Sinners and all that

[Guest guest]

Wow! A lot has been said since that one little post. I must admit I

have not read it all, but I have read enough to know that I did not

get my meaning across clearly.

What I meant was that Christians too often cut right to " For all have

sinned, and come short of the glory of God " - which makes it sound

like a accusation when in fact it is the *conclusion* of the argument

makes in the first three chapters of Romans. In other words, he

did not make that statement with out first proving it to be true, and

neither should we. And by not following the Biblical example, we have

made God seem unreasonable and unjust.

We speak too much Christianeese and don't rightly define Biblical

terms for people. For example, I sometimes hear Christians define sin

as " missing, or falling short of, the target " , but then they fail to

tell folks what the target is. I mean if we're telling people, God

wants us to aim for something shouldn't we explain what that

something is, so that people can see for themselves whether they have

fallen short?

Sin is not our " human nature " or something we can't help, it is a

willful choice. To say that a person has no choice but to sin and

then say that God, being holy and just, will hold them blameworthy

for that sin is no only unreasonable but unbiblical. It's like saying

I'm holy and just to blame my dog for not be able to fly. That's not

how the Bible defines sin.

In this verse, " Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth

it not, to him it is sin. " sin is defined as failing to do (falling

short of) what you *know* to be the right thing to do. What you know

to be good is the target and it is very reasonable for God to require

that you simply do the right thing whenever faced with that choice. A

child or someone mentally impaired would have a limited ability to

discern what is right in many instances and would not be condemned by

God for failing to do what they did not understand they should do.

You will only be judged according to the knowledge you hold. This is

spelled out any many places in the Bible and is entirely

understandable and just.

The flip side of not doing what you know is good is to do what you

know is wrong. " Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law:

for sin is the transgression of the law. " Transgression means to

break thru an established boundary - the boundary God has set is the

moral Law. You know lying, stealing, murder (The Bible says that hate

is like murder), adultery (it says that lust is adultery of the

heart), blasphemy, etc. is wrong, yet you break thru that boundary

and do those things. You prove you know those things are wrong to do

every time you judge someone for lying to you, stealing from you,

hating you, cheating on you, cursing you, etc. That's what it means

to judge not lest you be judged, the moment you make a moral judgment

in your heart about another's actions then you have proved that you

know that action to be right or wrong and leave yourself without an

excuse for your own lies, theft, lust, hatred, blasphemy, etc.