Problems with "sin"

Most of us would have no difficulty with condemning what has been done recently in Mumbai, or a man repeatedly raping his two daughters, also in the news recently. But the nature of wickedness is a mystery to many. Both are expressions of what the Bible calls sin but there is more to it than that.

For many the word "sin" is unhelpful as it often carries images of self-righteous people condemning others. Yet the same people would readily accept that a characteristic that all humankind seem to share is the ability to mess things up. None of us are perfect, and sin is simply one way of defining that.

In both Hebrew and Greek thinking (the two main languages of scripture) there are three different ways of understanding sin. I find them helpful and I also find the fact that I can illustrate them from the experience of every motorist in the UK is helpful too.

Our national speed limit is 70 mph. Most built up areas limit speed to 30 mph and there are various other limits. Despite careful searching I have yet to find one driver who can honestly say that they have not exceeded the speed limit at some time. In fact many would say (in their defence) that you just can't help it sometimes. This introduces us to the main concept of sin which is simply a failure to meet an expected standard.

Sometimes the speed limit is exceeded almost accidentally. We might be aware that we have come into an area where the speed is limited to 30 or 40 mph, for example, but a lack of concentration has led to driving too fast. We have drifted over the limit unintentionally. This is what is meant by the Hebrew and Greek words that are translated as "iniquity". It means a tendency to go off track. We have trolleys in supermarkets that do that!

The third concept is usually translated as "transgression". Staying with the driving analogy this would be those occasions when we are in a hurry - perhaps because we are late. If we cannot see a police car, or a speed camera, and it seems safe to do so, we put our foot down and deliberately break the speed limit. Literally transgression is about crossing a line when we know that do so is wrong.

There was a time when I accepted as true the common comment that if everyone driving in London observed the speed limit everything would grind to a halt. But learning of someone who picked up several fines and seventeen points on her licence recently in a single day's driving in London has made me think again! It seems that rules are not flexible.

We know that the speed limits are set in law for the common good and the safety of all. I'm not sure that a policeman catching me speeding would be impressed by any argument that I might put forward suggesting that it is a matter of relativity rather than absolutes. But often I hear arguments that sin is a matter of relativity. "What if no one is hurt by what we do?" Of course we tend to be blind to the consequences of our sin on other people, on society in general, or even on our own personality.

Sooner or later anyone who persistently exceeds the speed limit will either get caught by the authorities or worse still might seriously hurt someone in an accident. The latter is much more likely to happen when we persistently "get away with it". You may have heard the story about the man who fell from a very tall building and was heard to say "So far so good" as he passed each floor on his way to the pavement.

I have got away with it on occasions and I recently wondered what my bank balance would look like if I voluntarily paid the equivalent of a fine for each occasion. Putting right the consequences of our moral sins is absolutely impossible, but the Divine Authority offers to wipe the record clean when we are truly sorry.