as bias.

Here’s just one more cognitive bias, Post-purchase Rationalization: We are highly disposed to view our decisions, in retrospect, as a good ones. Even in the face of evidence that proves our decision to be poor, we refuse to see it that way.

Christians would call this the sin of pride or vainglory.

The pastor Thomas Cranmer wrote, “What the heart desires, the will chooses and the mind justifies.”

And we are all born with sinful hearts.

Racism, murder and greed get us all listening and open us up to the possibility of sin, but we can slightly miss the point here. Those are bad things that other people do to other people.

I suggest sharing the universal findings of cognitive bias with our skeptical friends who scoff at sin.  None of us are off the hook when it comes to sin.

Sin, in the end, is a crucial puzzle piece that explains how the entire story of Christianity fits together.

If I may be so bold, the doctrine of sin is fundamental to the understanding of every other doctrine or teaching in Christianity. For instance, why did Jesus need to come as a Savior? Because sin against our good God actually leads to death. Jesus died so that our sin would be pardoned forever.

Last time I checked, death is still not a good thing but forgiveness and favor from a friend I betrayed is highly valued. 

And when a person is physically dying there are suffering symptoms that attend the dying process.

Spiritual symptoms of sin and its deadly effects have always been guilt, despair, and the abiding feeling of personal worthlessness. 

Martin Luther said that knowledge of sin is a true feeling and serious struggle of the heart. Only belief in Christ relieves our condition of sinfulness and the emotional symptoms of terrorizing guilt.

But what if you don’t feel your condition of sin or the terrors of the consequences of your specific sins?

A person poisoned from birth won’t feel things the way they were meant to.

Have you numbed your sin with substances, distraction or stuff?  Has your conscience become so calloused that sin against God and others no longer wrecks you? 

This could be the most dangerous symptom of sin yet. Like when a dying person finally goes unconscious and cannot feel the doom of his crumbling condition.

Jesus brings hope. He came to call sinners to change their mind about sin. 

He is still calling sinners to admit their sinful condition and accept his antidote of unearned approval through the death of Jesus in the face of their fundamentally flawed situation.

Remember these words and trust them:  2 Corinthians 5:21  21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Thanks for the willingness to consider a taboo topic,

Pastor Howard
Senior Pastor
Metro North Church

Why Death by Cross?

“There’s another cross!” shouted one of my Spain mission trip team members.

“I see one up there!” added another.

You see, our team decided to meditate all week on one short verse about Jesus:

1 Corinthians 2:2   2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

Since meditation is a continuous contemplation on something profoundly meaningful, we challenged each other to share with the group whenever someone sighted a crucifix.

We too wanted to know nothing among the Spaniards except the crucified Messiah.

Now remember, we were on mission in Spain strengthening the Spanish evangelical church. Spain is speckled with churches and colossal cathedrals, and where one finds churches and cathedrals, one finds crosses.

As we spotted crosses all week long, I began to ask myself:

“God, why did Paul write “that even the word of the cross is the power of God for salvation?” (1 Cor. 1:18)

            “God, why did you choose the execution of Jesus by a cross? 

Have you ever asked yourself that question and felt the spiritual impact of the answer?

I mean, why not death by hanging, starvation or a stampede by Spanish bulls (incidentally, our team was in Spain during the running with the bulls)?

Moreover, why do we all refer to the death of Jesus as “THE Crucifixion?”

John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Marie Antoinette was guillotined. Cleopatra was poisoned. But I’ve never heard anyone refer to their deaths as “The assassination…The guillotining….The poisoning.”

Fleming Rutledge asserts in her book The Crucifixion “There is something in the strange death of the man identified as the Son of God that continues to command special attention…This death, this execution, above and beyond all others, continues to have universal reverberations. Of no other death in human history can this be said” (pgs. 3-4).

So why death by a cross?

Paul focuses us on the means of death in his short letter to the Philippian Christians: “And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:8)

Why death by a cross? Here are three reasons for you to consider. How about meditating on them so that they aren’t just apprehensions (you have a simple understanding) but deep spiritual impressions (you taste them with your spiritual taste buds and relish the reality so that you experience pleasure and joy)?

First, Jesus died on a cross to express his solidarity with sinners stuck in the slavery of their sin.

