Grace Presbyterian Church, Montclair, New Jersey

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Pastor's Pulse

by Paul Leggett, Pastor

The Nature of Sin

April 2008

“As Jesus came near and saw the city, he wept over it.” – Luke 19:41

On the eve of Holy Week we here in Montclair were confronted with a disturbing and shocking story.  Three students from Montclair High School were arrested and charged with the crime of sexually assaulting a special education student.  The alleged attack took place in a home during school hours.  It was a week of special testing and the students had left school early.  The incident immediately brought up memories of a situation in Glen Ridge years ago when a group of high school athletes had sexually assaulted a special needs woman student.  Several of those involved served prison sentences.  A book and a TV movie were made of that incident.

There have been other crisis events here in Montclair over the years.  These include a post office shooting in which four persons were killed and one seriously wounded.  They also included a case of a distraught mother who killed her children and then herself.  It is in situations like these that we want to cry out with the psalmist, “Why, O Lord?” (Ps. 10:1).  It is very difficult to give an exact reason for any single occasion of human cruelty and suffering.  Scripture, however, gives us a broad perspective which provides a context for at least some initial understanding.

Sin exists in essentially two forms.  There is human sin, disobedience to God and to his law.  There is however also cosmic sin.  This is sin in an explicitly spiritual sense.  This refers to those spiritual forces which are in active rebellion against the true God.  These include Satan whose origin is unknown in Scripture (as opposed to apocryphal legends of him being Lucifer in heaven) who has been a sinner “from the beginning” (John 8:44; I John 3:8) as well as spiritual and angelic beings who have chosen to rebel against God (Ps. 82:1-8; II Peter 2:4; Jude 1:6).  The picture that Scripture presents that we too often forget is that when we enter into sin we not only disobey God but we place ourselves under the power and influence of these evil spiritual forces.  There are abundant examples of this reality in Scripture including many of the kings of Israel (Saul, Solomon, Ahab, Manasseh).  It is the example of Judas in the New Testament who in turning away from Christ and entering into sin (John 12:1-6) is ultimately taken over by Satan (Luke 22:3; John 13:2).

Unfortunately this fundamental understanding of the nature of sin has often been lost in our time even by Christians.  Sin is not only disobedience to God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  It is opening oneself up to the power of “the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12).  Once these powers are unleashed they can seemingly affect anyone anywhere.  The effects of sin target the innocent as well as the guilty.  Job is perhaps the most righteous person in Scripture but he suffers the consequences of cosmic sin that he has done nothing to deserve.  Our society has in the past generation made a very conscious decision to disregard the Bible’s teachings on sexuality and marriage.  Sexual sin is not new.  However to redefine sexual behavior in a way that contradicts Scripture is new, at least in the history of Western culture.  This breakdown of sexual standards, as well as other Biblical standards, affects all of us in one way or another.

The tragic situation in Montclair broke as we were hearing the sad details of New York’s Governor Spitzer.  We have heard too much of Christian leaders caught in the same destructive web.  These events cannot be defined simply as a “devil made me do it” sort of situation that we find in Greek mythology.  Human decision is involved and therefore human responsibility.  The sobering truth is that our entire culture’s attitude to sexuality and marriage has invited in “the cosmic powers of this present darkness” with terrible results.

All of us, Christians included, bear some responsibility for this.  And all of us need to repent and turn to the Lord.