An excellent seafood restaurant is located 30 miles from our house but not near any places that we shop. About the same distance is the town where we go a couple of times each week. We found another Seafood restaurant there owned by the same person. We gave it a try. It was ok but not as good as the other location, but was convenient. However, every time we ate there, the quality of the food got worse and worse along with a deterioration of the service. No surprise it closed. After a few months, it reopened under a new name. We learned it was the same restaurant just with a new name and a little remodeling. In a month several online reviews read, “Same owner, same staff, same bad food, and same terrible service.” Apparently, the owner believed a new look and new name would bring customers back. His blunder was only changing the name and exterior but altering nothing inside. Already, we see fewer and fewer cars in the parking lot.
The lesson here not only applies to business endeavors, it provides a picture of a spiritual principle. A growing trend in the world today is renaming sin or redefining sinful practices. Apparently, some believe that referring to sin by a softer term lessens the seriousness of their action. Regardless of what we call it, sin is sin in the eyes of God. If you doubt how appalling violating any of God’s Law is, you have to look no further than the cross. Jesus’ death on the cross, demonstrated both the seriousness of sin and God’s love for man. Changing names and remodeling your external so you look like a Christian is not salvation. Salvation brings a new owner and a total change inside. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come (2Co 5:17).
In our secular humanistic society, I found comments like these on social media, “I find the term sin deeply offensive. Call it something else.” Others claim that sin is no longer relevant today. Pastors actually avoid the subject of sin in their sermons. Those who still acknowledge God try deluding the gravity of their transgression by confessing something like this, “Ok, I made a mistake. I’m sorry for my indiscretion. It’s no big deal.” How often have we all heard someone say, “I told a little white lie so it really doesn’t count.” People classify sins as little or big. It is true that some sin will carry greater judgment, but James tells us how God views all sin, which is a violation of His Law. For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it (Jas 2:10 NIV). People may call it a ‘white lie’, but God simply calls it a lie. “‘Do not lie. “‘Do not deceive one another” (Levi 19:11). Note a few words people use so they can avoid the word sin: error, offense, mistake, shortcoming, blunder, slip, an accident, misdeed, oops, etc. A recent new term tops my list as most creative. After well-known minister resigned from his church, he admitted to failures he called ‘personal misjudgments’.
Even for believers, regardless of what we call it, sin is a matter that we can never take for granted. We must be careful and not allow culture’s influence to lessen its severity. No one is exempt. God declares for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23) and warns of the penalty, for the wages of sin is death (6:23). God knew all men and women would be born in a hopeless situation, so He did something about it, For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:16). The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom 6:23). Another tactic Satan uses today is redefining acts of sin. People define abortion as birth control or a choice. Addictions are labeled as diseases. Instead of calling sexual perversions sin, people excuse it as ‘being born this way’. In Australia and increasingly in the US, doctors have redefined sin as ‘oppositional defiant disorder’. Of course, we are all aware that the US Supreme Court has refined marriage.
As believers, we know that Christ has already paid the debt for our sins. Jesus’ final words on the cross, declared, “It is finished!” And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit (Jn 19:30). We can live a victorious life with the help of the Holy Spirit. However, if we do sin, John tells us, If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1Jn 1:9). We should never delude the seriousness of any sin. Sin is sin in God’s eyes, not little or big, not white or black, not merely a mistake, or a personal misjudgment. Calling sin anything less than sin lessens the greatest of Christ’s grace. As believers, we don’t have to fear calling it sin—what God calls. We don’t pray, “Father, I made a mistake and committed a ‘little’ sin. I need a ‘little’ grace.” No, John says; confess our sins and He will forgive us our sins.
Sustaining Word for the Week: Renaming sin and trying to lessen its seriousness, changes nothing in God’s eyes. But His grace is sufficient to deal with any sin.