The Roman writer Cicero referred to crucifixion as the most extreme form of torture inflicted upon slaves.  The middle and upper classes usually escaped death by crucifixion, but not a powerless slave. The nobodies and the powerless of society died by crucifixion. Jesus chose to die in this way for you. And by his death in your place, you are free from the guilt, condemnation and bondage of sin forever. Oh my!

Second, Galatians 3:13 and Deuteronomy 21:23 explain that death by crucifixion displayed God’s objective curse on a criminal. 

As a law-breaking criminal hung on a tree, everyone that looked on that criminal felt disgust, disrespect, and the reminder that breaking God’s good laws brings God’s deserved justice. Jesus hung on a tree taking the curse the sinner deserves so that the sinner receives the free blessing of approval and life with God forever. Oh my!

Lastly, Dietrich Bonhoeffer (a Christian writer who died by hanging at the hands of Hitler) wrote:  “the meaning of the cross lies not only in physical suffering, but especially in rejection and shame.”

Have you ever considered how utterly degrading, dishonoring and disgraceful it was to die on a cross? In Deuteronomy 25:3 God says that forty lashes can be given to an offender, “but not more lest…your brother be degraded in your sight.” Jesus was dehumanized, shamed and elevated (or lowered?!) on the cross to show that the God-man on the crucifix was not fit for humanity. He was degraded and God-forsaken.

You see, if Jesus was killed by decapitation, an arrow to the heart or stoning, there would be no lengthy humiliation in the eyes of humanity. 

I’m not trying to be morbid, but other quick methods don’t create the depth of suffering and shame. Jesus was raised on a cross, and while alive, had the eyes of the onlookers squint with self-righteous disgust. God the Father finally turned away as darkness descended.

Jesus chose to suffer and experience hours and hours of shame so that you will NEVER be shameful in the eyes of our holy and beautiful God of all grace. Oh my!

I leave you with the striking words of Melito of Sardis, a pastor who understood the meaning of the cross. How about spending a week meditating on 1 Corinthians 2:2 and the words of Melito?

“And so he was raised on a cross, and a title was fixed, indicating who it was who was being executed. Painful it is to say, but more terrible not to say….He who suspended the earth is suspended, he who fixed the heavens is fixed, he who fastened all things is fastened to the wood;  the Master is outraged;  God is murdered.”

                                                                                                Melito of Sardis (d.c. A.D. 180).

Pastor Howard
Senior Pastor
Metro North Church

How to Survive the Spin Cycle of the Soul

Has suffering ever hit you so hard that you lost all sense of direction?

Maybe someone you love is getting sicker and sicker rather than better and better.

That complicated relationship you’ve poured your heart into for so many years is not just fraying at the edges but severing at the center.

Have you ever heard the term “spin cycle?”  If your mind jumped directly to a washing machine you’re headed the right direction, but if surfing didn’t enter your mind you’ll end up at the wrong destination.

Stay with me…

I grew up a block from the beach in Southern Jersey.  Surfers would swap stories at the end of their day claiming that massive waves hit them so hard that they were “caught in a spin cycle.”

I remember hearing them explain how, after being hit by a set of successive waves and pulled underwater, they couldn’t distinguish up from down or left from right.

But, what scared them the most, was when they were unable to take a breath of air before they were sucked beneath the next pounding wave.

Can you relate to the words of the Psalm writer regarding his soul’s spin cycle?

Psalm 42:7 says “all your breakers and your waves have gone over me.”

Psalm 42 (a lifeline when your life enters the spin cycle!) gives three ways to survive the spin cycle:  Admit, Hope and Remember.  

First, to survive the spin cycle of the soul, admit that your soul is thirsty and lost.

The Psalm opens up with the image of a hunted deer, panting with labored breathing, trying desperately to take in a breath.

Ever been there?  The circumstances of life are hitting you so hard that you can’t even inhale before the next wave slaps you under?

The writer has been crying tears of confusion, and from the vantage point of others, it appears that God is nowhere to be found (vs. 3 “where is your God?)

But he admits that even though is soul is thirsty, lost and spinning like a weather vane in a windy storm; his soul is really thirsting for the living God (vs. 2).

Second, when your soul is caught in the spin cycle, direct your heart to hope in God.

Psalm 42:5 5 Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation.

When suffering strikes, your thoughts and emotions might be best compared to a jar full of lightening bugs beeping randomly in the dark.

Open the lid of your heart with prayers of hope to God and send him those erratic concerns.

Hope promises relief at the end of the winding road of waiting.

The heat and intensity of the pain will pass.  

