I've been thinking a lot about sin lately and trying to figure out just exactly what sins I commit on a day-to-day basis.... truthfully, I search my soul and have a hard time finding any. I was always taught that I'm practically sinning every minute in someway or another, if not by actually doing a sin, at least by NOT doing something I should be doing - sins of omission.
This is why we all need the blood of Jesus to forgive us of our sins so God can look upon a sinless person who died and appropriate in His checkbook our debt to this payment.
I was also taught that even if I'm not sinning right now, I still need this blood payment because I surely sinned sometime in my past and besides that I was just plain born with sin somehow already marked on my soul genetically because my parents and their parents all the way back to Adam and Eve also sinned.
That concept was called Original-Sin and was created by Saint Augustine in the 5th century A.D. and accepted by the church ever since.
One of the few exceptions was by an intellectual lawyer turned preacher in the 18th (?) century name Charles Finney. He rationally explained away the whole silliness of Original-Sin and I've been satisfied that the concept is bogus ever since.
So, I'm back to my daily sins to find my guilt - and my continued need for blood payment (I know this is bordering on blasphemy here for evangelicals, but I'm trying to just be logical and honest here.)
So, can I clarify my sins enough to the point that I can be conscious of them?
Can I actually COUNT my sins? Like through the day?
It gets real fuzzy. And the older I get the less sins I seem to do.
Let's start with really the only one people really have trouble with - sex.
Hey, I've been married for 30 years and somehow have avoided the pitfalls of betraying her. I can have sex with her just about anytime I like. I've taught myself to avoid looking and lusting after other women, though I can't say I haven't looked and appreciated sexiness or even lusty body parts of women, but I don't feel I'm battling sinful thoughts at all. What does pass through my mind I just don't feel accountable or guilty for it.
Well this is a dangerous thought, and for sure doesn't negate the powerful death-dealing results that can come from having sex with someone other than your designated for life mate. Lord knows how many family lives have been soiled and ruined by sexual unfaithfulness outside of their mate.
But still, maybe because I'm older or maybe just because I'm successfully habituated to not doing it - don't on any kind of a day by day basis sin this way. It may be over a decade even. I mean very few times have I allowed myself to indulge my imagination with sexual encounters consciously.
Now, I've had sleeping dreams of such a nature, so it's not that I'm too weird. I just strongly am committed to my wife and have an innate fear of losing her if I screwed up (pun not intended.)
But surely you can't actually do sins in your dreams that would require forgiveness at the cost of the blood sacrifice of Deity, can you?
[more to say on this subject - because I think I did sin the other day and want to tell about it.]
Well,Mitchman,
ReplyDeleteI read this often and do enjoy your insight.
This question seems so unlike you. Why be concerned about sin if your
an agnostic? Isn't Jesus a Jewish thing anyway? Wasn't the myth behind his death rather typical of ancient texts? Many of the cults and great thinkers had that perspective.Why should Augustine surprise anyone? The real struggle is within the individual and wrestling through the guilt that comes from the rules that society imposes on him or her. Who gets to choose what is right or wrong? I think, I do. Now, my choice should be based on evidence of consequences for wrong or bad actiions. These consequences mostly come from natural law and not societal imposition.So lets cut out the mythology and just consider what is, and how to be good and kind and loving toward each other. This is the simple Jesus I have come to know;live by His greatest two teachings.
What do you think?
I have to say these are the blogs I enjoy the most!! Lets enjoy the fact that we aren't the temple priest of the Old Testament that had to be 100% pure to enter in and offer the incense, (i.e. they would tie a rope around him just in case he wasn't pure to pull him out)...DEAD that is!!!
ReplyDeleteOriginal Sin: Jude 6: "the angels that did not keep their own realm but left their proper dwelling". Jesus said that the Devil is, from the beginning, a murderer and a falsifier: probably because by falsehood Satan brought in the fall of man: which man : became liable to physical death, eternal punishment, and became spiritually dead, or alienated from fellowship with the Creator.
There aren't many statements in the Bible about Satans original status and fall. Yet there are prophecies that contain analogies. The primeval origin of Sin first became actual in an order of personal beings who are not a race...fallen angels...they were endowed with ethical spiritual choice. Their sin was the act of individuals AS individuals...they sinned without remedy.
Unlike the angels, Man is not a mere collection of individuals. Man is a race with group solidarity and representative responsibility. That principle governs ALL of human life. Just as us Americans would say..."I signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776, or I declared war Dec, 7 1941," the same goes for us with Adam and Eve. My representatives did it, and the action was mine.
I guess I'm saying this: Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God. But it doesn't stop there, It was the revelation of the holy character of God which caused Isaiah, (6:1-6) to recognize his own sinful corruption. Sin is the violation of the expression of God's holy character.
Sin ultimately is whats not expressed in the creature, or contrary to, the holy character of the creator. Sin isn't merely what we do, but what we are!!! There is sin in our race and in our nature.
We shall discuss this more very soooon!!! T
hoooooowwwwwwwlllllllllll
well said!! I tend to go overboard on the subject of fallen angels and original sin and such. Not practical chatter for the simplicity of a sin I commit. All your quotes I hear ya!!
ReplyDeleteA friend put a good lecture to me awhile back about Social Sin, or National Sin: as opposed to Personal Sin: Jesus denounced social sin as being more dangerous than personal sin. Still pretty simple I suppose. Social Sins: poverty, oppression, slavery, racism, sexism, exploitation and such position people lower than they were created to be! As my friend put it, "Social sin leaves people more vulnerable to personal sin", I couldn't agree more with him. So yea it does cut a lil' deeper than just some silly sin I committed today. Every day you turn on the TV you have WAVES of negative forces (subliminal type), not exposing its FANGS and screaming at ya, but slowly chipping away at your foundations of God the creator!! America itself, and the 'me me me' mentality is to me THE classic example of Rome in Jesus' day. Lust of flesh, Lust of blood, Lust of Self, ALL which has been deemed approapiate by society.
To believe Sin is just some simple ole lil bad thing I did wrong today. Or, just another rule I felt like breaking cause no one was watching type of thing. Then just what happens when you divulge into the pressures of your everyday life. WRESTLING 1 2 3 ding ding ding Tony Tone