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Real Guilt and Sinfulness
- 03/08/10
- 27
As anyone knows who has studied the life of Jonathan Edwards, he dedicated a large portion of his ministry to thinking, writing and teaching about the freedom of the will. And, of course, he eventually published a classic work dealing with the subject. In writing the book he thought back to the days when revival had swept his church, his community and the area around it. And as he reflected on the individuals who had been swept up in the revival, or those who had made professions of faith in the years following, he became aware of a fundamental flaw in many of these professions. "Self-controlled individuals, as he had observed in his parishes for the past fifteen years, would acknowledge guilt for particular sins, but not guilt for their fundamentally rebellious hearts."
Little has changed. I have met countless people who consider themselves Christians and who admit to sin in their lives and feel guilt and remorse for individual sins, but who seem unable or unwilling to admit the incontrovertible fact that their hearts are in rebellion against God. The Bible tells us in plain terms that we are not sinners because we sin, but we sin because we are sinners. And I don't think we can overstate what a fundamental difference this is! We do not need to seek forgiveness merely for the sins we commit, but for our fundamentally evil and rebellious hearts--hearts that, in their natural state, hate God and are fully and completely and gleefully and willingly opposed to Him.
In his oh-so-good biography of Edwards, George Marsden summarizes Edwards' assessment of this problem. "Guided by conscience, they saw particular sins as failures of will power, which might be overcome by exercising greater self-control." When sin has been defined merely as individual acts of the will, it is possible for humans, even devoid of God's help, to overcome those evil acts and deeds. An unbelieving man who explodes in anger or a woman who grumbles against her husband can overcome those sins in their own power. Unbelievers can throw off addiction and poor behavior through an act of the will. But they can never address the heart of the issue. While they may make cosmetic changes, they can never overcome the deeper issues because they can never change their hearts.
Those who profess Christ can do the same thing; Christians are also capable of overcoming the appearance of sin and the outward manifestations of sin in their own power. When you sell your house, you almost always spend a few dollars and quite a few hours painting the house; a fresh coat of paint can do wonders in "cleaning up" a house. But it is merely a cosmetic change. Underlying issues, structural issues, can be masked for a time, but will show up again if they are not properly dealt with (as anyone knows who has had mould lurking behind those coats of paint). Similarly, Christians can dedicate great effort and go to great pains to remove traces of sin from their lives. But all the time they may have done this without the aid and assistance of the Holy Spirit. They may never have owned up to their fundamental sinfulness, their natural enmity towards God. They may never feel or acknowledge guilt not only for what they do but for who they are.
The evidence proves that many Christians, and most likely the vast majority of those who identify themselves as Christians in the world today, have a worldview that is functionally secular. Many people who go to church every Sunday, who read Christian books and who read their Bibles and pray every day, still think like unbelievers. Their worldview--their way of seeing and understanding the world--is no different from before they claimed to be Christians. Jonathan Edwards, looking to the refusal of the people of his day to own up to their guilt, realized that "the liberal Christianity of the new republic would be built around such moral principles." Modern day evangelicalism is likewise founded on such lax moral principles.
A couple of years ago I spoke to the administrator of a church in the area. This person had been a Christian for several years and was active as a leader in the church. Discussing a recent and high-profile crime that had been covered by the media, this person told me, "I just don't understand how anyone could do that. I don't understand how anyone could be that bad. I could never be that evil!" As we spoke, I realized that this was a person who knew that he committed sins, and yet one who clearly did not understand his inherently sinful nature. He knew he sinned but refused to believe he was a sinner. Sin is what he did, not what he was. Recently my thoughts turned to a couple we know who seemed to become believers, but whose lives did not seem to show much evidence of true life change. They were quickly drafted into service in their church and were soon actively involved in leadership and service. They were baptized despite highly-visible and unrepentant sin in their lives (living together despite being unmarried). They became members. And yet their lives, including this one very obviously and blatantly sinful aspect of their lives, did not change at all. Neither did the church seem to require or expect them to change. They modified aspects of their lives, I suppose, but that fundamental change of heart just never seemed to happen. As of the last time we saw them, they still did not seem to think, act, talk and, in many ways, live like Christians. They knew they sinned but didn't seem to know that they were and still are sinners.
Here is how Marsden concludes this short section of the book:
Even the most popular evangelicalism of the next two centuries tended to emphasize guilt for and victory over known sins. Although the submission of one's will to God and a subsequent infilling or baptism of the Holy Spirit typically would be urged as necessary to achieve moral purity, God's power was most often seen as cooperating with or working through the native powers of the sovereign individual will. While American Christianity in general and evangelicalism in particular came in too many varieties to allow easy generalization, we can at least say that Edwards was correct in identifying a trend toward what he called "Arminianism" in what would become "the land of the free."
