I remember hearing John Crowder say, “Focusing on sin is loser Christianity.” That got me to wondering why it is that Christianity is so focused on sin? We have all heard those types of confessions. “I’m just a worm…" "Nothing good dwells in me…" "All my righteousness is filthy rags…"
We even sing this from our hymn books:
Alas! and did my Savior bleed? And did my Sovereign die? Would He devote that sacred head for such a worm as I? - Alas and Did My Savior Bleed - Isaac Watts
By nature and by sin! Heirs of immortal misery, unholy and unclean. - Not the Malicious, Nor Profane - Isaac Watts
Amazing grace! How sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me! - Amazing Grace - John Newton
How sad our state by nature is! Our sin, how deep it stains! A guilty, weak, and helpless worm, on Thy kind arms I fall. - How Sad Our State by Nature Is - John Newton
What is going on here? Isn’t the good news that Christ wiped away our sins? Doesn’t God say He has removed our sin as far as the East is from the West (Psalm 103:12). Doesn't Scripture tell us He remembers our sins no more (Hebrews 10:17, 12)? If this is so, why are we focusing on our sins? Are we trying to remind Him!
I find no parallels in the New Testament for this mindset except for Romans 7 which most likely is the source for much of the modern Church focus on sin.
For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.
I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! (Romans 7:14-24).
There are two ways to view this passage. One is to assume Paul is talking about his own sinfulness. The other is that Paul is describing the condition of all of humanity leading up to the Christ. It is Christ who offers a most glorious solution which Paul goes on to present in Chapter 8. I am inclined to believe the latter view. I do not see that Paul had any predominant sin consciousness. He hardly ever spoke of his sins. He does refer on several occasions to his great sin – that of persecuting the church. But I would contend that he had gotten past that because he was able to maintain a clear conscience before God and all men (Acts 24:16). However, Paul's idea of sin consciousness may provide us with some insight into where the Western Church’s focus on sin originated. Sin consciousness is what Krister Stendahl calls introspective conscience. That is, our awareness of our sinfulness comes from introspection – our self-examination. This happens when we examine our own conscious thoughts and feelings and a self-assess of our mental state. Thus, when Paul talks about a clear conscience before God and man, it is introspection. He has examined his mental state and can find no conditions that renders him guilty, condemned, or ashamed for his conduct before God or man. Similarly, when Paul talks about not doing “the good I want, but the evil I do not want to do is what I do” it is introspection. Or is it?
In the history of Western Christianity (and to a large extent, Western culture) the Apostle Paul has been hailed as a hero of the introspective conscience. Here was the man who grappled with the problem "I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want to do is what I do ... " (Rom. 7: 19). His insights as to a solution to this dilemma have recently been more or less identified. For example, with what Jung referred to as the Individuation Process, which in reality is only a contemporary twist to the traditional Western way of reading the Pauline letters as documents of human consciousness.[1]
Stendahl does not agree with this bias because he does not see a sin consciousness in Paul. He sees the same Paul that I see, a man with a clear conscience before God and man.
Where did the introspective conscience of the West come from?
On the secular side introspection has been around in philosophy since before Plato. In psychology it is a more recent development by 18th and 19th century German philosopher-psychologists like Baumgarten, Tetens and Wundt. In the church it first appears in Augustine (Confessions). It comes to a climax in Luther who literally beat himself over his sinfulness. This he did until God in His mercy revealed to Luther that salvation is by “grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone”. It was this revelation that resulted in the Reformation, that is, the beginning of Protestantism.
Despite Luther’s revelation Augustinian introspection prevailed in Western Christianity. And in combination with Augustine’s doctrine of original sin, it morphed into the doctrine of total depravity. Luther, Calvin, and other Reformers used the term total depravity to articulate what they claimed was Augustine’s view. That is, that Adam's sin corrupted the entire human nature. However, Augustine’s doctrine of original sin was erroneous because it was based on a mistranslation in the Vulgate.[2] Thus, the subsequent doctrine of total depravity was also erroneous. Nonetheless, both doctrines prevailed and continue to this day to foster Western introspective conscience (a.k.a. sin consciousness).
Stendahl makes the same argument concerning the erroneous basis for Western introspective conscience:
What dominates this chapter [Romans 7] is a theological concern and the awareness that there is a positive solution available here and now by the Holy Spirit about which he speaks in Chapter 8. We should not read a trembling introspective conscience into a text… [It is] a fact well known in human history-and especially in the history of religions: that sayings which originally meant one thing later on were interpreted to mean something else, something which was felt to be more relevant to human conditions of later times.[1]
Stendahl goes on to make the point that we should beware of any such "modernizing," whether it be for apologetic, doctrinal, or psychological purposes. Speaking to theologians he says:
He [the theologian aware of this modernizing] would be suspicious of a teaching and a preaching which pretended that the only door into the church was that of evermore introspective awareness of sin and guilt. For it appears that the Apostle Paul was a rather good Christian, and yet he seems to have had little such awareness.[1]
He then sums up the whole point of his talk and this paper saying,
We note how the biblical original functions as a critique of inherited presuppositions and incentive to new thought. Few things are more liberating and creative in modern theology than a clear distinction between the "original" and the "translation" in any age, our own included. [1]
Final Words
The good news is that Christ completely restored humanity back to its original state through his death, resurrection, and ascension. Yes, part of that is the wiping away of our sins, but that is NOT the Good News! The Good News is our complete acceptance back into right relationship with our Father. Think of this in terms of your own family. Suppose your son comes to you and tells you he hates you and disowns you as his father. Later, he has a change of heart and comes back to you, asks you to forgive him and you do. From that point on in your relationship with him, do you focus on the previous events? No! The focus is NOT on what tore the relationship apart. The focus is on what builds your relationship into the future. This is the Good News; God no longer remembers our sins. Like the father and son in our story, He does not want to live a life separated from us. He wants to build a relationship with us that will bring us to our ultimate glory. What an amazing God!
We have gotten so focused on separation that we cannot see the forest for the trees. We cannot understand God’s heart for us, His intentions for us. And that needs to change.
END NOTES
The full text of Stendahl’s talk is available here in pdf form:
https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/The-Apostle-Paul-and-the-Introspective-Conscience-Stendahl
[1] Krister Stendahl, The Apostle Paul and the Introspective Conscience of the West, Harvard Theological Review, 56 (1963),
[2] See my paper On Original Sin