In Psalm 51 David made a statement that I have a hard time accepting at face value. Asking God's forgiveness concerning the Bathsheba affair, he prayed, "Against thee, thee only, have I sinned" (verse 4).
Come on, David!
I'll admit the possibility that Bathsheba may have participated willingly in the sinning and so may not have been "sinned against." But what about her husband, Uriah? Not only did David break up his marriage, but he conspired to have him killed. It seems to me that Uriah would have had more than sufficient grounds on which to dispute Dav id's claim.
Sin hurts. That's what makes it so bad.
It hurts God. Calvary reveals the depths of the anguish it causes Him. Sin hurts God because it broke and keeps broken humanity's relationship with Him; it marks humanity's rebellion—our personal, individual rebellion—against Him. No doubt David exaggerated intentionally, to highlight his recognition of this fact.*
But sin also hurts the sinner. And more important, as the story of the Fall shows, sin causes the innocent to suffer along with the guilty.
Admittedly, when it comes to dealing with sin, justification plays the primary role. The restoration of our relationship with God that it encompasses is the ground of our salvation. But a religious experience that stops there is incomplete. When converted, a man who has been abusing his children will not only want his relationship with God to be put right; he will also want to stop hurting his children. In fact, the lack of such a desire would be a pretty good sign that that relationship had not yet been made right.
I used that extreme example to make the point obvious. But however insignificant any particular type of sin may seem, every sin that we commit hurts someone. In a sense, then, a satisfaction with justification alone is self-centered. It's as if I were saying that once I am assured of heaven, I care nothing about how my life affects either God or man.
It's true that some have sought victory over sin for the wrong reasons. They have wanted to make their own way to heaven or to establish their superiority over other, weaker human beings. But their faults should not make us proscribe the search for sanctification. As a Christian, my concern for others should impel me to seek from the Lord victory over sin.
Perhaps more than any of the other Bible writers, we link Paul with the concept of justification. But Paul did not hesitate to call his readers to sanctification as well; he filled the closing portions of his letters with ethical imperatives.
Reminding the Thessalonians that he had taught them how to live to please God, he encouraged them to continue to grow into that lifestyle—"for this is the will of God, your sanctification" (1 Thess. 4:1,3, RSV).
He says that since we have been crucified with Christ, we need no longer be enslaved to sin (Rom. 6:6, 12). Christ will transform us (Rom. 12:2; Eph. 5:25- 27); our role is to choose: "Just as you once yielded your members to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now yield your members to righteousness for sanctification" (Rom. 6:19, RSV).
We may, by the Spirit, "put to death the deeds of the body"—"what is earthly in you: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, covetousness," "anger, wrath, malice, slander, and foul talk." And we may "put on ... compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, and patience," "and above all ... love" (Rom. 8:13; Col. 3:5, 8, 12, 14, RSV; see also 2 Cor. 7:1; 1 Tim. 6:11).
So the full Christian experience offers peace. The setting right of our relation ship with God forms a major element of this peace. But the fact that rather than continuing to hurt others, we are increasingly learning to live in such a way as to bless them forms a significant part of this peace as well. —David C. Jarnes.
* For another example of the use of hyperbole in the Bible, see Malachi 1:2, 3; Hebrews 9:13.
