I won’t waste time setting the context we all currently find ourselves in. Each of us feels it more acutely than could ever be described in words. If even a picture is worth a thousand words, then surely words will fail to describe this pandemic, along with its staggering death toll, destruction of the world’s economy, endless social-distancing and isolation which, along with the barrage of constant alarming news, is more than enough to drive one mad. I distinctly remember reading the news back in January (what seems like an eternity ago now) about a “novel virus” that had been causing some trouble in China. That was then. I’m ashamed to admit that my prayers uttered on behalf of the suffering people of China, though sincere, did not have the same kind of urgency as they do now.
We all wish for a speedy return to something at least resembling the kind of normalcy that we enjoyed prior to this crisis. At the same time, life will undoubtedly “look” much different than it was prior to this global nightmare. As Christians, we should also guard against seeing the coronavirus as a speed bump (however gigantic!) in the road of our own lives. We believe in a sovereign God who is using everything for his own good purposes. We should instead be seeking to learn the many lessons that our heavenly Father desires to teach us in the midst of life’s joys and sorrows.
Have you compared and considered, for example, the world’s reaction to this deadly virus with its attitude toward sin? At this very moment, hundreds of millions live in dread of catching the disease, as they sit locked up in their own homes (I was recently interested to learn that there is statistical evidence that Westerners in many countries began to dramatically self-isolate well before their governments issued the commands we all are now familiar with). When we in turn look at what the Bible teaches about sin, parallels with a deadly virus can be very illustrative and helpful, especially against the backdrop of what Adventism taught us. Now, during this present crisis, we need to be aware of what we came out of. We need to believe with all our heart that sin is infinitely more deadly than COVID-19.
Sin is fundamentally a condition of the heart
The great insight of the Protestant reformer Martin Luther was to grasp that the sin and self-condemnation which caused him such agony as a monk was not merely a set of actions that one could tally and weigh in a log book. Sins cannot be characterized alternatively as venial (“forgiveable”) or mortal (“unforgivable”). Sins cannot be made up for in purgatory. For that matter, sin is not even always externally manifested, as if it could be measured with a microscope. Instead, sin is fundamentally a matter of the heart.
Like a deadly virus, humans are infected with sin well before manifesting any symptoms. In fact, sin itself is a legacy of our first parents, who brazenly turned their back on God. We are born in sin, as David confessed in Psalm 51. According to Job 15:16, the natural man is “abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks down injustice like water.” Humans may look pretty on the outside, we may act politely in society, but our hearts without Christ are “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9). The Puritan John Owen once said, shockingly, that all men are Cains without Christ (referring to Abel’s brother who viciously slew him). Do you really believe that?
Our Adventist heritage taught us nothing even close to what the Bible says about sin. Indeed, how could it? Like medieval theology, it is forced to engage in “sin-counting,” all the while ignoring the real horror of sin. Adventist anthropology asserts that man constitutes body + breath, leaving no room for a true appreciation of what it means for a living, breathing human being to be dead in sin and trespasses (Ephesians 2:1). Resorting to metaphors simply will not do, as is evident from the inadequacy that shows up alarmingly in fundamental belief #7. “The Nature of Humanity,” according to Adventism, is one in which man is “born with weaknesses and tendencies to evil.” That is why, even as formers, we need Scripture to give us a true appreciation of the fundamental nature of sin. Our Lord pinpointed the exact source of all the misery we see in this world: “[O]ut of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander” (Matt 15:19).
Sin is not a cosmic conflict
Although we do not struggle against “flesh and blood,” but against “cosmic powers” and “spiritual forces of evil” (Eph 6:12), neither are we simply intelligent and rational pawns in a cosmic battle between the devil and a Jesus who was “promoted” by the Father. Sin is our problem. Moreover, God has no problem whatsoever in dealing with our sin: He will rightfully judge all who have not trusted in his Son. There is no controversy over God’s justice, or the rightness of his commands and sovereignty. God’s angels have no difficulty appreciating the horror that is the virus of sin. There are no other worlds which are right now looking intently at us, trying to discern which side we will choose.
To the degree that Seventh-day Adventists have dwelled on these things, they have tended to make sin into something more akin to a cosmic video game. By focusing on Satan’s claims, on God’s “hands” being tied because of a perceived commitment to human freedom and autonomy, Adventists unwittingly downplay the deadly condition that every human being finds himself in apart from Jesus Christ.
Sin and the gospel of Jesus Christ
Finally, without a right appreciation of sin, the gospel is robbed of its power and loses its sweetness. We must know what sin does to us in this life—and the next (it leads to eternal hell). We must know what sin did to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (it led Him to the cross). We must know the exclusivity of Christ’s claims (John 14:6: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”). There are no “anonymous” Christians among Buddhists, Muslims, or any other of man’s religions. Rather, we must obey Christ’s Great Commission by going out to proclaim the gospel to every creature. Armed with this urgency, we plead with our friends, family, and neighbors who have not yet trusted in Him to run to Jesus Christ and trust in His perfect ability to vanquish sin once and for all.
Early in the Protestant Reformation, in 1520, Martin Luther wrote a tract titled, The Freedom of a Christian. I’d like to conclude this post with one of his quotations there which strikes me as some of the most poignant and dramatic words I have ever encountered outside of Scripture:
“Christ is full of grace, life, and salvation. The soul is full of sins, death, and damnation. Now let faith come between them and sins, death, and damnation will be Christ’s, while grace, life, and salvation will be the soul’s; for if Christ is a bridegroom, he must take upon himself the things which are his bride’s and bestow upon her the things that are his. If he gives her his body and very self, how shall he not give her all that is his? And if he takes the body of his bride, how shall he not take all that is hers?”
May God give us a right appreciation for sin and ever-increasing joy in the one who loved us and gave himself for us, to redeem us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse on our behalf. All praise be to Jesus Christ, the beloved Son of God, who is the only savior of sinners! †
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