Whatever Became of Sin?
Romans 6:12-23
by Jim Westmoreland
An Irishman had been drinking at a pub all night. The bartender finally said
that the bar was closing. So the Irishman stood up to leave and fell flat on his face. He
tried to stand one more time; same result. He figured he'll crawl outside and get some
fresh air and maybe that will sober him up.
Once outside he stood up and fell flat on his face. So he decided to crawl the 4 blocks to
his home. When he arrived at the door he stood up and again fell flat on his face. He
crawled through the door and into his bedroom.
When he reached his bed he tried one more time to stand up. This time he managed to pull
himself upright, but he quickly fell right into bed and was sound asleep as soon as his
head hit the pillow.
He was awakened the next morning to his wife standing over him, shouting, "So, you've
been out drinking again!"
"What makes you say that?" he asked, putting on an innocent look.
"The pub called -- you left your wheelchair there again!"
Sometimes, our attempts to "cover our tracks", to rationalize and cover-up our
sins in our relationship to God, our family and the church makes about as much sense as
the behavior of the Irishman in this story. We may have become numb enough not to
"feel" anymore and our eyesight may be blurred and we may have forgotten how we
got to where we are, but others know or will eventually know what we've been up to, and
God knows everything--the plain, un-rationalized and un-sugarcoated truth about us!
Several years ago, Carl Menninger, the Founder of the Menninger Psychiatric Hospital in
Wichita, KS, wrote a book entitled, Whatever Became of Sin? We stalk about going
through phases or stages. Children and teens "act out." Young Adults are
"finding" themselves. Young Marrieds are just so busy building their lives
together. As children start to come men often get career-oriented, trying to achieve and
work their way up. They want to make something of themselves and be a good provider for
their families. Young mothers work all day and then come home and be mothers, maids,
cooks, etc until they fall asleep.
In this boiling cauldron of the activities of our lives, we take shortcuts, tell lies,
engage in activities that are destructive to us and to others. We make up all kinds of
names for all of this irrational, destructive behavior. Carl Menninger, the great
psychiatrist, asks simply, "Whatever became of Sin?" The
apostle Paul, had a lot to say about sin in his letter to the Romans. It was a problem
that had to be faced. It didn't go away just because one became a Christian.
When you think about it, sin is really stupid. Nothing good can come from it. It does
nothing but wreak havoc in the lives of people who lazily drift along doing what feels
good to get their momentary pleasures. But then why is it that we never hear anyone say,
"You know, the smartest thing I ever did was embezzle from my employer . . . or cheat
on my income taxes . . . or have an affair . . . or experiment with cocaine . . . or
repeat gossip about other people . . . and on and on. That's because sin does
nothing but destroy!
What strikes me is that I believe we know that sin is a destroyer and
that is why we avoid saying what we do is a sin! We live in a culture
where the concept of sin is not politically correct. Sin is old fashioned. It is
uneducated, low class, not cool. We don't talk about sin anymore. We say everything is a disorder.
There are eating disorders, behavioral disorders, and most recently, big businesses like
Enron, MCI Worldcom, and Xerox, have cast a dark and evil shadow with their
"accounting disorders." Call it disorder or some other polite,
acceptable-sounding word, for me it is much easier and more spiritually honest and
straightforward to just call it sin.
Whatever happened to sin? We've tried to run from it and act like it does
not exist. But it does exist, and we've got to face it in our own lives, and there are
people all around us who are destroying their lives and their families who need to face it
too.
The first thing we need to do is to face it. We need to call our
rebellious, destructive and selfish behavior by its spiritual description. The most basic
roots of our problems are spiritual, and the spiritual term referred to in the Bible is
"sin."
A part of facing sin is to recognize that it is a choice that we make. One of the things
that I cherish as a Christian is the belief that God created us with the ability to make
real choices. We are free moral agents. We are not robots. The fine lines of history are
not already drawn. I draw my own lines in the choices that I make, good or bad. That is
why God says that I am accountable for my sins. If the lines of history are already drawn,
then whoever drew the lines is accountable and not me!
But the Bible says, over and over, that we are accountable for not following God. Paul
says that we choose to sin or not several times in this passage. Look at v. 12, "Therefore,
do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its
lusts." The decision to let sin reign is our choice, not someone else's. In v.
14, "do not go on presenting the members of your body to
sin" and "but present yourselves to God." It
is clear that we are the ones who do the "presenting," whether it be to God or
to sin. Paul repeats this same image again in v. 16 and 19.
As we face sin for what it is, we not only need to call it what it is and recognize that
it is our choice, not anyone else's, we also need to recognize that sin
brings about it's own punishment. While there is much sin that we think is going
unpunished, there is plenty that brings its own consequences straight to us. Many people
think that God is in heaven with a kind of "heavenly fly-swatter." Whenever we
sin, we get popped on the hand or wherever with the "heavenly fly-swatter" as
our punishment for doing bad.
What Paul is saying is that sin brings its own punishment. Sin pays its own wages--and
they aren't good! Parents are aware of how this works. When I was a young child, I have a
vivid memory seared into my brain that occurred when I disobeyed one time. My parents had
always said, do not play with the electrical outlets, don't play with the chords and never
pick up something and poke in there. Well, guess what I did with a bobby pin! Yep! I poked
it into the receptacle in my bedroom. I can still visualize my bedroom then and which
socket I used for my experiment. It immediately got hot, shot out fire, threw the breaker
and I screamed and screamed in both pain and fear. My mother did not rush into the room
and say, "OK, you disobey me. You played with the wall receptacle and burned
yourself. You're lucky you didn't die, cause now I'm going to spank you!" No, she
didn't say any of that. She picked me and sat on my bed and held me and comforted me. She
let me tell her what happened, and she dressed my burned fingers and hand, and she said,
"Do you see why I don't want you to play with the wall plugs and electric chords? I
don't want you to hurt yourself."
Its the same way with our heavenly Father. He hasn't set up a bunch of arbitrary rules for
us to live by. He wants us to avoid sin because sin hurts. It burns. It destroys. Someone
once said that the best argument for avoiding sin is to do the math on what happens when
you sin. Nothing good can come of it. It leads only to misery. Paul said it this way in
Rom. 6:23, "for the wages (payment) of sin is death . . ."
Tom Webster, pastor of the First Christian Church in Madisonville, wrote an article for
his church newsletter a while titled "Pawning our Potential." He said he was
driving down the street and saw a strange sight, a fire truck parked at a pawn show. So,
he imagined this strange town meeting during a budget discussion when someone said,
"We haven't had a fire in a long time, so why don't we just pawn the fire
truck." Tom compared that to the Coast Guard deciding to pawn their boats, or the Air
Force deciding to pawn their planes.
His point was this: Why would anyone pawn their potential to fulfill their purpose that
God has given them? The ability to speak the truth, to do good deeds and care for others,
to live with integrity and to love one another are far more valuable things than a fire
truck. And yet, sin causes us to pawn these priceless gifts and treasures of our soul for
passing and momentary pleasures. The wages of sin is death, destruction and decay.
But the last part of v. 23 is Paul's answer to sin, "but the free gift of God is
eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Paul's answer to sin is to get a
"grace-lift!" We cannot earn God's love and forgiveness through his
Son, we can only receive it as His gift of love, His gift of forgiveness, His gift of
grace to us. Throughout this passage Paul has contrasted being a slave to sin with being a
slave to God. He says whoever or whatever you give yourselves to, then you are their
slave. Giving ourselves to sin leads to death and destruction. Giving ourselves to God
leads to eternal life.
And so, how will we answer the question, Whatever Became of Sin? First, face
it, then get a grace-lift!