A wave is a wave not an immovable wall.

Finally, when your soul is caught in the spin cycle, remember the times God has been there for you in the past.

Psalm 42:6 My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember you…

Don’t look at the next wave of suffering coming your way.  It’s a wave.  Waves come and go like winter giving way to spring.  Like night giving way to day.  Like storms giving way to sunshine. Stop asking “what if?” because you’re trying to be God rather than trusting His next page in the book of your life.

Instead, look into the rear-view mirror of your life story and bring back into your mind (re-member) all the good that God has lavished on you.

Remember when he answered that prayer that only he heard through your sobs?

Remember when he gave you that undeserved grace?

Remember when he showed up that night in the dark when you were pounding your pillow with a fist, feeling pain and betrayal?

Remember when he gave you his only son to remove the guilt and shame of your sin forever?

Remember when he surprised you with his mercy after you ran away from him?

And do you remember when you laughed so hard in the joy of his supply and benefits that you forgot what was up, down, left or right- but you didn’t care- because you knew your heavenly Father was in ultimate control?

Remember, whether it’s the spin cycle on your washing machine,

or the spin cycle for the surfer,

or the spin cycle for your suffering soul,

The waves do finally come to an end, and all is quietly calm in Christ.

Howard Cole
Senior Pastor
Metro North Church

What Are You Really INTO?

Do you remember the last time you entered into a new, satisfying relationship?

          Maybe it was a new friend who wasn’t fake or flakey extending unearned love and loyalty to the real you. 

We long for a reciprocal rootedness with and in another.

          Maybe it was when a new child or grandchild entered into your life like a seed initially tossed onto your soul. Their beautiful eyes or smile secretly whispered to that seed to send out roots and plant new life into the soil of your heart.

          Maybe it was a new series on Netflix where the characters and storyline entered into your own story and gave you pure pleasure as it soothed your hidden pain and seemed to make sense of your suffering.

Union with Christ (or being “in Christ” cf Romans 6:11) has been a central description of Christian identity, significance and mission as those who trust Christ enter into the life of His salvation and grace.

Have you ever heard of Union theology?

I grew up thinking that I was supposed to live up to religious expectations in order to gain acceptance by God and always felt like a failure for not measuring up.

One of the greatest hurdles to my faith has not been the things that I know or even don’t know. 

Instead it’s the things I think I know but I’m wrong about.

Union theology (living INTO Christ) challenges us all to stop trying to live up to the high and holy standards of our good God-in our own strength-and instead live into the accomplished life, death, resurrection and mission of Jesus.

We are to live into Jesus.

This is really good news!

It means we can stop living for an identity and live from an identity freely given to us by God in Christ!

A famous pastor from France, John Calvin called Union theology “the sum of the gospel…where the newness of life and free reconciliation are conferred on us by Christ.”

Calvin wrote thousands of pages of theology and yet called union with Christ the sum of the gospel.

How would you sum up the gospel or good news about reality? 

Burk Parsons, pastor of Saint Andrew’s Chapel, summed up the gospel by calling it

“The good news about what our truine God has graciously accomplished for His people:  The Father’s sending the Son Jesus Christ God incarnate, to live perfectly, fulfill the law, and die sacrificially, atoning for our sins, satisfying God’s wrath against us that we might not face an eternal hell, and raising Him from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit.  It is the victorious announcement that God saves sinners.”

True and what a mouthful!

The apostle Paul (an early Christian leader and teacher) used the two simple words “in Christ” over and over to expose and explain how a sinner enters into a rich relationship with a good and perfect God.

My favorite words from Paul about union theology are found in a short letter he wrote to some friends: 

Philippians 3:8-9  8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.”

What if instead of being ultimately into our work, entertainment, relationships, goals, bodies, comforts and causes we lived into the identity, mission and ministry of Christ?

We would finally know who we were, where we were headed, what we were here for and what we should ultimately hope for.

What if the very life of God in Christ and through His Spirit began to swirl, whirl, curl and unfurl in your life?

Wouldn’t we stop seeing others as obstacles to our plots and projects and instead begin to indwell their lives with the love and life of God?

What if being into Christ had the intended consequence of an overflowing other-centeredness where hospitality, invitation, welcome, forgiveness, laughter, and companionship finally found a home in mutual togetherness?

What are you into?

Who are you really into?

Pastor Howard
Senior Pastor
Metro North Church