9
The
Reality Of Sin
(Eph.
2:1b)
. . . trespasses
and sins . . .
We come now to the
second chapter of this marvelous Epistle. As our
detailed outline shows (see Chapter 1,
“Introduction and Overview”, section XII),
Ephesians 1 deals with the believer’s Riches in
Christ while Ephesians 2 deals with the believer’s
Reconciliation to God. Ponder
a moment the connection between these two
chapters:
·
Chapter 1 - Paul shows us what
God has done for us
·
Chapter 2 - Paul gives details of how
God did it
To illustrate, I pastor in
Colorado, which in its early history drew many
adventurers to search for the riches of gold, but that
gold did not come easily. Many a story has been written,
therefore, to describe how they did that. Likewise, Paul
recounts the great wealth we have in Christ in Ephesians
1, but then tells us in Ephesians 2 exactly how God
“dug” that great wealth.
As one reads the opening
verses of chapter 2, it seems Paul is asking, “Do you
fully realize what our salvation means?” We say this
because Paul launches into some details of the
salvation process. There are three progressive
sections in chapter 2:
·
Our Condition BEFORE
Christ (vs. 1-3)
·
Our Position IN Christ
(vs. 4-10)
·
Our Unification WITH
Christ (vs. 11-22)
Commentator William
MacDonald writes this excellent overview of this
chapter:
When Ephesians 2 opens, we
are spiritual corpses in Death Valley. When it closes,
we are not only seated in Christ in the heavenlies; we
form a habitation of God through the Spirit. In between
we have the mighty miracle that brought about this
remarkable transformation.
We recall our study
of election back in 1:4-6 (Chapter 3) and
redemption Ephesians 1:7-12
(Chapter 4); in both studies we observed man’s total
depravity. But Paul goes deeper into this subject in the
opening verses of chapter 2 (vs. 1-3).
May I interject
here, as I shared with my congregation the morning I
preached the message on which this chapter is based, the
Truth that follows is not very uplifting. After reading
it, you will not be “floating on air” or “feeling good
about yourself.” Paul’s message here is about the total
depravity man, his absolute and total sinfulness. The
Truth here is not hard to understand, for Paul’s
language is quite clear; rather it is hard to
accept. It is hard for each
of us to face the stark reality of our
sinfulness.
It is absolutely
essential to understand that that one of the major
reasons, if not THE major reason, for any wrong
conception of salvation is an inadequate conception of
sin. At the root of today’s
diluting of the Gospel is actually a misunderstanding,
or sometimes even a deliberate denial, of the Biblical
view of sin. Man’s view of sin is far different from
God’s. Worse is the fact that even many believers do not
view sin as God does.
So, as Calvin
observed, “To bring home more effectually to the
Ephesians the general doctrine of Divine grace, he
reminds them of their former
condition.”1 To put it another way, before we
can see the height and glory of God’s
grace, we must first see the depth and depravity
of man’s sin. What we need to see in
this present chapter (and the next) are:
·
The Reality of
Sin
·
The Results of
Sin
Looking first at
sin’s Reality, let us see the
contrast between man’s view of sin and God’s
view.
I. Man’s
View of Sin
We see two aspects of
man’s view of sin: the specific approaches that he uses
to view the problem and also his general attitude toward
sin.
Specific
Approaches
There are several
different approaches to the “sin question” as far as man
is concerned.
First, some,
of course, don’t really recognize a “sin problem” at
all. This view says that man is pretty much okay the way
he is. While he certainly isn’t perfect, he is evolving,
and since he’s been around for so long and has been
learning along the way, he’s in pretty good shape. But
such a view is a little hard to swallow as you watch the
eleven o’clock news.
Second, some
who do recognize that there is a problem, view sin as an
accident, mistake, or indiscretion. It’s not really a
person’s fault when he does wrong, rather it’s because
of his background and upbringing. But Romans 5:12
declares: “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.” This verse, as well as
the Genesis 3 account of the fall, clearly shows
that sin was a result of deliberate disobedience. Sin is
never accidental; we sin because we choose to
sin.
