Whatever Happened to SIN?


I’m reading “The Cross of Christ” by John R.W. Stott, and it’s a great read. It has blown my expectations away. I knew it would be good (being around 25 years) but Stott is spot on. This book was published in 1986 and my copy is the 20th Anniversary Edition (copyright 2006). There is so much to take from this book, but one thing has popped out that I had to share is on pages 92 and 93.

Pages 92 and 93 are in “the Problem of Forgiveness” chapter and are under the sub point of “The Gravity of Sin.” Stott uses some interesting information taken from the book “Whatever Became of Sin” by Karl Menninger. Karl Menninger is (no idea if he is still alive or not) a psychiatrist who shares his thoughts how society has removed the word SIN from our vocabulary. It’s striking what he writes (or better put, what John Stott quotes). It’s a reminder to me that we should not sugar coat what sin is and how it affects us and our society. Below is some of what Stott has in these pages; its eye opening.

“Describing the malaise of western society, its general mood of gloom and doom, he [Karl Menninger] adds that “one misses any mention of ‘sin.’” Enquiring into the cases of sin’s disappearance, Menninger notes first that “many former sins have become crimes, “ so that responsibility for dealing with them has passed from church to state, from priest to policeman, while others have dissipated into sicknesses, or at least into symptoms of sickness, so that in their cases punishment has been replaced by treatment. A third convenient device called “collective irresponsibility” has enabled us to transfer the blame for some of our deviant behavior from ourselves as individuals to society as a whole or to one of its many groupings.”

When I first read this, I thought that Menninger is spot on and then I saw the biography data at the bottom of the page and saw he wrote his book in 1973. I was 3 years old when he published this work and I can say that he is spot on and that it is even worse now some 38 years later. Stott puts another quote from Menninger that reinforces for me the importance for preachers to preach the Bible and not feel good talks. Stott has on page 93 a quote that I hopefully will not forget; “The clergyman cannot minimize sin and maintain his proper role in our culture.”

We are called by God, to share what the Bible says. Our society changes with the winds of time but the Standard (the Bible) remains the same. Its principles do not change just because society decides it should. We are to share what the Bible says about sin and God will do the rest. This book is challenging me in ways I can not express so I wanted to share just one example with you. I hope this has given you something to think and pray about.