The foundational problem that led to this low view of sin and God's expectation of holiness was a wrong view of the freedom of the will. People did not realize that the will is wholly bound by the sinful nature. They felt that they were able, in their own power and through their own freedom, to change their behavior. They did not understand or care to understand the depth of their depravity. They may have sought God's assistance in doing this, but did not rely on His grace and power. God merely cooperated with man's inherent ability. And sadly, even centuries later, little has changed across a large spectrum of Christianity. Take a book from the shelf of your local Christian bookstore and you should not be surprised to read that your fundamental problem is not your sinful nature but your individual self-destructive acts; not your sinfulness but your sin.
The solution today is the same as it was in Edwards' day. "People needed to be properly convinced of their real guilt and sinfulness, in the sight of God, and their deserving of his wrath." Every Christian needs not only to own up to his sinful acts, but to admit that he is fundamentally a sinner who is deserving of God's wrath. No one has properly apprehended God's grace until he has understood his own sinfulness and knows that he fully deserves God's just and holy punishment. The evangelical church of our day tends to be a wrathless church--a church that speaks often of God's love and grace, but rarely of the deepest necessity of this love and grace. The church today needs an infusion of the gospel, the whole gospel, which speaks not only of God's love, but first of our desperate need of reconciliation. The gospel portrays us as we really are--as sinners who sin because of our fundamental guilt, our deep-rooted hatred of God. Only when we see ourselves as sinners can we truly see Christ as Savior. Only when we have identified ourselves as fallen in Adam can we truly and properly identify ourselves as raised up and set apart in Christ.
I am a follower of Jesus Christ, a husband to Aileen and a father to three young children. I worship and serve as a pastor at 
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Comments (27)
That was a very good post. I feel like I am in the group that tends to see my sins instead of my sinfulness.
Tim—I read your blog everyday; this is one of your best.
Tim….I just watched John Piper preach at Mars Hill Seattle and he spoke about how to quit sinning. It was quite moving. Instead of the “just say no” and “just stop’ mentality, he called for the same kind of transformation of the inner man that Edwards and you mention.
Instead of trying to sin less, I should be working on the building of character and the daily, hourly, minute by minute fellowship with Christ.David, Red Letter Believers blog, “Salt and Light”www.redletterbelievers.com
I really have been enjoying your posts. Thanks to you, I just discovered ChristianAudio.Com. I gave you credit and mentioned you on my blog on the post entitled “Building Your Faith”.
Keep up the good work.
I agree with one of the above commentors - this is one of the best posts I’ve read from you.
And such an important discussion as it relates to evangelism. If sin is just “doing bad things,” then the cure is behavioral modification. But if sin is “being a bad thing” then the *only* cure is the gospel.
Excellent and convicting post . I have to agree with RC Sproul who has said over and over again ,that the church in general holds to a semi-peligian view of man. If one doesn’t think man is a defiled ,wretched sinner at his very core , then the outside manifestations is all one will tend to focus on. How many sermons have we hard about sins but not the sinner , that we in fact as you said , hate God and we are in full rebellion. Edwards and Luther’s works on the bondage of the will should be mandatory studies . Well said , Tim.
Man, WOW excellent post. I will be sharing the article w/ all I know.
best yet!Keep em coming.
Thanks for your work today, Tim.
All of this is mainly another fruit of the legacy of Charles Finney, i.e. “practical Pelagianism.”
Tim,
You stated: “… But they can never address the heart of the issue.
If I may: “… But they can never address the heart of the issue, because the real issue is in fact, the heart.”
I agree with Mike and Chris above, this is one of your best!
In Christ,
Dan…
Excellent post! I admit, it’s only been in the last few years that I have begun to understand the difference that you describe. This kind of biblical thinking is foreign to so many people in todays churches.
Yes Tim. We are so infiltrated with a Pelagian view of sin.
Another commenter above mentioned John Piper at Mars Hill … there is also a short You Tube clip of Piper preaching where he comments about Christian parenting, and the need for our children to be “Sickened By The Ugliness Of Their Own Sinfulness”. He points out how today people philosophize that we should only ever tell our children that “what they DID was bad”, but never suggest that THEY are bad. But, on the contrary, a true Biblical view of man requires us as Christian parents to explain to our children their sin nature, so that they will long for, and come to love, the Savior.
Excellent post as always. Much appreciated, Tim.
