Don’t Be Embarrassed by the Doctrine of Sin

Jul 26, 2019 by

by Caleb Greggsen, The Gospel Coalition:

Christians believe confessing our sin is fundamental not only to receive grace but also to appreciate the beauty and kindness of our Savior. Yet today, we’re also increasingly embarrassed to tell people they’re sinners. We shift in our pews when we hear sermons on Genesis 5 or Jeremiah 17:9. We wonder what visitors think, and wish the preacher wouldn’t be so negative. Those of us who have a corporate prayer of confession in our church gatherings wonder if this isn’t a little too anti­-church growth.

Cornelius Plantinga’s Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be: A Breviary of Sin isn’t that old. But the quarter-century between its publication and now is sufficient to validate Plantinga’s concern over the decline of the category of “sin” in the public consciousness. Christians embarrassed about the doctrine have lost their ability to explain what’s wrong with the world, and thus exactly what the good news of Jesus Christ announces. As Plantinga warned, “To ignore, euphemize, or otherwise mute the lethal reality of sin is to cut the nerve of the gospel” (199).

Niceness ≠ Goodness

The consequences of minimizing the scriptural view of sin show themselves in the rising confusions around morality within and without the church. Evangelicals today wrestle with many historic Christian doctrines: the exclusivity of the gospel, the reality of hell, the sinfulness of homosexuality, just to mention the top of the charts. We agonize over the historic beliefs of the church in large part because we haven’t considered the great weight of sin.

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