Redefining Sin

Luke 15:1-3,11-32

I read an article few days ago. If we were to summarize the essence of “reformed theology” in one phrase, to borrow the words of Warfield, it would be “theocentric.” Reformed theology is concerned with who our God is, like the issues of Trinity, transcendence and immanence of God, etc.

As Mason Pressly says: “Just as the Methodist places in the foreground the idea of the salvation of sinners; the Baptist, the mystery of regeneration; the Lutheran, justification by faith; the Moravian, the wounds of Christ; the Greek Catholic, the mysticism of the Holy Spirit; and the Romanist, the catholicity of the church, so the Calvinist is always placing in the foreground the thought of God.”

Reformed theology is especially concerned with God’s sovereignty, love, and Kingdom. And it is important to think about who God is first and foremost, when one is studying the Scriptures.

Are you doing your Quiet Times? One of the most challenging sermons that I heard recently was by Dr. Timothy Keller, whose book I am referring to a lot, as we study this Parable of the Prodigal Son. Keller spoke of Matthew’s account of the crucifixion. When Jesus was on the cross, he cried out, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”, which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Why did Jesus say this? Jesus was actually quoting a Scripture. These were the words of verse 1 of Psalm 22, “my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” As he was dying on the cross, Jesus was quoting Scriptures.

This was the biggest lesson and a challenge. Whenever Jesus faced difficulties, temptations, or trials, Jesus always used Scriptures to go through them. Then, why can we not read and reflect upon the Word, when Jesus always had the Scriptures in his heart, even as he was dying? I pray that we will all meditate upon the Word deeply and let the Word transform us for God’s glory.

The question, then, is how are we to do our QTs? Do we just read the Bible and interpret and think in our own terms? No, what we need to think about, first and foremost, is what is the Bible passage teaching me about God and God’s character. What is this passage saying about God? Then, in light of that, what is this passage saying about me and my condition?

In the passage upon us today, the Parable of the Prodigal son, God shows up as God of amazing love. We looked at last time how God is wasting his love. It is wasting, because God pours of love upon those who do not deserve his love. Whenever you pay lots of money for something that’s worthless, then it is a waste. When you invest in something not worthwhile, that’s a waste too. If you hire a college math professor to tutor a kindergarten in math, we may call that a waste too. If one pours out love to those who don’t deserve love, that’s wasteful as well. But that’s exactly what the father of the story, and thereby God, does in this parable. That’s how much the father loves his sons. And that’s what our God is like.

In light of the fact that this story shows this amazing and deep love of God, we also need to ask ourselves what this passage teaches us about who we are. And we are those who do not deserve God’s love. These two sons represent us. Yes, both of the sons do not deserve father’s love. The younger son rejected father, and took off to a foreign country, with his inheritance, and spent it hastily. He is representative of disobedience, sin, and evil. So he clearly does not deserve father’s love.

But we also talked about how the older son did not deserve father’s love either. He worked hard alongside his father. Then why doesn’t he deserve father’s love? He worked hard, but he did not care so much about his father. All he cared about was himself. If the younger son demanded his inheritance, the older son wanted to get his inheritance through obedience.

Let us think little bit more deeply about this.

Everyone in this world lives for their own happiness. And there are largely two ways people go about, achieving that happiness. One is the way of moral-conformity and other is the way of self-discovery. Each is a way of finding personal significance and worth, of addressing the ills of the world, and of determining right from wrong.

The older brother of the parable illustrates the way of moral conformity. This way puts the will and the standard of the community ahead of individual fulfillment. It believes that the happiness comes when one lives by the rules and achieves moral rectitude. One may fall at times, but then one will be judged by how abject and intense one’s regret is. Even in one’s failures one must always measure up.

The younger brother illustrates the way of self-discovery. There are more who live this way then there were in more traditional societies. Individuals are free to pursue their own goals and self-actualization regardless of custom and convention. It believes that the world would be far better place if tradition, prejudice, hierarchical authority and other barriers to personal freedom were removed.

There is a classic movie called Witness that illustrates these two ways of life. In the movie, a young Amish widow Rachel falls in love with non-Amish policeman, John Book. Her father-in-law, Eli, warns her that it is forbidden to do so and that the elders could have her punished. He adds that she is acting like a child. “I will be the judge of that,” Rachel retorts. “No, they will be the judge of that. And so will I…if you shame me,” Eli says. “You shame yourself,” Rachel replies, and turns away from him.

