Whatever Happened To Sin?

Have you noticed the trend in America to eliminate sin? No longer do we identify sin as that which leads to immoral behavior. No, we have become much to proper for that. Instead we blame our surroundings, our background, the people we hang with, our parents, some emotional instability, or call it deviancy. Today our society scratches its head and accepts the moral decay of America as a phenomenon that simply arises. This is not a new occurance. In 1979, psychiatrist Karl Menninger wrote, "I believe there is "sin" which is expressed in ways which cannot be subsumed . . . as 'crime,' 'disease,' delinquency,' 'deviancy.' There is immorality; there is unethical behavior, there is wrongdoing. And I hope to show that there is usefulness in retaining the concept, and indeed the word, SIN, which now shows some signs of returning to public acceptance."
Despite Menninger's hopes of the terminology of sin being once again prevalent in our culture, such is not the case. We continue to give it other, more acceptable labels that tend to distance us from the accountability of our actions. Unfortunately, many churches in America have chosen to follow suit and remove the terminology of sin from their pulpits. One prominent televison preacher who speaks to tens of thousands at every service told Christianity Today, "sin is not on the menu at our church." His reasoning was that people did not want to hear about their sin, they wanted to find words of hope and encouragement. The problem with this type of preaching is that there is no hope and encouragement until we acknowledge our sin, turn from our sin, and embrace Jesus Christ as our Lord.
In his book, The Disappearance of God, Albert Mohler calls this rejection of the notion of sin by our churches an abdication of the gospel. He remarks, "where sin is not faced as sin, grace cannot be grace." If we are going to have revival in our churches and across America then we must get serious about our sin problem. The church must lead the charge in once again calling sin, sin. We must recognize our sin and take responsibility for it, and repent of it. We cannot expect the world to take sin seriously until the church does. Whatever Happened To Sin? Nothing, it's still prevalent in our lives and separates us from a Holy God. Now is the time to confess our sin and be reconciled to God.