What’s the ultimate sin?

I’ve always figured sin was sin, none any better or worse than others. I’ve always wondered about folks who seem to categorize sins and set themselves apart as though there’s something admirable about belonging to a better class of sinner.

If you’re a regular reader, you know that my small group is studying The Prodigal God by Timothy Keller. Last night we discussed Keller’s assertion that one sin underlies all of our other sins and our righteousness—in his words, “the sin of seeking to be our own Savior and Lord.”

We must admit that we’ve put our ultimate hope and trust in things other than God, and that in both our wrongdoing and right doing we have been seeking to get around God or get control of God in order to get hold of those things. [p. 78]

Keller maintains that even when we do right, we’re doing it for wrong reasons. While we’re busy patting ourselves on the back for our generosity or service, we’re ignoring our self-serving motivations. To the extent that we’re doing right in order to earn something, we’re setting ourselves up as self-saviors. And whatever we earn cannot replace Jesus.

This challenges me. It forces me to acknowledge that I being nothing to the table. No matter what I do, even when it’s exactly the right thing, falls short.

This was Jesus’ message to the Pharisees, and it’s his message to me. Any time I place my security anywhere but the cross, I miss the mark.

The parable of The Lost Son commonly involves understanding the unmerited forgiveness that’s showered on the returning wayward son. But that lost son understood and admitted his mistakes.

The older brother is much more difficult to understand because he represents those who stay home, follow the rules, and are every bit as lost. That brother couldn’t see his hardened heart and his sense that he’d earned his father’s love by following the rules and meeting expectations.

Neither brother could earn his father’s love because he already loved each completely and unconditionally. And that’s how God sees me in Jesus. Neither my bad deeds nor my good ones get me a single bit farther from—or closer to—God.

He’s right here, because of the cross.

Do you struggle as much as I do with perceiving the sin beneath your righteousness?

If you haven’t seen yet, may I suggest this short video showing an imaginary, but all-too-real, conversation in the context of The Lord’s Prayer?

Did you enjoy this article? I encourage you to leave a comment, visit my website, and/or send me an email at rich@richdixon.net.

Receive free updates via email:

Subscribe in a reader

Related articles:

The Lord’s Prayer

Forgiveness isn’t …

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. [Matthew 5:3]

Do you think you know who’s going to heaven?

A few days ago I ran across a blog post titled Ten People Who Won’t Be In Heaven. It’s a catchy title—at least it got my attention on Twitter. I won’t link to it because, frankly, I can’t find it again. But trust me, you’re not missing anything.

We don’t need another scriptural litany of sins. You know what I mean, the really awful sins that all those other people do. The sins that are so horrible that we can say for sure they’re going to keep people from God’s eternal presence.

Of course the writer omitted sins like judging, failing to forgive your neighbor, forgetting to feed the hungry—insignificant stuff like that apparently wasn’t bad enough to make the top-ten list.

Drawing lines—those are the really nasty guys, the ones we need to single out for eternal damnation. On this side of the line are the good guys, which apparently means those of us guilty of acceptable offenses.

Drawing lines—I do it, we all do it. But let’s be honest.

When we draw lines, we try in vain to identify ourselves with a better class of sinners.

I definitely believe in absolute truth and right. But I also believe that no person can stand alone in the harsh light of that truth. “There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…”

But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. [Romans 3:21-24]

There is no difference. That doesn’t fit our notion of fairness, but God fortunately doesn’t see things our way.

What if we quit drawing lines? What if we dropped our silly obsession with labels and division? What if we focused on tearing down the barriers rather than fortifying them? What if we approached others with simple unconditional respect?

When Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit..,” He was describing those who recognize their own spiritual bankruptcy. The “poor in spirit” are those who understand their spiritual insufficiency and their absolute need to fall into Jesus’ mercy and grace. When you understand that, it’s difficult to draw lines.

There is no difference.

Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future. Oscar Wilde

As hard as I try to avoid it, I draw lines. What are some of the lines you tend to draw?

Did you enjoy this article? Please leave a comment, visit my website, and/or send me an email at rich@richdixon.net.

Subscribe to receive updates by Email

Related articles:

Unconditional Respect

We All Ride The Same Road

Follow Me And Be Free