Collision With Prophecy

A Fresh Look . . .

Misunderstood Texts on Sin

A helpful look at 1 Kings 8:46; 2 Chronicles 6:36; Ecclesiastes 7:20; Psalm 51:5; Isaiah 64:6; 1 John 1:7; and Romans 5:12.

[NOTE: This concise paper is a companion document to the third Collision With Prophecy evangelistic sermon, "Axe of the Ages."]

1 Kings 8:46; 2 Chronicles 6:36; and Ecclesiastes 7:20

There is no man that sinneth not.

For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.

Let's start by pointing out what these verses are not about: they are not put here to discourage us, nor are they are not put into the Bible to excuse sin. Reading the context of 1 Kings 8:46 shows us that the phrase originates in Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the new sanctuary/temple in Jerusalem. He is pleading for assurance that if the people of God repent, our Father will indeed forgive. He here pleads for God's mercy on the basis of universal human need. The text in 2 Chronicles 6:36 is the same event and issue recorded in 2 Chronicles.

Nor is the similar text in Ecclesiastes a license to sin. Much to the contrary, the chapter has Solomon inveighing against excesses in general. It is noteworthy that in Ecclesiastes 7:18 he turns his admonition to the necessity of fearing God: "he that feareth God shall come forth of them all [his multitudinous trials and adventures]." Survival and successful passage through the coming day of judgment and (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14) is predicated ultimately upon fearing God. Why does the Bible advocate the fear of God? Hear Moses: "And Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not" (Exodus 20:20). He was saying, "Don't be afraid of God's testings; respect Him and keep an awareness of His presence in your mind, so that you won't sin." But back to Solomon; he gave us a good definition of fearing God: "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man" (Ecclesiastes 12:14). Will Solomon tells us not to worry about sinning (breaking God's commandments) in one part of his book, and in another part insist that we fear God--(by keeping His commandments)? We think not. Rather, considering the very fact of universal human fallenness, we should be especially watchful to not sin, and to seek His forgiveness while it is still available--to seek Him while he may still be found (Isaiah 55:6).

Psalm 51:5

Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

This text is understood by some to teach that we are born into sin--an assertion which, if accepted, moves the question of morality from the realm of personal decision (something over which we have control), to state of being (something over which we do not). If the sin for which we are held accountable is our nature, we would have to cross-out our understanding of the conflict between good and evil and start over with a blank page; our built-in guilt-bearing state would render our role in the universe's moral conflict that of spectator only. David stated that he was "shapen in iniquity," and "conceived in sin." What did he mean?

An examination of other content from the same Psalm will shed light on David's thought. In Psalm 51:1-4 he indicates an understanding that God can blot out his transgressions, that he can be thoroughly washed and cleansed from his sin. Psalm 51:5-9 include similar statements, as well as the recognition that God desires truth in the inward parts. Complete purging, cleansing, and washing from sin is envisioned. The remaining verses (Psalm 51:10-19) offer us creation of a clean heart, renewal, restoration, and conversion. If the fifth verse of this Psalm is ejected from the context of the surrounding verses, we could conceive of the sin-state interpretation. But the plain facts are, that to do so would spin virtually every other verse in the same Psalm into a situation of internal disharmony. The Psalm as a whole forcefully insists on the real possibility of fallen man being cleansed and the power of the Creator God to do the cleansing; such cleansing is anticipated by the Psalmist in the immediate present.

Since the whole Psalm insists that the sin-state understanding is wrong, we are left with the question, what then did David mean? We offer the following alternative interpretation. David in this Scripture comments on the all-encompassing impact of sin upon the whole created order. All of us are shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin--brought into this world within the context of a sin-distorted environment. To be injected into such an environment doesn't make one guilty, but it means one is impacted. David pleads with God and only after confessing his personal guilt (Psalm 51:4), reminds Him of his fallen human frailty (Psalm 51:5). Such frailty is not an excuse for sin, but a reasonable basis upon which to appeal to a just and merciful God for help and forgiveness. Such an interpretation is vastly more satisfying than one which cuts against the grain of the rest of the verses of this Psalm and removes humankind from significant participation in the conflict between good and evil because of a nature so far gone that even the Creator God can do nothing with it.

Isaiah 64:6

But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

This verse simply states that all our righteousnesses--all that we would seek to do on our own, entirely apart from God and faith in God, can bear no salvific merit, for it is tainted inevitably by sinful motivations. But take heed: nothing in this verse says that righteousnesses flowing out from us when Christ is inside of us (Colossians 1:27-29; Galatians 2:20) are useless. Such faith-filled actions are not (for merit) plugged into our personal salvation equation, for only the merits of Christ accomplish our salvation. Yet Spirit-empowered acts of faith have an understood role as conditional to salvation (Matthew 19:16-22).

1 John 1:7

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

What does this text mean? Some would have us understand it to be saying that we all are born guilty of sin. Following our rule of checking the context, we start by seeing what else the epistle of 1 John says about sin. Here's a sample but two verses away: "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). "My little children, these things I write unto you, that ye sin not" (1 John 2:1). "Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not" (1 John 3:6). "Whoever is born of God doth not commit sin" (1 John 3:9). First John is full of these and similar admonitions and statements clearly affirming the reality of God's power to purify and cleanse us from sin. Our nature doesn't change until glorification (See 1 Corinthians 15), but our character changes now, because we know that "when He [Jesus] shall appear, we shall be like Him" (1 John 3:2). Everyone but Jesus has sinned. Unless we admit our need of salvation from sin, we are psychologically predisposed to reject the idea of our need.

