Man’s View of Sin

What is sin? That is a question with which many struggle, and many answers have been offered.

First, some, of course, don’t really recognize a “sin problem” at all. This view says that man is pretty much okay the way he is. While he certainly isn’t perfect, he is evolving, and since he’s been around for so long and has been learning along the way, he’s in pretty good shape. But such a view is a little hard to swallow as you watch the evening news.

Second, some who do recognize that there is a problem, view sin as an accident, mistake, or indiscretion. It’s not really a person’s fault when he does wrong, rather it’s because of his background and upbringing. But Romans 5:12 declares: “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” This verse, as well as the Genesis 3 account of the fall, clear­ly shows that sin was a result of deliberate disobedience. Sin is never accidental; we sin because we choose to sin.

Third, sin is merely an “amiable weakness.” This means that sin is merely a minor, unfortunate weakness but one which does not really hurt anyone. Man is a little “unhealthy,” perhaps even morally sick, but he’s not a hopeless case. But notice Jeremiah 17:9: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and des­perately wicked.” Does that sound like an “amiable weakness” or simply an unhealthy condition? Man is, indeed, in a desperate condition. As we’ll see, he is actually spiritually dead.

Fourth, sin is merely “immaturity.” In this view sin is only a lack of personal growth that will improve as we develop as human beings. Is it not interesting that we do not see peo­ple growing out of this “immaturity?” I John 3:4 tells us that sin is “the transgression of the law,” not immaturity.

Fifth, Liberal Theology says sin is “selfishness” or a “low self‑esteem.”

In addition to the above approaches to sin, there is also a general sense of flippancy about sin today. This attitude is clearly seen in a poll taken by People Magazine a few years ago. It took what it called a “sin poll,” which gave a scale of 1‑10 to judge various “sins.” A “1” represented no feeling of regret; a “5” showed some guilt; a “10” (which no sin received) represented heinous sin. Here are just a few examples.

“Premarital sex” rated only 3.70 while “parking in a handicapped zone” rated 5.53 and “cutting into lines” rated 4.91. “Living together without marriage” (3.74) is just a little more serious than “not voting” (3.25). Perhaps the most telling example, however, is that while “murder” rated high­est at 9.84 (why not 10?) “abortion” ra­ted only 5.78! The world today sees no similarity between the two!

All this, indeed, reveals just how flippant man is about his sin and guilt. Worse is the fact that in modern preaching today, even among most evangelicals, sin is not dealt with at all. The subjects of today’s “preaching” are God’s love, man’s felt needs, how God will help you with your problems, and so on. Preaching about sin is, no pun intended, the greatest sin of all. If you talk about sin, you’ll make people uncomfortable and cause division. You must rather entertain them and build them up. But that is not the Gospel.

While Ephesians 1 tells us what God has done for us, Ephesians 2 gives us details of how God did it. And where does Paul start? He starts with the reality of sin. In contrast to man’s view of sin, in our next installment, we’ll see how God defines sin.