Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Can Sin Be Explained?
Mark Lauterback recently did a two-post series on explaining sin to "The Righteous" Read the first post to understand what he means by that term. In his second post he completes his thoughts on the problem. Let me set this up for you briefly. The problem he examines is the communication of the doctrine of sin in a world where we are all sinners and all share common grace. That is to say we all have the capacity to do good, even without salvation.
I have a had a dozen reactions to this, but will try and limit myself to just a couple.
My first reaction is cautionary. I agree with Mark, but sometimes we focus on the common grace good of everybody and forget that often what appears to be good is far from it. His opening example is of the secular individual that worked to save the Jews in the Holocaust. Such people indeed did immense good, but it is quite possible that they did so out of the basest of motives, for example, hatred of the Nazi persecutors. I have no doubt Christ would have harbored Jews had He been there, but I think he would have also tried to find a way to reach the Nazis.
I think this is what Christ was talking about in the Sermon on the Mount. The simple performance of good does not make us good. That is the essential message when we talk about sin, but it is so easy to turn that into cheap grace, that the mere performance of good is good. The genuine transformation we are offered in Christ will cause us to see the good we perform as evil becasue of our misplaced and selfish motivation.
My second reaction deals with my work on Artcile VI Blog, where I am working with a Mormon to examine the question of religion as relates to the presidential candidacy of Mitt Romney, who I think by now everyone knows is a Mormon.
Clearly if we hold to the common grace Lauterbach discusses, and I certainly do, then "even a Mormon" can work to accomplish God's ends as the President of the United States. As God used people of all faith to preserve the Jews in the Holocaust, certainly He can do good with a person of a different faith in the White House.
To think otherwise is to doubt God's sovereignty.
Related Tags: common grace, sin, Jews, Holocaust, Mormon, Mitt Romney
I have a had a dozen reactions to this, but will try and limit myself to just a couple.
My first reaction is cautionary. I agree with Mark, but sometimes we focus on the common grace good of everybody and forget that often what appears to be good is far from it. His opening example is of the secular individual that worked to save the Jews in the Holocaust. Such people indeed did immense good, but it is quite possible that they did so out of the basest of motives, for example, hatred of the Nazi persecutors. I have no doubt Christ would have harbored Jews had He been there, but I think he would have also tried to find a way to reach the Nazis.
I think this is what Christ was talking about in the Sermon on the Mount. The simple performance of good does not make us good. That is the essential message when we talk about sin, but it is so easy to turn that into cheap grace, that the mere performance of good is good. The genuine transformation we are offered in Christ will cause us to see the good we perform as evil becasue of our misplaced and selfish motivation.
My second reaction deals with my work on Artcile VI Blog, where I am working with a Mormon to examine the question of religion as relates to the presidential candidacy of Mitt Romney, who I think by now everyone knows is a Mormon.
Clearly if we hold to the common grace Lauterbach discusses, and I certainly do, then "even a Mormon" can work to accomplish God's ends as the President of the United States. As God used people of all faith to preserve the Jews in the Holocaust, certainly He can do good with a person of a different faith in the White House.
To think otherwise is to doubt God's sovereignty.
Related Tags: common grace, sin, Jews, Holocaust, Mormon, Mitt Romney