Phil
Great post. I can testify to the difference this distinction has made in my life. When I realized that I sin because I am a sinner, the gospel of Jesus Christ became increasingly more valuable to me. As my view of self decreased, my affections for Christ increased.
Great post, Tim. Very well said. My experience is along the lines of CH.
This drives home our dependence on Christ. Without it, Christ died in vain.
I loved what Reg said: “How many sermons have we hard about sins but not the sinner…”
The cliche goes, hate the sin, not the sinner, which doesn’t jive with God hating Esau. But of course, the Bible clearly says that God loved Jacob but hated Esau. I think I’m beginning to understand that part.
What your post brought to mind, though, is that we, as Christians, can’t just hate the sin. God’s will must be our will - we have to actively hate the sinner, both the sinner inside ourselves and the sinner in the world.
When I read this post, that point jumped out at me more than it even has before. Thank you - as others have said, this is on your best-of list.
-Marshall Jones Jr.
I have been shown God’s grace as he has opened my eyes to the doctrines of grace. I lived many years in the understanding that what I did was sin not that my sin had its roots in my heart. I remember being angered by a friend and brother in Christ who told me that man’s heart is “deceitful above all things” (Jeremiah 17:9). I remember searching Scripture to prove him wrong never to be justified in my thoughts from God’s Word.
We truly have neglected teaching man’s total depravity and dire need for Jesus. The Gospel never grows old in light of this understanding. I used to wonder why some people were still so amazed by what Christ did on the cross, now I am that person…by God’s grace.
As I was reading this, I was reminded of Galatians chapter 6:1 , “Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.” Paul was instructing mature leaders knowing that man’s heart was still deceitful and wicked. I used to be self-righteous in my judgments on others but now I realize that if it were not for God’s grace I would succomb to the exact sin of those I sit in judgment upon. The Gospel changes the way we look at “sinners”, it creates a compelling desire within us for them to repent and know Jesus.
Thanks for this post…it is definitely one of the best I have read.
Great post! I agree completely. The responses almost measure up to the post in good content!
I could write a book on just this post alone, Tim. This is such a huge topic that is not talked about, but needs to be. It has the world scratching its’ head wondering why when they call themselves “Christian” (or “spiritual”) and then the real believer calls himself a “Christian” what the difference is. I mean, come on, the average person does good stuff and people tell them they are pretty good, so why in the world do they need a Savior? Oh, what a mess!
This is the very thing I was caught up in for 14 years in church. I was not saved, but was told constantly that I was. I couldn’t figure out WHY Jesus had to die. Why? I was a pretty good person (no, I wasn’t, but I mean compared to Hitler). It wasn’t until God got my attention showing me how Hell-deserving I am because I am a sinner that I understood why the cross was necessary. The Lord used R.C. Sproul’s book “The Holiness of God” and Ray Comfort’s sermon “Hell’s Best Kept Secret” to show me how sinful sin really is.
It’s no wonder people get all upset when ask if they are sinners or mention being a sinner. And in my opinion, the leaders in churches are to blame. People don’t want to stand up and speak truth because it is scary and they fear man. Understandable. But it is sin.
We have a pastor down the dirt road here (yes, very, very rural area) who says every person he meets when he knocks on their doors to witness to them say they are saved, but they don’t go to church, read their Bibles, etc. The pastor is confused. He says they must be saved because they said they are *sigh* I’ve tried to explain to him about the bondage of the will, the error of decisional regeneration, election, anything to help him see that man is bad and that God is holy, wrath-filled, and angry at the bad people (read all unregenerate humans), but he keeps insisting on this free will, that man has some kind of good in them to be able to choose the best: Christ.
If we would just understand the basics of man’s depravity. But no, we teach self-esteem. It feels better whether it’s God-honoring or not.
Your conversation with that leader who couldn’t understand how the person could do such a thing as the crime where he felt he could never be so evil… isn’t it interesting that the leader IS that evil and that’s why the Son of God had to die? It took the blood of Jesus Christ to pay for the wickedness of that leader who could never see himself doing such a thing as the other man who was caught. We’ve dumbed down the definition of sin, unfortunately.
I passed this post on and will continue to do so. Oh, if I had every pastor’s email address, I’d send them all what you wrote.
Please keep writing about this subject. God uses it to help people understand the cross.
Tamara Slack
There is a lot of wisdom in this post. You are quite right that evangelicals focus on actions rather than the sinful nature, the whole being that is turned away from God. We need to preach biblical Total Depravity, not a weakened partial depravity.
One reason why your point is so needed is because when we downsize Total Depravity, it seems we also need to downside sanctification. Why would anyone want to keep in step with the Spirit if you can change yourself?
