The theme of my daily reading this morning dealt with our realization of our sins and the magnitude of God's forgiveness. I must confess, I haven't thought much about my sins lately; at my age, the youthful sins of the flesh that are the downfall of so many don't have quite the appeal they once had. Lust, greed, power have lost much of their power to entice me, but that doesn't mean I am home free. The various lists of sins in the Bible cover enough ground to touch us all. But today it's the concept of sin as some horrible thing we do that has me wondering. I suspect that the Enemy of our souls is quite content to allow us to imagine that sin is only the gross injustice or damage others do, as long as we fail to examine our own hearts.
Things aren't quite as simple as that. There are a number of different words in the Bible translated "sin." Transgression, ie. stepping across the line, is one. Injustice is another, as is unrighteousness, a legal violation of a known law. Pollution is yet another way of looking at sin, as well as estrangement, a description of our loss of relationship with God, others, and even self. By far the most common word is the simple word sin, which is a military term meaning to miss the mark. It's what happens when we do our best, aiming for the bullseye, and miss. We simply fall short, which is what St. Paul describes in Romans 3:23.
Most sin isn't deliberate rebellion, although some is. I can't say as I've ever met anyone who gets up in the morning thinking, "I wonder how I can screw up this day." We all want to be happy, but most of us don't know how to get there, and even if we do, we make wrong turns, let our feelings get the better of us, and...fall short. And no matter how old I get, if I stop long enough to think about it, the list of ways I fall short just keeps growing. Which is why I need grace: God's unmerited, but freely given favor. You see, I have this thing called a conscience, and it does an admirable job of condemning me. But I also have a God who does an admirable job of forgiving me. Jesus said it most clearly when after declaring God's love so deep that he gave us his Son so we might not perish, went on to say that God didn't send Jesus into the world to condemn the world, but to save it. So whenever I feel that condemnation, I know it's not God. Forgiveness is. And tonight now that the grandkids are all asleep, I am grateful that in all those areas where I don't quite measure up, God forgives. He simply lets it go, and lets me go free.
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