The Chain of Sin

One of the most complaints against Christianity is directed against the doctrine that we are all depraved and unable to become righteous before God by our own efforts. One might point out the many apparently righteous people throughout history, but it is more common to simply claim that the average person is not "evil" and appeal to the idea that the moral standard which we call "decency" should be enough. In order to explain why our human goodness is insufficient, it is important to understand the nature of sin.

In the Old Testament, great importance was placed on ceremonial cleanliness. To be disabled, sick, or maimed was to be contaminated with the physical mark of the Fall, and to touch anyone or anything that was ceremonially unclean was to be infected with that same mark. From a cultural standpoint, the Israelites were commanded to completely wipe out the Canaanites for the same reason, and when they failed to do so they were infected with idolatry, witchcraft, and infant sacrifice. This is because it is logically impossible for there to ever be a compromise between righteousness and sin; they can only meet each other in war.

Imagine that there are three apples. The first apple is a normal, ripe apple that is perfectly good to eat; the second one is brown and wrinkled; and the third one is shriveled up and black, not fit to even be in the same room with. While we can all agree that the third apple is more rotten than the second one, that does not make the second one good to eat. We might eat the second apple anyway if we are in a famine, just as we settle for decency under the conditions of a fallen world, but it is insane to think that we would do anything except to throw it out in times of health and prosperity. In other words, the second apple is not nearly as rotten as the third one, but that does not change the fact that it is rotten. For the first apple to be healthy and ripe, it must have certain very specific qualities, but for it to be rotten all it needs is to be lacking in any one of these qualities (though if it is lacking in one it is almost impossible for it not to be lacking in another).

It's the same way with sin. Someone who shoplifts once on a whim or dare may not be "as much of a thief" in one sense as a professional burglar, but if you are simply asking a yes or no question of "is that man a thief", then the answer for both the shoplifter and the burglar is "yes." The thing that matters to the buyer is not how close an apple is to a state of absolute rottenness, but rather whether or not it is healthy. Likewise, if we are to earn our way to Heaven then the thing that matters to God is not how close we are to a state of absolute sin, but rather whether or not we are righteous. Once again, there is no compromise, no middle ground, between good and evil any more than there is a round square or a shadow which stretches toward the light that casts it. It is logically impossible. If Heaven and Hell are to meet, it must be on the battlefield.

In addition to this there also tends to be a downward spiral that emerges out of sin. In my own experience, I have seen this in procrastination where the act of putting of an assignment increases my anxiety towards it either because of fear from the increased difficulty of the same work with less time, shame at having put it off, or some combination of the two. This may also manifest in a general feeling of lethargy or depression which leads a person to choose to skip a given activity with the result that the feeling continues to grow and solidify whether the activity was of a social or dutiful nature. Once we have entered these cycles, we can only get out with the help of an outside force such as a person who might motivate us, a deadline which sets an absolute standard beyond our ability to fight, or sometimes even a simple change in circumstances such the weather or finances. In the absence of such outside influences, or at least the absence of sufficiently strong influences, we simply continue on and on until we are destroyed. When the Bible tells us that "the wages of sin is death" it is not telling us about an arbitrary mandate which God could change if He wanted to; it is simply giving us a plain description of the basic essence of sin.

There is a problem here. If we are to escape not only the sinful cycles of procrastination and drugs and hatred, but the sinful chains of the entire fallen world, then the power by which we are saved must come from outside that same world. Friends are not enough. Family is not enough. Prisons are not enough. Even wisdom is not enough. Only the indwelling presence of God is enough to break this chain.

When the prophets and the priests touched that which was unclean, they themselves became unclean. The mere reflection of Goodness which dwelt in them was not enough to overcome the infection of sin. But there was one man unlike all others. Phillip Yancey once noted that in the story of Jesus the old pattern is reversed. When that Man of Galilee went out among the lepers, the adulterers, the tax collectors, the Gentiles it was the unclean that were transformed. As vessels of righteousness we had been fighting a losing battle from the very start, but now Righteousness Himself was entering the battlefield and where He went the infernal hosts begged for mercy. And He has gone past it. The King of Heaven charged all the way into the fortress of the Sheol.

There is a new wind blowing in from Jerusalem, and a trembling in the world. The line is broken. The wall is breached. The chain is rattling and breaking in places, unable to restrain the things of Eden that are coming back to life.