That’s very interesting. It reminds me of the passage in James that says whoever has broken a part of the law has broken all of it because they have proven to be a lawbreaker. The fundamental sin of rebellion surpasses any of the individual acts themselves. Very cool blog post. Made me think.
You have made some important distinctions but I think it is also important to understand that being able to recognize our sinfulness for what it really is not something we can come to in and of ourselves. Conviction is a work of the Holy Spirit, and unless the Holy Spirit has brought true conviction to a person’s heart and consciousness there will be no true repentance. With out the conviction of the Holy Spirit one can not come to a point of true conversion and thus be a Spirit filled child of God. The church has many tares. There are many who assent to the necessary belief about Jesus, and may have ‘prayed the sinners prayer. or responded to an alter call but have never truly come under the conviction of the Holy Spirit.You will know them by their fruit. A good tree produces good fruit, a bad tree produces bad fruit.As we share the gospel it is important to talk about, “for all have sinned…” and “the wages of sin is death”, but it is SO important that we PRAY that God’s Spirit will convict a person of their sin…that they will feel the true Spirit-induced remorse over their sin which leads to true repentance…not just to the grasping for eternal life (benefits).
None of us will ever be able to see our sinful hearts as God does without the conviction of the Holy Spirit. My husband was a false convert for 25 years. Now he is a new convert! I’ve learned this lesson through God’s school of life.
hi, i use to surely think i was christian, and thought i produced fruit as well, but i recently stopped labeling myself as Christian, and stopped trying to become one. i’ve now given in to what i’ve always been tempted to do, which is long for material possessions, party, and lust, and life sucks. but trying to live like a christian when i wasn’t sure sucked too. here’s what i’m struggling with, maybe you have answer/suggestions. i’ve talked to several people already though, and my heart’s pretty black and shut off. i guess i’m gonna write some pretty blasphemous words, but it make sense to me and i wish there were answers that could satisfy me.
You wrote:”We do not need to seek forgiveness merely for the sins we commit, but for our fundamentally evil and rebellious hearts—hearts that, in their natural state, hate God and are fully and completely and gleefully and willingly opposed to Him.”
i like to argue that it is God who gave us that sinful nature. you will correct me in saying that God allowed us to sin, but to me that’s the same thing. if you saw a thief tempting and then murdering your child as you did nothing, you would label yourself guilty. what i can’t grasp about Christianity is that whenever we do wrong, it’s our fault, but whenever we do right, it’s God who does it. but i’m feeling like God won’t save me, He won’t give me the desire to desire Him, because i don’t desire Him at all and my life sucks. i feel like pharaoh who was raised up for destruction, or jonah or job but with a fatal ending, like the person in matthew 22:12. or the weed in matthew 13:24-30. i feel like i was raised up so God can send me to hell and be glorified in that way. not only me but also all of my family and most of the population of the world, and i hate God for it. in my mind it would have been better if everyone went to hell, because that’s completely fair. or if everyone went to heaven, because Jesus’ death could do it. yet God didn’t do that because He gets more glory maybe from the saved knowing that there are unsaved. that’s all nice and dandy for the saved, but it sucks like hell for the unsaved. i wish God didn’t create humans at all, but He was so glory hungry, He had to.
the most typical answer that i hear is deut 29:29, and to humble myself and submit. well i’m sick of that, because i can’t. i know i’m prideful. i feel God hasn’t given me the humility to submit, because i don’t feel like trying at all. because i don’t have the willpower.may God have mercy on me and my family…? pray for me, thanks.
sorry, just wanted to speak my frustration and slight agony. don’t mean to cause an argument. author or any readers, please feel free to respond.
O how I love this post, and how practical it is for me this very day - not only to deal with the my own sinful struggles but to counsel a man in our church who is about to lose his family because of his sinful actions. He has been trained in the typical North American church where he has been convinced that the key to overcoming his sin is for himself to feel bad enough about it so that he will be motivated to defeat it…but he hasn’t been able to defeat it because he hasn’t dealt with the core issue of his own rebellious nature (even though he claims to be a believer and very well may be one). No sin has ever been defeated by a person feeling bad about it and thus mustering up enough will power to overcome it. Sin is dealt with when we are honest about where the appetite for that sin comes from…a sinful, rebellious heart. Only a changed appetite is sufficient to deal with sin, and we can’t change those appetites, we can only mask them. God is the only one who can deal with the heart, thus a real realization of where our sin problem as a heart problem drives us incessantly toward God. This friend of mine who is in our church is blinded by a type of Christianity that has fed him comfort food for a journey to hell instead of the meat of the Word that shakes us to our core and changes our appetites. I’m trying to convince him of that…but alas I cannot convince him, only God can.