This story illustrates both ways of life. One is, “I will do what my tradition and community wants me to do,” while the other one is “I am the only one who can decide what is right or wrong for me.” Two very different ways. But both wants same thing. That is one’s own happiness.

Here, we can think about the concept of sin. What is sin? We often think of sin as doing something wrong before God. Not keeping God’s commandment. Not living the way God wants us to live. Doing the things God forbids us to do so. It is also called transgression, which literally means stepping over the boundaries. It is about crossing the line you are not supposed to. In sports, there are lines players are not supposed to cross. If they do, they lose the possession. It is also dangerous. In high school, I was playing volleyball. I jumped up to spike and the opponent jumped up to block. He came down first, but landed over the line to our side of the net. I stepped on his foot and rolled my ankle. My ankle was so swollen, I could not walk for several days.

Isn’t this the life of the younger son? He stepped over the boundaries and norms the society has set, and proceeded to live his own life. He left home with his father’s wealth. He lived the life that the Jewish society back then would not have condoned. He coveted after his father’s wealth, he played with prostitutes, and he rolled with animals that were defiled and unclean. He was living in sin, and it is so easy to identify his life as sinful.

But there is another big way the Bible describes sin. It is missing the mark. To use the sports analogy again, it is like missing the target in shooting or archery. What is the target and trajectory of our lives? It is God’s glory and pleasing God.

Let’s think about this. The older son lived the life respectful of the society’s rules and norms. He sacrificed his wants for the sake of the society and tradition. Can this be the life of sin? How can such a moral and righteous zeal become a life of sin?

It can be, if the purpose of obedience and zeal is not God’s pleasure, but one’s own. Even the life of putting community’s will above one’s own can really be about one’s own wants and happiness. Why did the older son obey the father? Why did he try to live the righteous life? The heart of the older son is revealed when the father throws the younger son a party, at the expense of the older son’s possessions.

I will give one example, short-term missions. Our church is preparing an exploratory missions trip in October, and we hope to expand lot more of our energy in short-term missions in the future. But we need to keep in mind that the short-term missions can be as problematic as it is helpful. When we think of mission trips, we think of going to 3rd world countries and serving for few days. This service itself is not the problem. Service is important. Through our service, those who are hungry may be fed, those who are homeless may get homes, and those who are spiritually lost may hear the Gospel through singing, preaching, and others. The problem is the reason behind short-term missions. Why do people go? Well, they go because it makes them feel better afterwards. It gives them a sense of accomplishment. It makes them less guilty about the wealth they have and are enjoying. They are less sorry for having a lot, since they used their wealth in service. That’s why many people go. Have they made a difference? Hardly. We are still living in this land of blessings, while they are still hungry, naked, and without hope.

No matter how good things may be, if it is really just for us, then what we are trying to do is control God through our obedience and service. We want God to grant us our wishes through our own righteousness. This is just like the older son, who wanted father’s wealth through his obedience.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, who are you? Are you like the older son or the younger? It has been six months since I came to True Light Community Church. From what I have observed, I see lots of older sons. There are some exceptions. I don’t know everything you all have engaged in your glory days, but I get the sense that not many of you committed great “sins” in your lives. There are those who were Christians from birth, and many of us have tried hard to live right way in this world. That’s how I lived. I was a PK, pastor’s kid. And we know that it stands for either problem kid or perfect kid. I was the perfect kid. Do you know why? I wanted to show to others how good of a kid I was.

Why do you believe in Jesus? Why do you come to church, serve, give offering, and pray? Is it because through it, you want to get something from God or is it because you truly love God?

Sin is not just what we think is sin. It is not just theft, rape, murder, drugs, hate, fight, curse, etc. Even sharing, zeal, reconciliation, encouragement, etc. can be sinful if it is really just about me and what I want. If we are holding on to our own self-righteousness, that can be sinful before God.

We have looked at two ways of life people live to achieve their own happiness. But there is a better way. It is the way of living for not my own pleasure, but for God’s pleasure. This is a way that we cannot live on our own. It is the way of living not by our own righteousness, but the righteousness of Jesus Christ, who lived for God’s glory and God’s pleasure alone. And it is having the same attitude as Jesus. Jesus came, because God loved us, even though we were selfish being, thinking only about our own-selves. Let us be thankful for this amazing love of God, and live the life that honors him through the righteousness of Jesus. Then, we will find true happiness and fulfillment in our lives.