Third, sin is
merely an “amiable weakness.” This means that sin is
merely a minor, unfortunate weakness but one which does
not really hurt anyone. Man is a little “unhealthy,”
perhaps even morally sick, but he’s not a hopeless case.
But notice Jeremiah 17:9: “The heart is deceitful above
all things, and desperately wicked.” Does that
sound like an “amiable weakness” or simply an unhealthy
condition? Man is, indeed, in a desperate condition. As
we’ll see in the next chapter, he is actually spiritual
dead.
Fourth, sin
is merely “immaturity.” In this view sin is only a lack
of personal growth that will improve as we develop as
human beings. Is it not interesting that we do not see
people growing out of this “immaturity?” I John 3:4
tells us that sin is “the transgression of the law,” not
immaturity.
Fifth,
Liberal Theology says sin is “selfishness” or a “low
self-esteem.” The Reverend Robert Schuller, for example,
very clearly revealed his theology in his book,
Self-Esteem: The New Reformation, 2 in which he
writes:
Reformation Theology
failed to make clear that the core of sin is a lack of
self-esteem (p. 98).
Every time I read that,
the first thing that comes to mind is that I’m sure the
reformers would appreciate being set straight on what
sin is. In fact, Mr. Schuller’s entire book is an attack
on the Theology of the reformers, who were, as he puts
it,
. . . rampantly
reckless in assaulting the dignity of the person (first
paragraph of fly-leaf).
In other words, if we say
“man is depraved,” we are guilty of attacking man’s
dignity. He then goes on to write:
What we need is a Theology
of salvation that begins and ends with a
recognition of every person’s hunger for glory (pp.
26-27).
Indeed, man wants glory,
but we certainly do not need a Theology that feeds
man’s arrogance and depravity. Schuller continues by
telling us that sin is:
Any human condition
or act that robs God of glory by stripping one of His
children of their right to divine
dignity. Sin is that deep lack
of trust that separates me from God and leaves me with a
sense of shame and unworthiness (p. 14, emphasis
added).
We must ask here, where
does the Word of God say that man has a “right to divine
dignity?” Man has no rights; he deserves an eternity in
Hell. But Mr. Schuller also tells us what Hell
is:
It is the loss of pride
that naturally follows separation from God—the ultimate
and unfailing source of our soul’s sense of
self-respect. “My God, my God, why has thou forsaken
me?” was Christ’s encounter with hell. In that “hellish”
death our Lord experienced the ultimate
horror—humiliation, shame, and loss of pride as a human
being. A person is in hell when he has lost his
self-esteem (pp.14-15).
So hell is not a literal
place of fire and torment; rather, it is a personal
feeling in the here and now that is produced by our own
low self-image. What then is salvation according to
Schuller?
It means to be permanently
lifted from sin (psychological self-abuse . . . ) and
shame to self-esteem . . . (p. 99).
But the most shocking
words to come from “Reverend” Schuller, and modern
theology in general, appeared in one of today’s
“Christian” publications:
I don’t think
anything has been done in the name of Christ and under
the banner of Christianity that has proven more
destructive to human personality and, hence,
counterproductive to the evangelism enterprise than the
often crude, uncouth, and unchristian strategy of
attempting to make people aware of their lost and sinful
condition.
3
Apostasy such as that is
almost unbelievable. In spite of his worldwide
acceptance, Robert Schuler, like many others, does not
preach the Gospel. I’m neither attacking him personally
nor judging him, rather I am discerning Truth from error
when I say that if he actually believes what he writes,
he simply cannot be a true Christian Believer because
his teaching is not the Gospel revealed in Scripture.