Anonymous…I am setting aside time right now to pray for you. Your brutal honesty reveals that God is allowing you to see core problem, so I pray to God this very hour that He might pull you toward Himself and radically change your appetites.
Dear anonymous, It is agonizing to read your words as I have been in a similar place. I failed to see a good God after being raped and tortured as a young girl. I just wanted to offer something for you to think on: God could have made us as individuals or as robots (robots who praise Him). So why did He make us? He thought up each and every one of us. HE wanted to make us and He didn’t make us to love like robots. Why? Because we are made in His image….and it is impossible for Him to love us robotically. The salvation of our God is wonderful….He has brought to me a place of thanking Him for every aspect of my life as not one of them has been wasted….they have all led me to see Him more clearly. That has often been with a great deal of agony and frustration. But He has far surpassed the hell I have lived through and I would not change a thing, if it meant I could not know Him. I would encourage you to run to Him, even in your anger and confusion. Take your questions straight to the one who can answer perfectly. Read the Bible…even if it feels like it is going against every grain in your body. Cry out for the desire to even think that way, if you do not have it. God our Father, the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are the best possible answer to your emptiness and when you see that, by the grace of God, your love will not be an effort. Realize that the work of the cross can be confusing and even seem tyrannical, outside of conversion. If you have even a spark of desire left…do not let it burn out..seek Him while He may be found. He is merciful to those of us who think His ways can be backwards at times…It doesn’t change His greatness. he made you, He knows you better than you know yourself, and He can handle you! Only trust that if He is who He says He is, then you will at some time be perfectly answered if you will seek Him. My prayers and heart are with you today. May our gracious and loving Father reach down and grab your heart and draw you to His side and show you who He is, that you may not spend another second outside of His peace, forgiveness and joy.
Anonymous:You made me cry. Your story is very similar to mine. The thoughts and feelings you jotted down could as well have been mine just a few months ago. I remember the loneliness I felt then. I remember the anger. I hated the things I felt compelled to do (view pornography, veg out, lie compulsively, etc.), but I did not want God. I did not want to do what God requires. I knew a little of the doctrines of grace…I guess I knew more than enough to distort them so that I hated the God who would not save me. “Why can’t you just change my heart, God?”, I would demand of him (in prayer?). “You’re the Almighty, it should be so easy for You, shouldn’t it?” Man, I remember those days…
I don’t know when it happened, but one day I came to my senses (like the prodigal son, Luke 15:17a). I saw that it would be better to do what God requires, even if it would destroy my relationships with those I cared about (or at least, those relationships where I cared what they thought about me). I determined that I would rather be God’s slave than live in the pig sty I had been living in. I would rather submit to a God that I didn’t understand, than be at war with Him.
The crazy thing is that when I turned back to God, ready to serve him as a slave, He drew near to me in a very powerful way. (James 4:7-10 comes to mind.) Through the truth of his word, I knew I wasn’t going to be God’s slave, but His son. (Galatians 4:1-7 and Ephesians 1:3-10 were instrumental.) And here I stand, in the Father’s love and grace. (Romans 5:1-2).
Looking back, I realized I had been self-reliant in my daily living. That’s something I fight against in prayer everyday now. I ask for God’s help to hate sin as he hates it. I ask for His strength to resist temptation. I ask that he would open my eyes to see Jesus Christ in his glory and open my heart to delight in and treasure him.
I believe God is drawing you to Himself, Anonymous. I’m very thankful for it. I encourage you, as one who has been in similar shoes, to respond to the Father’s love today.
I’m praying for you, Anonymous.
With love,A fellow prodigal
One of your best posts!
Anonymous, I ecco what those before me have said to you (praise God for your testimonies of God’s rescue!).Keep this in mind: “God is apposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble”.
If you come to God in pride…demanding that He do things your way, you will never know Him. If you get down on your knees and cry out to Him that you KNOW that you are a wretched sinner and ask for His mercy he will give it to you. Sometimes God lets us get to the end of our own rope so that we have to face what we really are before we can come to Him. You have become hard-hearted, by your own admission. Humble yourself completely before Him. He loves you. He wants you to know Him as an adopted son. He wants you to experience the joys of life in Him. The evidence of this is within the words you have written. He is not far from you!
Praying now, Susan
A few have responded to you, but I’m not sure if you know. I just realized that you have to hit ‘reply’ under a person’s comment in order to respond directly to them.
I suppose what I wrote previously will fit into the category of what you are “sick of”……… if so, I guess you haven’t hit bottom yet. I will pray…..