Grokking Sin
sin is anything less than the full glory of God
Back in 2018 I listened to a conversation between Greg Johnson, the pastor of the PCA church who hosted the Revoice conference and the guys from CrossPolitic. I appreciated how diligently and respectfully the CrossPolitic guys worked to convey a different perspective to their guest. As I listened, however, it became apparent that the fundamental difference between the parties was their definition of sin.
I’m not sure either party really grok1 the definition of sin, and I think this is a broad problem plaguing our culture—secular and ecclesial. Yes, sin is missing the mark. Yes, sin is lawlessness2, but I think it is important in our day to emphasize that sin is anything less than the glory of God. Yes, we must repent of our complete inability to hit an impossible goal. The law is a detailed explication of what the glory of God looks like in action; the character of God applied to human affairs; a description of the character of God in all its glory.
Greg Johnson was struggling with the idea of asking folks to repent of something non-volitional, but if sin is understood biblically, we must all be regularly repenting of falling short of the glory of God—not just of willful sins—but of the state of being a corrupted image.
Only then can we fully embrace the need to turn our hearts (and our feet, our lips, our eyes, etc.) away from anything except the glory of God: that consuming light where some sweet day we will once again be able to discern nothing detailed about the other, except their being robed in the glory of God (and therefore be unashamed). O, to no longer regard each other according to the flesh!
I love the Anglican confession3 that contains these three descriptors, reminding us that we: “have sinned…through ignorance, through weakness, through our own deliberate fault.” Too often these days, we recognize only deliberate sins as sin, and while it is easy to agree that we were “conceived and born in iniquity and corruption” (to quote Calvin’s liturgy)4, I suspect it puts the proper point on it to recognize and acknowledge that sin is falling short of the glory of God. Which of us Pharisees has the hubris to think we’ve met that standard?
Though I would set myself up for constant disappointment, I would like to hope that I never again hear that tired question/challenge: “Are you saying that _______ is a sin?” Yes, yes, I am; we are literally wallowing in sinfulness, and the Lord loves a broken spirit and a contrite heart; a heart that spends so much time gazing upon Christ that it realizes ever more fully how far short it falls, and therefore glories in the chesed (חֶסֶד ) in which we move without condemnation, a heart that clings to the Father who knows our frame and remembers that we are but inglorious dust.5
transitive verb: to understand profoundly and intuitively. Grok is a neologism coined by American writer Robert A. Heinlein for his 1961 science fiction novel Stranger in a Strange Land.
“To commit sin is to break God’s law: for sin is lawlessness.” 1 John 3:4 (REB)
The Archbishops' Council, "Confessions," in Common Worship: Services and Prayers for the Church of England (London: Church House Publishing, 2000), 276.
John Calvin, “Form of Ecclesiastical Prayers)” in Jonathan Gibson, Jonathan; Mark Earngey, Reformation Worship: Liturgies from the Past for the Present. (Greensboro, NC: New Growth Press, 2018), Kindle Edition. Kindle Location 5790 of 13588.
Psalm 103:14.