THE “S” WORD
Romans 3: 9-26

           There are some things we don’t like to talk about. Things such as relationships, finances, politics, even our accomplishments. We hold a variety of reasons for not wanting to talk about certain things—they are private, some could be embarrassing, in the case of our accomplishments we don’t want to seem boastful, for many things we believe (hope!) it will go away if we leave it alone and pretend it’s not there. Because of these reasons, and others, we have the tendency to sweep things under the rug and just not talk about them.

           This sort of thing also takes place within the life of the church. There are certain things here in the church that we just don’t want to talk about. We tend to clam up when it comes to church finances, when it comes to relationships within the church (especially relationships in conflict), when it comes to important decisions that could be difficult, and other things as well. There is something else I want to mention that we, in the church, seldom want to speak of—the dreaded “s” word, sin. Sin is something we would rather not think of. After all, we are here to worship and to celebrate and the idea of sin casts a dark cloud over the whole thing. Why don’t we want to speak of sin? Probably, for many of the same reasons as with other matters in our life—it’s private, it’s embarrassing, perhaps we even want to pretend it’s not there. We cannot, however, simply ignore sin! We cannot pretend that it’s not there or not something we grapple with. If we do, it shades and undermines our relationship with God. If we want a sincere, authentic relationship with God, sin must be acknowledged and confronted.

           At the same time we affirm that sin must be acknowledged, we must also ask what exactly sin is. The Bible doesn’t really provide a great definition of sin. We read of many accounts where our ancestors in faith find themselves in sin, but don’t exactly have the definition of sin. The word in the ancient Greek of the New Testament that is most often translated “sin” is “hamartia”. In the Greco-Roman world, “hamartia” was a word that was most often used in the sport of archery. It meant “to miss the mark”. In other words, whenever the archer the missed the target at which they were aiming “hamartia” occurred. In archery, the mark is always the target, more specifically, the bull’s-eye. In the spiritual sense, our target is always the will and plan of God. If sin is “hamartia”—missing the mark; then we can say that sin is missing the will of God, being apart from God’s will and plan for our attitudes, behaviors, etc. Because, though, we as humans are so hesitant to speak of sin, through the generations, we have allowed ourselves to believe certain lies concerning sin. These lies are Satan’s way of trying to diminish the gravity of sin; Satan’s ways of trying to tell us that sin is no big deal.

           The first lie is telling ourselves that we don’t sin in the first place. There are those who have fallen victim to this lie and have come to believe that they, in fact, do not sin. There is a phrase in our passage from Romans that calls the bluff of this lie. In Romans 3: 23, Paul says “ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. Did you hear that word ALL? It means that no person is free from the sting and curse of sin. Even the most righteous and holy person you could think of has been in a state of sin, except for Jesus. Jesus is the only human being who never sinned. Everyone else has sinned. Look around you…every person you see is a sinner. This is not said in a judging or condemning way, it’s part of being human. There is no person that can say they are free from sin. To believe that is to believe Satan’s lie and undermine the relationship that God seeks to have to each one of us.

           A second lie people believe about sin is “my sin’s not so bad”. Perhaps we see this most often in the church. There is no such thing, though, as “levels of sin”—sin is sin is sin. Society has done a fairly good job in categorizing “sins” or violations of the moral/civic code. In society’s categories, there are some things that are simply “not as bad” as others. For example, stealing a package of gum from the store is not the same as mass genocide, engaging in an extramarital affair is not as bad as sexually assaulting someone, and the list could go on and on. In God’s realm, though, these sins all carry equal weight. There is no sin that is “not as bad” as another. Remember “hamartia”? When the mark is missed, it doesn’t matter if it is by a small margin or a wide margin—the mark is still missed. So it is with sin. Sin, regardless of what it is, completely severs our relationship with God. If we start to believe that our sin “isn’t so bad”, we are deceived into thinking that we are less in need of God’s grace than we really are.

           A third lie humans are deceived into believing is the idea that “I’m better than other sinners”. I’m not really sure where this notion came from, but it exists. It exists in the form of something like, “I go to church, I serve in the church, I serve in my community, etc”. The idea is essentially one of “my deeds lessen the severity of my sin”. The reality is, though, we are all equal before God. Who a person is or what they do does not provide any sort of “discount” on their sin. We can gather from the Romans text that it was an issue in Paul’s day. On one hand were the Jewish people and on the other were the Gentiles, the non-Jews. The Jewish argument was that since they were heirs to the covenant with God, they were somehow more righteous, even as sinners, than the Gentiles. Paul dismisses this idea by saying all are under the power of sin and that no one is righteous. Before God, we are all equals.

           What, then, do we do? If all have sinned are equals before God, what do we do? The reality is that we are helpless on our own. Some try to “church” away their sin or ritualize it away. There is NOTHING we humans can do though, to absolve ourselves of sin, save for one thing—place our faith and trust in Jesus Christ. I know, I know…it sounds too good to be true. But in grace and in mercy, God deals with us, not as God should by virtue of our sin, but by virtue of who Jesus is and what Jesus has done! Through Christ and his atoning sacrifice, we are “justified” before God; to say that we are justified before God means that we are made guiltless of our sin. Those whose faith is in Christ are made righteous by nothing but the blood of Jesus!

           This leads us into another lie people believe about themselves, God, and their sin: they believe that their sins are too great. They have been told or led to believe, by someone, that their sins are too great for even God to do anything for them. The message of God, though, is that even the vilest sinner is made righteous by the blood of Jesus! It doesn’t matter what the sin might be…where there is faith in Christ, there is atonement for the sin! In God’s infinite mercy, sin is washed away by the blood of Christ and there is no sin that is beyond the reach of the blood, there is no soul that is stained beyond the cleansing of the blood of Christ!

           God’s gift for all is the releasing us of the penalty of sin. Paul writes elsewhere in Romans that “the wages of sin is death”—eternal separation from God. In Christ, our sin is atoned for and we stand as righteous before the Lord. All God asks in return is our acknowledgement that, by ourselves, we are unrighteous; all God seeks is our confession. Our confession is not an act of self-incrimination; it is, instead, a recognition and acknowledgement of the sin in our life and knowing and embracing the deep and consuming love and mercy of God that is for each and every one of us! In Christ, our sin has been wiped away; in Christ, we are free! Thanks be to God! AMEN.

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