Sin as a Symptom

Sin is our disease, our curse, the act of our rebellion against God. But at the same time it is a symptom of our shame, guilt, and brokenness—it is a symptom of the very consequences that it brings. That is why it is often cyclical in nature and difficult to break.

Take the highly talked about and always controversial sin of homosexuality. What is it? Like all sin it is an imperfection; a situation that is less than ideal. God made man and woman to live in monogamous, life time commitment. Sex is valid only in this confine, the confine of marriage. Any sex (or even wrongful desire of sex, i.e. lust) with anyone outside of this God ordained institution, outside of God’s ideal, is a sin. Incest, bestiality, pornography, adultery, fortification, and fantasy are all outside of God’s ideal and therefore all sin. We are all sinners so we are not to judge others—we are no better than they. But not judging others does not mean that we fail to call sin a sin. Actions outside of God’s law are sin and wrong and we must declare them as such, but in doing so we must remember that we say this as sinners ourselves; we are not yet saints.

Our sin brings separation and disunity between God and man and man and his fellow man. That is the consequence of sin. All too often this felt separation is a cause of sin as well. Many men lived broken and ashamed, hating who they are. Sin makes them feel good for a moment and forget their pain. Being disunited from mankind, they turn in particular to sexual sin for it gives them the illusion of unity.

This is the bad news. Left alone we are stuck in a futile cycle we cannot break on our own. Our sin has consequences and those consequences fuel our need to sin.

But the good news (the gospel) is that God has provided a way out of this circle of despair. He has at once taken away the deserved consequence of our sin and reconciled us to Himself, while at the same time He is healing us and taking our shame and pain from us so that we no longer have such a (perceived) need to run to sin. He has cured us from our disease and symptoms in one fall swoop.