Salvation is not a rising above a hellish experience in
your own mind by improving your self-esteem; salvation
is a deliverance of the sin that has condemned us to an
eternity is the literal flames of Hell, “where their
worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched” (Mk. 9:44,
46, 48).
What Schuller says is
certainly not what we saw in Ephesians 1, nor is it what
we will see in Ephesians 2. Man will go to any lengths
to deny how depraved and guilty man is. How true is that
second stanza of the hymn, “Beneath The Cross Of
Jesus:”
Upon the cross of Jesus
mine eye at times can see
The very dying form of One Who suffered there for
me;
And from my smitten heart
with tears two wonders I confess,
The
wonders of His glorious love, and my own
worthlessness.
“Oh, but that strips us of
the dignity of the person,” someone might say. Indeed it
does. As we’ll see, this is man’s position—no worth, no
dignity, and, in fact, no life at all.
General
Attitude
In addition to the
above approaches to sin, there is also a general sense
of flippancy about sin today. This attitude is clearly
seen in a poll taken by People
Magazine.
4 That
magazine took what it called a “sin poll,” which gave a
scale of 1-10 to judge various “sins.” A “1” represented
no feeling of regret; a “5” showed some guilt; a “10”
(which no sin received) represented heinous sin. Here
are just a few examples.
“Premarital sex” rated
only 3.70 while “parking in a handicapped zone” rated
5.53 and “cutting into lines” rated 4.91. “Living
together without marriage” (3.74) is just a little more
serious than “not voting” (3.25). Perhaps the most
telling example, however, is that while “murder” rated
highest at 9.84 (why not 10?) “abortion” rated
only 5.78! The world today sees no similarity between
the two!
All this, indeed,
reveals just how flippant man is about his sin and
guilt. Worse is the fact that in modern preaching today,
even among most evangelicals, sin is not dealt with at
all. The subjects of today’s “preaching” are God’s love,
man’s felt needs, how God will help you with your
problems, and so on. Preaching about sin is, no pun
intended, the greatest sin of all. If you talk about
sin, you’ll make people uncomfortable and cause
division. You must rather entertain them and build them
up. But that is not the Gospel.
II. God’s
View of Sin
There are two words in
Ephesians 2:1 that require careful study, for in these
two words we find God’s view of sin.
First, the
Apostle Paul calls sin trespasses. The Greek here
is paraptoma
(para, “along side of” and ptoma, “a fall or downfall”). The word,
therefore, pictures a deviation to one side or the
other. It was used at times by the ancient Greeks to
describe an error, a mistake in judgment or a blunder.
But this idea is never even implied in the New
Testament. 5 Rather the New Testament usage
strongly emphasizes a deliberate act with its serious
consequences. In fact, the key to understanding this is
to realize that trespasses speaks of a willful
deviation from God’s requirement.
Romans 5:15-20 uses
the word “offence” (paraptoma) several times to describe clearly Adam’s sin as
a willful deviation from God’s command:
. . . through the
offence of one many be dead . . . by one man’s offence
death reigned by one . . . by the offence of one
judgment came upon all men to condemnation . . .
Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound.
But where sin abounded, grace did much more
abound.
Note also Galatians
6:1: “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault
(paraptoma, willful deviation), ye who are spiritual
restore such an one in the spirit of meekness,
considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.”
Christians are to help one another set right our
deliberate deviations from God’s
requirements.
There is a similar
word used in the Hebrew; the noun form is ma’al
(used 29 times), and the verb form is ma’al
(used 35
times). 6 The word speaks of a conscious
act of treachery. A vivid example appears in Joshua 7:1,
where it is used of Achan’s sin: “Did not Achan, the son
of Zerah, commit [verb form] a trespass [noun form] in
the accursed thing, and wrath fell on the congregation
of Israel?”
Again, we see here a
deliberate act along with its consequences. The same is
true with Saul (I Chron. 10:13) and many times with the
nation of Israel. There are many other illustrations of
this word (Lev. 6:2; 26:40; Num. 5:6; II Chron. 12:2;
Ezek. 14: 13; 20:27; 39:23, 26; etc.)
