August 28, 2017 – Devotions – Your G-d Is Too Small — What is the Truth about Sin and Forgiveness?

“The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’” Luke 18:9-13

Do people really understand the word “Sin”? Do people really understand how sin affects their lives? Probably not. I can feel fairly safe saying “Probably Not”, because it seems to me that if people do not have a sense of G-d, then how can they have any sense of sin. One must understand or at least have a sense of one to even try to understand the other. And when a person comes to believe that a G-d exists, he or she soon also understands the concept of being in relationship with that G-d – and the parameters of a right and a wrong relationship – and that something must be done. In ancient times, when bad things were happening in the community, or with crops, etc. the people believed they had sinned and angered G-d. To appease the G-d or G-d’s, they would sacrifice animals, crops, even children – something had to be “done” to repair the relationship with their G-d. There are tribes in the Americas who, during a solar eclipse, they would shoot arrows at the sun hoping to bring it back – something had to be done. Something must be done, they thought, so that the bridge between the holiness of G-d and the sinfulness of man could be built – and not temporarily. The Greek word for sin is “Hamartia” – it means “to miss the mark” – as in shooting an arrow at a target, and missing. We could say that sin is not just making an error in judgment in a particular case, but missing the whole point of human life; not just the violation of a law, but an insult to a relationship with the One to whom we owe everything. Sin therefore is more than just that “guilty feeling” we get when we think we have not “toed the line”. The parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector gives us a glimpse of how deluded we can become. The Pharisee feels he is “upright because he truly believes has done all the right things – so, by extension he is right with G-d” – while the Tax Collector’s guilt is overwhelming, because he sees himself only as “a sinner” – he sees his life as sinful no matter what he may or may not have done.

When we are not in relationship with G-d, or when we live as if we do not need G-d, or we truly believe we are so good that our lives are without sin, then we are square in the target of living in sin –because sin is not about what we have done “for” G-d, it is about diminishing what G-d has done “for” us. (Themes come from the book “Your God Is Too Small” by J. B. Phillips)

Pastor Dave