All of us have been impacted by sin. We all come into this world bearing a fallen nature, a nature warped, weakened, inwardly disarranged, strangely reset toward self-fulfillment rather than outwardly-flowing affection. The cold blast of Adam's sin has impacted us all. A mother may smoke and destructively impact the health of her young child unable to remove himself from the environment. In like manner, we cannot deny that our sin-cursed environment has not impacted us. If we were to say that this was not the case, we would be deceiving ourselves and putting others on notice that certainly we were bypassing the truth on this point.

Most contemporary thought proposes this very thing: humans are actually "good" inside; we just need to develop the good naturally there within ourselves. We are taught to dodge personal responsibility for following our downward spiraling nature by those insisting that it was just a bad environment provided by our parents, or poor practices in our schools, or fill-in-the-blank-with-another-creative-excuse. Doubtlessly our upbringing was sub-optimal in some way or other. But it is not merely a problem of environment: it is a problem of denial that our nature is broken and needs to be repaired. Jesus came to do a serious work of repair through the atonement. We must stop dodging His work and start co-operating with Him in His application of it to us. If we say that we have no sin, we stop the whole process dead in its tracks, just as when we say we are already guilty and so what's the use?

Hebrews 7:9-10

And as I may so say, Levi also, who receiveth tithes, payed tithes in Abraham. For he was yet in the loins of his father when Melchisedec met him.

This text is taken to support the teaching of original sin. After all, it is argued, if Levi can, through his ancestor Abraham, pay tithes many years before he (Levi) even exists, then we, through our ancestor Adam, can sin many years before we exist. Levi was there, in the loins of Abraham, not yet born, not yet existent. But let us ponder for a moment what this means and how far it goes.

Ancient Hebrew thought understood the interrelationship between people such that a whole family or nation was present in a person, and a person could represent a whole nation. This concept is called "corporate identity," the idea that one person includes many others. Such thinking, doubtless, was behind Paul's argument in this passage of Hebrews seven. The author of Hebrews uses this corporate identity argument to establish the superiority of the Mechisedec priesthood over the Levitical priesthood, and of the ministry of Christ above the earthly ministry. But remember, we need to take the whole Bible into account. Among the most sharply insistent assertions of the Bible is that God is just. It is in this line that we notice that texts such as Deuteronomy 24:16 and Ezekiel 18:4, 17-20, 24, insisting that neither father nor son be killed for the sins of the other. In fact, the very next verses, Ezekiel 18:25, 29 insist that the matter is precisely one of justice and fairness. The King James version uses the words "equal," and inequal," but the New American Standard translates them as "right," and "not right"--in this case a superior translation. This passage insists that to punish a son for what his father did would not be right. For us to be punished for Adam's choice to sin--a choice that neither you nor I made--would be unjust. It would not be right. When we make our own choice to sin, then we become personally guilty for our own choice. The Hebrew idea of corporate identity does not extend to the realm of personal guilt.

What then shall we make of the argument in the book of Hebrews that Levi paid tithes while in the loins of Abraham? Simple. No more nor less than Paul does. In Hebrews chapter seven, Paul is explaining that one priesthood is superior to another, and he is using figurative illustrations. There is no hint that he would carry his figure so far as to say that Levi sinned in Abraham. This is not what Paul is seeking to accomplish. And besides, how far would you want to take the argument yourself? Since your grandfather proposed to your grandmother before you were born, did you propose to your grandmother before you were born? When she answered with a "yes" to your grandfather, you did not exist. If an ancestor of yours was a murderer who did not repent of his crime, are you a murderer? Are you guilty of the murder he committed? Your nature is indeed the nature of a murderer, but unless you let your nature take you for a ride, you need not be a murderer too. Don't forget; to the first murderer, Cain, while we was premeditating that first act of murder, God said he should rule over his fallen nature and his anger and overcome (Genesis 4:7)!

What then, of Jesus, the Son, dying for our sins? What of the Father offering His Son for our sins? Is that then unjust? Don't forget that it is a voluntary offering. It is the choice of the Father and His Son--our Savior. The Scripture is clear: "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit" (1 Peter 3:18). Jesus is "the just," and that grace may abound He may suffer for us, the unjust, and open the doorway of salvation for our race.

Romans 5:12

Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.

Here again is Augustine's problematic text. But not so problematic. For in fact, were we to make every concession, and agree that we today are now held guilty for Adam's sin, sons and daughters being held morally accountable for the choices of their ancestors (which we've just seen above in our look at the texts in Deuteronomy 24 and Ezekiel 18 cannot be the case), still we would see a sound solution. Look at Romans 5:18-19: "Therefore as by the offence of one [judgment came] upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one [the free gift came] upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous." If we are guilty of Adam's original sin in Romans 5:12, then we are freed from that guilt in these two verses by Christ's "original "justification of life."

If, by the offence of one, Adam, all men were condemned, then by the perfect obedience and offering of Jesus, all men were freed from that original condemnation and became again personally accountable for their own sins. The crime of Adam has been cleared from our own case. It is our own personal choices to sin against God that must receive our focus. There is enough there to keep us occupied with our merciful and sin-cleansing God. We are not guilty for Adam's sin. It is a dark day when the Bible is used to strip man of his moral accountability as the teaching of original sin has done. We are children of the light and not of the darkness. We must let God speak to us in His Bible. The lore of the medieval age, piled up on top of the Scriptures and obscuring them must not hinder us. Dogmas disproved must be discarded, replaced with truth uncovered and applied. The dark and cloudy day in which God's sheep have been scattered (Ezekiel 34:12) is ending, for our Father wants to finish His work and take us home.

Larry Kirkpatrick, Oct. 23, 2000