Today, to say someone engaged in questionable behavior is involved in something wrong, or worse, sin, can mean you are quickly labeled uncompassionate, judgmental, intolerant, bigot, or hater.

This can include alcohol and substance abuse, promiscuity and a now infinite array of pansexual proclivities, compulsive gambling, even anger management and more. 

The alternative view is these addictive behaviors are defined not as sin but as illness, a disease. Of course, the point here is that if these behavioral choices are a disease, you are not responsible. 

The problem with this view is that it offers no fix, no “out.” If one has a deadly disease, there’s nothing you can do. There’s no hope.

Calling wrong moral choices sin, as God did, sounds harsh, but it can be the beginning of repentance, reconciliation, and restoration. 

The Apostle Paul once called himself the “chief” or “worst” of sinners. But in the same verse he said, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15).

Samson rebelled, and God answered his prayer for strength one last time. 

Jonah rebelled and from the belly of a great fish God heard him. 

David committed murder and adultery, and God forgave him.

There is nothing in which we can get involved, no depth to which we can sink, no addictive behavior, no immorality or brokenness, no sin so awful, that we are beyond the reach of the Holy Spirit of God. 

The old hymn lyrics said it all: 

“Grace, grace, God’s grace, Grace that is greater than all our sin!”

© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2020    

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