Word on the Web

28 May 2009: Is sin, sin full stop?

The parliamentary expenses scandal has really hit a collective nerve among the population and united people across all parties in astonishment, condemnation and a call for punishment as people are aghast that an ‘I’m sorry and I will pay the money back’ statement is apparently sufficient to avoid further repercussions.

We are right to be deeply concerned at this apparent abuse of power and privilege but do we stop to ask any deeper questions such as ‘What would I have done in the same circumstances?’ It is easy away from the situation to believe we would have done better but history is not on our side. From the fall onwards we all have an inbuilt tendency to err in this direction – possibly not to such extremes but which of us has not used the companies resources for our own benefit, withheld some item, however small or unintentionally, from the tax man etc.

The whole sad event raises therefore a number of issues.

Is sin a matter of the magnitude of the sin or is sin, sin full stop? Romans 3:23 surely reminds us that it is the latter and therefore we are all guilty and have fallen short of the glory of God. So much as I feel ‘righteous(?) anger’ at the actions of MPs in fact before God I am in the same boat.

Secondly we feel offended that our representatives should play fast and loose with the position to which they have been called or elected. Does that I wonder, make us reflect on how God feels as he sees us rejecting his word and failing to live as he has called us to live? He is Habakkuk tells us (Chapter 1.13) ‘of purer eyes than to see evil’ which leaves us in a perilous situation were it not for the fact that this Holy God is also the God of grace.

We have alluded to the ‘sorry I will pay it back’ reaction of MPs but in the spiritual realm there is a much more ‘scandalous’ way which simply involves saying “I am truly sorry and intend to live a new life” – its called repentance! How is that possible? Because the pay back has been made through the death of Jesus on the Cross. He has paid the price that we might walk free. That is the heart of the gospel.

We are right to be angered by the current scandal but it should cause us to think deeply as to where we stand and to thank the God of Grace that he has made a way for us to be made righteous.

Andrew Bradley