What then is the
application of all this? Simply that we are all willful
sinners. We, just as Adam, Achan, Saul, and Israel,
deliberately disobey God’s commands. We do not just make
mistakes; we do not just commit indiscretions; we do not
just “trip up;” we are willful
sinners. We don’t sin because
“the Devil made us do it,” not because it’s our spouse’s
fault, not because we had a bad childhood; we sin
because we choose to sin, we deviate from the commands
of God. As John Calvin put it:
All of us tend to
evil, and we are not only inclined to it, but we are, as
it were, boiling hot with it. We run to it with frantic
impetuosity because the Devil possesses all who are not
reformed by God’s Holy Spirit. 7
How important it is
that Christians understand this Truth. Often we say our
lack of faithfulness and many other weaknesses are “a
lack of maturity.” That is true, but most importantly
these things are sin,
trespasses, deliberate disobedience.
Second, as if
trespasses were not enough, Paul uses the term
sins. The Greek here is hamartia, from the
verb hamartano
(“to miss the mark”). The verb was used in ancient Greek
of a spearman missing the target at which he aimed and
threw his spear. It then came to be used in the ethical
sense of not measuring up to a standard or falling short
of a purpose or standard. The pivotal verse on this
principle is Romans 3:23: “For all have sinned, and come
short of the glory of God.” What is sin? Missing the
mark. What then is the mark for which we shoot?
The glory of God; that is, the mark we shoot for
is to be worthy of glory, but we miss it every
time. William Barclay offers
these fitting words:
We commonly have a
wrong idea of sin. We would readily agree that the
robber, murderer, the razor-slasher, the drunkard, the
gangster are sinners, but, since most of us are
respectable citizens, in our heart of hearts we think
that sin has not very much to do with us. We would
probably rather resent being called hell-deserving
sinners. But hamartia brings
us face to face with what sin is, the failure to be what
we ought to be and could be.
Robert Schuller
says, “We need a salvation that begins and ends with a
recognition of every person’s hunger for glory.”
But God says that not only can’t man attain
glory, he doesn’t even deserve glory. It is absolutely impossible for man to get
to God in himself, for he forever misses the mark of
God’s glory. Moreover, because of this man deserves
only death: “For the wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23a).
Why? Because man has deliberately disobeyed God and
fallen short of His glory. Man deserves whatever God
chooses to place upon him.
May we ponder
something else: A common misconception of sin is that it
is something we do, when actually sin is
something we do not do. And what is this
thing we don’t do? We do not measure up to God’s
standard of holiness. God is holy, perfect, absolutely
pure; our sin is not measuring up to that standard. All
the “sins” we do are the result of what we don’t
do. Oh, how far we fall short of
the glory of God!
Man’s view of sin is
indeed distorted, and rightly so; his sinfulness
distorts his view of his sinfulness and guilt. But God’s
view is clear—man has willfully deviated from God’s law
and has fallen far short of God’s standard of holiness.
We shall build upon these principles as we study verses
2-3.
NOTES
1
Commentaries.
2 Robert H.
Schuller, Self-Esteem: The New Reformation (Waco, Texas:
Word Books, 1982). It is appalling, indeed, that Word
Books, a supposedly “Christian” publisher, would even
print the apostasy contained in this book.
3
Christianity Today, October 5, 1984, p.
12.
4 This
material taken from the May 23, 1986 issue of National
Review, editor William F. Buckley, Jr., p.
50-51.
5 For further
study see Brown, Vol. III, pp. 585-586 and Trench, pp.
245-247.
6 For further
study see Archer, Vol. I, pp. 519-520 and Unger,, pp.
437-439.
7 John
Calvin, Sermon’s on Ephesians (Carlisle, PA: Banner of
Truth Trust, 1973), p. 37.
