In my last article I wrote about a starting point for faith as an adult, and I concluded the article with a question: “Who is Jesus?” When it comes to faith in God, that’s the question that has to be answered.
Another question we have to deal with is, “Am I a sinner?” We don’t like that question, so in our culture we’ve removed the word, “sinner” and replaced it with a word that’s easier for us to bear. We’ve replaced the word “sin” with the word “mistake.”
“Mistake,” however, is a terrible word. Here’s an example of why: Brian Williams, news anchor for NBC, claimed to have been in helicopter that was shot down by a RPG. This is a story that he’s told, in various forms, for 12 years. Then, last week, he recanted the story saying that he, “made a mistake” in remembering. But wait a minute, that’s not a mistake. I may not know exactly what it is, but it’s way bigger than a mistake. A mistake is when you forget to carry the two on a math test. A mistake is when you’re trying to drive and look at a map at the wrong time and you make a left instead of a right. Those are mistakes. But a 12 year mistake?
The idea of a mistake is insufficient knowledge. But we’ve all used the word “mistake” to talk about things where we knew exactly what we were doing. In fact, sometimes we make mistakes on purpose.
What do you do with a mistake? You correct it. But the problem isn’t “mistakes.” The problem is us. We resist the idea that it just might be a sin problem. So to help all of us out, let me give you the “101 definition” of a sinner. This isn’t theological, this is just a simple definition. Sinner: Someone who knows better, but does it anyway.
When Jesus talked about sin, He always talked about it in connection to relationship because sin breaks relationship. Adam and Eve, in the Garden of Eden, had this close relationship with God, but sin broke that relationship. If you’ve ever broken a relationship it’s because you did something that you shouldn’t have done, or someone else did something they shouldn’t have done or both of you did things you shouldn’t do. And it broke the relationship. So, because of that, Jesus’ entire purpose of talking about sin was not condemnation, but restoration.
Jesus knew that as long as you just think you’re making mistakes, you will never seek the thing you need most to bring restoration. He says, “Your heavenly Father wants you to be restored to Him, and the only way to be restored is to seek forgiveness. And the only way you’ll seek forgiveness is if you realize you didn’t simply make a mistake. It’s bigger than that. And it’s not the first time. The fact is, you’re a sinner.”
But Jesus doesn’t end with sin condemned. It goes from sin to condemned to, “I need to ask forgiveness.” And when we ask for forgiveness, we can be restored to God. But if we never ask for forgiveness we can never be restored to God because mistakers think they can self-correct, and they never get there.
Here’s my point: Recognition of sin is what paves the way to restoration of relationship. In our minds we think, “Once I say I’m a sinner, ‘boom’, the bottom falls out.” But Jesus says, “That’s not it at all. You need to just look at me and say, ‘I have sinned’ and ask for forgiveness. And as soon as you do I’m going to give you what a mistaker never asks for. I’m going to give you forgiveness and I’m going to restore you to me.”
So here’s another question to wrestle with: Ask yourself, “Am I a ‘mistaker’, or am I a ‘sinner’?” And when you honestly answer that question, what will you do about it?